This month on cover stars, we turn the clock back to November 1990, when Guitar World featured Jennifer Batten, Nuno Bettencourt, "Rare Clapton" and the irrepressible Yngwie Malmsteen. But it's the cover star we want to speak to, George Lynch, and we want to get the story behind the custom ESP electric guitar he has on the cover.

Where did you get this guitar?

ESP and I collaborated on the Haji guitar around 1990. The graphic was designed by artist John Taylor Dismukes, who did a lot of famous album-cover artwork for the Grateful Dead and other big bands at the time [including Steppenwolf, Foreigner, Y&T and more.]

Did you modify the Haji?

I installed an onboard Sustainiac pickup at one point and then removed it. I’ve also swapped the pickups out on it numerous times.

Did this guitar coax anything special out of you? Why was it perfect for you?

The first Haji had a mahogany body, so it’s a warm, dark-sounding guitar. The neck was my usual 45 mm 16-inch radius with what I called and modified UC profile with extra jumbo nickel frets. It had a real rosewood fretboard as well.

It’s probably my favorite neck of all time! It’s very, very comfortable and inspiring to play.

Did you use the Haji on any notable recordings or tours?

I’ve used it on so many records and tours. I honestly can’t remember exactly when, where and on what albums, but it’s been in my arsenal for decades. I’ve used it throughout my entire career.

Why did you choose this guitar for your GW cover shoot?

That cover shoot was done to promote Lynch Mob’s Wicked Sensation album [1990], which had the same artwork as the guitar – so it made sense to play that guitar for the shoot.

Do you still have this guitar? If not, what became of it?

I do, but I really don’t take it out because it’s valuable and I’d hate for something to happen to it.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

A typical show by Cali hardcore crew DRAIN plays out like a greatest hits of early ’90s metal music videos, with bodies flying off the stage into a circle pit churning with moshers and slam dancers.

But while the crushing tones coming from Cody Chavez’s stable of Jackson guitars may fit the time when hardcore punk and thrash first met, he isn’t stuck in a bygone era – or even the genre itself. In fact, the rhythmically-inclined riffer, who started out playing drums, was a hip-hop head before discovering Kiss.

“I remember seeing Ace Frehley bending backwards doing a solo, and I was just like, ‘Whoa!’” Chavez says. “That’s when it clicked with me. I was like, ‘I wanna be a rock guy now!’”

On DRAIN’s latest album, …IS YOUR FRIEND, his metronomic instincts shine – a rock-solid picking hand maintains a tightly wound, militaristic chug on songs such as Nights Like These, evoking comparisons to all-timers like James Hetfield, who he’s long respected.

“I watched videos of James playing during the …And Justice For All era and I just mimicked that,” Chavez recalls. “I feel like it kind of hindered me at first, because I’d downpick everything, and obviously you can only go so fast. But over the years I’ve found a balance between alternate picking and downpicking.”

He puts that into action on Darkest Days, which builds from a stomping groove into a full-on thrasher. “I was thinking, ‘What would 19, 20-year-old Cody mosh to?’ I’m sitting with my eyes closed, imagining myself in a VFW hall or something, and I just imagined that beat and riff.”

The squeals, screams and dive-bombing licks throughout the 10-song record channel his inner Ace, not to mention Dimebag Darrell. Armed with his white Jackson MJ Series Dinky – he used a Jackson Virtuoso on the riffs – plus Peavey Butcher and Diezel amps, Chavez has all his tricks on display.

The new album distills everything people love about DRAIN, but there’s progression in the songwriting and playing. What was the feeling as you were working on it?

We really threw all our personalities and influences into a melting pot. Not that we haven't been down for that before, but I feel like we really honed in on it this time. And I feel like we’re a lot more mature now.

When we wrote California Cursed [2020], me and Sammy Ciaramitaro were like 20 and Tim Flegal was a little older. Now we’ve been a band for a while – we’ve been on so many tours in vans and buses together. I view this as a more mature body of work.

Your riffs recall elements of crossover thrash and skate punk, but you’re pulling from a broader slate of influences. What else inspires you on guitar?

Life experiences in general, like seeing what Mike Shaw does in Mindforce and what Dennis Vichidvongsa does in Speed. I’ve been listening to a lot of Kiss since Ace passed, going down memory lane.

On DRAIN’s earlier songs you shied away from solos, but they've become more integrated now. Are you shaking off some hardcore purism?

I wouldn’t say that. When I was a kid I’d see guitarists soloing and think, “I could never do that – I’m just gonna stick to playing rhythm.” But in reality, if you practice hard enough you can play like that. I’ve surprised myself over the years by how much I’ve improved in that area. I’m pretty excited to get more of that in these new songs.

Who are your biggest lead inspirations? There’s Dime and Zakk in all the pinch harmonics.

I love Dime and I love Zakk Wylde, especially the stuff he did with Ozzy. And I love a lot of the early Black Label Society stuff. But my favorite guitarist of all time is Dimebag for sure. When I got into Pantera as a kid, he really stood out to me.

I love Regular People off Vulgar Display of Power. My favorite album is Cowboys From Hell – Heresy is undeniable. It starts off with the harmonics and as a kid I was like, “What even is that?” It was all the little stuff that was different from your average thrash or hardcore band. It had so much character.

And then obviously The Art of Shredding is such an incredible riff. But for my favorite solo I’d probably say Live in a Hole from Vulgar – the way it goes into the groove part first is so cool.

What goes into composing a solo for DRAIN?

For this album, we’d have the demos on our phones, then I’d come back home after practice and play them over a little JBL speaker and sit there with my guitar. I’d have an idea of what I want but then I’d think, “I could switch this part up.” It’s about sitting there and figuring out what works best and what sounds the best to my ears.

The solo on Who’s Having Fun matches the vocal melody; I like little stuff like that. My goal on Until Next Time was to sound like Dokken – a glam-metal sound, but something hardcore kids can still dance to.

So for the solo, I don’t wanna say I stole, but I was inspired by George Lynch on the Dokken song Into the Fire. You can hear there are some similar notes, but it’s more the way he plays. I took that energy for our song.

• …IS YOUR FRIEND is out now.

Lynch Mob were supposed to be done and dusted after 2023’s Babylon and the ensuing Last Ride tour. Why did that change?

“I don’t make good decisions!” George Lynch laughs. “I can play guitar okay and write a couple of good songs when I need to – but other than that, you don’t want me running your 401k. Let’s put it that way!”

He’s back on the road with yet another incarnation of Lynch Mob, supporting 2025’s Dancing With the Devil. He says he’s happy with around half of the album but that “some of it missed the mark.”

Which means he’s still chasing his magnum opus to bookend his work with Dokken and Lynch Mob.

“I don’t look at any of it as a disappointment,” he insists. “I’ve played with all these wonderful people. Now I don’t try to make a square peg fit into a round hole, and I try not to make bad decisions. I have people to help me with that, so things have been a lot smoother!”

The guitarist also accepts that his solo band name might be tied to him forever – and he can live with that.

“We’re not down in the mines, dying of the black lung; we’re playing music,” he says. “I was raised with a rigid work ethic and that will always be a part of me.

“I try to align that with what I do and not feel too guilty about just playing guitar instead of actually working! All the people who come to see us have real jobs. I try and respect that.”

The new Lynch Mob album, Dancing with the Devil, surprised people who thought the band was over. Why did you change your mind?

I announced we were disbanding, and we called the tour The Final Ride, said our goodbyes, and shed a few tears. Then, like three weeks later, we got back together and did an album. The whole thing was to get free publicity!

Really?

“Lynch mob” is a touchy subject; the optics are terrible. I tried a couple of times to change the name, but it didn’t stick. I love the band, the music, and playing with my friends; but the connotations of the name are too dark and heavy.

I made a critical mistake 35 years ago and I try to walk away from it – but I end up coming back. I’m a bad businessman!

But you’ve made plenty of good music. Maybe your style of decision-making is part of the charm of the George Lynch experience?

That’s one way that you could spin it! My wife wouldn’t agree with you. I need you to talk to her, dude – explain that it can be viewed that way, like it’s charm. We’ll think of it as charm!

When did you realize that you wanted to make another Lynch Mob record?

When people offered me more money to play more shows! It worked out that it’s a negotiating point. Saying I’m done was like a game of chicken, you know? It was like, ‘What does it take to get you back?’

