"Wild" Mick Brown och Metalshrines Steve Mårtensson. Intervju - "Wild" Mick Brown, Dokken Intervjun med Dokkens trummis "Wild" Mick Brown var bokad sedan en tid tillbaka. Och när det så var dags att genomföra den, ja var hittar man honom då? Jo, givetvis i baren på The Tivoli i Helsingborg. Och Mick, ja han var betydligt lugnare än vad namnet anspelar på. Steve Mårtensson You have a new album out called "Long way home". What can you tell me about the new release? "Wild" Mick Brown: Well, John Norum plays guitar on it. Which I´m sure you Scandinavian people are pretty aware of. And this time Barry Sparks plays the bassguitar. He has formerly played with Michael Schenker Group and Yngwie Malmsteen for many years. It was kind of a difficult record because we lost two members after the last tour in the US. Don and I became a bit worried how we gonna replace half the band. But it worked out very well when we came over to play... What was the name of the festival? Sweden Rock Festival D: Yes, and John said he was interested in doing it and making a record together. We got very lucky that he wanted to do that. So, it worked out good. But it was kind of a difficult time cause there was a lot of pressure and we needed to hurry. But we hurried. (Mick starts to laugh). And still...the record is here. How is it different from Erase the slate? M: Well, Reb Beach wrote quite a few of the songs on Erase the slate. He had a big input. We like to keep a piece at where we are on every record but go ahead and change some of the outside suroundings. So, we where able to do that. And Don had some ballads he has been hanging on to, in his heart, for quite a while and...when we played with George and Jeff they where not very interested in doing that. So, he got to do that and it was good for him to get that out. And it was pretty fun to play with John cause John also did some tuning. The band got to tune lower in key which gave it a heavier sound. That made the band sound much heavier. Why did Jeff Pilson and Reb Beach leave the band? M: This summer is going to be the recreation of the Winger band I think. And Reb was very interested in doing that cause he is very close to Kip Winger. "I´d like to tour with you guys but I´m not interested in making the record", he said. But we wanted someone that were both on the record and the tour. He was given the option to do so but he choose not to. And Jeff? M: Jeff seemed to lose interest in Dokken. I don´t know...it was very strange. He´s got so many bands on the side...like a lot of projects. I think he was looking for a way out of Dokken with his other projects. We´d be calling him and we needed to get to work again and he´s like: "Oh, give me some time". Nine, ten months has elapsed. And Don called me and said: "We can´t wait anymore". We´re gonna run out of money and we need to make this record for the company. So, we choose to move ahead without Jeff. I don´t know if he was happy about that...he was not very happy in the band. And now he´s back with George. M: That´s what I´m hearing. One big circle, huh! I know that they have played together because John went to the rehearsal place where we keep our instruments. And he heard them play. And he said: "It was great". Really heavy and James Kottack was playing drums, the drummer from Scorpions. That could be an interseting project. But, I don´t know much about it. Could you, in the future, see a reunion with all the four members? M: Yes, but I don´t exactly know when it would happen. But I´m not totally opposed it. I don´t see it happen right now. Probably not yet. How was it coming back to Sweden and playing Sweden Rock Festival last year? D: That was very difficult too because...two new members and not much time to rehearse. But we said: "let´s go and do this"! That was the day when we decided to...that was the deciding show to get new members. We got to do something, Don said to me. What do you suggest that we do, I asked him? He said: Let´s go to Sweden and bring a bassplayer. We didn´t know who. And we got together with John. That was the idea to get together with John. And that was pretty much what happend. We rehearsed for four days and it came together. It was to start something with John...that was the purpose of it all. And it worked. And now you´re back in Scandinavia again. M: We´re pretty sure now that we´re not gonna stay away for fourteen years anymore. We´ve been talking to promoters and things. I think we´re gonna come every year now. That´s the goal of the band to come over yearly. Every record anyway. And you´ve done some dates in the UK as well. M: Four dates. Pretty exciting. That was really nice to find out. This summer you´re going on a big tour in the US with Ratt, Warrant, LA Guns and Firehouse. M: Yes, all those bands. 