Don Dokken

All Music Guide:

The lead singer and namesake of 1980s heavy metal band Dokken, Don Dokken (born Donald Maynard Dokken) fueled Los Angeles' metal scene beginning in the late '70s. Although Dokken temporarily disbanded following the Monsters of Rock tour and a multi-platinum album, in 1988 he continued to make his presence felt as a soloist and with the Don Dokken Band, featuring guitarists John Norum and Billy White, bassist Peter Baltes, and drummer Mickey Dee. Re-formed in 1994, Dokken remained as tumultuous as ever. Original guitar player George Lynch, who had led his own band, Lynch Mob, during Dokken's hiatus, was replaced by Reb Beach, former guitarist for Winger and Alice Cooper in 1998. In a subsequent interview, Dokken explained that Lynch had "threatened to kill me in front of the record company president in Germany and tried to blackmail the president into flying his girlfriend to Germany or he would not do a TV show for three million viewers." Beach was later replaced by Don Dokken Band guitarist John Norum. In June 2003, the reorganized group toured the United States with Poison.

Wikipedia:

Donald Maynard "Don" Dokken (born June 29, 1953) is best known for being the lead singer and founder of the band Dokken. He is known for his vibrato-laden, melodic vocal style which has made him an influential figure in American heavy metal. After enjoying mainstream success with Dokken, he parted ways with the band in 1988 and pursued a solo career. His 1990 solo album, Up from the Ashes, featured Europe guitarist John Norum and spawned two singles. He and drummer Mick Brown are the only remaining original members of Dokken.

Don reformed Dokken in the early 1990s and has been continuing on with the band ever since. He released his second solo album, titled Solitary in 2008; it was a stylistic departure from his Dokken material.

Biography

Early success

In the late 1970s, he was playing in a Los Angeles-based band called Airborn, and had the opportunity to reach a record deal in Germany. After seeing the band Xciter, and future bandmates George Lynch and Mick Brown, he knew that they would complete the band that would land the record deal. Although Lynch and Brown were not interested in joining forces with him when he first contacted them, he went ahead to Germany. Don, with the help of one of Xciter's songs, did get the record deal, and he finally convinced Lynch and Brown, along with bassist Juan Croucier, to join him in Dokken soon after he received it.

During his time in Germany, Dokken befriended the German band Scorpions, and sang with them in rehearsals for their Blackout album while lead vocalist Klaus Meine was being treated for nodes on his vocal cords. Meine recovered and returned to record the album, although Dokken's background vocals remained on several tracks.

In 1983, America saw the release of the first Dokken album, Breaking the Chains which had a moderate reception. However Juan Croucier left the band to join Ratt. Jeff Pilson was brought in for their second release, Tooth and Nail, and at this time metal fans and critics began to take notice of the band. Don's strong, melodic vocals, coupled with Lynch's blazing guitar playing, guided Dokken to national fame.

Solo release

In the late 1980s, however, personal tension between Dokken and Lynch took its toll on the band. In 1988, after the Monsters of Rock Tour and a further platinum album, Don Dokken decided to break up the band and they went on their separate ways. Don Dokken originally wanted to continue on with the Dokken name, but since Lynch maintained partial ownership, he was forced to put out his next album under the Don Dokken name, and it became known as his first solo album. The album, titled Up from the Ashes, was released in 1990, and was very similar to the Dokken catalog. This project was a supergroup of sorts, made up of guitarists John Norum (of Europe fame) and Billy White ( of Watchtower fame), bassist Peter Baltes (of Accept fame), guitaris and drummer Mikkey Dee (of King Diamond fame and then Motörhead).

Both Dee and Baltes had previously been members of Dokken during the late 1970s for brief periods. Two music videos were made for the singles "Mirror Mirror" and "Stay". Also, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Don spent time as a producer for the metal band XYZ.

He also made a guest appearance on the German progressive metal band Vanden Plas's Spirit of Live album as the vocalist for their live performance of Dokken's "Kiss of Death" with which the studio version can be found on Vanden Plas's "Far Off Grace" album.

Dokken reunion

Around late 1993, Don started to talk with Mick Brown, who had recently left George Lynch's new group, Lynch Mob. They joined up with Jeff Pilson, and started to write new songs. In 1994, they sent what they had written to George Lynch, who was impressed with the material. Together, they decided to reunite and tour again. This reunion lasted for three years and resulted in two new Dokken albums, an acoustic live disc, and a full live concert recorded in Japan in 1995.

In the late-1990s, Dokken once again parted ways with George Lynch, gained guitarist Reb Beach, and later kicked off a new era with guitarist John Norum after the departure of Reb Beach. That union didn't last long as Norum departed quickly to re-unite with Europe. Norum was briefly replaced by Italian guitarist Alex De Rosso for the live tour [1] until Don managed to find a permanent replacement and in 2003 Guitarist/Lawyer Jon Levin filled that position where he continues to this day at Don's side.

Since 1994, Dokken has released six studio albums, two live albums, a Greatest Hits album, as well as their first two DVDs. Don Dokken released a new solo album titled Solitary in 2008 and Dokken released a new album titled Lightning Strikes Again during the same year. On March 1, 2010, the band Dokken's second greatest hits album, aptly titled Greatest Hits, was digitally released to iTunes and Amazon.com. The physical album with additional tracks is set to release from King Records (Japan) on April 21, 2010 and will be available in the United States through Cleopatra Records at a later date.

On September 22, 2010, in an interview with BraveWords.com, Don Dokken revealed that he would be undergoing vocal surgery, to correct problems with nodes and tears in his vocal cords. [2] February 4, 2011 Anchorage, Alaska was Dokken's first show since surgery.