Jeff Pilson feels it was a mistake to have “The Hunter” be the lead off single for ‘Under Lock And Key’

Jeff Pilson feels it was a mistake to have “The Hunter” be the lead off single for ‘Under Lock And Key’

Former Dokken and current Foreigner, Black Swan and The End Machine bassist Jeff Pilson was recently interviewed by Shannon Wilks for Rockin’ Interviews.

Pilson was asked whether he had any regrets with respect to Dokken‘s Under Lock And Key album, which was released back in November 1985 to which he replied (as provided by Rockin’ Interviews):

“I always thought it was a mistake to put out “The Hunter” first. Our management fell in love with that song before there were even vocals on it. I always thought we should’ve put out “It’s Not Love” first. It was late ’85, early ’86 and that would’ve given us our big anthem. It would’ve kicked off the album in a much stronger way.”

With respect to Dokken‘s break up, Pilson opined: “We just couldn’t get past our egos. Egos just killed the band. It still upsets me because we could’ve had a long term career and made more out of the band than we did. Ego is a common thing in most bands from any era, not just the ’80s – we just aired our dirty laundry louder and more in public than most bands did.”

You can listen to the interview with Jeff Pilson on Rockin’ Interviews via Spotify.

Sleaze Roxx stated the following in its review of Under Lock And Key: “Overall, Under Lock And Key is definitely one of Dokken‘s best albums, deserved more than just platinum success almost a year and a half later, and still sounds really good production wise thirty years later. It is a definite must own album for any lover of ’80s hair metal music.”

Dokken‘s “The Hunter” video:

Dokken‘s “It’s Not Love” video: