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Glam-metal.com is pleased to announce that Barry Sparks of Dokken will be doing a special tour diary of Dokken's world tour 2004 just for this site. Dokken is hitting the road in support of their new album "Hell To Pay" on Sanctuary Records, being released on July 13. Barry Sparks is one of rock's most respected bass players. In the past, Barry has toured with Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Schenker, Ted Nugent, The B'Z and Dokken.
2003 was an exciting year for Barry Sparks. He toured the world extensively with Dokken, in Feb-March on the Scorpions/Whitesnake/Dokken bill and in the summer of 2003, he played with Ted Nugent on the ZZ Top/Ted Nugent tour. During that tour Barry got to play with his idols Kiss/Aerosmith when Ted Nugent played in his home town of Detroit. During the winter of 2003, Barry played with the BZ in Japan. They are the biggest Japanese band in the world.
2004 promises to be an exciting year for Barry Sparks. Although Barry was in Japan when "Hell To Pay" was being recorded, he managed to write one song "Can't Bring Me Down" for the CD. The song is very heavy and reminiscent of "Tooth and Nail." Barry Sparks has also released his new solo CD "Don’t Look Back." Sparks says,” I am most proud of this album, more so than anything else that I have ever done. It has all of my influences on it. “Barry dedicates his new CD to his father, the late Butch Sparks, who was a big influence in his career.
When I asked Barry to do this tour diary with me, Barry says, "I would love to, it will be a lot of fun." Here is your chance to sit and back and enjoy the Dokken tour first hand with my good friend and talented bass player Barry Sparks. For exclusive tour dates stay tuned to Glam-metal.com and www.dokken.net
Updated July 28
howdy from jacksonville florida, i have been so busy lately i have to catch up on quite a few days! ok, i am gonna start with allentown.........its a bit fuzzy but i remember having a great show then signing autographs at the meet and greet then suddenly a fight broke out, next i see our lighting guy , with his whole face covered in blood!!!!! then i see our drum tech being held back...apparently this had been building up for some time, our lighting guy was struck over the head with a floor tom leg!, that must have hurt!! to make a long story short, our lighting guy passed out and was taken to the emergency room then our drum tech spent a night in jail, thankfully our lighting guy was ok, and we headed off to the next town about 7 in the morning without a drum tech. geez what a weird night! .........ok i will have more soon!
updated July 8
well, sorry but I have missed a few days I think? Its all a blur, we have had kinda a rough week, shows like columbus and a few others, well, just were not that great. Its not that the band played bad, its just when there is a crappy sound system and things are not up to par, well, it just kinda sucks, but we made the most of it anyway! And last night we had to deal with Kiss and Poison playing down the street, so light ticket sales last night, its ok though, we had a good gig actually, Skid row and Jackyl were there and I think everyone there didn’t mind missing Kiss!
Grand rapids, July 5th, who goes to a concert a day after July 4th? The answer is.......nobody!! Well, we were a bit bummed today, thinking how lame the night would be, very light ticket sales, well, this crowd of maybe 100 made more noise than some crowds 5 times the size! Very bizzare, but we enjoyed it, it turned a bummer night into something pretty cool! Now I am in my bunk driving towards new york, 12 more hours to go! Yipppeeeeee, I am looking forward to some of the bigger shows coming up, by the way, I just picked up the new Scorpions cd! It sounds amazing, I am so proud to be on a few tunes! Ok, be back later!
July 6th, ok I am still driving, ugh, how much longer can it be? At least we had a bit of excitement today.....someone on our bus, who will remain nameless decided to moon a car passing by, it was funny at the tme, but it was even funnier when two cops pulled the bus over and slapped the mooner with a 200 dollar fine! Hahaha! Those are some expensive buns, it was just a butt? Geez some people get so uptight. Oh well, it was an event for an otherwise uneventful day!
July 7th, poughkeepsie NY
last night was louder than all hell! Or I was told I was! Oops......I cant help it, us bass players are all guilty of playing way too loud! But I loved it, the show was kinda small and we were kinda bummmed that day, but man sometimes these little crowds really give us a good time, so I give the show a 7 out of 10, from my point at least.