But seriously – just because you hit a certain number of years doesn’t mean you’re gonna feel like you want to be semi-retired. I absolutely don’t feel that way. So there was really no reason not to do a record.

You’ve had a volatile ride since the debut album, Wicked Sensation. What was your intent back then?

To create my dream band as best I could with what I had available to me. I thought the original concept of the band with the original members would be a lasting thing that people could depend on. But that didn’t happen, obviously.

We have this long history, but it’s very fragmented and punctuated by the revolving door of musicians who have come and gone. I joke that it’s almost like a rite of passage to come through Lynch Mob and do your time – like a boot camp!

Was there a battle to keep things fresh versus keeping with the early Lynch Mob sound?

I don’t think of it as keeping it fresh as much as continuing to chase that ideal dragon – trying to grab that perfect riff, song, groove, and solo that gives you goosebumps and takes you over the top.

That’s the soundtrack going through my brain since I was a kid. I’ve never captured it; never put that genie in a bottle. I think I get close, which makes me more frustrated. I hear other bands do it, at least from my perspective; I’m like, “Holy crap, this is life-changing!”

Maybe the closest I’ve gotten is Wicked Sensation, or maybe some of the Dokken stuff was flirting in that area. I don’t know; I think I’ve captured lightning in a bottle for a few moments, but not consistently. That’s what drives me.

Even Eddie Van Halen didn’t capture the same magic on, say, Van Halen III, that he did on the debut. Maybe you’re being a bit hard on yourself.

It’s not even a requirement to get there – I could just skate along, which I do sometimes, and do what comes naturally. But I feel at this point in my life that I could do better; I have an obligation or a desire to do one more record, or even one more song that’s a magnum opus.

What does that sound like in your mind?

It’s that one thing that defines you: the one thing you feel you’ve been designed to achieve your whole life. And it’s okay if you don’t get there, but you feel compelled to try. The main reason that I haven’t gotten there is that I haven’t gotten my Band of Gypsys yet – and I think I’m inherently lazy.

I don’t know about that. Your output is pretty frenzied.

If you were with me in the studio, I think you’d see what I mean. Maybe “lazy” isn’t the right word. I’ll show up and I’ll work 10 hours. But it’s reaching that next level, like a Boston record – that’s a good example.

Would you rather have followed Tom Scholz’s example, making just a few records of “perfect” songs rather than an extensive catalog?

It’s not the amount of music, it’s the quality, and having really high standards. I’m lazy about micro-focusing, managing every aspect of the songs and the messaging, until everything is absolutely right.

I don’t offer myself that kind of luxury, though I did on Wicked Sensation. I spent a lot of time and money, gave it a lot of attention, and did things over and over again until they were right. That’s the only time I’ve ever done that.

Have you been unable to do that because Lynch Mob’s lineup has been so volatile?

The foundation of that record was the members, and the key member is Oni Logan. I’m a singer guy; in my head I’m writing for singers. I’m just a frustrated singer, really! When you lose that key member it changes the chemistry. It’s just been a discombobulated ride ever since.

Do you think the Wicked Sensation lineup might have made that magnum opus?

It would have had a much better chance. The second record would have been the correct follow-up to the first – bluesy and greasy, with the same vibe – if it had been Oni. But we decided to completely shift gears, which was a terrible idea.

But God bless Robert Mason! He’s one of the greatest rock singers in history. But he’s so different from Oni, and it was a very wrong decision to replace him with a guy like that because it confused people. It’s like, “Coke changed their recipe again, godammit!”

But I don’t think the odds were good for any version of the band existing for long. There were behavioral reasons and things like that, and personalities were also contributing factors.

How do you view the future of Lynch Mob?

As we get older, health changes, and there’s life challenges. But if it defines who you are, what else are you gonna do? My wife has told me, “I see from the outside that you can’t stop. This is who you are, this is what you do.”

I don’t like traveling or leaving home. I don’t like going out and getting exposed to getting sick or getting hurt. But I love it when I’m there with my friends, kicking ass on stage and having a blast. That’s what life is for us – that’s the payoff.

If I were going out there and nobody was showing up, I’d be done. But that’s not what it is. I’ve been blessed with playing with wonderful guys that I love.

How do you view your status as a player?

I feel like I’m on the edge of either resting on my laurels or breaking through and doing something a bit transcendent. Not from an ego standpoint, but from a human accomplishment standpoint. I’m getting a bit older here but I still have my chops.

I don’t wanna start getting into a rut. I wanna break through, but in the right way. I want it to be something that defines me, and is the bookend. We did Lynch Mob and those great Dokken records; now, we need something to kind of cap it and make a huge statement.

If you find your Band of Gypsys, would you stop?

Let me get to that point and we’ll have that discussion. But my initial thought is that I could kind of exhale; decompress a little, go back to my roots and lay blues.

Maybe play with some friends locally, play mountain music or country blues or experimental – whatever comes to mind. But do something more personal, more introspective than just the big, loud rock thing, which I’ve done for decades.

Maybe it’ll be time to shift gears once I feel I’ve accomplished the other thing.

• Dancing With the Devil is released on November 28 via Frontiers Music.

George Lynch is sorry not sorry for the fake-out. The Final Ride, Lynch Mob’s one last tour before disappearing across the horizon, the band to be scuttled, was not quite to be. He’s back. Lynch Mob have returned, and they’ve got an all-new studio album, Dancing With the Devil.

The question is why? Why call it quits, announce the end, celebrate 35 years of his post-Dokken career, then come back, hit the studio, and go again?

“The whole thing was to get free publicity,” he jokes, in a new interview with Guitar World. “I mean, we’re talking about it right now! It gets people talking about Lynch Mob, but I mean… nobody wants to talk about Lynch Mob.”

He’s not wrong. It does get people talking about Lynch Mob, and this he says has been the problem with the band since the beginning.

The name, Lynch Mob, is unfortunate. In 2020, he said he wouldn’t perform under the band’s name. If he had his time over again he might have been more aware and called it something else, something better – and he did try, performing under the Electric Freedom banner.

“It’s a touchy subject. The optics are terrible,” he admits. “I tried a couple of times to change the name, but it didn’t stick.”

And thus he was stuck with a project that he loved with a name he couldn’t get rid of. It’s a bind.

“I love the band, the music, and playing with my friends,” he insists. “But the connotations of the name are just too dark and heavy. I made a critical mistake 35 years ago, and I try to walk away from it, but I end up coming back. I don’t get it. I’m a really bad businessman, I’ll tell you that right now. [laughs]”

The same can’t be said for his guitar playing. Time has not diminished Lynch’s abilities with an electric guitar one iota. You think of Lynch’s career, the sliding doors moment when he might have been Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist, and can’t help thinking there’s something yet to be fulfilled. Lynch feels the same.

What keeps him coming back for more – even if Dancing With the Devil is, again, Lynch Mob’s final studio album – is the search for the perfect track. He hasn’t found it yet.

“I don’t think of it as keeping it fresh as much as continuing to chase that ideal dragon. It’s that thing in your head that you’re trying to grab by the tail, you know, that perfect riff, song, groove, and solo that gives you goosebumps and that takes you over the top,” he says.

“That thing that’s in the back of my head is the soundtrack going through my brain since I was a kid. I’ve never captured it… I never put that Genie in a bottle. I think I get close, which makes me more frustrated because I’m like, ‘Man…’ I hear other bands do it, at least from my perspective. I’m like, ‘Holy crap, this is life changing.’”

Lynch says the closest he got was with Dokken, or with Lynch Mob’s 1990 debut studio album, Wicked Sensation.

“I think I’ve captured lightning in the bottle for a few moments, but not really consistently,” he says. “But that’s what drives me.”

Dancing With the Devil is out November 28 via Frontiers. Our full conversation with George Lynch is coming soon to Guitar World.

While many consider the '80s and '90s the golden era of classic rock, the pressures that came with the "rock star" image often meant artists needed to look as sculpted as Ancient Greek statues on stage.

For some, this led to adopting weightlifting – with guitarists like George Lynch aspiring to transform their bodies into bodybuilding physiques à la Arnold Schwarzenegger at Mr. Olympia. However, Lynch recently admitted that these rigorous workout regimes took a toll on his guitar playing.

“I think it obviously made me stronger. So I think that was beneficial to a certain extent,” he tells Ultimate Guitar.

