Jeff Pilson feels conflicting schedules only way Dokken reunion with George and Don wouldn’t happen

Jeff Pilson feels conflicting schedules only way Dokken reunion with George and Don wouldn’t happen

Black Swan, The End Machine, Foreigner and occasional Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson was interviewed by Sakis Nikas for Greece’s Rock Pages.

Pilson was asked whether there will be a “proper” Dokken reunion with singer Don Dokken and guitarist George Lynch to which he replied: “The honest answer is: “I don’t know”! I gotta be honest with you, Sakis, and I can only speak for myself…there’s a desire to record one last great Dokken record. We did a song together back in 2016 called “It’s Another Day”…”

When it was pointed out by Nikas that new Dokken song was a “kick ass” one, Pilson indicated: “Exactly! The chemistry was there and I think we still have it in us to release a last, great Dokken record. I would love it if it happen but I am not entirely in control and we just have to see how it goes. Don has his own version of Dokken and I know that he’s working on a new Dokken album. But we’re still friends and if it doesn’t happen it would be only a matter of conflicting schedules. I sincerely hope that it will happen… I wish that I could be more definitive but it is what it is.”

When asked whether his favourite Dokken album would be Tooth And Nail (1984), Pilson stated (with slight edits): Yeah… I hold the dearest memories from the Tooth And Nail era. George and I roomed together during the Breaking The Chains tour and we started writing a lot during that period. I am talking here about kids sharing a hotel room, setting up their amps and their 4-track recorder and coming up with songs. It was fun, exciting and inspiring. The writing of the Tooth And Nail record was fun but so it was the case with Under Lock And Key. By the time we started working on Under Lock And Key, I felt like we were a proper band, a team. The writing period of Tooth And Nail was kinda a process of reformulating the band in some ways. And we took it a step further with Under Lock And Key as it was a collaboration of all four members. On Tooth And Nail, George and I wrote the bulk of the music but Don’s contribution was very important. And then by Back For The Attack, we were kinda falling apart…you know the story. When I listen to Tooth And Nail now, I think that it has aged better than Under Lock And Key. I would love to remix Under Lock And Key…as a matter of fact, I’d love to remix them all (laughs)!”

You can read the rest of the interview with Jeff Pilson at Rock Pages‘ website.

Dokken‘s “It’s Another Day” video (from Return To The East Life (2016) album):