On the December 25 episode of The SDR Show, Don Dokken looked back candidly on Dokken‘s ill-fated 2016 reunion tour, describing the brief run as an experiment that ultimately didn’t work. Largely, by his own admission, because of his performance at the time.
Dokken, now 72, explained that the reunion originally began with modest expectations rather than grand ambitions: “We did an experiment, and we said, ‘We’ll write one song together.’ And that was ‘It’s Another Day’. We recorded it, made a cool video.”
When the idea of touring came up, Dokken was hesitant about taking the reunion stateside: “When they talked about playing it live, I said, ‘I’m not doing America. We’ll go to Japan, and we’ll see if we don’t kill each other.'”
The resulting Unleashed In The East run consisted of six shows in Japan in October 2016, followed by a single U.S. date in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. According to Dokken, the tour quickly proved that the chemistry just wasn’t there anymore: “We did the Japanese tour. It was a disaster, mostly because of me. I just wasn’t on my game. We just came back, and I said, ‘I don’t think this is gonna work.’ So that was the end of that.”
Formed in Los Angeles in 1978, Dokken became one of the defining hard rock bands of the 1980s with songs like “Into The Fire,” “Alone Again,” and “Dream Warriors.” The band initially split in 1989, reunited in 1993, and has experienced multiple lineup changes ever since — many of them centered around Dokken‘s famously volatile relationship with guitarist George Lynch.
Reflecting on that dynamic now, Dokken struck a more resigned and reflective tone: “We’re old. We’re too old to bicker and fight.”
Despite the failed reunion tour, Dokken said he isn’t completely closing the door on working with Lynch again — though he made it clear any future collaboration would have strict creative boundaries: “I said, ‘I might be up for an EP only.’ But I said flat out, ‘It has to sound like Dokken. I’m not trying to insult you, George, but I’ve listened to all your records. It has to be Dokken. That’s what the fans want.'”
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