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DON DOKKEN Clarifies His 'Retirement' Comment: 'What I Meant Was We're Gonna Slow Down'
Referencing the complications from his November 2019 neck and spinal surgery which rendered his right arm nearly paralyzed, Don continued: "I can't play guitar anymore, which is one of my biggest bummers, because if you see my hand, [the left hand is] fine; [the right] one doesn't move. That's all I got. So I can't play guitar anymore. It was a botched spinal surgery, and the doctor was a butcher. And so it was just one bad calamity after the other. So I said, 'Well, we'll keep going.' I can still sing."
Addressing his previous comment from an spring 2025 interview in which he said that would play his final DOKKEN concert "probably within the year", Don said: "I don't know what retirement means. When I say I'm thinking about retiring, kind of what I meant was we're gonna slow down. We don't wanna do 250 shows a year. You get older and you have other interests. You wanna be home, you wanna enjoy your career, all the success you had. You wanna be home in the garden and working and building things and stuff like that, and renovating the house. And you don't wanna live on a tour bus, 'cause we're older now… A lot of bands — KISS, I can name… There's a plethora of bands that are saying, 'All right, we had a good ride, we had fun, we were famous. Let the youngsters come in and take over.' I just saw that [David Coverdale was retiring]. David Lee Roth, he kind of comes and goes. You've got Coverdale. I mean, look, the list is endless. I think I talked to [WINGER's] Kip Winger. He's doing an orchestra album. He's gonna retire. George Lynch says he's gonna retire. But you know that stupid saying, you never say never, right? I mean, if we get a big festival in Europe, like Wacken [Open Air] or Sweden Rock or a big festival, we'll probably go do 'em. But it's different now. When you're 27 years old, you go on the road 'cause you have to. Otherwise you come home and your electricity's off. You go, 'Damn it, I didn't pay the electric bill.'"
Circling back to the possibility of playing more shows with Lynch as well as the likelihood of a new EP featuring the classic DOKKEN lineup, Don said: "Yeah, it's fun [to share the stage with George]. And George and I, we get along. And people like to see him up there play a couple of DOKKEN songs. But you get older and it becomes harder and harder to play. And then you come home and you wanna rest for a couple days. But to go on tour now costs a fortune. Gas is tripled in price. Bus rentals are tripled in price. Hotels are tripled in price. It's kind of a negative return. Now when we play, it's kind of just for fun. I've done a hundred shows this year so far. That's a lot of shows, for me. So we've done a hundred. And we have another one in two days. And I said, 'Let's take a break for the holidays.' So we are — we're gonna take a break for the holidays. But I wouldn't say retire. If those guys wanna get together and write me some music, I'd write the lyrics and sing it. And I'll participate like I always did. So that's where we're at now."
This past April, Don elaborated on his announcement that the band's latest album, 2023's "Heaven Comes Down", would likely be DOKKEN's final studio effort. He told Cassius Morris: "I feel after 50 years and 13 records, I figure I've written enough music. I'm okay with it… [But] never say never. Maybe [former DOKKEN guitarist] George Lynch and I will get together and write an EP… George and I did talk about it briefly, and I said I don't think I have the energy in me spiritually to knock out a whole record. That's a lot of work. But I said we might wanna do four or five [songs]. We did a new song eight years ago. It was called '[It's] Just Another Day'. That was [recorded by] all original [DOKKEN] members. We went to Japan [and played a few shows with that lineup], and that was an experiment to see how we got along and all that. And that was a cool video."
