Don and George are hard-headed and only see things from their own perception. Jeff has always been the mediator and should be the one to listen to.

Jeff Pilson is just a amazing artist , humble as can be, and just doesn't bullshit anyone. One of my favorite bass players as well. Ive met Mick Brown once, George Lynch 3 times, but Ive yet to meet Jeff and Don. I missed out on meeting Jeff at NAMM 2005 when someone asks me " Hey ,have you seen the Ampeg booth?" I said " No,, I'm sorry!" I took three steps , stopped ,and said " Holy Shit, that was Jeff Pilson!" and by that time he was lost in the sea of people

Tooth and Nail is my favorite Dokken record. Jeff sounds normal, level-headed even for a lifelong musician. Gotta believe he's speaking truth.

Love that Jeff still holds the Dokken tunes in esteem. Tooth, Lock, & Back are legendary albums that should be celebrated as what they were...darts in the bullseye. The guys were under pressure from the label to squeeze out hits ASAP and they delivered under pressure, infightings & inebriation. A lot of 80's bands hate their legacy and say "that was the past...move on"

He sounds the most rational, down the middle of them.

At least Jeff can give credit.

I hear a great artist giving credit where credit is due and calling bullshit on the rest. Thank you for the great memories Dokken.

I've always LOVED "Will the Sun rise," but it felt like this forgotten deep cut. So cool to hear Jeff mention it here.

Jeff has head on straight. Stand up guy.

This latest saga is summed up in Jeff's last sentrnce of this interview...."After all this time, really?" What the heck Don? Now a Jeff story to show what a decent guy he is. Around 1989 or so, Hit Parader magazine published the P.O. Boxes of several of the guys from the popular bands. Jeff's address was one of them. I was 17 years old and had been devestated when Dokken broke up. The only source of news was snippets on MTV or in the Rock magazines. So I wrote to Jeff and even asked for some advice on being a musician. He actually took the time to write me back! I was so blessed by that at that point in my life.

Life's too short to be miserable. Especially over stuff from 30+ years ago.

Thx for this real deal interview with Jeff.....Pretty much what I thought from the get go...And yeah, whenever the vocalist just bashes the drummer like Don did, after "ALL of it?"....Unfrigginbelievable how bad D-bag Don has gotten...SMH

Hell! Mick had to put up with all the BS between Don & George. He EARNED that 25%!

If there was one member in Dokken that i would believe about any subject regarding the band,it would be Jeff 👍

Since so many 80’s stars are dropping dead left and right, and these guys are closer to the grave than the cradle, you’d think at some point you’d just realize you were apart of the history and just celebrate that. Mick Brown is the example. He’s just chilling and loving life without the drama.

There r guitar parts that are beyond Don's capabilities, period! Every guitarist knows signature George, and there's a lot of signature George

Back for the Attack was a great album.

What a professional, level headed dude.

Don wrote all the air drum parts he plays on stage

From what I've seen or heard Jeff was always the one to smooth things over in the group. He got along with everyone. In the day you heard alot about conflict between Don and George. Saying that I it seems the press ran with it making it worse then what it was. Dokken was at it's best when everyone worked together and contributed. I also have to say Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson have amazing voices and could have been lead singers in their own right. George was unbeatable being lead guitar. You have to give credit to Don's voice in the earlier days, he had range! I also give him and George credit for going out on the road and touring. They have both established themselves so have more liberties about when and how often they go out.

Love Jeff as he is a great performer and player. I especially like when he played with DIO time period of around 2004 along with Tracy G. Great musician!

Met Jeff….. he’s such a great and humble guy…. I’m such a fan….

I've been an avid Dokken fan since the mid-80s...bought ALL the albums & followed each of the guys with their other bands & solo projects. It's VERY evident who wrote what. Whether they realize it or not, these guys have three distinct "musical voices". You can REALLY hear the difference in the Dokken songs post Lynch/Pilson contributions. Liars sound especially convincing when they fool themselves & can no longer distinguish the truth from a lie.

The righteousness of your channel is equaled by the quality of Jeff Pilson as the ambassador for an era- an excellent match! I also loved the recent interview of he & George Lynch in Jeff's studio. Tons of vintage gear, they have stories for days about which amps are on which tracks, and they work together still. Total bros! I forget if this was on Dave Friedman's podcast, or what.

Wow, I really love the professionalism of Jeff. I remember I had a buddy that was somehow working with you guys, he was the bass player for my band, Ray Gillespie. He had a demo of you and George, and there were song from Beast from the East on there, they were clean but raw. I cannot remember if there were vocals or not, I think Jeff may have hummed or sand some tidbits It was a 3 song recording. I was blown away, always been a huge fan of you guys. I do not think my guitar playing would be the same without George and Randy Rhoads, and I credit Dokken for my song writing influences . Just a great interview, and way to take the high road, I love to see this!

