GEORGE LYNCH Says WARREN DEMARTINI Was In DOKKEN “For A Second” – “He Replaced Me When I Went To Do OZZY”
October 11, 2023, a year ago
In a new interview with Greg Prato from ClassicRockHistory.com, George Lynch discussed Lynch Mob’s Babylon album, the ‘80s glam metal scene, and Dokken’s close relationship with Ratt in the ‘80s.
When asked if Dokken’s paths were often crossed with Ratt, Lynch responded that Ratt guitarist Warren Demartini briefly took his place in Dokken when Lynch had his brief stint with Ozzy Osbourne in 1982.
Lynch said:
“Oh yeah, we were extremely incestuous! We actually lived with each other. Bobby Blotzer and I actually shared a room with Don Dokken. Juan Croucier was my bunkmate when we lived in Germany – before the first album, when we were over there for six months. Juan Croucier was our bass player, then we toured quite a while with Juan and did the record, and we replaced Juan’s bass with Peter Baltes from Accept, and then Juan joined Ratt. But we played often.
“And when I did the Ozzy gig, Warren tutored me and helped me learn all the songs. He would come to my apartment every day and hang out or he would come to the music store where I taught guitar lessons, and he would hang out and help me learn how to play these songs for my Ozzy stint. He was in Dokken for a second – because he replaced me when I went to do Ozzy. And when I came back, I was in Ratt. And then we were rehearsing in the same building, so we just met in the hall and were like, “What the hell are we doing here? Why don’t we just go back to our respective bands?” And we did that.
“We all rehearsed in Burbank at this place called Priscilla’s. We rehearsed at a couple of other places in South Bay and so forth. A lot of the Southern California bands practiced there – Quiet Riot, and the who’s who. It was just the convenient place to practice. But that was the epicenter of the scene. A very incestuous kind of thing – members would kind of come and go.”