“But also, I was starting to get these really massive cramps in my forearms. Static cramps that wouldn't go away. And I would get them when I'd try to play anything extended. And I had to try to do different things to try to alleviate that.”

Lynch goes on to reveal that all the lifting sometimes made it impossible for him to play. “Any kind of extended solo, my left arm would just cramp up. And my hand would be like a claw. It was frozen. It was really actually kind of scary. And, yeah, not good. I was definitely overdoing it.”

The Dokken and Lynch Mob guitarist has previously shared his struggles with body image during that period, even calling bodybuilding “one of the silliest things I've ever done. I felt so anti-musical” in a 2010 interview with Revolver.

Regarding steroid use, he admitted, “You can’t get these freak bodies or even these admirable-looking physiques without doing some kind of cheating. And you pay the price for all cheating… There’s just no free ride.

“You’re gonna get some great advantages, you’re gonna feel great, you’re gonna look great, it’s gonna be awesome and then you’re gonna pay for it. It’s a Faustian bargain with the devil.”

While Lynch still believes that image is important for contemporary artists, he acknowledges that “sometimes not having an image is an image”.

“We all want to look as best we can, and we do that. But having an image is something that's either kind of innate for a person, at least you're kind of born with that sense of style. I don't think it's anything really acquirable.”

Earlier this year, Lynch teamed up with Michael Sweet on Heart & Sacrifice – the latest in the line of collaborative records under the moniker Sweet & Lynch.

Despite Jon Levin's 20-year presence in Dokken, it’s the ESP-wielding pyrotechnician George Lynch who most often comes to mind when people think of the band. The truth is that Lynch hasn’t been a full-time member of Dokken since ’97.

Although Lynch recently sparked rumors by appearing during the encores of Dokken shows, Jon Levin has been holding things down since 2003. And he’s been so explosive that, if not for those encores, some might not remember Lynch at all. 

You might assume that carrying the torch for Dokken would be uncomfortable – but Levin doesn’t think so: “It’s not been difficult dealing with George Lynch comparisons,” he says. “George is one of my favorite players and earliest influences, so it’s a nice compliment.”

He adds: “The hardest George Lynch-era part for me to play and execute is the solo in Tooth and Nail. It’s a really long solo and a lot to memorize. Fortunately I learned it at a much younger age when my memory was a lot better!”

Asked how he deals with points in the set where Lynch’s licks give him problems, Levin explains: “The way I learn is sequential; in other words, I know the entire solo only as one long sequence. It’s the same with the solos in Dream Warriors and The Hunter.

“If I were to miss one part at any time in any of these solos, I would probably lose the entire remainder from that point on, especially in Tooth and Nail because it’s so fast. I usually play some of those three solos in the dressing room before we go on stage.”

In support of Dokken’s first record in over a decade, Jon Levin dialed in with Guitar World to recount the recording of Heaven Comes Down and the gear he deploys live and in the studio.

You've been with Dokken for around 20 years, right?

“One day in 1998, Jeff Pilson called me and asked if I would play some solos. I was at my father’s house for dinner, and he convinced me to go down and play. I didn’t want to, because I hadn’t played much guitar for years. I had a record label and a law practice.

“I had no idea it was for Dokken – or, frankly, I never would have gone! When I went to the studio, to my surprise, the whole band was there. I was still in a suit and tie from work that day!”

Did you get along with Don Dokken right away?

“I remember Don opened the studio door, handed me a guitar, and told me to play. I played a solo on the demo for what later became Maddest Hatter and on one called Irish Song, released as a bonus track in Japan. A few weeks later, Jeff called and asked if I could play a show at the Dallas Starplex with the band on July 4, 1998, which I did.”

You dealt with some physical issues recently. Did that impact your playing?

“It’s not so much that I suffered an injury – it’s that I was born with extra ribs. They cramp the space in my neck and make things somewhat more difficult for me. I’ve had a few taken out, but I’m hoping to avoid having more taken out if possible.

“That issue came to light right after the Broken Bones record was released. Don was also suffering from his medical problem at the time, so we both had to get ourselves sorted before we were able to move on.”

Dokken’s latest, Heaven Comes Down, is the band's first album in 11 years. How did things kick off?

“it’s the culmination of Don and I collaborating for 20-plus years. It’s everything I would hope to have in a Dokken album. Don’t get me wrong – I like a lot of the other material we did, but this one, for some reason, was lightning in a bottle and just a bit more special. The songs on this album could have been on the albums back in the ‘80s, but they’re not ripoffs of any of those old songs.”

Can you pinpoint why things fell into place this time?

“The songs are unique in themselves. For whatever reason, the stars, sun, and moon aligned for us, and we ended up with a great album. A lot can go wrong during the recording process, and just because you finish a recording and think the tracks sound great doesn’t mean it will be great in the end.

“I wasn’t happy with how Broken Bones ended up, sonically speaking; although it’s a great album, the mastering made it sound unlike it did when Don and I were listening to the recorded tracks.”

With Don unable to play guitar due to his arm injury, does that put more pressure on you?

“It didn’t necessarily, because it was during COVID, and I had so much time to spend in my studio writing. As a result, I wrote a vast amount of material. The overall process was different because Don and I had to write independently.

“In the past, of course, with Don able to play guitar when we collaborated, it would be easier for him to express an idea to me. On this one, I wrote complete musical tracks and sent them to Don, and after the pandemic, Don came to my studio to work.”

Tell us about the guitar you deployed while recording Heaven Comes Down.

“I have always stuck to Fender, Gibson, and Charvel. I have several guitars that I use just for recording as my go-to guitars because they will work for a particular sound I’m looking for.

“My recording guitars are an old Les Gothic Paul from 1990, an old Danelectro 12-string, a stock Fender Stratocaster, my black and white Charvel, and my Palermo Strat.”

And how do you decide between those?

“I use the Danelectro primarily for a clean tone that underpins my rhythm. It usually makes its way onto most of the tracks on the record, so anytime you hear a clean sound, it’s probably my Danelectro. I can get any sound I’m looking for from these instruments, and I rarely need to find something that these can’t collectively do.”

Is your live setup the same?

“For live, I rotate between four or five different Charvel guitars, depending on which one feels best. My touring rig today consists of two Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 heads in stereo that have a stereo delay and stereo chorus. I have a third Marshall head in the middle that’s dry. All heads have my Body Blow gain booster pedal in front of the amp.

“In essence, two cabinets on the outside are in stereo, and the middle cabinet is dry. For the middle head I use a JCM900, so the total rig is two JCM2000s in stereo and one JCM900 dry. All my heads are modified. The JCM900 sounds like no other JCM900 I've ever heard.”

What sets it apart from the pack?

“It sounds much more like a hot-rodded old Plexi. I used that amp to re-record the Lightning Strikes record. That entire record is my JCM900 head with a Marshall cabinet and a Tube Screamer with my tobacco Sunburst Charvel, which has a flame maple top, an ebony fretboard and a poplar body.

“I don’t play that guitar live, because it weighs a ton. When we do fly dates, I use a rented JCM2000 DSL100, and I bring a pedalboard with a Boss chorus, Boss DD-500 delay, and the Body Blow gain boost pedal. I stopped using a Tube Screamer TS9 live because I broke too many.”

What are your goals for Dokken and personally as you move forward?

“To keep playing music, which I hope will inspire people. Music can be a bright spot in what can sometimes be a cold world. I don’t think achieving a final goal as a musician is possible. I keep trying to improve.”

• Heaven Comes Down is out now via Silver Lining Music.

It's a common misconception that Mick Mars was Mötley Crüe's guitarist from day one. But, in truth, it was Greg Leon, along with Tommy Lee, who formed the band. And though he didn't stick around long enough to play an actual show, Leon still holds an important place in the band's history.

"I was in a band called Suite 19," Leon tells Guitar World. "And at some point, this skinny kid who had been a fan started hanging around and bugging me. He showed up at all our gigs, and at some point, he said, 'Hey, I'm a drummer.' Not too long after, our drummer left, and I ran into Tommy again and said, 'Hey, we need a drummer. Do you want to get together and jam?' So we got together and it was great. The kid knew all the songs and fit right in."

Having discovered Lee with Suite 19 was the start of their relationship. But things didn't heat up until Leon's stints with two other L.A.-based outfits – Quiet Riot and Dokken – ended. Once again on the market, Leon summoned Lee to the table to be his drummer in Mötley Crüe. But Lee fell in love with the striking style of Nikki Sixx, while Leon insisted that the glammed-out bassist's chops weren't up to snuff.

"I was looking to put a great band together like Rainbow, Deep Purple or Humble Pie," Leon says. "Nikki Sixx simply was not capable. So I told Tommy, 'If this is the guy you want, I'm leaving.' Nikki was incapable of musically executing what I envisioned. All he was doing was quarter and eighth notes. But Tommy liked him, and they hit it off when they talked.

"So again, I said, 'Look, Tommy, I'm not gonna play with him. Do whatever you want, but I'm not doing it. He's not musical enough for me.'" Leon walked, leaving the door open for Mick Mars to waltz through.

Leon's talent has kept him a darling of his contemporaries, but the large-scale success experienced by Mötley Crüe has eluded him. One can't help but wonder if Leon made the right choice. Regardless, the veteran guitarist remains unbothered, steadfast in his observation that Sixx didn't possess the skill set to execute his vision.

To that end, Leon dialed in with GW to discuss his early interactions with Tommy Lee, the formation of Mötley Crüe, and what he thinks of John 5 replacing Mick Mars in the modern era.

Why did you and Tommy part ways after the end of Suite 19?

"After playing together for a few years and making a name for ourselves around Hollywood, I got an offer to replace Randy Rhoads in Quiet Riot after Randy went off to play with Ozzy [Osbourne]. And, man, I remember Tommy was mad as hell. He and his folks didn't want to see me or talk to me. We went from being good friends to never talking. I was dead to him. So I said, 'Listen, Tommy, let me make a name for myself, and I'll come back and get you once I see this through.'"

What ultimately brought you and Tommy back together?

"[Quiet Riot vocalist] Kevin DuBrow was impossible to work with. And then, before George Lynch came along, Don Dokken kept calling me, asking me if I was interested in joining his band. So I played some European dates with him. But the labels kept telling us they wanted new wave bands and weren't interested in what we were doing. I was tired of labels telling us they weren't interested in Dokken, so I contacted Tommy and put Mötley Crüe together."

When did Nikki Sixx enter the picture?

"We were looking for a bass player, and we went to the Starwood one night, and Nikki's band London was doing their farewell gig. I wasn't impressed with Nikki at all; he was awful. While we were hanging out, I don't know why, but Tommy just loved how Nikki looked. He was gung-ho about him, saying, 'This is the guy we should get.' But I felt we should back off as we'd already auditioned Nikki twice. I said to Tommy, 'He looks great. He's great on stage. But he can't play bass at all.'"

A common misconception is that you gigged with Nikki – but you never played a show with him, right?

"I never played a show with Nikki Sixx. Tommy and I played together many times, but I was gone as soon as Nikki entered the picture. But they couldn't find a guitar player or singer initially, so they kept calling me. But I refused. And then they met Mick [Mars] and Vince [Neil], and they were off and running. The way I saw it was that my guitar playing would get me through; I didn't need a guy like Nikki dragging me down. I had seen London many times, and I knew I wanted none of it."

Did you stay in touch with Tommy?

"Tommy invited me to the studio while recording Theater of Pain. And when I got there, it wasn't Nikki playing bass. I won't mention the guy's name who actually played bass, but it wasn't Nikki. I remember asking the guy, 'Hey, what are you doing here?' And he was like, 'Oh, I'm playing bass on the Mötley Crüe record.' It shocked me, but the producer instigated that as Nikki wasn't up to snuff.

"I didn't know about ghost players then, but it was way more common than people knew. But it would usually get squashed whenever Tommy tried to hang out with me. It was like, 'Why is he here? We don't want you playing with Greg.' I'm not sure what they were afraid of."

I assume you didn't get the call when Mick left Mötley Crüe.

"No, definitely not. I knew it wasn't great between Mick and the guys, but I didn't think it was that bad. Mick is a hell of a nice guy and a great player. I've only met him a few times, but I've always found him to be a total sweetheart. It sucks what happened to him. But even if they did ask me to join, I'd decline. I'm not into all the phony stuff with the tapes and shit."

How do you feel about John 5 playing with Mötley Crüe?

"I don't think John 5 is the right guy. He's not tough enough. There's no aggression in his playing. That band needs a player with attack and fire. John 5 is not that guy.

"I remember jamming with Mick at the studio during the Theater of Pain sessions, and he was having trouble getting his sound. And Tommy said, 'Get Greg in here; he can make anything sound good.' So, I went over, messed with Mick's amps, and dialed them in. Those guys were jumping for joy to the point of hugging me and screaming, 'Nobody touch those controls!' Then they went and got a magic marker and marked where all my settings were. So, yeah, I'd be an excellent fit for Mötley Crüe because I get the sound. John 5 doesn't, but whatever…"

George Lynch has offered fans a rare opportunity to go behind the curtain and see what really goes on when he’s making a record, with Rat Pack Records posting a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Lynch’s instrumental solo album, Guitars at the End of the World, on YouTube.

Lynch is hardly an unknown quantity. He needs little introduction around these parts. This is one of the O.G. electric guitar pioneers to come out of the ‘80s rock scene, the first player to get an ESP signature guitar, and a guy whose tone is 100 percent premium, and technique watertight. 

And yet there’s still an air of mystery about Mr. Scary. It’s not often that we get to see him at work in the studio. Heck, in this age when the DVD is out, social media is in, we tend only to see snippets of studio footage from anyone. And okay, the music documentary of this week has to go to Alex Gibney’s epic Paul Simon biopic, In Restless Dreams…, but this is a real treat, and it follows Lynch as he arrives at Henson Studios in Hollywood, California, to check in with producer Big Chris Flores and get to work.

“This place has got some history, heavy history,” says Lynch as we follow him down the corridor, past the room where John Shanks worked, past the fish tank in the breakout room. 

He’s right. This is a historic location, with A&M’s Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss buying Charlie Chaplin’s studio facility and turning two of the soundstages into a recording studio. Which is where we join Lynch. “Yeeesss, just the smell of this room, right? Smells like home,” says Lynch. “‘Smells like tone!’ That’s a good name for the record.”

It’s soon evident why Lynch is here. There’s everything you need – especially space. Henson, says Lynch, has the best drum room in L.A. Flores agrees.

“This is the room if you want to do live drums,” he says. “Once you’ve got your drums down you can’t do anything bad to the song, and this drum room is one of the best in the world, man.”

This being a Lynch record, you know there’s going to be some tubes cooking in the back of a Marshall amp. He does not disappoint. The guitars are pretty sweet, too, with a 1960 Gibson Les Paul Custom joining Lynch’s ESP Kamikaze – a Superstrat that wears a six-in-line banana headstock like few others can.

Of course, the record is not Smells Like Tone, even if we would legit endorse any future Lynch solo album with such a title. It’s Guitars at the End of the World, only Lynch’s second instrumental solo album in his career, following 2021’s Seamless. 

It finds Lynch joined on drums by the legendary Curt “Kirkee B.” Bisquera (Tom Petty/Elton John), Tony Franklin on bass guitar, with Lynch’s regular sticksman Jimmy D’Anda sitting in for The Crucible. Ahead of the release, Lynch described himself as a “semi-redeemed ‘80s hair shredder”, and promised his audience that he would try to challenge them without taking the arrangements to extreme. In other words, he wasn’t going to overplay.

“I want my instrumental records to be challenging, but not exhausting,” he explained. “Personal, without being belligerently self-indulgent, include a fair amount of guitar histrionics, and pay tribute to the masters without making it sound like I’m competing to be the end-all summation of all guitar legacies that preceded me. I also wanted the underlying music to be more than vehicles for solos, I want the compositions to stand on their own.”

For all Lynch’s position as one of the bona-fide shred pioneers, there is a case to be made that is he, if not underrated, perhaps misunderstood. The Mr. Scary tag might be doing him an injustice. 

His chops are scary. He’s anything but. As this BTS doc shows, he doesn’t take himself too seriously. “I tried really hard to make it weird – don’t tell me it’s 4/4!” he protests to Flores when debating a time signature. “It shows that you’re really smart when you do stuff that’s not 4/4. It’s very European.”

Guitars at the End of the World is out now on Rat Pack Records. You can also find out what is on George Lynch’s pedalboard – because he revealed all to GW back in May.

Hello, and welcome to a new Spotify playlist-embiggened Essential Guitar Tracks. As you may well know, every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Our goal is to give you an overview of the biggest tracks, our editor’s picks and anything you may have missed. We’re pushing horizons and taking you out of your comfort zone – because, as guitarists, that’s something we should all be striving for in our playing. 

So, here are our highlights from the past seven days – now with a Spotify playlist (scroll to the bottom for the latest additions).

Bleed From Within – The Will to Resist

Dear lord, the groove on this monster single – taken from the forthcoming deluxe edition of the Scottish metallers’ 2022 opus Shrine – will make you want to shake your hips, bang your head and bow down before the sheer technical prowess on display in Craig Gowans and Steven Jones’ unfathomably weighty riff. (MAB)

The Joy Formidable – Cut Your Face

The Welsh alt-rock trio's first new tune since 2021 has a chorus for the ages, but never sacrifices power in the name of hooks. Singer/guitarist Ritzy Bryan's riffing provides this song's concrete-like foundation, and – best of all – it's delivered to the ears with terrific tone that evokes James Hetfield at his stadium-rocking, stereo-shaking best. (JM)

Angra – Ride into the Storm

The Brazilian power metal stalwarts open this all-guns-blazing epic with such a pyrotechnic display of electric guitar fireworks, the track could end 60 seconds in and we’d still be satisfied. But what follows is six minutes of relentless palm-muted thrash, with two jaw-dropping solos: Marcelo Barbosa’s Roman candle of fiery tapping, and a harmonized double-picked extravaganza from Rafael Bittencourt. (MAB)

Trevor Rabin – Big Mistakes

Trevor Rabin knows how to write a crowd-pleaser. After all, he was the main driver behind Yes's astounding '80s transformation from prog kings to chart-topping pop stars. Big Mistakes – the lead single from Rabin's first vocal-led solo album in 34 (!) years – shows that those pop (and soloing, for that matter) instincts are still sharp, but how about that gonzo slide work around the song's halfway point? Props to Rabin for not being afraid to sit zaniness right next to sharp professionalism. (JM)

James Bay – Goodbye Never Felt So Bad

For whatever reason, James Bay’s talents as a guitarist are often underappreciated – a crying shame considering he’s capable of some genuinely jaw-dropping fretboard feats when he gets his hands on his Epiphone ‘66 Century. We get a glimpse of that six-string prowess in new single Goodbye Never Felt So Bad – a quintessential Bay bop littered with jangly open-string licks that demonstrate why Bay is one of the best in the biz at assimilating his appreciation for out-and-out guitar music with pop sensibilities. (MO)

Coach Party – Parasite

This breakneck slice of raucous punk from the surely-about-to-break Isle of Wight four-piece proves two things: one, the grunge guitar revival isn’t going anywhere, and two, you can’t go wrong with a minute-and-a-half song. (MAB)

Joe Bonamassa – Lazy Poker Blues

You can listen to Joe Bonamassa's newly-released tip of the cap to Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac anywhere, really, but it's upbeat tempo, barrelhouse piano, and exclamatory phrases and fills (not to mention that solo, so steeped in the classic British blues vocabulary Bonamassa loves) are best heard through the jukebox of the murkiest roadhouse dive you can find. Just don't get into any trouble. (JM)

Ichika – Reflection (featuring Clara Benin)

If all you heard of Reflection was its first four notes, you’d probably immediately recognize the glass-like guitar tone of Ichika Nito, who is back to curate a cascade of ultra-clean rhythm riffs and a characteristic display of soloing prowess – that effort at the 2:24 mark isn’t to be missed. (MO)

Seda – Chronicle Overture

The use of guitar in videogames has been a hot topic ever since Mick Gordon deployed a nine-string to lay waste to the Doom soundtrack. But Strandberg-toting Aussie wunderkind Seda takes a more serene jazz-fusion route to the genre, with new album Chronicle Town seemingly soundtracking a game that doesn’t exist. Displaying enviable chops that recall Frank Gambale and Allan Holdsworth, Seda’s virtuosity knows no bounds – and it also sounds like Plini meets Mario Kart, which is mighty fine by us. (MAB)

Dokken – Fugitive

Don Dokken and co have announced the imminent arrival of their long-awaited 13th studio album, which has been previewed with “up-temper Rokker,” Fugitive. Said to be an observation of the “uncertain world” we live in, Dokken’s return is as high-octane as you’d expect, littered with golden era guitar licks and lashings of gravity-defying scale runs. (MO)

Eliza McLamb – Mythologize Me

We've had our eyes on this LA-based singer/songwriter for awhile now, and new single Mythologize Me might be her finest hour yet. The chorus is all perfectly-written country-pop shine á la Sheryl Crow, but Jacob Blizard adds some tasty grunge guitar bite, especially in that coiling solo. (JM)

Creeper – Teenage Sacrifice

Haunting. Operatic. Anthemic – all the above serve as suitable adjectives to describe the latest effort from UK horror punk collective Creeper. Teenage Sacrifice pays host to some truly hair-raising six-string soundscapes, highlights of which include the plentiful palm-muted gut-punches and a razor sharp, harmonized two-part solo. (MO)

Also on this week’s playlist…

• Cannibal Corpse – Summoned for Sacrifice
• Advertisement – Nobody’s Cop
• Mercy Union – Be Honest
• Whitney – Kansas
• Lonely the Brave – The Lens
• Ratboys – Morning Zoo 
• MJ Lenderman – Knockin'

“I have a small pedalboard that I use for fly-in dates. On that you’ll find a Klon, a second-year Malaysian chip [Ibanez Tube Screamer] TS808, a vintage script logo MXR Phase 90 and a Radial [Tonebone] Vienna Chorus. Luckily, I got the Klon before they went crazy expensive. It’s a beautiful thing to own, almost more for what it is than what it does. 

“I actually use the Tube Screamer more, tightening up my Plexi for heavier rhythms. Say if I’m playing Tooth and Nail, I don’t want a floppy low-end. The TS808 sucks all that up, making it more defined and midrange-y. It probably sounds counterintuitive, but I don’t use my overdrives as much for leads as I do for rhythms. I might kick them in sometimes, like on Mr. Scary, which needs a bit more gain. Usually, I love hearing just the amp.

“On the larger ’board the main pedals include my Analog Man King of Tone, which I use sparingly for anything from that Robben Ford-ish world. It’s very thick-sounding and I run both sides at the same time, so one overdrive cascades into the other.

“There’s a mid-’70s [Electro-Harmonix] Electric Mistress, which was probably my main modulation sound up until the mid-’80s. It sounds very cool, pure ’70s! You can do the Hendrix thing or dial in Frank Marino-ish jet phasers. I actually got into them because it’s what Rick Derringer used in the ’70s. I saw him and had to get one. Pedals like this or the Mu-Tron Octave Divider tend to stay at home. They’re too big, too heavy and too noisy!

“I have a Hughes & Kettner [Tube] Rotosphere, which is built like a tank. There’s a 12AX7 tube in there, so you get that tubey preamp kinda thing. I love the brake on it where you can switch the speed like a real Leslie.

“I have two Fulltone Deja’Vibes. The red one is one of the first ever made, hand-painted when the guy was working out of his mom’s garage. I have the silver one because the red one doesn’t always work. It sounds maybe 10 percent less great. It does, however, work all the time! 

“Other favorites include my Tone Bender fuzz. There were all sorts of variations over the years, each with different circuits. I believe this is a MK1.5 and the same version Jeff Beck used on Truth. There was his Les Paul, this pedal and a ’60s AC30 that was in the studio. That was the tone for the entire album… wow! It doesn’t sound like that when I play through it! 

“The [EHX] Bass Microsynth is like a cross between the Mu-Tron and a Moog, with more variables like filter sweeps and voice mixes. It sounds massive, especially for Rage Against the Machine single-note riffs. Like a lot of the old EHX stuff, it works great but can be a one-trick pony. Other pedals I might use include a Jimi Hendrix Octavio, a Vox wah, a Univibe and a [Dunlop] Fuzz Face.”

If I had to choose only one pedal for a full show...

“Right now I’m using a Boss DD-500 for delay. I like it because it’s rock solid and has
a lot of classic sounds, including a Roland SDE-3000 preset, which is so good that,
in the heat of the moment, I honestly can’t hear or feel any difference.”

