Oh yes.....Dokken.
In August of 1994, on a mid-summers August night, I ran into an old friend at 7-Eleven. He had just returned from California. He told me that he had been living in Los Angeles and working for none other than Don Dokken. He said that Don was auditioning for a guitar player and that I should send out a demo. I quickly put together my current playlist of recorded guitar wizardry and bio picture and sent it out to California. Not but a few days later, I received a call from drummer "Wild" Mick Brown asking me if I would come out to California for an audition. I happily accepted. I flew out and auditioned for what was then going to called "The Gypsy Dogs". A brand new band that Don Dokken was starting with Mick Brown. It was to be all new material and no Dokken songs. After a weekend in Redondo Beach, California, at Don Dokken's 710 Studios, I was told that I got the gig. I flew home with great anticipation.
Metal Edge Magazine June 1995
I waited here in Maryland for another 6 months until everything was firmed up. I retuned to California in early 1995 only to find that what had initially started as a new project had slowly evolved into an actual Dokken reunion minus the lead guitar player George Lynch. I was to fill George's shoes. And those are some big shoes!
I went out to California with plans to record a full length album and embark on a 16 month world tour. I was working with Don Dokken, Mick Brown and Jeff Pilson. All three original members of Dokken. Along with the band, famous producer Michael Wagener was on board for the entire recording and production. Being an engineer myself it was clearly an awesome experience on so many levels. What had started as a new band project, would later become the Dokken release titled "Dysfunctional". The whole experience was really quite ironic being that Dokken was one of my teenage "Hair-Band" idols.
Dysfunctional - Released May 23 1995
Metal Wire - "Hair-Band" News and Updates Column in Metal Edge
Eventually there came a turn of events. Sony records offered up a record deal for the Dokken "Reunion". George Lynch began considering his return to the project. I remained in California with an uncertainty of my plight. Don later informed me that George was in again. I returned home grateful for the experience and really quite exhausted.
In the end what would a Dokken reunion have been without George anyway...
"Breaking The Chains" - The title track off of Dokken's debut album release from 1982. It was also the name for an early internet online news blog. A monthly “online" column featured on the Dokken website for the latest "News and Updates". The excerpts below came from the March and April of 1994 issues of the publication.
Breaking the Chains Issue No. 18 March 1994
Breaking the Chains Issue No. 19 April 1994
It was somewhat of a "reunion" of the band, including three of the original members plus me, for the upcoming Dokken - Dysfunctional. I was soon to be stepping into some pretty big shoes of the one and only George Lynch. While the gig would later come to a halt, as George decided to sign back on, I remained pretty active with recording and playing with artists such as Joe Lynn Turner and believe it or not, even had some music sent out to Ozzy Osbourne.
As you can see from the picture above, I have raised a rather large Bogner family. Some have jokingly called me the "Bogner Rescue Society" as many of these were rescued from their demise from pawnshops, Craigslist, etc., over the years. The heads and cabinets range from 1998 to 2005 models all with differing features and tube compliments. I use different ones for the road while the others remain in the studio.
The group has also performed in Yokota, Japan. Double Digit has opened for numerous national acts that include the following artists: Spyro Gyra, Chaka Khan, Acoustic Alchemy, Bobby Caldwell, Larry Graham, the legendary Donald Byrd, Kim Waters, Melba Moore, and most recently Joyce Coolings and Wyman Tisdale.
The Joanne Juskus 2006 album "See Your Face” was released with a debut performance on June 2, 2006 at the Patterson Theater in Baltimore, Maryland. I recorded all of the guitars, with the exception of a few guest artists, as well as co-authored and composed the songs “Gravity" and "Rebel".
