DON DOKKEN Performs Acoustic Set At Whisky A Go Go (Video)

December 22, 2012

Video footage of DOKKEN frontman Don Dokken's December 14 acoustic performance at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Legendary Rock Interviews, Don stated about his decision to go out and play acoustic shows: "[Having fun is] the whole reason I do it. We do it every year; I go out and play a few acoustic shows just for fun. I'm taking out Mark Boals (ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN vocalist) and he's doing harmony vocals and we're both playing guitar. I did 40 shows with QUEENSRŸCHE a couple years back the same way just myself and an acoustic guitar. We're going to be playing the DOKKEN stuff but also a lot of other stuff like BEATLES songs, THREE DOG NIGHT, stuff like that. It's interesting because a lot of songs, without the pomp and volume don't really work or stand up, but these DOKKEN songs are really stripped down to the way they were originally written with acoustic guitar and vocals."

Asked how he thinks his voice has held up over the years, Don told the Phoenix New Times: "For three years, my voice was crap; it was terrible. I lost my voice in Germany four years ago and tore my vocal cords [after] we did 27 shows in 32 days. I had to have surgery and learn how to re-sing. I quit smoking, no Jack Daniels, and I don't talk a lot. I was snoring and I had sleep apnea and my voice was trashed. I talked to Tom Keifer from CINDERELLA who couldn't sing for three years. When I was on tour with him, he sounded as good as ever and I asked him what he did. He told me he went to a vocal coach and had to learn to re-sing and not push as hard. It's like anything: if you put 100,000 miles on a car it's not going to run as good as it did. That's the bad thing about vocal cords, 'ya can't change them and as a vocalist you're screwed. There are a million singers that can't sing like they could when they were 28."

On the topic of whether there is a chance that the classic DOKKEN lineup will ever reunite for for an album or tour, Don said: "I'd love to play with Jeff [Pilson, bass] and Mick [Brown, drums], and I'd do it with George [Lynch, guitar] too. I'd love to put an exclamation point on DOKKEN and make another record. I think that George is at such a place in his life that he can't be a team player to make a good record. I don't want to make a record for the money, because it will be a bad record. If you just crank out a bunch of songs for the money, the fans are just going to be disappointed, so what's the point? What people don't realize is that in our heyday, George and I never wrote a song together — ever; there isn't one song. It was always Jeff, Mick, and George writing songs and I wrote my songs by myself. George and I just couldn't be in a room together and write. Whenever we'd try to write together we were on two opposite side of the planet as to where the song was going. The bummer about making those records is that it was always a fight and a struggle. If a band gets along, they have a long career."

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).