• Machine and Bone is out now via Frontiers Music.

George Lynch’s name is synonymous with rock guitar, initially from his time in Dokken, starting with Breaking the Chains in 1981 and following up with the classic Tooth and Nail in 1984 and Under Lock and Key in 1985. 

It was the 1987 album Back For the Attack that would feature George’s calling card Mr Scary, an instrumental featuring many of his trademark techniques. In 1990, George unleashed Lynch Mob with the debut album Wicked Sensation. George’s style is inspired by the early technical rock players like Randy Rhoads and Eddie Van Halen, but with some Jimi Hendrix blues feel for good measure.

George tends to use the minor pentatonic scale at the core of his ideas, often with a creative twist. There is always an improvised, off-the-cuff feel to his playing and in this lesson we will look at some key Lynch approaches. 

Our first example is a a typical two-string hammer-on lick, but moves through the scale positions in an interesting fashion. In the key of E minor, all of the open strings belong to the scale, so you could explore this idea across all six strings, all over the fretboard.

Example 2 is a a scary-sounding riff using palm muting and alternate picking. It’s based in F# Aeolian and uses the 2nd fret F# as a pedal, against which the other scale notes are played. The only limitations with this type of riff are your imagination and finger dexterity. Hone these two skills for the recipe for creative hard rock riffing.

Our 3rd example is a tapping lick based on a Lynch-style legato pattern which is essentially a fretting-hand trill, with a tapped note on each down beat. You can apply this technique to any triad, major, minor, diminished or augmented, and also pentatonic scales. This lick also features a tap slide, which entails tapping a note with your picking hand and sliding it up and down a semitone for a unique effect.

Our fourth lick is a typical Lynch lick, based around shape 1 of the blues scale, with some extra notes added. The major 3rd, 6th and 9th are all fair game to add to the scale, in order to add colour and musicality.

Lick number five is a fast-paced flurry of legato notes played on the first and second strings. Lynch uses a very light touch when he plays, to allow his notes to flow freely and quickly. The following licks are quite challenging so, as always, start slowly and pay attention to accuracy, preferably using a metronome so that you can gradually build up the speed. Good luck!

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 7, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 2

George’s ESP signature guitars feature either a single coil at the neck with humbucker at the bridge, or single humbucker only. 

For Lynch’s lead tone, use bridge pickup and plenty of tubey gain, perhaps with a boost or overdrive pedal in front of your amp. This allows the use of a very light touch in order to let  the notes flow easily.  Add a little reverb or delay for even more smoothness.

Example 1. Pentatonic hammer-ons

Use open strings and your first and second fingers to hammer on to these notes from E minor pentatonic scale, E-G-A-B-D. Pick each string with a downstroke, then use hammer-ons to complete the triplet feel up and down the neck.

Example 2. Palm-muted Aeolian lick

This riff is based in F# Aeolian mode (1-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7) played with the first, second and fourth fingers using alternate picking throughout. Palm mute the F# root note for a tight, consistent tone, but you can lessen the palm muting for the higher notes to add some dynamics.

Example 3. Tapped triads with slides

This lick is played with two hand tapping using minor triad arpeggios. For bars 1-3 use the same six-note pattern moved to different positions, but in bar 4 change the melody by using taps and slides; your picking hand’s second finger is an ideal tapping digit while holding the pick with the thumb and first finger.

Example 4. Major-minor hybrid lick

This lick uses a combination of E Mixolydian (1-2-3-4-5-6-b7) and E blues scale (1-2-b3-4-5-b5-b7) to create an interesting major and minor hybrid lick. The first bar has a triplet feel, whereas the second bar speeds up to 32nd-note phrasing.

Example 5. Nine-notes-per-beat legato lick 

This legato lick is based in F# Phrygian mode (1-b2-b3-4-5-b6-b7) and ascends the fretboard in scale positions. The phrasing goes across the beat to create a natural, improvised effect, but it fits neatly into nine notes per beat. Enjoy your shredding!

When it comes to shredders who emerged on L.A.’s Sunset Strip in the Eighties, few are more respected or revered than George “Mr. Scary” Lynch of Dokken and Lynch Mob fame. 

As it turns out, one of George’s fans was none other than the late great, Randy Rhoads. And, as a result, when Randy landed the coveted Ozzy Osbourne gig in late 1979, his first choice for filling in his busy teaching position at his mother’s music school, Musonia, was George.

“Randy used to bring his mom, Delores, down to see me play shows in L.A. and told her some very nice things about my playing,” Lynch says. “I was very flattered by that.” 

Ironically, George was also one of the front-runners for Ozzy’s guitarist gig. “It was one of those classic good news, bad news stories,” Lynch says with a laugh. “The bad news is Randy got the Ozzy gig. You didn’t. The good news is, you’re going to sub for him at Musonia!

“It was an honor to take his teaching spot, and I worked really hard to make sure I was up to the challenge, because I didn’t want to disappoint anybody. I knew I had an uphill battle because I’m not a schooled player like Randy was. 

“I didn’t know anything about music theory, could barely read notation and didn’t know scales or modes. So I had to develop a language with my students so we could communicate, which was quite a challenge. It wasn’t just showing them a lick or run; I had to explain how I looked at the fretboard and came up with things.

“It was definitely a wonderful experience, especially for selfish reasons. Because I was in the saddle for many hours a day, I’d be practicing and forcing myself to learn new stuff so I’d have things to teach people. 

“As a result, I became a much better player – I don’t know about my students, but hopefully they did too! What was funny – and I’ve told this story before, actually – is that a lot of his students were attractive girls who were there just to look at Randy because he was a handsome guy, I guess. 

“They’d show up for their first lesson with me, look really disappointed and then I’d never see them again! My best student was Brent Woods. He worked really hard and he now plays with Sebastian Bach. I’m very proud of that.

“I didn’t last very long, though – maybe six months,” Lynch says. “I was making good money building guitars on the side. I’d slap together necks, bodies and parts and then I’d sell them to my students for, like, 350 or 400 bucks. They’d get these Charvel bodies and Mighty Mite necks with cool pickups; it was a pretty good deal. Delores got hip to the fact I was doing this, though, and I guess she didn’t like it! [Laughs] 

“One particular day I had two students in my teaching room and instead of doing lessons, I was selling them guitars. She got wind of it and literally kicked the door open when the money and guitars were changing hands. 

“She was not happy because I was doing non-teaching business on her premises! Delores made a new rule, and I wasn’t allowed to keep the door closed after that – I had to keep it open.” 

Despite that little hiccup and his moving on, Mrs. Rhoads still held Lynch in high regard.

“Delores did something really nice for me in the early 2000s,” Lynch says. “She gifted me one of Randy’s classical acoustic guitars when I visited her at Musonia. I went there to do an interview in the room I used to give lessons in, which was Randy’s old teaching room. 

“His little Fender combo amp I used to play through was still there, and I offered to buy it and the MXR Distortion+ pedal because they sounded great together. I would have put them to good use, but understandably Delores didn’t want to let them go.”

George Lynch appeared onstage with Dokken once again at their Waukegan, IL show at the end of October, and fan footage has now surfaced from the show.

Lynch performed with his former band at their Genesee Theater date on October 30 for a blazing three-song guest slot on Kiss of Death, When Heaven Comes Down and Tooth and Nail.

In the footage, Lynch is using his ESP Kamikaze-1 signature and, it must be said, both looks and sounds in great shape for his 67 years. Indeed, a glance across the YouTube comments shows the contrast in energy levels between Lynch and frontman Don Dokken has not gone unnoticed by fans.

Lynch previously appeared with the band several times this summer, but Dokken fans have long been hoping for a full reunion tour of the ‘golden-era’ line-up, albeit with the possible exception of the now-retired Mick Brown.

It’s something that Lynch and frontman Don Dokken have reportedly discussed. 

“We’re both in agreement that that should probably happen,” said Lynch back in March. “Meaning some kind of a meaningful reunion done in the right way, carefully and with proper preparation and time and rehearsals and not just throwing it out there like we did last time.”

The last full reunion of the classic line-up in 2016 led to shows in Japan (as documented on the Return to the East live DVD) and a single US appearance. Lynch was always known for his exacting standards, but it’s hard to deny that it was not quite the run fans were hoping for. 

