There was never a better time to be a big-haired hard-rock band from Los Angeles than in 1987. Mötley Crüe were riding high with the monster hit Girls, Girls, Girls. Poison were breaking big. The hottest new band in town was Guns N’ Roses. And for one of LA’s more established bands, it seemed as if their time had truly arrived.
Dokken had plenty of muscle behind them: they were signed to Elektra Records and managed by Q Prime, who also handled Def Leppard. Dokken’s 1985 album Under Lock And Key had gone platinum, and they believed that the follow-up, Back For The Attack, released in ’87, could be even bigger.
But there was a problem. The band’s singer, Don Dokken, and guitarist George Lynch hated each other.
Back For The Attack was a strong record. While it was route-one stuff – arena rock with a heavy metal edge – Dokken’s music had its own distinct flavour, characterised by Don’s melodic voice and the George’s guitar-hero pyrotechnics. It was an album filled with anthems, and another million-seller, but its success was not enough to hold the band together.
The split came in the wake of the US Monsters Of Rock stadium tour in 1988, on which Dokken played immediately after Metallica and were duly annihilated. They would reunite in the 90s, but it was with this album that their glory days ended./o:p
