We caught up with Dokken guitarist and Rock n’ Roll lawyer Jon Levin for this exclusive interview. Levin is one of the hardest working, most driven individuals on the face of the planet. How he balances his rock n’ roll career with his career as an attorney is beyond me. During this interview, Levin discusses the upcoming plans for Dokken, the recent Dokken tour, the “Hell to Pay” CD and much more.

Dokken recently wrapped up the Dokken Winter Tour. Tell me how did that go?
You know it is funny, the tour in terms of how we played. I think it is the best we ever done as a band. All of the shows, when we were healthy, went fantastically well. Unfortunately, we got plagued with some illnesses along the way. Mick Brown got the flu, and then I got it, and Don got it, and we had to lose some shows, but that is just how it goes when you are on a tour bus and someone gets sick, it just spreads.
 
What was your favorite Dokken show this past tour?  
The House of Blues in Anaheim was a really great one. To be honest they were all great, other than the acoustic set we had to do when Mick was sick, and the one we cancelled when Don was sick. As a band we are playing in a whole new level now.
 
Let's talk about the acoustic shows that you played. I recently got to see the VH1 Metal Mania Stripped Tour with Don and it was just awesome. Now did you play acoustic guitar on the acoustic shows on this tour? How did it work out as a band?
 What happened was, well, there was actually two different acoustic shows. The first one was we were playing somewhere in Colorado, I think it was Grand Junction, we knew Mick was sick, and he bravely tried to make it through the set. We got up there and played for about an hour, and then he was really going to pass out, so he had to leave the stage. So, we finished up with a couple of acoustic songs, which were unrehearsed. We just did it for the fans, cause we didn’t want to let anyone down.  The following night, Mick was sick for five days, so the following night we had to push for an all acoustic set, which during that day, we rehearsed and prepared and did what we could with it, and after that unfortunately, Don got sick and we lost the show in Utah.  But that is how really the acoustic shows came about.
 
What a great story.
 You know,  it was so funny, even when we were all well, we had this new version of "Alone Again." It starts with an acoustic guitar, and it was just a really cool arrangement. We do an acoustic thing.  It is really just acoustic guitar and vocals through the end of the first chorus and then the band kicks in and it really builds unbelievably.
 
That is so awesome. "Alone Again" is one of my favorite Dokken tunes. Now Jon you have some exciting news. You recently designed your own Signature Acoustic Guitar called "THE JESTER." Tell the fans about that. How did that come about?   
I actually got an e-mail from a builder in England about a year or so ago. As you know, I am still a Charvel Endorsee.  He really just said, “I would really like to make you a custom guitar.” It was nothing planned to start my own model. It was really a one step at a time thing how it came together, but I co-designed The Jester, with the builder. I told him basically everything I liked and didn't like about guitars, what kind of work I like, the weight of the guitar; every minor little aspect through the course of the year. After owning 60 instruments and playing guitar for so many years now, I realized what I like and I don't like. It took quite awhile. The first one took like four or five months to build. He does it all by hand. I was changing things along the way; it was a work in progress. Now we got the first prototype done. It is going to be a whole series of Jon Levin Guitars, four or five different instruments; The Jester is going to be the first one. It is really a beautiful, handmade instrument.
 
Now did you get to play this one the last tour?   
I played this on the last tour;  on the first five or six shows. I was using it as my main guitar. Unfortunately, my guitar tech, Kevin, had a death in the family and I lost him in the middle of the tour. I had to revert back to doing a lot of my own tech work, cause we didn't have time to get someone else in, and our drum tech started doubling as our guitar tech.  After that I didn’t get to play the guitar as much as I wanted to. Because I had to go into survival mode with just a couple of instruments I know that I usually use. The shows I did get to use it were just unbelievable. I had to work for myself and had the drum tech help me out. Unfortunately, I had experiences where some people tried to steal guitars from me. I didn't want to risk having the prototype stolen off the stage. So I ended up not playing it toward the end as much as I wanted to.
 

The builder that helped you design The Jester, was his name Lazar Gajic?  Can the fans purchase this guitar at www.gajicguitars.com?  
Yeah, you can. If you go to www.GajicGuitars.com , you can e-mail him and order the guitar. That is the best way to do it. Just go to his site and you can order the guitar.
 
Will you be attending NAMM this year? Will you be demonstrating the guitar at the convention?   
I will be going to NAMM. I don't know if I am going to be playing. I generally don't like to play at the booths or that type of situation thing. But I definitely am going.
 
 How is the new Dokken album coming along? When are you going into the studio to finish it?   
Well it is coming along well.  We are working on two albums right now. The studio album is going to be called "Lightning Strikes Again," and I’d say we have nine tracks done for it.  We are gonna do things differently this time.  We are going to get all the music down on demo form, and then when we go into the studio. We are not going to spend a lot of time messing with parts; we are going to blast it out. The demo sounds so sophisticated if I played it for you, you would think it sounds like the record already.
 
Your guitar technique has added  so much to the new Dokken sound.  I was blown away by the fresh new guitar sound on “Hell To Pay."
Well, thank you so much.
 
You and Don are the primary writers right?  
Yeah, Mick writes too, but with the logistics of it, with Mick not living near by, it is easier for Don and I to get together.
   
What kind of sound are you aiming for on "Lightning Strikes Again"? Don says it is going to be heavy like "Tooth and Nail." 
It is so hard to compare.  I thought "Hell To Pay" was a step closer to the older stuff, some of the fans agreed. To me each piece of music is it’s own child. I think it sounds like Dokken, but who knows? There is an old saying, "You try and please everyone and you please no one, so you are best just pleasing yourself."
(Ed note: hmmm…no truer words have ever been spoken, I AM the best at pleasing myself! Heh,heh)
The only thing I can guarantee the fans is that all the songs are heartfelt, and not a bunch of stuff where someone is trying to re-create a past feeling.
 
"Hell To Pay,” I thought it had a real modern sound, and represented the way Dokken is today.  The album was, in my opinion, the strongest album since the early days of Dokken, and shows that the band has still a strong impact on music today.  
Exactly!  I think the next one has taken the next step from that.  Everything is a growing process from one record to the rest. I like "Hell To Pay." I would have liked to see it been more aggressive than it was. Things go as they go. It doesn’t necessarily mean there is not good music on it. It was my first record with Dokken.
 
I can remember seeing you perform in Philly, after the record came out, and you told me "Letters To Home" was the first song you wrote for the record, and you said the writing came so easily. Tell me about that.  You seem to work well with Don.
Thank you so much. We really don't ever struggle with the writing fortunately. I guess every two people have different chemistry.  We work really well. Don will have ideas or I will go over and have these bunch of riffs. I usually just record two or three rough tracks, all by myself, and give it to Don. Basically, he has got to feel inspired by it. He doesn’t even have to tell me that is cool, I  just play it . He generally likes them all, cause I am sure if he didn't like them he would say, “I'm not feeling it.” I leave it up to him and see what he has a feel for, ya know? When he has a lyric or melody, he will just go in there and basically just start messing with lyrics and melodies. He will have some arrangement changing ideas, and then we usually end up re-recording the whole thing. Sometimes that happens two or three times over, keep re-recording a track. On  "Hell To Pay" I think it was "Can You See.” It originally started out as a ballad, and we just re-did it I think three or four times to where it got to where it was. It was no place from where it started. It is just the evolution a song takes all by itself, you know?
 

That is so cool.  Do you think 'Lightning Strikes Again" will be out this year?  
Yeah, it will come out in 2006. 
 
Will be out on Sanctuary or you don't know yet?   
That is too soon to tell. There has been some issues there. I am sure everyone knows what is going on with them. It is coming out one way or another; if it is with them, great.
 
How would you describe your guitar style? It sounds really modern, yet  I can hear some 80' s influences also. 
I am a combination of my influences. That is really what everyone is. From having influences then you become yourself. My early influences, well, my first one was Ace Frehley. There was Kiss, Eric Clapton, The Who. As far as guitar players, obviously Eddie Van Halen was the biggest influence on me. I don’t sound anything like him, but he was the biggest influence on me.  
  
Now were you a  musician before you became a  lawyer ? 
Yeah, I played guitar in Warlock. That was my first professional band in the late eighties. I have been playing guitar most of my life. I have been a musician since I was two. I started playing piano, and I went through different instruments ‘til I finally got the guitar when I was nine. I have been doing this for a long time. I never really had that many formal lessons. It was just like, I had my influences; of course I loved Randy Rhodes, Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteem. A combination of listening to things and you become who you are.
 
Since you are a lawyer, what valuable lessons have you learned from being a lawyer? Did it make you approach music differently? Does it have an affect your performing? 
Not from a creative prospective it doesn't. What is in my heart more than anything is the music pposed to the business. The reason I really went to law school, I was in the band Warlock, and I was in a few other bands, and then the Seattle thing started coming in. I was a lead guitar player and there really wasn't any leads going on in that genre of music. At that point I felt, you know what, there is nothing for me here. I figured I would finish my education and do something else, and sure enough it came back to help me. I really know the business inside and out. I try not to get involved in it blocking my creativity or anything like that. It is just two separate things. Jon the lawyer, and Jon the guitar player.
 
