Dokken is an American heavy metal and hard rock band that was formed in 1978. The group had many charting singles and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.

Intro (Edit)

Dokken is an American heavy metal and hard rock band that was formed in 1978. The group had many charting singles and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.

Dokken was composed of founder Don Dokken on vocals, George Lynch on lead guitars, Juan Croucier on bass, and Mick Brown on drums. In 1983 Croucier left Dokken in order to form Ratt and was replaced by Jeff Pilson. Currently, Don Dokken and Mick Brown are the only remaining from the original lineup. After several personnel changes on guitar, Dokken’s attorney Jon Levin stepped in to fill the role in 2004. In 2001, Barry Sparks replaced Jeff Pilson on the bass guitar.

In 2008, Dokken returned to the mainstream music scene with their first studio album in four years called Lightning Strikes Again. The album was critically acclaimed and it gave the band a return to the charts when it debuted at #133 on the Billboard Top 200 and became their highest charting album since 1995. The album’s success has been attributed to its sound which is very similar to the band’s material in the 1980s.

Dokken was first formed around 1978 when Don Dokken teamed up with Jim Monanteras, Greg Leon, and Mick Brown. Prior to this, Don had been playing club shows in the Los Angeles area billed as “Airborn,” but had to change the name to Dokken because another band with the same name, but different spelling, had already acquired a record deal. In 1979, Don Dokken flew to Germany to sing background vocals on the upcoming Scorpions album in order to assist the band’s vocalist Klaus Meine who was suffering from a vocal ailment.

While there, the band Accept was recording in another studio, and the band’s manager was able to secure Don a deal with Carrere Records. Breaking the Chains was first released with this label in Germany under the name “Don Dokken,” but shortly thereafter, Don met up with George Lynch and Mick Brown, who were playing a band called Xciter at the time. With the addition of the bassist, Juan Croucier, Dokken finally had a steady line-up. Meanwhile in the United States, manager Cliff Bernstein discovered that Dokken was having success in Germany, and signed them in the United States. The band did an arena tour in the United States with Blue Öyster Cult in 1983, but when the tour was over the band was left with little money and was nearly dropped from the label due to the album’s lack of success.

While the band was very popular in Europe during this time, they had not yet made it onto the charts in the United States. For United Kingdom rock fans, Dokken offered a tantalizing glimpse of the kind of slick, but still very heavy rock coming out of America. Magazines such as Kerrang! blazed the trail for Dokken in the UK.

Juan Croucier left Dokken in 1983 to join the band Ratt and was replaced by Jeff Pilson. 1984 became Dokken’s breakout year in the US with the release of the album Tooth and Nail on September 13. The album contained several hit songs including “Just Got Lucky”, “Alone Again”, and “Into The Fire”. The album sold over one million copies in the US alone and peaked at #49, while selling an estimated three million copies worldwide. On November 9, 1985, the band’s third album Under Lock and Key was released. It also sold over one million copies with the singles “In My Dreams”, “The Hunter” and “It’s Not Love”. During this time in the 1980s, Dokken opened for such bands as Judas Priest, ACDC, Aerosmith, and Dio among others.

Following a successful tour with Scorpions, Dokken returned to the studio in December of 1986 to record “Dream Warriors”, a song for the movie A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. After this, the band took nearly half a year off before returning to the studio to record the album Back for the Attack. The album was released on November 27, 1987. It spawned the singles “Burning Like a Flame”, “Heaven Sent” and “Kiss of Death” to become the band’s most successful release, reaching #13 on U.S. charts. It also included a remixed version of the single “Dream Warriors”, and the accompanying music video, which became popular on MTV. Back for the Attack became Dokken’s third record to reach platinum status.

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History (Edit)

After releasing Back for the Attack, the band toured as part of the ‘Monsters of Rock’ festival in the summer of 1988. Recordings from their tour in Japan led to the release of the live album Beast from the East on November 16, 1988, which went Gold in the United States and charted at #33.

After the extensive 1988 tour, the band broke up due to differences between Don Dokken and George Lynch. During this hiatus, Lynch and Brown formed Lynch Mob and recorded two albums: Wicked Sensation in 1990 and Lynch Mob in 1992. Don Dokken also recorded a solo album, titled Up from the Ashes in 1990. After 1992, bassist Jeff Pilson fronted the band War and Peace, while George Lynch released a solo album.

After releasing Up from the Ashes in 1990, Don Dokken wrote another solo album in 1993. Titled Dysfunctional, the album was recorded and produced in Don’s studio. But when John Kalodner wanted to sign him for the album, he suggested that George Lynch be brought back into the band so that the album could be marketed as a Dokken album, and not another Don Dokken solo effort. Despite the fact that the tension between Lynch and Don Dokken was the cause of the band’s 1988 split, the two agreed to put their problems behind them for the time being. The band re-united in 1995 along with Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson, with Lynch re-writing and re-recording the guitar solos on the album, which were originally conceived by Don. Dokken was signed with Columbia Records, and the album still managed to sell over 300,000 copies despite the decline in popularity of similar bands during this time.

In 1997, Lynch left the band when he refused to participate in the band’s European tour. Needing a guitarist to fill in on the scheduled dates, Don Dokken looked to Europe guitarist John Norum, who had previously played on his 1990 solo album and was familiar with the band’s catalog, to help him finish the tour. Lynch tried to re-join the group just days before the tour began, but was told that he was “out” by the rest of the group. A lawsuit followed in which Lynch sued the band for $1 million, but the band prevailed in the verdict. After the European tour, guitarist John Norum was unable to continue with the band as he had previously committed to another solo record. The band then hired former Winger guitarist Reb Beach for the job, and recorded an album with this line-up in 1999 aptly titled Erase the Slate to signify a new beginning for the band. Dokken released another live album titled Live from the Sun in 2000.

Beach, who wanted to work on some other projects and could not commit to Dokken in the long term, was replaced by John Norum, who was now in between projects and able to participate in the band’s touring schedule. Bassist Jeff Pilson also left the band and was replaced by Barry Sparks. In a 2004 interview, Don Dokken stated that Jeff left because “he wanted to do something different and didn’t want to keep playing these songs over and over again.” This line-up released the album Long Way Home, but Norum suffered a hand injury during the band’s 2003 spring tour of Europe in support of the album, and had to be replaced by Alex De Rosso, previously of the Italian metal band Dark Lord.

Guitarist De Rosso lost his work visa and had to return to Italy in 2003, at which point Don Dokken called Jon Levin. He had previously met with the band and played a single show in 1998. Levin joined the band. The line-up of Dokken, Brown, Levin, and Sparks would remain through 2008.

Dokken released the album Hell to Pay in 2004, which was seen by critics as a modern approach to the band’s style.

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On May 13, 2008, Dokken released their first studio album in four years called Lightning Strikes Again, which was met with increased commercial success and became the band’s highest charting album in 13 years when it debuted at #133 in the United States. The album has been referred to as a return to the band’s signature sound. Don Dokken told interviewers that Jon Levin was the bandmate who wanted the band to make an album with the classic sound in mind, and remarked that the process was difficult, saying: “I had to get back in that mindset. This is what the fans wanted, and if I stay focused on that I would give them a straight-ahead Dokken record.”

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