The 72-year-old Don, who has been open about how his neck and spinal surgery affected the making of "Heaven Comes Down", continued: "[George and I] had talked about doing a record. But if you listen to the last five George Lynch projects, they're totally different than the direction I'm going. 'Heaven Comes Down' has nothing to do with what George is doing. He's gone this way; I've gone that way. So I don't know if spiritually we could get together and write a song that works, that we're all on the same page about. I'm just not. So it is what it is. But I said what I would wanna do is, let's say I say, 'Hey, George, why don't you write me like four guitar riffs and let me see if one speaks to me in my heart and my spirit?' Just like the song 'Just Another Day'… and we wrote that one song, all original members, Mick [Brown, former DOKKEN drummer] and everybody. Obviously, we can never — Mick's retired and he's pretty stonewalled about, he's not gonna play again. He played since he was 10 years old — he's seventies-ish — and I understand that because he's worn out.
"I've always said the drummers have the hardest job — your elbows, your hands, arthritis, your kneecaps, your ankles, your feet, your back," Dokken added. "I mean, the drummer has the hardest gig. I can just stand there, stare up the ceiling and go, 'Hey, everybody, how's it going?' Or even when as a guitar player, you can just stand there and play. But Mick is the machine. Mick was the DOKKEN machine. I used to tell him, 'Play softer. Don't hit your drums so hard.' And he says, 'I don't know how not to play hard' to keep his time. He goes, 'I just hit.' So, it caught up with him and he retired.
"So we'll see what happens," Don said. "George and I have touched on it, but it would all depend on him writing, like, three songs — just music — and sending it to me. And I'd go in my recording studio and [take out] the pen and paper and go, 'Hmm, oh, this is kind of cool.' And chop it up and try to make it fit myself and crank out a couple of songs. And if people like it, they like it. If they don't, they don't."
Asked if he has a timeline in mind for when he might stop playing live shows, Don said: "Probably within the year. I mean, what's Paul McCartney — in his eighties? And Mick Jagger's in his eighties, and Keith Richards is still standing up. And even Elton John now, they bring him down and they lower him down to his piano chair, for whatever reason, 'cause we're all getting up there in age. So I think the time will come that I'll announce that it's over.
"The truth is, I guess I'm a selfish person," Dokken explained. "I wanna enjoy my life. I don't want to just keep singing and writing until I drop. I wanna be in my home far away from everybody. I live on top of this mountain [in New Mexico]. No neighbors. [I've] got the dogs. It's the perfect life. And I've had a great career. I started playing at 10 years old.
"If you have to tour and you have to play because you need to pay your gas bill, I understand that," Don added. "Thank God I'm not in that position. And whenever anybody says, are you thinking of calling it a day? I just go like this [and show them the gold and platinum records on my wall]. I've got a few of 'em up there… So I think I've made my point. I think I made my point musically. And, of course, I would've wanted to keep going, but if I can't compose, I'm screwed," he said, referencing the fact that his right arm became nearly paralyzed in the aforementioned neck and spinal surgery. "I am effed."
The follow-up to 2012's "Broken Bones", "Heaven Comes Down" was produced by Bill Palmer and Don Dokken and was mixed by Kevin Shirley (AEROSMITH, IRON MAIDEN).
In August 2023, DOKKEN released the music video for the album's first single, "Fugitive". The clip was directed by Chris Eyre ("Dark Winds", "Smoke Signals") and was filmed at the popular immersive arts venture Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
DOKKEN released an album called "The Lost Songs: 1978-1981" in August 2020 via Silver Lining Music. Featuring sleeve art by renowned U.S. artist Tokyo Hiro (MOTÖRHEAD, MOTLEY CRÜE),the effort contains material written and recorded by a hungry young Don Dokken as he embarked upon a journey which started in Southern California and Northern Germany.
DOKKEN's classic lineup of Dokken, Lynch, Pilson and Brown completed a short Japanese tour in October 2016, marking the first time in 21 years the four performed together.
A DOKKEN concert DVD focusing on the band's reunion tour, "Return To The East Live (2016)", was made available in 2018.
At some of the recent DOKKEN shows, Lynch has been rejoining the band on stage to perform three of the classic DOKKEN songs: "Kiss Of Death", "When Heaven Comes Down" and "Tooth And Nail".
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