Time will tell whether the three-song guest format will continue as is, but perhaps there’s more to come from Lynch and Dokken…

George Lynch first came to prominence with Dokken, whose debut album, 1981’s Breaking the Chains, saw Lynch’s name added to the pantheon of shred legends that came to prominence in the hair-metal era.

Although Lynch and Don Dokken had their differences over the years, they’re certainly on good terms now. Lynch Mob, in fact, planned on touring with Dokken in 2020, with Lynch joining Don for four songs each night. Still, Lynch Mob remains the “day job,” with a new album due out this summer.

The always-prolific Lynch has recorded a number of collaborative albums over the years, the latest of which, Dirty Shirley, is a hook-up with Croatian-born singer Dino Jelusic of Animal Drive, whose powerful vocals are redolent at times of the best of Dio. 

The songs are uniformly strong, with more than a hint of classic rock in the mix. Of course, Lynch’s love of the golden era of blues-rock is clearly on display.

How’d you come to hook up with Dino?

“It was the brainchild of the people at Frontiers Records in Italy. They asked me if I’d like to write the music and manage the whole production. I had a slight misunderstanding about the project initially and thought it was an Italian-pop kind of thing. 

“It seemed like an interesting challenge, so I began to write in that vein, but of course when the stuff came back from Dino, I was pleasantly surprised to hear what he actually did. I changed gears at that point, but we did leave a little bit of that stuff in there for the sake of variety. There’s a real wide variety of styles on the record.”

Is this a one-off project?

“You never know. I don’t do projects with the expectation of it becoming part of a continuum, but I always hope it might be. It depends on the obvious things like the level of interest and critical and fan appreciation. There also has to be a creative reason as well, beyond the commercial considerations.”

Are you happy with the way the album turned out?

“For the most part, but you’re never completely happy. Considering it was done remotely, with all the members’ contributions, I’m actually amazed at how seamlessly it hangs together. I’m a very self-critical person. 

“For instance, on Wicked Sensation, the first Lynch Mob album [1990], we had a year-plus and a massive budget. We probably recorded that album three times. Nowadays, I’ll probably write and record a song in one day, so effectively that’s 12 days to record an album. That’s the clearest comparison between then and now.”

The album cover is kinda weird. What’s going on there?

“[Laughs] I wish I had a good answer for you. I don’t want to throw Dino under the bus [Laughs]. We had a couple of submissions, which neither one of us liked, then somebody threw that at us from the label and Dino liked it. I’m wondering which one I am – the guy or the girl? [Laughs]”

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Dirty Blues has a real Led Zeppelin feel.

“I couldn’t name a guitar player that Jimmy Page hasn’t influenced. I was in my teens when [1969’s] Led Zeppelin came out. It was one of my early rock influences. My drummer friend and I would put that on the record player and go out to try to be that. Just to even look at what he’s done on a production level as well. The sounds he got. It fascinates me.“

And Cold has a Page-plays-funk vibe.

“Yeah, white people trying to play black music, I guess! What I love from that era is the sense of not knowing what the rules are, since there weren’t really any rules back then. The jamming and improvisation. It seems like a sad loss.“

Escalator to Purgatory has quite a funk-styled groove as well.

“Absolutely. I’ve listened to a lot of James Brown and Sly Stone, anything I can get my hands on in that vein. Fessing up here, there’s probably a lot of Zeppelin’s Dancing Days in that one.”

Grand Master has an Indian vibe; where does that influence come from?

“I love the exotic scales and time signatures and trying to incorporate that as much as I can into my playing. That was done on a Hindustani 21-string guitar, and the hand drum is me just playing with my fingers on the body of the guitar. It’s just free time, no click or anything. It’s sloppy but it’s real.“

What have you got that’s brand new, gear-wise?

“I’m such a gear-obsessive, it’s just crazy. I’ve recently acquired a ’61 Les Paul SG, which is all-original hardware and pickups. On the amp side I’ve just got a British Sixties Watkins Dominator, and I’ve been using a Rangemaster Treble Booster with that. I’ve also acquired an original Clyde McCoy wah pedal.“

It’s notable when looking at your playing over the years that you’ve never been afraid to underplay. There’s always plenty left in the tank.

“One of my favorite solos in the world is Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young. It’s just one note. There’s so much to say without playing endless streams of notes. I try to explore all the parameters of guitar music and composition. I’m always aware of the value of subtlety and silence. Speed and angst have their place, but I think you should incorporate all the elements in an intelligent way.“

The question always crops up about when you’re going to do an all-instrumental album of original material. Are you any nearer to it?

“I’ve been thinking about it. I think it would need about a year and I would need to make it almost a worldwide experience. I like the idea of composing and recording each piece in a different place around the world. Maybe Joshua Tree, then Easter Island, then off to another location. 

“I think it would be a fascinating story to see what the environment creates and then document the process and the gear, and use historically significant equipment. I have access, via friends, to some Hendrix and SRV and Joe Walsh gear and a lot of other classic equipment. 

“It would be expensive and logistically challenging. Probably baby steps would be the way to go. Just record one, then have a think where to go next – maybe incorporate a recording project with a business trip to Japan or something.“

What do you feel you’re working on in your own playing?

“I’m at a juncture right now where I think I need to bust through technically and apply and reinvent myself a little bit. I’ve talked to a friend of mine who I’m going to sit down with and take some tutoring. I’m going to apply myself to that this year and stop resting on my laurels. 

“My one big thing is that I don’t know theory. I don’t think I’m going to actually work on that so much, but I’d like to be better at playing over changes. Maybe dive into a little bit of bebop. I’d also like to work on slide, get a little more proficient and work on some tunings.

You always boasted a lot of really cool, distinctive guitars. Do you still have all your old gear?

“Yeah, most of them. There’s been a few that have been lifted over the years. My ESP 'REH' guitar that I used in those videos, my tech left it at a music store called Music Works where we used to rehearse – at Redondo Beach. 

“My 'graffiti' guitar just disappeared out from under me. Turns out one of my band members had sold that. I’ve had quite a few techs that have lifted many guitars over the years, some of which I did subsequently get back. There’s a special place in hell for gear thieves.“

Given the changing nature of the music business, how do you make a living from rock in 2020?

“Be diversified. Do everything. Be an engineer, be a composer, play every instrument you can, get endorsements, learn how to make a website, be social-media savvy and keep your eye on everything.“

• Dirty Shirley's self-titled album is out now via Frontiers Music.

Over the past few years, George Lynch has reunited with his Dokken band mates on various occasions for live shows. But the closest that fans of that band might get to hearing them back together on record would be to pick up the new self-titled debut album from the End Machine, which finds Lynch reunited with former Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson (currently with Foreigner) and drummer Mick Brown, who continues to play with Dokken to this day. Explains Lynch, “Jeff [Pilson] and I have remained close ever since the Dokken years, and that writing chemistry we had back then is still alive. And we like to feed it and collaborate. So over the decades we’ve done a few projects together, including things like Lynch/Pilson [which released Wicked Underground in 2003] and T&N [which released Slave to the Empire in 2012]. And now we’ve got the End Machine, which is another effort toward fine-tuning our approach.” Though, he admits with a laugh, “it’s all sort of Dokken-esque.”

Indeed, Lynch reveals that at one point he and Pilson went so far as to reach out to singer Don Dokken to contribute to the new material and make The End Machine a full-blown Dokken reunion record. When that didn’t pan out, the band recruited current Warrant vocalist Robert Mason, which, Lynch says, “was a real coup for us, because he’s a ridiculously wonderful singer, and he did an amazing job.”

To be sure, The End Machine is an incredibly strong effort. And while there’s more than a hint of the hard-driving, riff-heavy classic Dokken sound, it’s also a more diverse and expansive affair than fans might expect. Lynch, for his part, opts for a cleaner, more natural-sounding guitar tone than he employed in Dokken’s heyday. It’s one that veers more toward Seventies classic rock than Eighties shred metal.

“I’ve learned over the years that those classic guitar sounds we all know and love are not that distorted,” Lynch says. “And that’s a hard lesson, because you want to crank the volume and the gain because it’s easier to play that way. But when you listen to great bands like AC/DC or Led Zeppelin, it’s not just about heavy guitars. It’s about having space in the music and allowing the other instruments and the production to shine through as well. So I’ve learned to be open to new things.”

