Jeff Pilson would love to make a final Dokken record that they all feel good about
Photo by Joe Schaeffer Photography
Jeff Pilson would love to make a final Dokken record that they all feel good about
Dokken‘s classic line-up of frontman Don Dokken, guitarist George Lynch, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer “Wild” Mick Brown reunited back in 2016 for a handful of shows, which resulted in the live album Return To The East Live (2016) and one new studio track “It’s Another Day.”
Photo by Joe Schaeffer Photography
Pilson was recently interviewed by Bode James for the Rock N Roll Icons podcast. With respect to another Dokken classic line-up reunion, Pilson indicated (as transcribed by the Rock N Roll Icons podcast with slight edits): “The door that’s open is the making of another record. I personally would love to make a final Dokken record that we all can feel good about. Hopefully we’ll get that chance.”
The bassist’s comments are somewhat surprising when you take into account that Don Dokken recently criticized Pilson and Lynch‘s covers album Heavy Hitters, which was released in mid-December 2020. Don Dokken indicated to Chris Akin on The Classic Metal Show (as transcribed by Blabbermouth with slight edits): “But those are not heavy hitters. No offense, they are good songs, but those are vanilla tunes. [Sings ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’] Did they rock ’em up or put some shredding guitar solos [in them]?” Don Dokken continued: “They must be really bored… But, you know, everybody’s got their mantra; everybody’s got their financial things, I guess. If a record company is willing to give you money to put out pablum, then put out the pablum. But I hope my standards as a songwriter are a little higher than that. If I’m gonna do a remake, I’m gonna do something that was super cool, like ‘Paint It Black’ by The [Rolling] Stones or ‘Revolution’ by The Beatles or something that’s awesome and do something like that. I’m not gonna do Carole King.”
In reply to those comments from Don Dokken, Pilson indicated on the Rock N Roll Icons podcast: “I wouldn’t expect Don to say something nice about someone he views as competition. I don’t view Don as competition at all. We’re all musicians trying to do our thing. While I still love Don, I’m not doing this to please him.”
You can listen to the interview with Jeff Pilson at the Rock N Roll Icons podcast below: