GEORGE LYNCH Says DOKKEN Wasn't Properly Prepared For Last Fall's Reunion Tour

George Lynch says that the classic lineup of DOKKEN wasn't properly prepared to undertake its first tour in more than two decades.

Lynch reunited with singer Don Dokken, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer "Wild" Mick Brown for a six-date Japanese tour last fall, including an appearance at the Loud Park festival.

Asked by AntiHero Magazine if he was surprised at how smoothly the DOKKEN reunion went last year, Lynch said: "Well, it wasn't… I wouldn't call it smooth, that wasn't the right word. It was a lot of work. We were kind of just thrown into the maelstrom. We didn't really prepare like we should've. It was kind of put together a little strange. I think we would all agree to that. We were all starting to talk about that recently about how we were just kind of… [we] kind of did it backwards. But despite all that, when we were up there playing, for the most part, it was the same band that we were thirty years ago, same personalities. I mean, you saw us all looking at each other, and we're in a room, a dressing room, we're hanging out whatever at the hotel and it's funny how nothing had changed. We're all just the same distinct, funny personalities. And, both on and off stage, it was great. Ideally, it would be nice to rehearse it a little more if we do it again, get a little tighter, and try to figure it out, but it was cool for what it was."

Pressed about where there are some additional DOKKEN shows in the works, Lynch said: "Yeah, I think there will be something else out. It's just, we're letting it lie for right now. We're working on the DVD and the live album. We wrote a new song and remakes of some older songs. There's talk of some stuff. Not a lot of stuff, but of some stuff here and there, one-offs, early next year."

A new DOKKEN concert DVD focusing on the band's reunion tour is tentatively due before the end of the year. The set will feature footage from two of the Japanese shows — including Tokyo — as well as the band's very first comeback gig, which was held on September 30, 2016 at Badlands Pawn Guns Gold And Rock 'N' Roll in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Don told Billboard magazine last year that he didn't want to continue with the classic DOKKEN lineup because he "loved" the band he has now — which features Brown, alongside longtime guitarist Jon Levin and bassist Chris McCarvil. "We've been together for thirteen years, and I don't want to hurt that franchise," he explained. "Plus if we were to continue with [the classic] lineup, old wounds might be opened, and I don't want to revisit that. I don't think any of us wants to. It's all great when a marriage fails and you say, 'I'm gonna get back with my ex' — for a week, maybe. Six months into it, the wounds come back. I don't want to experience that. It's just not part of my life anymore, and I think the other guys feel the same way."