That is so cool. Were you a big fan of Dokken back in the early days?   
Dokken was my favorite band as a kid.  I met them, actually, when I had Jeff Pilson as a client early on in my law practice. I did some legal work for him. I didn't even know Dokken was still together at that time. This was around ‘98. I got a call one night from Jeff, he left a message on my office answering machine saying he needed a guitar player that night to do some solos. I thought it was going to be some of his solo projects. I had no idea it was for Dokken.  Had I known it was for Dokken I certainly would not have gone, cause I hadn't played guitar back then for five years. My Dad was actually the one who pushed me into it. I went down there and sure enough Don and Mick were there. I still had my suit on, cause I was in court earlier that day, which was pretty funny. Don just handed me his Les Paul and said, “here play solos on these three songs.” Don, at the time, owed a recording studio down in Redondo Beach. So that is where I went and recorded those things. One of those songs was song called “Dancin, The Irish Song”, which ended up on a Japanese import I think. Actually, that is me doing the solo on it. I don't know if I was credited, but that was me. From there, Jeff called me again a couple of weeks later, and they had a show at the StarPlex in Dallas, and they needed a guitar player. I went ahead and did it, and at that point I hadn't been onstage for six or seven years. I hadn't played guitar five of those years. That was ‘98.
 
Since your early days with Warlock, how has the music scene changed since the 80's? What are some of the similarities and differences between then and now?  
For one thing the fans aged! (Laughter!)  We all got a little bit older.
 
But I noticed you have some new fans now too!   
Every once in awhile, I see a 16-year old kid down in the front, and I am thinking, “Man, I guess their parents grew up and the kid's got the influence from the parents, now we have a new younger audience.”
 
That is so great. Now do you have any Rock and Roll Predictions for 2006? Do you see a trend towards the old school metal coming back? 
I don't think it is ever going to go back as it was.  But I think what is gonna happen is I predict there is going to be some kid who comes up, who becomes a great guitar player. The whole guitar soloing thing is going to start kicking in again. Really, a lot of these bands, I am not knocking their music or their song prospective, but there are very few of these kids that can actually play. I think they learn two or three songs, a couple of chords, and that is really all they do. The society has accepted that and gotten use to that. I think like anything else, that has had it's time and it is going back to actually learning the craft on your instrument, as opposed to just getting by. Once that starts happening, I think that will bring even a bigger revival of bands that actually had songs to play.
 
I can see that happening.  
Yeah, that is what my prediction is.  
 

Do you have any favorite bands of today? Any favorite albums of 2005? 
You know I actually gravitate towards songs as opposed to bands. There is a couple of songs on the Evanesence album I really like. I think the girl is a fantastic singer. I am huge fan of Nuno Bettencourt.  I think he is just not an unbelievable guitar player but an overall musician, writer, performer, producer.  I love his guitar work.  He's got a new band called Population One.
 
 Yeah, Nuno is very talented... I think that 2006 is going to be a great year for Dokken. I think you are going to bring in new fans, and you have a long career ahead of you.  
Thank you very much. I think this is the best we ever played, like I said earlier. The last tour, night after night, we were just playing. I don't know what came over us. We all felt that way. We were all like getting off stage, and ya know and playing at a whole new to level that we never done as a band before. We are all really, really excited about it.  The reason I respect Don so much, what Don does, and what Don writes is very genuine. He doesn't jump on any trend. He only writes from his heart and things that are real. There is nothing contrived about it. For the same reason, it is perhaps why this doesn’t sound like the old Dokken, why it doesn’t sound like this record? You can't have creativity and try and do it the same way every time.  The music that you wrote is a moment in time. That is really what it is; it is a moment in time. It is something we wrote about at the time, and I played a solo on. That moment, for whatever reason, is why it came out. To keep re-creating that, you really can't do it. What am I suppose to do, go back and rip myself off? Or are we supposed to go back and listen to an old record, and say, “let's do something like this.” That would not be genuine. To me that wouldn't be what it is really all about.
 
What was your favorite song off of "Hell To Pay"?  
I think I like," I Surrender" the best.  I go through phrases. If you would have asked me that when the record was first done, I probably would have said "The Last Goodbye." Now, looking back at it, when I put it on I gravitate towards different things at this point.
 
 Will Dokken be playing any European Festivals this year? 
Here is the tentative schedule that I have for what we have coming up so far. We are going to South America next month and after that we have plans to go to Japan, and Korea in April. After that we plan on doing a large U.S. tour starting in May.
 
Hopefully you will be coming to Boston, and the East Coast this time around. 
I don't want to say who this tour is with, but if we do, we will do every major venue in this country.  It is going to be a big tour.
 
I really hope Dokken plays an arena tour this summer. It will be so awesome to see Dokken perform on a big stage again. 
Yeah, I mean that is what we are hoping for. With a little luck, that is what could happen. 
 
Is their anything else that you would like to say to your fans here at Glam-Metal? 
I want to thank them for all of their support. Obviously, without the fans, there is nothing. They are the lifeline that keeps this band going.  They are really the reason we continue and are able to do this. I want to wish them a very happy and great 2006. 
 
Thank you so much, Jon, for doing this interview with me for Glam-Metal. The staff here strongly supports Dokken, and we will see you this summer.  Also, best of luck with your new guitar endorsement, “The Jester.” 
Thank you so much. 

www.jonlevin.com