Mr. Scary’s Revenge
Kerby’s Exclusive Interview With Guitar Icon George Lynch
Chances are that if a guy wore spandex and played air guitar in the ‘80s, he probably mimicked the virtuosity displayed by axeman George Lynch in front of his mirror at least once. George’s work with Dokken and later with the Lynch Mob has become legendary. When he finally left Dokken for a variety of reasons—primarily financial--it’s undeniable that Lynch took something with him. Although subsequent replacements Reb Beach and John Norum are generally considered to be more than competent guitarists, neither is on the level of Lynch, and the sound of the band that made Dokken so compelling during the albums Tooth and Nail, Back For the Attack and Under Lock and Key has yet to be replicated without him. That isn’t to say that some of Dokken’s releases since then haven’t been respectable, it simply means that the substantial dislike certain members of this group had for each other during much of the time they spent together may have just been the very thing that contributed to the chemistry that resulted in the band producing some of the best rock and roll of the era. Whether or not the band’s output was due at least in part to this volatility may be up for debate, but the fact is that the magic which was present at times in ‘80s-era Dokken has been lost, and even their ill-fated attempt at reconciliation coming in the form of two lackluster records-- Dysfunctional and Shadow Life failed to rekindle any of the old melodic ferocity that the band was know for during its halcyon days.
Even though Don and Mick have continued recording under the Dokken moniker, the split from his former band hasn’t resulted in a lack of productivity from Mr. Lynch either. Instead, he has went on to record albums with his band the Lynch Mob as well as releasing various solo efforts and engaging in a collaboration with longtime Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson. If after reading Don Dokken’s interview, the reader feels that maybe some of the animosity/frustration Don espoused previously was unreasonable or unwarranted in some way, it appears as though Lynch’s matches his former front man’s in many respects. It’s easy to recognize that there is more than a passing sense of dislike apparent here, but it also appears to be the type of disdain that occurs with spouses wherein you may want to kill your significant other at times, and in fact you may find yourself saying things that are totally deplorable, but when it comes down to it, the situation probably isn’t over for good. This one may not be either. Lynch’s latest offering, Furious George, is made up of twelve covers featuring the type of guitar playing that has six string enthusiasts drooling worldwide… No, Don doesn’t make a guest appearance on the record.
KNAC.COM: What do you think made you different from the other guitarists that came out of southern California during the ‘80s—specifically Eddie Van Halen?
LYNCH: I think it is important for musicians or artists of any type to create their own signature. As a guitarist, my palette is the sound. What it is that I try to do is create or recreate what I hear in my head. My style is just a combination of all of the people that I’ve listened to, and I’ve tried to find my own open niche right there between Hendrix, Eddie and everyone else that I really admire. I have what you might call either a gift or a handicap in that I have a definite problem emulating or copying anybody—it just means that I have had to create my own style.
KNAC.COM: Has living a healthier lifestyle affected your playing at all? Is there any difference?
LYNCH: The working out is sort of a balancing act for me. I do it because it’s the right thing to do to a certain extent, but I don’t think it’s the right thing for me to do musically.
KNAC.COM: Really?
LYNCH: Yeah, throughout history all the greatest bands, guitar players and musicians have been pretty fucked up and wacked out—but it’s good for the music. There’s great advice for the kids—“stay high!” [Laughs] You do make great music, but you burn out a lot quicker too. I think I can do it without them, but I’ve done so many drugs that I think I could go into like a type of THC groove without really thing without actually smoking pot. I can just sort of put myself into that state. It is a balancing act though because I don’t lead a completely healthy lifestyle by any means. I just finished off a half a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts which are as addictive as any drug.
KNAC.COM: How was it working with Jeff Pilson again? Is the transition always easy when you know someone that well?
LYNCH: It was fun, but I think Jeff and I sort of hit a snag. I think we both wanted it to be a quick process where we just got in and got it done. It didn’t work that way though. Instead, it took about a year and a half, and it was not without pain. I don’t want to say it was super painful, but things happened. We ended up moving it into a real studio and out of his home studio. It just became a bigger deal than we had originally envisioned because we just didn’t want to settle for this being some home-recorded type of process. A lot of things happened, like the drummer’s mother died, and it turned a one or two month process into something that took over a year. I do think it was worth it though.
KNAC.COM: There wasn’t any of that old school Dokken-type animosity coming out?