That’s the angriest I’ve ever heard Jeff. Jeff was always the most diplomatic member of the band and for him to pile on, you know Don is lying like a rug.

Another great interview

This is entertaining as all heck 😁 Thanks Bloom.

When will the full interview with Jeff be released? This is just a tease!

Let's not forget that Don got the record deal in Germany when he borrowed some "Xciter" songs & marketed them as HIS.

Perception is a MOFO. These guys are all super talented. Shake hands at this point,get in the garage and jam and see what happens. We’d love to see you guys ride again,egos need to be checked and resentments have to be let go.

Rush got in front of this from the get-go and eliminated any potential arguments by splitting everything three ways no matter what. And that’s one of the reasons they stayed together for all those years. Sad that Don just can’t do that.

I watched that home video several times too. It was cool especially George and Pilson working on material when they were touring. You could hear the playback to Prisoner in the background in one segment. Jeff got the right attitude about being in a band and the royalties split.

I've heard Don. I've heard George. I've heard Jeff....I believe Jeff.

I'm not sure if you get this alot but I really miss you posting to Spotify. Whenever I take a trip I always downloaded several hours of your interviews so I could listen to them on the plane. Just thought you should know there is atleast one person out there that listens to you on Spotify as well. Keep up the great work!

Thanks again

Another great interview 👍

Unchain the Night was one of the first riffs my older brother taught me how to play. Under Lock and Key is an awesome album.

You can tell that the truth is being told right here! Pretty sad that it’s all come to this

“After all this time? Really?“ hahaha

For the record Jeff, thank you ! Thank you for all your contributions to MUSIC everywhere ! I've viewed you as the one carrying Don after he blew his voice out. I believe you to be fair and impartial. We obviously love Don's contributions as much as George & Mick's as well, but i just hope you know, Dokken wouldn't have been the same without YOU !

It sounds like Jeff is being fair I wish they would find some peace Great video btw

Ok, as lifelong Dokken/Lynch fans, a few thoughts. 1, Love how Jeff held Mick in such high esteem. He deserves it. 2, Jeff makes a great point. If Mick walked into the room at 2 AM and made a wicked cool suggestion, that's worth a lot. How many times in life does someone come into a situation and their contribution propels something forward with little effort after others have been grinding away. Didn't sense one ounce of resentment from Jeff towards Mick, sounds like George either, so that is one of reasons a lot of us love Dokken. 3, Ted T. talks about pulling the Van Halen guys aside and giving them similar advice at the very first steps of their career. Makes sense. 4, Rush split everthying three ways. Should Alex get less because he only played the fiddle while the amazing drummer dude held a drumstick in one hand whipping out legendary beats, writing all the lyrics with the other hand holding a pen, at the same time the really tall guy was over in the corner like an octupus playing keyboards, pedals, bass, singing, and making the crowd go wild creating decades of die hard legions of fans? How's come us Dokken fans can't learn from Rush fans. Don't see them bickerin and taking swipes at each other or the band on yt. 5, a friend in high school said back in the 80s when Hagar joined VH and Diamond Dave split, there has to be some tension and conflict between the lead singer and the guitarist or you just get a bunch of crappy love longs. Check, and check. 6, the irony of Just Walk Away, the amazing video, group effort, and with that searing trademark wicked Lynch where the heck did he get that tone guitar solo puts a huge exlcamation point on the career of a legendary band. Topped only, in these Dokken fans opinion, by Too High Too Fly, and the where did that come frrom I think I'm in love 4 part metal harmony hold my beer and I'll show you what the Beatles might have sounded like metal stop through one of the best deep cuts ever Hole in My Head. 7. It's pretty obvious why everyone loves Jeff. What a great guy. Even when he's disagreeing with a lifelong bandmate, ya can't fault him. And you get the fealing if Don walked into the room, Jeff would say, Dude, really? Five minutes later everybody would be laughing. 9 months later, another bounching baby metal album for the ages. And all is forgotten. 8. At this point, there should be any question what makes the legacy line up of Dokken great? Don's the front man, leading the charge, good, bad or otherwise, Jeff is a class act laying down the groove that ya can't get enough of, Geoorge is the best lookin mad scientist that makes wanna run and pick up the nearest guitar you can get your hands on, and Mick is the kinda quiet but not really so much party dude in the background holding it all together that if you're lucky enough to hang around with him, you're gonna have some stories. Boom, the cornerstone of a lot of our record collections. 9. Can we get over ourselves already? Who cares what each of these guys are doing, sound like, who they are playing with, age they are at, do for us fans, can we just shut up and enjoy it, have a gratelul attitude already? Can't speak for everyone, but come on. Does it have to be your way or you're gonna complain? Cuz we would pay good money to watch Don read poetry while George plays a pink hello kitty guitar, Jeff plays mouth harp, and Mick pokes his brother with a stick each time he wants him to beat on an upside down set of peanut butter buckets. Carry on, guys, cuz we real fans will support ya no matter what you do. 10. We sure hope Mick and a few others read things like this and monetize reading whiny youtuber posts like late night shows having celebrities read mean tweets. While Mick and whoever else retired hanging with him gets drunk off their @$$ making fun of the youtuber that post that drivel and everytime Mick, Craig Goldie, etc. flames the yt commenter, the poop emoji next to the user's handle gets a little bigger to warn the rest of the metal community. While these guys sail into retirement on the donations of true fans making fun of trolls that oh my #$% deserve it. And if you can't tell by now, we were the buds that our mission was to find the next great album no one ever hear of. If the whole cd wasn't good, we didn't buy it. That's why we had music everyone else never heard of, the new Dokken album with bonus track stuff, and were backstage hanging with the band. Some in our circles still communicate with members of multiple bands. So a little advice. Take a hint from Jeff. If we're really fans, heap praise on these guys and gals while you can. Because they won't be around forever. Their music will. But they sure have done a lot for all of us. And deserve every ounce of appreciation we can show them. Peace rock brothers & sisters. :)