50 shows. I think it will be so fun. Every time that Dokken shows up there´s always pretty good ticketsales. With all those bands...I think it will surprise a lot of the promoters. Every time we talk to them...three more venues took bigger now. And they are getting bigger and bigger. The sales are looking really good. I think it will be a wonderful surprise. And you´re headlining. M: They´re not calling us the headliners but we´re the last band to play. So, I will say yes. Was that your choice? M: No, someone said...the manager for Warrant is the brainchild of all this. It started out that Dokken would play last...the line up would be LA Guns, then Firehouse, Warrant, Ratt and then Dokken. But now it´s changed and it´s going to be: LA Guns, Firehouse, Ratt, Warrant and Dokken in some places. And only in some places Ratt will play just before us cause they play so much in these areas. The manager for Warrant wants to make sure that Warrant gets to be seen well. And I think it´s very nice that he choose our band to draw attention to his. Because it´s gonna be good for us too. We´ve played so many of those festivals, but we play so early in the days sometimes. This is good for us. You´ve toured with quite a few other greats bands. Do you have any favourites of your own? M: Everything that I did in the 80`s was just wonderful. Playing with Kiss, Judas Priest and Aerosmith was just amazing. To become friends with Steven Tyler who thought I was the funniest man...you know. He would ride around on my back all day. And Joe Perry...we could sit and talk with him and hearing all their stories. It was really a good time. Dio and all the bands that helped us in the beginning and that we toured with. Do you have any special tourmemories that you want to share? M: Oh, god! (Mick starts to laugh) I can tell you about the funniest show we ever played. We were on tour in America and we were going to do something for a radiostation. If we did this for the radiostation they were going to play us on the radio in New York. And in NY they don´t have much radio so it was pretty important for us to do them a favour. Around Manhattan Island there´s a line of boats called the Circleline. And it just goes around Manhattan. So they said: "We´ll have a party on the boat and you can play on the boat". (Mick starts to laugh again) And the boat was a fucking tiny boat. We were playing on a small area on the boat and people couldn´t really see us. And the boat didn´t go that far away from the dock and just kept circuling around the Statue of Liberty. That was terrible. We were laughing so hard. It was so rediculus. And I don´t even know if the radiostation ever did play us. One of the funnier moments. It was a fun time. And what is your worst memory with Dokken? M: My worst memory...let´s see. I remember when we were travelling in Europe and we were going across the border somewhere. And I´d go to the bathroom and I heard the bus leave. And I was standing there with no shoes, sweaty clothes and still had some makeup from the show on. No money, no passport...nothing! And trying to explain to these other people standing around me that: "Hey, I got to get on that bus". And they just laughed at me and I was really embarrased. That was a bad moment for me. I had to wait maybe 8 hours for them to realise that I wasn´t on th bus. You've been around now for 20 years. How do you think you've changed besides being older and wiser? M: You know, it´s really good now because...Don and I have decided: "Lets make this like it was when you were really young". You see, when you´re young it´s all fun and the love of the music. Because it´s not business yet. But when it becomes business it can become very stale and that´s when the problems happens in bands. And now that we´ve been through all that you know...up and down...everywhere...very famous...not famous...ok. We´re older now and it´s funnier now. It´s going to be fun now if we´re doing it. That´s why some of the members changes. Making it a little fun again. And it is. It gets funnier and when you´re older it´s like...wow! I´m 45 but the people are still in the same age in the audience that they were when I was 20. The same rockcrowd. It´s amazing. Where do you guys live? M: Barry and myself live in Arizona. Barry lives in Tucson, Arizona, which is very south and I live in Phoenix. Don lives in Los Angeles and John lives here. So it´s vey hard to rehearse...and very expensive. How do you feel about the new metal scene in the US? M: In America all the bands are starting to sound the same and I think that is depressing. Lots of bands are sounding like Nickelback...some of it is really depressing. Some of the lyrics are very depressing and dark...not very happy. Negative...and I don´t think that you need so much negativity. Have you heard some good Swedish music lately? M: No I´m not familiar...exept for Vanden Plas. Is that a Swedish band? No, German. M: Ok, sorry. (Mick starts to laugh again) Thanks for the interview and thanks for your time. M: Thank you! Dokken - Official website

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