On the November 8th, 2014 edition of The Classic Metal Show, Dokken vocalist Don Dokken announced that vocalist/bassist Mark Boals (Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Ted Nugent) has been named as the new bassist of Dokken. Fan-filmed video of the duo recently performing at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA supporting Michael Schenker can be viewed below.

During the conversation on The Classic Metal Show, Dokken explained how Boals came into the band, as well as the factors that led to his decision to replace former bassist Sean McNabb (Great White, Quiet Riot, Sons Of Anarchy). The statement can be heard below:

The conversation reads s follows:

Don Dokken: “Sean (McNabb) is doing acting and solo projects and other bands.  Sean's a very motivated guy and has got a lot of stuff going on, but I need a bass player that wants to be in Dokken...not to be in Dokken to promote himself, if you understand.  There was a time when I asked him to turn down because he was crushing everybody on stage with the bass volume. I went over and asked him to turn down. He didn't. So I went over and turned the amp down. He walked back to the amp and turned it back up. Now, you don't do that in Dokken. You don't do that in any band. If you do that in Whitesnake or Priest or anybody...if you do that as a hired gun and you go up and the lead singer tells you to turn it down, and he turns you down and you go back and turn it back up, you'd be on a bus taking a slow Greyhound home. So that was kind of the last straw for that. I understand. Like Sean said, he was promoting himself. I said, "well, this is called Dokken, not McNabb". Sean's a great guy. I love him to pieces. He's a good guy. We had five or six that we played together. It was great.”

“But I really felt that in Dokken, we were missing what we're famous for. That's the harmonies. It's hard to replace Jeff Pilson. Jeff Pilson - he plays with a pick, which I like. I don't like people that play with their fingers. It's not the same. I like Peter Baltes type bass players who play with a pick, and Sean doesn't. So it didn't have a lot of ‘attack’. I needed a really killer singer that was as accomplished as Jeff Pilson. He was sorely missed, you know.

“So I meet Mark Boals, who's played with Ted Nugent. He did four albums with Yngwie Malmsteen and he's a great lead singer. I didn't really ask him if he wanted to play in Dokken because I figured that he's a lead singer and that's what he does. So we had a gig a couple of months ago, and he was doing those acoustic gigs with me, and he said, ‘I play bass.’ So I said, ‘let's play a show together and see how it goes.’ So I rehearse with Mark on vocals and Mike and me, and it sounded amazing. As you see on the internet, people go, ‘I saw Dokken and the harmonies were awesome.’ So I said, ‘do you want to be the bass player?’ He said, ‘Yep’, and I said, ‘OK, you're in.’”

“So that's it. It wasn't like Sean was fired or anything. It's just that Sean's got his solo stuff going on. I think he was doing some stuff with Sons Of Anarchy, and he's got other projects going on and other groups he plays in. I just thought...I need a bass player to say what I need to hear, and that was, ‘I just want to be in Dokken". That's what Mark said. "I'm not trying to promote myself. I'm happy not to be the lead singer. I'm happy to back you up, and if you can't hit all those high notes you used to when you were young, I can take care of that.’ So, it's awesome, and he's a super nice guy.”  

The Classic Metal Show is heard Saturdays from 9pm to 3am EST at Theclassicmetalshow.com.

Joe Schaeffer Photography released footage of Don Dokken and Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio Disciples) performing Dokken's "In My Dreams" at the Huntington Beach Food, Art & Music Festival in Huntington Beach, California on September 7th.