LYNCH: Oh no—any ugliness that was there was just because we both cared passionately about what we were doing. I think what it mainly came down to was that Jeff wanted to keep it primarily just him and I. At times I wanted to pull some other people in, and maybe that wasn’t right. I don’t know. In the end, there was a little bit of a struggle, but Jeff is a great guy.
KNAC.COM: If you could have changed anything about the ‘80s, what would it have been? Would you have gotten out of Dokken earlier?
LYNCH: Hmm, if I could change anything. I don’t know if I could. I guess there would have been two things I would have changed. One is that I probably would have focused on my family a little more. The other part would have been that a lot of what happened with Dokken didn’t really pay off in the late ‘80s after we had had some success. After we had sold all those records, that would have been when we could have been somewhat secure financially. That’s the reward. That’s the payoff-- is when you negotiate. We were at that point where we could finally get paid a fair amount of money. That’s when Don decided that he wasn’t going to split the money with--in his words--his “drunk, drug addicted drummer” and pretty much anyone else. He wanted it all for himself. My point of view was that we were talking millions of dollars here, and we could all be okay. His point of view was that he wanted it all for himself. He was like, “Why should I share?” I’m thinking, “Because we all worked equally as hard or harder than you did.” We contributed equally or more to the success than he did—not in the lying bullshit way, but we all put in the work on the songs and did the tours. It was like we all trudged up the hill and did all the work, and finally we were going to get paid for it. That’s when Don tried to pull the rug out from under us. He essentially managed to pull it out from under himself too, but that’s the bottom line. That’s the whole bottom line. It all came down to money.
KNAC.COM: That’s interesting because when you hear Don speak, I don’t recall ever really hearing much about finances. It seems that from his perspective much of what went wrong centered on jealously and drugs.
LYNCH: You know, let me see anybody complain about any of the great bands in history who have done drugs. Zeppelin? Hendrix? Oh, they did drugs. Hello? Pink Floyd. Velvet Revolver. We want our rock stars to be on drugs. [Laughs] It’s great music. Who fuckin’ cares? I don’t give a shit. Every band does it. Every musician in history--even the great jazz musicians. I’m not condoning it--it is what it is. Van Gogh did too. They ware all on morphine or something. Then there is pot and the Rasta guys… you know, “Hey, Bob Marley was on drugs!” Did you hear about that?
KNAC.COM: I think I may have heard something about it.
LYNCH: What a bad guy--that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. That’s just such a red herring. Don just does that to throw off the focus. All it was is that we were up for renegotiating our contract, and Motley Crue--who was on the same label as us, Elektra--got $25 million. We were next, and we all would have done very well on the deal if we had just split everything at twenty-five percent. That would have been fair so that Don wasn’t driving a fucking Rolls Royce while Mick was driving a Yugo. Is five million enough for you Don? “No, I want all 20 million.” That’s all it was. It was very, very simple. There was nothing else. Then, Don would come to me and say, “It could just be you and I. Fuck these other two guys.” I wouldn’t go for that. I wanted it for the whole band, and he wouldn’t go for that. In the end, he found a way around it.
KNAC.COM: Again, that is a different take on the situation. Don basically said that he constantly felt paranoid about the band wanting to overthrow him.
LYNCH: Oh right. How would that happen? Here’s Dokken without Dokken. Here’s the thing--on that Monsters of Rock Tour, it had already been arranged that Don was going to stick with our management at the time, Q-Prime Management who was going to stay with him and not us. Basically, the band was already dead. Don was going to leave, and he was going to fight for the name. Then he was going to sign a new contract. We knew that going into Monsters of Rock. We got to go onstage knowing that, so that’s why it got ugly.
KNAC.COM: Do you recall performing for a whole show with your back to the audience?
LYNCH: Oh, I’m sure I did. [Laughs] Uh, I was just confused. I didn’t know which way to look.
KNAC.COM: To your knowledge, did Don ever need to get his jacket cleaned after at least one show because you had continually spit on it during the preceding set?
LYNCH: [Just laughs.]
KNAC.COM: I’m not making this up--
LYNCH: I know. No, I don’t remember that happening. I don’t think so.
KNAC.COM: Wouldn’t you remember something like spitting on your lead singer?
LYNCH: I don’t remember that, but I don’t have a great memory. I would have remembered that though--that didn’t happen.
KNAC.COM: You guys would have upped Spinal Tap if that could have been verified though.
