Don Dokken had been writing his autobiography for years but stopped when his right hand got paralyzed

Don Dokken had been writing his autobiography for years but stopped when his right hand got paralyzed

Dokken frontman Don Dokken was recently interviewed by Marcelo Vieira for Marcelo Vieira Music.

Back in May of last year, book author James Cull released the book Dokken: Into The Fire and Other Embers of 80s Metal History, which was based partly on information obtained directly from Don Dokken and bassist Jeff Pilson. Drummer “Wild” Mick Brown and guitarist George Lynch had declined to participate even though the latter was interviewed twice for the project. The book Dokken: Into The Fire and Other Embers of 80s Metal History can be purchased via Amazon.

With respect to Cull‘s book, Don Dokken indicated (as translated from Portuguese to English by Marcelo Vieira with slight edits): “I read it. In fact, I helped with a lot of information, but I noticed some inaccuracies in the text as well. Anyway, as one day I will write my autobiography. I did not tell James everything he would like to know. He kept calling me: “what happened here?”, “What did you do there?”, And [laughs] I replied, “James, I’m not going to give you everything like that. I will not receive a cent for that book.” It is not an authorized biography, but I could have blocked the process. I did not, but there are many, many stories and information about the band that only I know and nobody else.”

In terms of how far along Don Dokken is with his own book, the singer stated: “I started writing it years ago, but I stopped. The biggest obstacle is that my right hand is completely paralyzed [since back in late 2019]. Since I am right-handed, I can’t type. So I bought a microphone, configured the Pro Tools [system] and resumed the project. When I am in the mood, I sit at the PC, turn on the microphone and start talking. But it won’t just be a book about Dokken‘s career and our rise to fame. My book will be much more about my life, my childhood and youth, when I started playing and singing.

There are many things that people don’t know about me, but don’t think that I am going to write something like “The Dirt“. I never overdosed; I never participated in orgies or had problems with prostitutes and drug dealers. In fact, I never used drugs. Everyone knows that George [Lynch], Jeff [Pilson] and Mick [Brown] were addicted and that was one of the reasons why the band broke up, because I could not take those three anymore. That is why my book is going to be different. No “we formed a band, we became famous, we got drunk”; there are already thousands of books like that. Mine will talk about the day I was born until today.”

You can read the interview with Don Dokken in Portuguese on Marcelo Vieira Music‘s website.