Jeff is SO STRAIGHT up....how can you NOT love that dude???....GREAT POSITIVE energy.....

Fantastic interview

I met Don at Toads Place in New Haven CT. During Lynches solo, I was with Don side stage and he complained about him being sick, again, and bashed George during his solo saying George thought he lead the band, etc....etc....etc.....

Jeff is just a great guy. Such a great singer as well. I saw War & Peace live in Syracuse Ny and have that CD when it finally released. Such a great musician and bass player.

George & Jeff got along you can see it on & off stage . I think Don because the band name was his name feels he deserves more which is BS come on . Even with all the BS between the members those 4 guys created Magic in the Studio !!

I knew Jeff was going to bring levity to this conversation,Jeff brought up the point that Don is starting this to bring attention to himself and his new album,and it will work I am sure,but it makes Don look so petty.

Look at full in bloom starting shit, I love it😂

Grumpy Old Men part 3. Don Dokken and George Lynch piss on each others lawns and steal each others newspapers.

Never hear Jeff talk about anything controversial but you could tell this one hit him... And I don't blame him.

Mick Brown wrote everything. On good blow!!!

I am a guitar player, been in a lot of 💩 bands. What people always seem to forget is… yes, this dude had the idea, this dude wrote the “ Hook” or maybe the chorus. But a drummer adds the pulse, or the groove/feel of a song. That can make or break a song, as fast as anything. After watching all the Ratt videos, about who did what, and when ETC… I believe, the band is a unique, special dynamic, that in most cases, should be equal split. It’s only fair. Trying to decide who did more to what, on collaboration, is only gonna destroy the whole thing!

The crazy thing is I wrote 20% of Tooth and Nail and easily 35% of Under Lock and Key.

Jeff is a super nice guy. Based on the just under 10 minutes I spent with him outside the Dio tour bus in 1994 😅😅 But yeah, cooler than your usual rock star.

Haha this has been very entertaining this back and forth between Don and the others . But at the end of the day it’s honestly sad , no matter who wrote what those 4 guys together were magic . Those 4 albums in their 80s heyday are killer especially tooth and nail through back for the attack .

Jeff is the only one that has had a steady gig since Dokken.

What makes a band work is more than just the songwriting. The band member’s looks, personalities & stage presence. Therefore, everything should be split up equally because even if one person did write everything, the rest of the band are putting hard work, personal time & dedication into making everything work, from recording to touring. I would rather have 25% of 10 million dollars than 100% of “nothing”. The fact remains, the rest of the band works for their share of the profits during the live shows, touring and recording, many sacrificing their families in the process. ....

Jeff is one of the nicest guys in rock. When you get him riled up, you know you're getting placed in check.

Eu apenas queria que vocês não se importassem com divisão dos lucros ou quem contribuiu mais, e reconhecessem que fizeram músicas incríveis juntos que ainda são muito tocadas e amadas, mesmo 40 anos depois. Amo tudo que vocês fizeram juntos.

Jeff is so good. Got to meet him in Mexico on same plane! What a nice guy.

Disclaimer: I dont know Don and I wasnt in those recording studios with them BUT… I have to chime in on this. I tech’d for George one night and his business ethic is unmatched. He is VERY Intelligent. Jeff used to come into Tower Records where I worked and was always producing or writing for NEW artists. I see Mick on his bike by my house in AZ often. We used to frequent the same biker bars but I got sober this year. I have NOT ever heard that Don produces other bands or writes for other artists so theres MY 2 cents. I do NOT know why Don is bashing artists like Richie Kotzen in interviews either. Richie lived by me years back and is the NICEST DUDE! I LOVE the New Dokken album and hope Don finds some peace. All of this is silliness. I don’t believe or DISbelieve any of them but Pilson really WAS the Glue so yeah… 🌅 (Full in Bloom ROCKS)!

