Don Dokken has told Metal Forever in a new interview that DOKKEN will "probably" headline this year's edition of the M3 Rock Festival as a one-off reunion show with the band's former guitarist George Lynch. DOKKEN's classic lineup — including Lynch and bassist/vocalist Jeff Pilson — reunited for a short Japanese tour in the fall of 2016. The trek marked the first time in 21 years the four musicians had hit the road together. Don told Metal Forever (hear audio below): "We did the reunion tour. In fact, we might be doing one more show with the original lineup, with George — one show. We'll probably be headlining M3 this year with George." The M3 Rock Festival will take place May 3-5 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. According to Don, he has been getting along with his former bandmates much better than they did back in DOKKEN's heyday. "We were younger [then]," he said. "We were in our 20s. There was a lot of drugs, debauchery, alcohol, a lot of egos — all that stuff interfered with DOKKEN going on forever. But now we're in our 60s, so I think hopefully that's all in the wind." Don also talked about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for DOKKEN's new album — the group's first since 2012's "Broken Bones". "We've got a lot going on," he said. "We're probably gonna have a couple of records out for the summer that are retro records. One is a bunch of tapes that I found that were unreleased tracks in the '70s, when I was in my early 20s. We're putting that out hopefully for the summer. I'm putting out my solo record, which is nine or 10 ballads, 'Solitary', in the summer. So we can prep up for the brand new record. The problem — I guess a good problem — we're booked so heavily. We have shows all the way till August, so we're trying to coordinate, when do we record between shows? It's hard. 'Cause when I go in the studio, when I put my head into it, I like to just stay there. But it's kind of hard when you fly on a Thursday, you play a show Friday, Saturday and Sunday, come home on Monday, sleep it off till Tuesday, get your legs up and then you record two days and you're back on the road." In a 2018 interview, Don said that DOKKEN's upcoming album would be "a straight-up, straight-ahead" classic-sounding record. "I don't want to plagiarize myself, but I'd like to do, like, 'Tooth And Nail' meets 'Under Lock And Key' meets 'Back For The Attack'," he said. "If I could do that, that's what I think people would be happy with. The dilemma is to try to do that thirty years later without just ripping myself off and regurgitating old DOKKEN riffs, but I do want to make a straight-up, straight-ahead, catchy choruses, cool guitar riffs, burning guitar solos, nice grooves. That's where my mind is right now. I just want to go straight ahead and make a classic-sounding DOKKEN record." Lynch's most recent appearance with DOKKEN took place last September when he joined Don Dokken (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Mick Brown (drums, backing vocals) and Chris McCarvill (bass, backing vocals) on stage at the Grand RockTember VI festival at Grand Casino Hinckley Amphitheater in Hinckley, Minnesota to perform set of the band's classic songs. Since completing the Japanese reunion dates, DOKKEN has continued to perform with the group's current lineup — featuring Dokken, Brown, McCarvill and guitarist Jon Levin — save for a handful of shows in late 2017 and last year that saw guitarist Ira Black (LIZZY BORDEN, VICIOUS RUMORS) fill in for Levin. A DOKKEN concert DVD focusing on the band's reunion tour, "Return To The East Live (2016)", was made available last year.
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