DOKKEN frontman Don Dokken is featured in a new interview with Legendary Rock Interviews. An excerpt is available below:

LRI: I talked to Michael Wagener and he told me all these great stories about crashing on your couch when he first came to the States among other things. How do you remember getting acquainted with Michael?

Don: "Good old Michael. I remember meeting Michael in Germany, how could I forget? We were at the Sounds club there in Germany, those were the people who invited me to come over there and do some shows. They knew all the other club owners and I’d never been out of the country so it was like going to Mars basically. You don’t speak the language, you don’t understand the food or anything. I met Michael who worked in the recording studio across from the club, which was about 50 yards away called Tennessee Soundstudio. It’s so ironic now that he lives in Tennessee and the studio was called that (laughs). I met him and he liked the band and after playing at the club til Midnight we would sneak in and cut demos at his studio until like 7 in the morning. Those demos ended up being stolen and they put it out on a record called back on the streets which is a bootleg of all of those sessions along with some live recordings from Germany. Someone made a lot of money off of that bootleg."

LRI: So you told Michael, “Hey, come to L.A. and sleep on my couch?”

Don: "Things were different in Germany back in those days. I said 'Look, there’s this rock scene going on back here in California, if you ever wanna come to America you can crash on my couch and we’ll work together.' So he did, he came over here and crashed on my couch and we worked together buying and selling cars. We’d buy these old cars and have a mechanic work on them and Michael and I would paint them and bang out the dents, which was literally how we were paying my rent because we didn’t have any money. Breaking The Chains had come out in Germany but I didn’t have an American deal. Then we got a chance to do the GREAT WHITE EP, I found them in Orange County in a garage so Michael and I took them into the studio and did their first EP, Out of The Night. It was all kind of this strange chain of events that started. My manager was Cliff Bernstein and they had just signed METALLICA who wanted one of their songs remixed and I said to them 'Why don’t you give Michael Wagener a chance and let him mix a song and see what you think.' He ended up mixing a Metallica song and soon enough people discovered that he was just this super talented guy. Within five years he’s doing OZZY and all of these bands and he just exploded but I always knew he was just an amazing, amazing talent and a great guy."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Don Dokken will embark on a solo acoustic West Coast tour, beginning December 7th in Tempe, AZ at Club Red. Special guest will be former YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, ROYAL HUNT, ULI JON ROTH vocalist Mark Boals. The set list will include many Dokken hits plus a few surprises.

Tour dates:

December

7 - Tempe, AZ - Club Red
8 - TBA
9 - Hermosa Beach, CA - St Rocke
14 - Hollywood, CA - Whisky A Go Go
15 - Las Vegas, NV - Vampd
16 - San Diego, CA - Brick By Brick (with BULLETBOYS' Marc Torien, acoustic)

Rich Davenport's Rock Show features exclusive interviews with Don Dokken and BONRUD. In the first hour, Don talks about the band's new album, Broken Bones, and chooses tracks from the new release, along with classic hits and Don's choice of songs from the band's back catalogue.

In part 2, guitarist Paul Bonrud and vocalist Rick Forsgren of melodic hard rockers Bonrud discuss the band's new release, Save Tomorrow, and the experience of working with famed producer Keith Olsen (SCORPIONS, OZZY OSBOURNE, WHITESNAKE), with two songs from the album.

Plus classic tracks and killer new cuts from LYNYRD SKYNYRD, NEAL SCHON, BOSTON, BLACK SABBATH, PHIL LYNOTT, HEAVEN AND HELL, SOUND STORM, and FLASH BASTARD.

Listen below: