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Donald Maynard Dokken (born June 29, 1953) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and founder of glam metal band Dokken. He is known for his vibrato-laden, melodic vocal style which has made him an influential figure in American glam rock.
After enjoying mainstream success with Dokken, he parted ways with the band in 1988 and pursued a solo career. His 1990 solo album, Up from the Ashes, spawned two singles and achieved modest success. He released his second solo album, titled Solitary, in 2008, which was a stylistic departure from his Dokken material.
Don reformed Dokken in the early 1990s and has been continuing on with the band ever since. He is the only remaining original member of Dokken.
During his time in Germany, Dokken befriended the German hard rock band Scorpions, and sang with them in rehearsals for their Blackout album while lead vocalist Klaus Meine was being treated for nodes on his vocal cords. Don has stated that he recorded scratch vocals for "No One Like You", "You Give Me All I Need", and "Dynamite". Don also stated, "I was just helping Klaus out", and "You’ll never hear those tracks… because it’s not fair to the Scorpions." Meine recovered and returned to record the album.
In 1983, America saw the release of the first Dokken album, Breaking the Chains, which got a moderate reception. After Juan Croucier left the band to join Ratt, Jeff Pilson was brought in for their second release, Tooth and Nail, and at this time metal fans and critics began to take notice of the band.
The album, titled Up from the Ashes, was released in 1990, and was very similar to the Dokken catalog. This project was a supergroup of sorts, made up of guitarists John Norum (of Europe fame) and Billy White (of Watchtower fame), bassist Peter Baltes (of Accept fame), and drummer Mikkey Dee (of King Diamond; later Motörhead and Scorpions). John Norum's drummer Hempo Hildén was initially part of the band but was replaced by Dee before the album was recorded. Baltes had previously been a member of Dokken during the late 1970s for a brief period. Two music videos were made for the singles "Mirror Mirror" and "Stay", respectively. Also, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Don spent time as a producer for the metal band XYZ.
He also made a guest appearance on the German progressive metal band Vanden Plas's Spirit of Live album as the vocalist for their live performance of Dokken's "Kiss of Death", the studio version of which can be found on Vanden Plas's Far Off Grace album.
In the late 90s, Dokken once again parted ways with George Lynch, gained guitarist Reb Beach, and later kicked off a new era with guitarist John Norum after the departure of Reb Beach. That union didn't last long, as Norum soon departed to re-unite with Europe. Norum was briefly replaced by Italian guitarist Alex De Rosso for the live tour until 2003 when Don managed to find a permanent replacement in guitarist/lawyer Jon Levin.
Since 1994, Dokken has released six studio albums, two live albums, a Greatest Hits album, as well as their first two DVDs. Don Dokken released a new solo album titled Solitary in 2008, and Dokken released a new album titled Lightning Strikes Again during the same year. On March 1, 2010, the band Dokken's second greatest hits album, aptly titled Greatest Hits, was digitally released to iTunes and Amazon.com. The physical album with additional tracks was released in US by Cleopatra Records May 4, 2010, and in Japan May 11, 2010, by King Records (Japan).
On September 22, 2010, in an interview with BraveWords.com, Don Dokken revealed that he would be undergoing vocal surgery, to correct problems with nodes and tears in his vocal cords. February 4, 2011, Anchorage, Alaska was Dokken's first show since surgery. In addition to the vocal cord surgery, Dokken underwent treatment for cancer around the same time. He has since recovered and his voice has seen great improvement over the past few years.
| 1981 | Breakin' the Chains
| — | — | — | |||||
| 1990 | Up from the Ashes
| 50 | 27 | 38 | |||||
| 2008 | Solitary
| — | — | — | |||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
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