Don Dokken

Don Dokken, born Donald Maynard Dokken, served as lead vocalist and namesake for the 1980s heavy metal outfit Dokken while helping ignite the Los Angeles metal circuit from the late 1970s onward. After the band went on hiatus following the Monsters of Rock tour and a multi-platinum album, Dokken sustained his visibility in 1988 both as a solo performer and frontman of the Don Dokken Band, whose lineup included guitarists John Norum and Billy White alongside bassist Peter Baltes and drummer Mickey Dee. When Dokken regrouped in 1994, internal tensions persisted. George Lynch, the original guitarist who had fronted Lynch Mob throughout the break, departed in 1998 and was succeeded by Reb Beach, previously of Winger and Alice Cooper. During a later conversation Dokken recounted that Lynch had “threatened to kill me in front of the record company president in Germany and tried to blackmail the president into flying his girlfriend to Germany or he would not do a TV show for three million viewers.” Norum, already known from the Don Dokken Band, eventually took Beach’s place. The reshaped ensemble joined Poison for a United States tour in June 2003.