GEORGE LYNCH Rejoins DOKKEN On Stage In Waterloo, New York (Video)

George Lynch With Dokken February 2023

On February 17, George Lynch reunited with DOKKEN at del Lago Resort & Casino in Waterloo, New York. During his on-stage appearance, the band performed three of their classic hits, “Kiss Of Death,” “When Heaven Comes Down” and “Tooth And Nail.” Fan-filmed video of the concert is available for viewing below.

Over the last couple of years, Lynch has been making public performances with DOKKEN, all the while playing the same three songs each time. When asked in a January 2022 interview with SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” about his experiences, George replied: “It has been [fun], actually, more than I would have thought. I would have thought there… ‘Cause Don [DokkenDOKKEN leader] and I had had animosity towards each other at a couple of different levels over the decades. And it’s kind of a weird thing, when you think about it. And sometimes, it is uncomfortable for me, because when I show up, I have to sit there, and, of course, they’re playing the songs that I wrote. And the [current DOKKEN] guitar player, Jon [Levin], is a wonderful guy; we’re friends. But they’re doing my whole thing, and then I walk out.

“I think it comes down to, we’re entertainers, and if I’m gonna spend my time crying about anything, I’m just gonna hurt myself and the fans, and that doesn’t do anybody any good,” George continued. “And so I try to keep positive about the whole experience. And it has been, actually, good for everybody. The fans love it. I love doing it because the easiest thing I can do is play DOKKEN songs — songs that I helped write 35, 40 years ago that I can play in my sleep with one arm tied behind my back and go out and enjoy it and not have to work that hard and just really enjoy what I’m doing, enjoy the moment. And it’s the path of least resistance. A lot of these other projects I do, they’re not as easy of a sell. When I’m doing a KXM project or whatever it is, I sometimes have to work at it a little bit — I do have to work at it a bit harder. What is this supposed to be? How am I supposed to write? How am I supposed to look? How am I supposed to sell this? With DOKKEN, I don’t have any of those issues or concerns because all the work’s been done, we’ve already established what we are and I know what to do. So it’s really, like I said — the path of least resistance sometimes is the right one.”

George explained why he only plays three tunes when he is with DOKKEN instead of performing the entire set: “Well, that’s probably an economic issue on Don‘s side. I mean, Don owns the name of the band. It works on me on all levels at this point, and obviously it works for Don, so if it’s not broken, why fix it? And I don’t know… I would just be speculating that he’s concerned maybe that something could pop up if he gets in bed with me and then now he doesn’t have what he’s built over all these years. So there’s that. And maybe financially it would be not as — I don’t know — not as [much of] a positive outcome for him. I’m not sure; we haven’t talked about it. But what we’re doing now works.

“Obviously, what you just brought up is something that everybody’s thinking about, but, hey, it’s not up to me to decide. But I certainly feel that would probably make sense [for me to play the whole set]; I could see that making sense. I’m already there — why don’t I just go out and finish playing the rest of the songs that are part of my legacy? People would like that. There’s a lot of different ways to think about that. There’s what we do as a business, and I’m not ashamed of that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to talk about the business side of music. It doesn’t take away from the art; it doesn’t take away from the creative part of it. Those are two different sides of the same coin. We all need to make a living. But you have to have that balance of appreciating and producing music that you love and that people enjoy, and at the same time, it has to make sense financially. So I’m not sure which one that is, as to why we’re not back together on a more complete basis, where I’m playing the whole set, but I’ve got a feeling it’s probably financial.”