GEORGE LYNCH: 'In Life, A Pure Socialist Democracy Doesn't Really Work'

In a new interview with Real Music With Gary Stuckey, former DOKKEN guitarist George Lynch addressed ex-DOKKEN bassist Jeff Pilson's recent comment that "egos" were the downfall of the band's classic lineup. Asked if he would agree with Pilson's observation, George replied (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Oh, I wouldn't say 'egos', plural, no. Listen, everybody has an ego. Ego is a strange word. It can mean a lot of different things. There's, like, a blanket word that means — I don't know exactly what… I think I know what he means by that. But, yeah, without driving down that rabbit hole, I would say I think some of us had the best interest of everybody at heart and some of us — or less than some of us — had the interest of just themselves at heart. So that was really the struggle."

George also talked about how he applied the lessons that he learned with DOKKEN to his post-DOKKEN projects, including his long-running outfit LYNCH MOB, which will celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2024.

"Well, my lesson from DOKKEN, and even before the DOKKEN days, was 'one for all, all for one,'" he explained. "It was all about the democracy of rock and roll. We all work hard, we struggle together, we come up, we achieve something and we all benefit equally. But I did learn a very hard lesson in post-DOKKEN years when I put together my band based on that philosophy and gave everybody equal share and equal power and equal money, and it was a failure. Just because people are not built equal, and you do need somebody in control, you need somebody calling the shots. I just think the manmade hierarchy should mimic the natural hierarchy. There isn't a natural hierarchy with people, but the problems occur, I think, when people try to sort of get out of bounds of the natural order. In other words, let's say, for an example, you have a bass player that's, you know, he's a bass player. Bass players, they play one or maybe two of the four strings on their bass, and they're not writing songs, and they're not really the motive force behind the band, let's say, in some instances. I'm not saying all instances. But I'm just citing just a generic example. Could be a drummer, could be a guitar player, could be a singer. So this person decides that because of their maybe lower position in the creative part and the earnings part and all the other things, and the attention part, that they feel that they need to overcompensate and they wanna control everything and they wanna do this and they force bad songs on you and bad decisions. And I think that's what Jeff is referring to when he's talking about ego [in DOKKEN]. And that can be damaging. So what I thought the answer to that was you give everybody an equal cut, and it rewards people for not forcing their bad ideas on you. It didn't work out that way, and I learned that lesson. So now I realize that in life, a pure socialist democracy doesn't really work. In the real world, you need some constraints and restraints. You need rewards, but you also need an order. You can't just have chaos. That doesn't work."

George added: "To really get down to it, the most fundamental thing is trying to work with good people that you love and you trust and that are honest, as honest as a human can be, and trusting each other, just like a relationship, a marriage. It's really about trust. And we did not have that in the early LYNCH MOB, and we do have that now. And I think that's a beautiful thing. I would trade the lack of quote-unquote success for the honesty and the love that I hav with this present iteration of the band — I would take that over the millions of dollars and all the big-time ritz and glamor of the 1989, 1990 LYNCH MOB."

LYNCH MOB will release its new album, "Babylon", on October 20. Joining George in the band's current lineup are vocalist Gabriel Colón, bassist Jaron Gulino (TANTRIC, HEAVENS EDGE),and drummer Jimmy D'Anda (ex-BULLETBOYS).