I am now in baltimore at a holiday inn, I look like hell and feel kinda like a zombie in search of food, there are like 12 people coming in and out of the room, so I guess I will spend my time down by the pool most of the day. So to sum up this week, what can I say.......hmmmmm I feel a bit battered, a bit beat up, it gets rough out here, most people don’t know how rough it is! But I love playing music and this is whatcha gotta do!! Ok, mick jon and I and are hunt for lunch bye bye!!!!!!!!!!1
Updated 6/30/04
“HOWDY FROM OKLAHOMA” Its June 16th? I am not quite sure?, all I know is that I have been on a tour bus for days and days now, we on our way to Burlington Iowa for the first show, 1600 miles from Los Angeles with nothing to do but watch Wild Mick play “Rally Sport” on the X box, thank god for that!, “hey I thought this was supposed to be a wild crazy life? I just cant wait for the shows to start, this driving and driving with no reward is starting to take its toll on me. Oh well, “I’ll get by with a little help from my friends”
June 17th. Here I am in Iowa, we made it! I checked into my hotel room about 5 this morning, I woke up around 1 30 pm, then the search for food begins......after a long walk around this exciting town, hmm? It looks like A & W is the best I can do, After a nice lunch, there is only one thing left to do, The hot tub!! my fave thing in the world, plus it’s a good time for me to sit, ponder my silly existence and mentally prepare myself for an “all out rock “n” roll assault on the poor innocent victims of this town! Ahh life is good, again, at last! All of the struggling the last few days is about to pay off. Its always nice to get the first gig out of the way, they are either really good, or really bad, either way a good time will be had and I should have a few nice blisters on my picking fingers, as always, after a break my calluses kinda go away and its time to build them up again. Ok, for the next hour or so I will be in my hotel room warming up the voice and annoying any neighbors I might have. La la la la la la la!!!!!!!!!!!
June 18th.....
Here I am , In Fargo, hmmmm how cool is Fargo? Its not so bad huh?, tonight was our 2 nd show, ok, tonight we are “that” much better! But also tonight, I got my first blood blister from the tour! Wah wah wah, yep, I Am afraid so...... I must of hit the bass too hard tonight, coz my bass fingers are looking kinda bloody? Rock N Roll hurts! Other than that, I think the band is sounding better than ever! As usual, we are still trying to fix all of the little probs. Technical probs, then we will be tight for sure!
June 19th,
I feel a bit beat up today, rough night and rough driving 750 miles last night. Tonights gig is kinda a bar gig, its ok, but I don’t think the sound will be very good tonight, the best we can hope for is loud, not necessarily good loud. We also worked up a new song finally, “Escape” tonight would be a good night to try it out. No hot tub in this hotel!! I have got big problems today. Ok I am going to get some air.
June 20th
today is my Birthday! I am an old geezer! 36, oh well, whatcha gonna do? I guess the best thing this birthday is, well, playing a gig on my birthday is pretty cool, but also playing a good gig is even better! tonight just rocked! sound was good and i just felt like we reallly played good tonight, maybe it was my mood?
ok, i am a few days behind i see, but until then, stay tuned!!!!!!!
Barry Sparks
Updated June 15
Hello and welcome to the “Dokken” 2004 “Hell To Pay” Tour diary. I am now on a flight from Tucson to Los Angeles to have a day of rehearsal then we hop on the tour bus and do it all over again. This summer its L.A Guns, good friends of ours, I love those guys! And also Jackyl is joining us this time around. I am looking forward to a summer of lots of loud Rock N Roll and good times. Out of all of the bands I have been in, Dokken is the one I feel most at home with. There is a good brotherly feeling of “Let’s go fight the good fight” every time we get onstage. You know that feeling of “Lets go kill em all” aaah what a good feeling! That “rush” is one of the reasons I do this year after year and it’s the very feeling I believe keeps musicians like us young, well young at heart at least! Ok well, I hope my tour diary will entertain you and give you a little insight on what its like for us “On the road again” Also I got to give my new solo CD “Can’t Look Back” a shameless plug, go to www.barrysparks.com and order your copy and also enter the autographed Carvin electric guitar giveaway! Ok god bless ya ‘all!
Barry Sparks
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