Don Dokken recently recalled returning on stage right after Metallica. During the Monsters Of Rock, a traveling festival Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica, and Kingdom Come played in order, and Van Halen headlined the entire tour.
Don Dokken opens up on the matter
Dokken’s performance after Metallica’s didn’t sound as good as Don imagined. In a new interview with Classic Rock, he said: “After Metallica went out and played ‘Master Of Puppets,’ we sounded like the f*cking Partridge Family.”
As the tour went on, Don asked Cliff Burnstein, co-manager of both Dokken and Metallica, whether the bands could switch places in the lineup. “I told Cliff: ‘I know we’re making twice the money as Metallica, but can you please put ’em on after us, because they’re killing us?”
Burnstein turned down, and Dokken’s was embarrassed after a show at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
“There was this huge review in the New York Times,” Don recalled. “It said that Van Halen kicked ass, the Scorpions were super-amazing, Metallica are the new upstarts just breaking out in America, Kingdom Come was good… and there was just one line about us. It said: ‘During Dokken’s set a record number of hotdogs were sold.’ It was horrible.”
The rocker had earlier recalled the 1988 tour and said that Metallica was ‘kind of’ the reason for their break up the following year.
“I mean, Metallica’s now the biggest band in the world… And that was kind of maybe the reason we broke up, because of Metallica,” Don said during an interview with Battleline podcast last year.
He explained further, “Because when we played the stadium tour, Metallica came on stage every day with this attitude like, you know, do or die. I mean, they just gave it 100 percent, 110 percent. They were kicking ass. They were just coming out with ‘…And Justice For All’, which was not my favorite Metallica album. And they hadn’t done the ‘Black album’ yet that’s now took them into superstardom.”
Dokken has an upcoming show for November 23rd at Williamsport, Pennsylvania with Winger. Later, they will play on March 21st next year in Las Vegas Nevada at the Showroom, Golden Nugget.
