JEFF PILSON Says 'The Fun Part Of DOKKEN' Is 'Underreported' By The Rock Media

In a new interview with Gruff Gushnowski of Stingray, Jeff Pilson was asked if being part of DOKKEN in the 1980s was as chaotic as it seemed to be and fans were led to believe by the media. The bassist responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes it was. But what's sad is that there was also a certain camaraderie and a certain energy that we had which you can see it if you ever watch our home video, which is called 'Unchain The Night' that we released in the late '80s. You can see the fun part of DOKKEN, 'cause I always think that that's underreported, is that we did have a lot of fun. Yes, there was chaos. Yeah, there was crazy egos — egos and drugs — on everybody's part, but there was also something very special, and, like I say, go watch the 'Unchain The Night' video and you'll see the fun part that kind of sustained us through most of it."

Hailing from Los Angeles, DOKKEN released a string of platinum albums throughout the 1980s, and toured the globe with the biggest names in hard rock and heavy metal, including VAN HALEN, AEROSMITH, METALLICA, SCORPIONS and KISS. The band had several hit singles on the Mainstream Rock and Billboard Hot 100 charts, and were all over MTV with their videos for "Breaking The Chains", "Alone Again", "Into The Fire", "In My Dreams", "It's Not Love", "Burning Like A Flame" and especially the theme from "Nightmare On Elm Street 3", "Dream Warriors", where the DOKKEN members starred alongside Freddy Krueger.

In October 2016, the classic lineup of DOKKEN — singer Don Dokken, guitarist George Lynch, Jeff and drummer Mick Brown — reunited to play the Loud Park festival in Japan. Fortunately for fans outside of Japan, cameras were there to capture the performance and Frontiers Music Srl issued "Return To The East Live 2016" in April 2018. In addition to the Japanese performance, the set featured footage from the classic lineup's only U.S. show in September 2016 at Badlands in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The package also included a new song called "It's Another Day", the first DOKKEN track featuring the group's classic lineup since 1997's "Shadowlife", and two acoustic re-workings of classic tracks.

Since completing the Japanese reunion dates, DOKKEN has continued to perform with the group's current lineup — including bassist Chris McCarvill, guitarist Jon Levin and drummer BJ Zampa (HOUSE OF LORDS).

DOKKEN's 13th studio album, "Heaven Comes Down", came out last October via Silver Lining Music. The follow-up to 2012's "Broken Bones" was produced by Bill Palmer and Don Dokken and was mixed by Kevin Shirley (AEROSMITH, IRON MAIDEN).

In an October 2023 interview with Real Music With Gary Stuckey, Lynch addressed Pilson's comment that "egos" were the downfall of the band's classic lineup. Asked if he would agree with Pilson's observation, George replied:  "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."