Jeff Pilson working hard on Dokken reunion

Jeff Pilson working hard on Dokken reunion

A day ago, Foreigner bassist Jeff Pilson spoke to Mitch Lafon on the reporter’ podcast entitled One on One with Mitch Lafon where he discussed many topics including Foreigner‘s in concert unplugged album, Last In Line‘s new album Heavy Crown, Guns N’ Roses‘ reunion and whether Steven Adler should be part of that reunion and a possible Dokken reunion.

During the One on One with Mitch Lafon (see 11:27 mark), Pilson was reminded that Don Dokken had previously stated that Pilson was too busy with Foreigner and whether that was sat still the case. Pilson responded by stating: “No. It’s not and we’re actually working really hard to try and pull something together right now. It has to fall in spaces where there is time off [from playing with Foreigner], so I don’t know for sure whether it’s gonna happen. If it does, you would be one of my first calls. Ummm. So let’s just say we’re all friendly now, we’re all past all the decades-old crap, and we all talk and everything’s great. Ummm. Now it really is just down to scheduling and trying to figure it out. Because, you know, you’ve gotta do it right, if you’re gonna do it. We all feel that way. I mean I think we’ve all come to a place where we’re very appreciative of the legacy that Dokken has, and we would never wanna just do something for the money and take advantage. But ause we get offered a lot of things quite often, and if we wanted to do it that way, we could. But the fact that we don’t, I think, is a great sign. I think when we do finally do something, we’re gonna try and do it right. Although I don’t know if we’re gonna ever, ever get to do the big sweeping tour that we’ve talked about — mostly because of the Foreigner commitment — but we’re gonna try and do something. So hopefully I’ll have something to report sometime soon…

I think, really, to do it right means that when we go out there, we sound good — no matter how many or few shows we do, no matter — new music or old music. I would love to record some new music with Dokken. I would love that. I just don’t know if we can or will. I have a sense that sometime we will, somehow, but we’ll see. Again, it’s just down to quality. If doing it right means doing it with quality. Because we were always very quality conscious back in the day, and I don’t think any of us want to let that go now…

You know, no matter how argumentative a band is, no matter how much — I mean, think of all the time we spent together, think of what we accomplished together. I don’t care what anybody says; we all love each other. We really do. There is a love in there that’s — I mean, sometimes it’s two siblings that love and hate at the same time, but there is a lot of love there. So I’m very glad. I’m very glad that when I get an e-mail from Don, I’m not ‘Oh, God.’ I’m like I’m excited to read it. George and I have been close for a long time, so that hasn’t been an issue for a while. But, yeah, it feels really good. Ummm. We shared something very special together. I think we’re all at the point in life where we kind of appreciate it now and if we ever get a chance to do some more with it, I think it should be. It would be very interesting, because we’ve never been in a situation where there wasn’t animosity, so I don’t know [laughs]. Maybe it won’t work. I don’t know [laughs].

Had we been more together, we could have been so much more productive with what we had. Because there’s a lot of talent there. I mean, there’s one of the greatest rock guitar players ever. There’s a rhythm section that was very, very groove-oriented and heavy. And there was singing that could be… There was a huge range of singing there. One of my favorite lyricists in rock is Don Dokken. I mean, there was serious, serious talent in there. So I always think that our tension actually spoiled what could have been really, really great and turned it into just great.”