Does anyone know who this interviewer is yet? It's amazing how he's been able to stay anonymous for so long...

Interesting.. ✌️

I wouldn't be surprised if Don claimed to have written Paris is Burning. He had a great voice, and did a lot of good work as a writer, but he has always taken more credit than he was due.

The song don’t close your eyes, That song in particular, I used to jam to that one the most on my electric scooter.

Jeff seems very relatable, humble, and likable. Good work Jeff. It's not love is my favorite Dokken song and video.

My fav hair band just tearing each other apart just move on Don. George and Jeff are doing just fine without you

This was a hundred years ago I was 16 years old when this album came out. Lmao 😂

Jeff has always been a solid guy. No bs in his game.

A lot of these 80's bands have tarnished their legacies with all this teenage angst drama. Act like you're 70 and bow out gracefully.

Fantastic interview,Don is a bitter guy,can’t get past that Dokken was one album away from being huge

I love Dokken and all the members, much the same way they split everything, equally (which was the right move, no question). But Jeff Pilson is the guy you go to for the truth.

I hung out with Jeff one night at a restaurant a mutual friend owns in the late 90s. He was very very cool and let me geek out about him playing with Dio and the Strange Highways album. He was super nice, no ego and genuinely nice. He had nothing bad to say about anyone. He said how working with Dio was great and Ronnie was a good guy

Good to hear Jeff being somewhat truthful. At least he's noting how Don has great choruses and vocals where George to this day has not complimented Don on one thing where Don in nearly every interview has done nothing but compliment George on his guitar playing TO THIS VERY DAY.

The kicker is at the end, where Mr. Pilson basically lays it all out (who did what percentage, more or less) and then says (in reference to the squabbles and Don's apparent anger about how the writing credits were split) "...I mean, after all this time, really?" No kidding.

.... Not to mention the only reason I listened to Dokken was for George's guitar solos!

Pilson has always seemed to me extremely levelheaded 😉

Songwriting contributions are one thing, but we couldn't imagine Dokken in their prime years without Don and George.

The saga continues……I will say this, Jeff Pilson is a classy guy and good person in my opinion.🎧

Don't know why Don chose to throw a grenade into what was a time of the Dokken members having found peace with one another.

Jeff Pilson is the glue that held the band together it's as simple as that. For what the Lynch, Pilson partnership can achieve check out wicked underground, a fine album

Let me throw in Wicked Underground by Lynch/Pilson here for greatness!

Jeff! 🤘😎🤘

Will the sun rise, a favorite song 😊

After all this time... thinking it still matters. I get where people take credit for something they didn't do, or things that rubbed people the wrong way, or whatever divided band members. I get it. But that was a long time ago. Like VH, or any other band that had rough times... When do you let go? Or maybe, when do you think that Dokken is just albums, with memories? Or is this just a way to stir up drama, where money can be made, and someone has become their own cause? Dokken was real. Was. It's over now. At what point do they move on, enjoy their memories, their success, and be glad that they were relevant and never forgotten? Great music, that will last, long after we're gone. Be glad you were kings once.

Jeff really seems like the most level headed guy in the group. Better singer than Don IMO. Mobile recording set-up was referred to as "scrotum sound" iirc

Unchain the Night is one of my Top 10 albums of all time

I saw Don Dokken at a small show in Racine , wi. , and it was obvious his voice was gone . Very bad !

I believe this story from Jeff over anything that comes out of dons mouth. Everything at the end of the day is greed. And who owns what blah blah blah. Maybe bands should set aside their selfishness and remember who made them what they are…. The fans and your supporters!!!!

Mick wrote the drum parts, yeah? He showed up to record, yeah? Played on the tours? Then he damn well contributed.

Yeah Right 👍

s'boutDAMNED time.

Back for the attack is my favorite Dokken album Mick's drums were big and fat, George and Jeff showcased their playing and Don sang his ass off. They were at the pinnacle.

Jeff is a GREAT bandmate...its obvious George and Don......fuking nightmares. of equal proportion. ..... if royalties were based on being a complete jerk: don 46% George 46% Mick 7% Jeff 1%.

Nothing breaks up a great band like fighting over money.

Enough of this!! WWE and Dokken need to collaborate in a Fatal 4-way PPV!!! Don vs George vs Jeff vs Mick!!! Let's make this happen!!! 🤣

Sounds like a reasonable and truthful guy to me.

jeff really comes across as the most normal one in the band