LYNCH: Did he say “shit” or “spit”? No… it may have been the other way around. There were times when he would just come over and unplug me or take my cabinets. I would be like, “What is happening to my sound?” He’d be over there in my stacks moving the cabinets. I’d have like ten Marshall stacks over there, and he’d be over there trying to face all of them the other way. Then, he might be yelling at my tech and strangling him or something.
KNAC.COM: Okay, now the story couldn’t be farther apart! He more or less told me that you had been known to engage in that type of thing. Were you guys going around doing the same types of things to each other? [Laughs]
LYNCH: Oh no, he used to be so fucking loud on stage. I just didn’t want to hear that warbling at 130 decibels. It was like a Don Dokken jet engine in my fucking left ear. I had my boy, who was teenager at the time, as a roadie for me in Dokken in the ‘90s. He didn’t like that--I figure he was unhappy that I was too loud or something. Then, it was like he was having a battle with my son, and that actually became a problem. He’d go after him. A couple of times he’d have a Jack & Coke in a little glass onstage, and he’d wing it at my boy. One time, he hit him upside the head with it. It was more than a little irrational.
KNAC.COM: There was one story I heard where Don confronted you over to the side of the stage and asked what he could do to make things better. Word has it that you pointed up towards the “Dokken” banner placed above the stage, and you said, “That’s the problem.” Do you remember that?
LYNCH: That’s a great story, actually. I wish I would have said that.
KNAC.COM: You know, even if it isn’t true, that is so good that you guys should just all say it is.
LYNCH: It is a nice story, but I was so fucking high on drugs that I don’t remember.
KNAC.COM: This would have happened after the ‘95 reunion though. You’re saying it’s inaccurate?
LYNCH: No, no. I’m not saying it’s inaccurate. I was just so high and such a fucking psycho.
KNAC.COM: Is it hard to think about the good times with Dokken--is it difficult to separate the good from the bad?
LYNCH: You know, I ran into him recently at a drugstore. I had just seen an interview with him where he was asked about the whole “George getting back together again” and I decided that the way he twists things is just so wonderful. The guy has a gift. I’ve got to tell ya. He went through this whole thing where the problem was the drugs and the band was just falling apart, and it was all bullshit. Like I said, it was all about money. He was greedy, and he wanted it all. That’s all it is, and there was no two ways about it. He could have cared less about whether somebody killed themselves on drugs. Anyway, as I mentioned, we ran into each other at a drugstore, and we were cordial to each other. You know, I haven’t seen him in a long time. I almost didn’t recognize him because when he came up to me, I thought he looked like Michael Moore. He had a beard, blue blockers and a baseball cap.
KNAC.COM: Looked like Michael Moore? Ouch! That implies more than glasses and a beard and cap. That suggests massive girth.
LYNCH: Of course, he looked kinda like a big dirt bag. What are you gonna do though? Act shitty? You going to rehash twenty years of history at the drugstore in five minutes? No, it was like, “How’s it going?” That kind of thing. He was the one who actually said something like, “If there is ever a reason to put it back together, I’m sure we’ll know.” It was something like that. We were both kind of like, “Yeah, sure.” That was it. Later on, he called me and wanted me to play on his record. He wanted me to come in and do an old Exciter song called, “It’s Alive.” I thought it might be cool, and then he said, “I’ll give you a couple of thousand to play on it.” I told him, “I’m not playing on your record for a couple of thousand dollars.” I told him that when it was time to do a real record to let me know. I’m talking about the original band and splitting everything down the middle. He’ll never do it though. Yeah, market “Don Dokken Featuring George Lynch” and pay me a couple of thousand dollars? Yeah, that’s Don Dokken for ya. That wouldn’t even pay half my frickin’ mortgage payment. Yeah, I’m gonna make your career by putting my name on it for like this little bone that you’re gonna throw me? What can you say? He’s the world and everyone else is just little orbiting satellites circling around him. The way he represented this little encounter in this interview I read was that I had been calling him and begging to reform the band. That isn’t cool. He just has this wonderful way of tweaking the truth to accommodate his own warped view of reality.
KNAC.COM: I guess in some ways, it is easy for someone on the outside to imagine a lead singer wanting more money, but… by the same token, once you move away from the realm of equal percentages, it probably opens up a Pandora’s box of trouble.
