In a new interview with Cassius Morris, DOKKEN frontman Don Dokken elaborated on his recent announcement that the band’s latest album, 2023’s “Heaven Comes Down”, would likely be DOKKEN’s final studio effort. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I feel after 50 years and 13 records, I figure I’ve written enough music. I’m okay with it… [But] never say never. Maybe [former DOKKEN guitarist] George Lynch and I will get together and write an EP… George and I did talk about it briefly, and I said I don’t think I have the energy in me spiritually to knock out a whole record. That’s a lot of work. But I said we might wanna do four or five [songs]. We did a new song eight years ago. It was called ‘[It’s] Just Another Day’. That was [recorded by] all original [DOKKEN] members. We went to Japan [and played a few shows with that lineup], and that was an experiment to see how we got along and all that. And that was a cool video.”The 71-year-old Don, who has been open about how the complications from his November 2019 neck and spinal surgery affected the making of “Heaven Comes Down”, continued: “[George and I] had talked about doing a record. But if you listen to the last five George Lynch projects, they’re totally different than the direction I’m going. ‘Heaven Comes Down’ has nothing to do with what George is doing. He’s gone this way; I’ve gone that way. So I don’t know if spiritually we could get together and write a song that works, that we’re all on the same page about. I’m just not. So it is what it is. But I said what I would wanna do is, let’s say I say, ‘Hey, George, why don’t you write me like four guitar riffs and let me see if one speaks to me in my heart and my spirit?’ Just like the song ‘Just Another Day’… and we wrote that one song, all original members, Mick [Brown, former DOKKEN drummer] and everybody. Obviously, we can never — Mick’s retired and he’s pretty stonewalled about, he’s not gonna play again. He played since he was 10 years old — he’s seventies-ish — and I understand that because he’s worn out.”I’ve always said the drummers have the hardest job — your elbows, your hands, arthritis, your kneecaps, your ankles, your feet, your back,” Dokken added. “I mean, the drummer has the hardest gig. I can just stand there, stare up the ceiling and go, ‘Hey, everybody, how’s it going?’ Or even when as a guitar player, you can just stand there and play. But Mick is the machine. Mick was the DOKKEN machine. I used to tell him, ‘Play softer. Don’t hit your drums so hard.’ And he says, ‘I don’t know how not to play hard’ to keep his time. He goes, ‘I just hit.’ So, it caught up with him and he retired.”So we’ll see what happens,” Don said. “George and I have touched on it, but it would all depend on him writing, like, three songs — just music — and sending it to me. And I’d go in my recording studio and [take out] the pen and paper and go, ‘Hmm, oh, this is kind of cool.’ And chop it up and try to make it fit myself and crank out a couple of songs. And if people like it, they like it. If they don’t, they don’t.”Asked if he has a timeline in mind for when he might stop playing live shows, Don said: “Probably within the year. I mean, what’s Paul McCartney — in his eighties? And Mick Jagger’s in his eighties, and Keith Richards is still standing up. And even Elton John now, they bring him down and they lower him down to his piano chair, for whatever reason, ’cause we’re all getting up there in age. So I think the time will come that I’ll announce that it’s over.”The truth is, I guess I’m a selfish person,” Dokken explained. “I wanna enjoy my life. I don’t want to just keep singing and writing until I drop. I wanna be in my home far away from everybody. I live on top of this mountain [in New Mexico]. No neighbors. [I’ve] got the dogs. It’s the perfect life. And I’ve had a great career. I started playing at 10 years old.”If you have to tour and you have to play because you need to pay your gas bill, I understand that,” Don added. “Thank God I’m not in that position. And whenever anybody says, are you thinking of calling it a day? I just go like this [and show them the gold and platinum records on my wall]. I’ve got a few of ’em up there… So I think I’ve made my point. I think I made my point musically. And, of course, I would’ve wanted to keep going, but if I can’t compose, I’m screwed,” he said, referencing the fact that his right arm became nearly paralyzed in the aforementioned neck and spinal surgery. “I am effed.”The follow-up to 2012’s “Broken Bones”, “Heaven Comes Down” was produced by Bill Palmer and Don Dokken and was mixed by Kevin Shirley (AEROSMITH, IRON MAIDEN).In August 2023, DOKKEN released the music video for the album’s first single, “Fugitive”. The clip was directed by Chris Eyre (“Dark Winds”, “Smoke Signals”) and was filmed at the popular immersive arts venture Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico.DOKKEN released an album called “The Lost Songs: 1978-1981” in August 2020 via Silver Lining Music. Featuring sleeve art by renowned U.S. artist Tokyo Hiro (MOTÖRHEAD, MOTLEY CRÜE),the effort contains material written and recorded by a hungry young Don Dokken as he embarked upon a journey which started in Southern California and Northern Germany.DOKKEN’s classic lineup of Dokken, Lynch, bassist Jeff Pilson and Brown completed a short Japanese tour in October 2016, marking the first time in 21 years the four performed together.A DOKKEN concert DVD focusing on the band’s reunion tour, “Return To The East Live (2016)”, was made available in 2018.At some of the recent DOKKEN shows, Lynch has been rejoining the band on stage to perform three of the classic DOKKEN songs: “Kiss Of Death”, “When Heaven Comes Down” and “Tooth And Nail”.[embedded content][embedded content]