LYNCH: I don’t know. I think that things in life should really be simple. I don’t care if it’s your view of the world or spirituality or friendship. Complexity just puts too much strain on a situation. Nothing is ever equitable, so it’s hard to assign value on what a person does. You have four guys in a band--how do you say that one guy is more important than another? Maybe one person writes more songs or something, but at the end of the day, it is just one entity and it doesn’t do any good to fractionalize things. Things should be equitable, and we should all be working for one thing… I think. I would like to know how other bands work. How did AC/DC, Judas Priest or Black Sabbath make it work? Does Angus Young get forty percent?
KNAC.COM: Of course that all gets hashed out in the writing credits, right?
LYNCH: Not always, see because we split all publishing down the middle. I wrote the lion’s share though. I’m not complaining though because I wanted to do it. I wanted to find what the direction of the band was instrumentally, and I wasn’t asking any more for it--I certainly didn’t want any less though. He started cutting Mick out of the equation though and Jeff to a certain extent; I wasn’t going to back down. At one point I had to give up on everyone else. At some point they had to fight their own battles. I wasn’t budging.
KNAC.COM: How do you feel about the fact that every interview with you probably touches on Don at some point and vice versa? What does it mean to be intrinsically linked to something this way?
LYNCH: Well, I just feel like it’s unresolved to a certain extent, but is it worth resolving? I think that really what it comes down to is that enough time has to pass, and everybody has to be in the right space career-wise for it to happen. The bitterness would have to go away, and it would have to make sense to everyone.
KNAC.COM: So you would never say never on a reunion?
LYNCH: No, no. Of course not. I’ll always voice my opinions about my past history, and it may contain a little emotion, but I won’t let that keep me from doing what needs to be done.
KNAC.COM: When you started making music with the Lynch Mob, did you feel a sense of relief, or were there other pressures?
LYNCH: Yeah, there was a lot of weight on my shoulders. There was a lot of stress, but I built it as a band. We split everything equally, and I didn’t get a dime more than anyone else.
KNAC.COM: Really?
LYNCH: Yeah, and we had a lucrative record deal and did okay touring, but we put everything right back into the band. Nobody got rich off that. I could have done that by just building it around myself, and I could have done records cheaply, but I just chose to invest in the group. I don’t know if it was a great investment, but we got a great first album out of it. I think it will stand up forever.
KNAC.COM: Is it possible for a guitar player to make it today without having to deal with all of the behind the scenes situations that go on which take away time from the creative process?
LYNCH: For an eighteen, nineteen or twenty-two year old guitar player maybe. Yeah, you could be in some new band like the Vines or some new band that is just great. Look what happened to us. Sure, we worked at it, but as you get older, everything gets so much more complex and so many other things become involved. At this stage of my career I do clinic work, teach, have endorsements and sell cds and products on my website. I help manufacturers develop products, play on other peoples’ records as well as have my own band and write my own songs and tour. There are just a lot of different components to what I do now. It has to be that way. I manage myself, so I have to know the legal aspects of things. Everything is in my hands, basically.
KNAC.COM: On your website, there are plenty of places where a fan can express themselves. Is it difficult to give a forum that type of freedom? Does part you wish you could just censor every little comment?
LYNCH: It is kind of a democratic voicing, so I want people to express themselves. I don’t let it affect me. I’d rather people care, and be interested enough to form some kind of opinion. I’ve gotten a lot of flack about certain things I’ve done in the past. I’ve just had to endure it.
KNAC.COM: A lot of people will say that those dissentient opinions don’t affect them, but it is pretty hard to believe that. How do you feel about letting those comments guide influence what you create?
LYNCH: Actually, I don’t look at it very often. I have a fourteen-year-old daughter, and she looks at it and reports back to me. She loves telling me the negative stuff. [Laughs] She’s like, “How do you feel about that?” I’m like, “Oh, great.” I look at the guys I used to idolize as a kid, and they’re all older and a lot of them aren’t playing any heavy, vital music that they were back when they were younger. I think I’ve at least been able to maintain that. I’m not just some old frumpy guy with a beard playing some watered down crap. I’m still hitting it hard.
KNAC.COM: Could you ever see a point where that is going to have to change?
LYNCH: Uhhmm. I like other types of music. Like I said, I’m a blues player. I could do that and enjoy it, but I’ve got another ten years of fuckin’ fight left in me. At some point it’s all gonna fall apart, but I’m in a race with time here. There is a little desperation there, but me being desperate and pushing things harder isn’t necessarily going to make anything better any quicker. It all works in cycles. You get a certain amount of energy for a certain amount of time, and when the opportunity is there, you’ve got to hit it hard and then kind of lay back.