To that end, Lynch employed a wide array of guitars in the studio this time, from go-to pieces like his ESP GL-56 to a Linhof Tele, ESP and Fender 12-strings and semi-hollow Gibsons like an ES-335, ES-175 and an ES-295. His amp lineup was similarly diverse, featuring everything from Marshall Plexis and Vox AC30s to a Roland Jazz Chorus and a Watkins Dominator.

“Jeff and I keep evolving in our tone selection and our compositional skills,” Lynch says. “We listen to our old records and there’s a lot of things about [them] that we don’t like, and we try to improve upon them. And we talk about that a lot. We say, ‘How can we get the guitars to sound like this?’ ‘How can we get our records to sound more dynamic?’ We’re always chasing that musical dragon, and so every record we do together is another step toward that.”

The result is a varied record, from the soaring and anthemic “Alive Today” to the grungy blues of “Burn the Truth,” the boogie-ing “Life Is Love Is Music” to the new-wave-y alt-rock of “Hold Me Down.” “There’s little bits of all different things in there somewhere,” Lynch says. “But the overall sort of direction we were going in was just to write groove-oriented, bluesy, smart compositions that are hopefully kind of timeless. At least that’s what we’re striving for. As for how it actually sounds? That depends on who’s listening to it, I guess.”

Lynch laughs. “I mean, my wife will listen to it and just say that everything I do sounds like the Eighties.”

A year before heavy metal band Dokken released their debut studio album, Breaking the Chains, in the U.S., the band took to the stage for German TV show Beat Club to perform a few tracks from the record, including "Paris Is Burning," "Young Girls," "Nightrider," "Breaking the Chains" and "Seven Thunders."

The album was already out in Europe on the French label Carrere Records as Breakin' the Chains. However, this 1981 version contains some different mixes and alternate song titles from the later U.S. edition.

"Paris Is Burning" was known as "Paris" and is actually a studio version, as opposed to the December 1982 live recording. The album also contained a song called "We're Illegal," which became "Live to Rock."

Dokken's performance from the broadcast (filmed in Breman, Germany) can be seen in the video clip above.

Jonathan Graham is an ACM UK graduate based in London studying under the likes of Guthrie Govan and Pete Friesen. He is the creator of ForgottenGuitar.com, a classic-guitar media website, and is completing his debut album, Protagonist, due for release in 2016. Updates also can be found at Graham's YouTube channel.

Hard rock titans collide for The End Machine, a brand new project featuring classic-era Dokken members George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown, as well as current Warrant singer Robert Mason. Today the band has released their self-titled debut via Frontiers Music SRL. The band also launched their new video for the song "Leap Of Faith," which you can watch above. 

You can order The End Machine’s self-titled album on CD/LP/digital here, and a limited amount of signed CDs and LPs are available here.

Some fans may be wondering to themselves, isn’t this just Dokken without Don Dokken? “Musically, of course there's bound to be moments that will be reminiscent of Dokken. That's only logical,” says bassist Jeff Pilson. “But, my guess is there will be less of that than people would expect. Some people who've heard it say they think it's closer to Lynch Mob than Dokken, but really it is pretty much its own thing. We allowed ourselves to get a little deeper than either of those projects really have, while still staying extremely melodic and not being afraid of good old-fashioned guitar rock. Maybe Lynch Mob, a bit of Dokken, but then some '70s guitar rock added in. George [Lynch] is playing fantastic on this…very inspired. Everyone is really, but George covers some new territory here and it's very cool." 

He continues, "Plus, the songs as compositions took on their own life, especially adding Robert [Mason] to the writing. That's what I'm most proud of, the way this stands on its own. It doesn't step on our legacy together one bit, but it has it’s own personality and I think that's important.”

“This is decidedly not me ‘stapled’ onto a Dokken record,” adds Mason. “I wouldn't have been involved if that was the intent. Fans will hear bits of our styles in this collection of songs, and while reminiscent signatures are undeniable, The End Machine was purposely built to stand apart and on its own merit.”

You can catch The End Machine on tour on the U.S. West Coast this April. The itinerary is as follows:

04/04/19: Los Angeles, CA @ Whisky A Go Go
04/05/19: Las Vegas, NV @ Vamp’d
04/07/19: Tucson, AZ @ Club XS 

For more on The End Machine, click here. 

The End Machine, featuring classic-era Dokken members George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown along with Warrant singer Robert Mason, have shared the official lyric video for the song “Burn the Truth.” You can check it out above.

The End Machine’s self-titled debut album will arrive March 22 via Frontiers Music SRL. Said Pilson about the band, "Musically, of course there's bound to be moments that will be reminiscent of Dokken. That's only logical. But, my guess is there will be less of that than people would expect. Some people who've heard it say they think it's closer to Lynch Mob than Dokken, but really it is pretty much its own thing. 

"George is playing fantastic on this, very inspired," he continued. "Everyone is really, but George covers some new territory here and it's very cool. Plus, the songs as compositions took on their own life, especially adding Robert [Mason] to the writing. That's what I'm most proud of, is the way this stands on its own. It doesn't step on our legacy together one bit, but it has its own personality and I think that's important."

Added Mason, "This is decidedly not me 'stapled' onto a Dokken record. I wouldn't have been involved if that was the intent. Fans will hear bits of our styles in this collection of songs, and while reminiscent signatures are undeniable, The End Machine was purposely built to stand apart and on its own merit."

The End Machine is available for pre-order here.

Classic-era Dokken members George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown have teamed up with Warrant's Robert Mason to form The End Machine. The band's self-titled debut album will arrive March 22 via Frontiers Music SRL.

You can check out the band's debut single, "Alive Today," below.

"Musically, of course there's bound to be moments that will be reminiscent of Dokken. That's only logical," Pilson said of the band in a statement. "But, my guess is there will be less of that than people would expect. Some people who've heard it say they think it's closer to Lynch Mob than Dokken, but really it is pretty much its own thing. 

"George [Lynch] is playing fantastic on this, very inspired," he continued. "Everyone is really, but George covers some new territory here and it's very cool. Plus, the songs as compositions took on their own life, especially adding Robert [Mason] to the writing. That's what I'm most proud of, is the way this stands on its own. It doesn't step on our legacy together one bit, but it has its own personality and I think that's important."

"This is decidedly not me 'stapled' onto a Dokken record," Mason added. "I wouldn't have been involved if that was the intent. Fans will hear bits of our styles in this collection of songs, and while reminiscent signatures are undeniable, The End Machine was purposely built to stand apart and on its own merit."

You can preorder The End Machine right here, and check out its album art and tracklist below.

For more on The End Machine, follow along on Facebook.

The End Machine 

1.Leap Of Faith

2. Hold Me Down

3. No Game

4. Bulletproof

5. Ride It

6. Burn the Truth

7. Hard Road

8. Alive Today

9. Line of Division

10. Sleeping Voices

11. Life Is Love Is Music

Ultraphonix—the recently formed band consisting of Living Colour's Corey Glover, Dokken/Lynch Mob's George Lynch, bassist Pancho Tomaselli and drummer Chris Moore—have premiered the lyric video for their new single, "Free." You can watch it below.

"Free" is taken from the group's debut album, Original Human Music, which was released August 3 via earMUSIC.

"The album sounds like a fusion of early Chili Peppers meets King Crimson meets Judas Priest," Lynch said in a press release. "It's a super fun band."

You can pick up a copy of Original Human Music right here, and follow the band on Facebook. 

Corey Glover—lead singer of Living Colour—and Dokken/Lynch Mob guitarist George Lynch have teamed up to form Ultraphonix with bassist Pancho Tomaselli and drummer Chris Moore.

The band's debut album, Original Human Music, is set for an August 3 release via earMUSIC. You can check out the album's first single, "Walk Run Crawl," below.

"The album sounds like a fusion of early Chili Peppers meets King Crimson meets Judas Priest," Lynch said in a press release. "It's a super fun band."

"Walk Run Crawl" will be available for digital download and streaming tomorrow, May 18.

You can preorder Original Human Music right here, and follow the band on Facebook.

Dokken have released "It's Just Another Day," the first new song from the band's classic lineup in more than two decades. You can check out the video for the song above. The track is from Return to the East Live 2016, a new album documenting the classic lineup's October 2016 reunion at the Loud Park festival in Japan. The set also features two acoustic re-workings of classic Dokken tracks.

"After 25 years, it was great to reunite with George and Jeff and Mick and do a couple shows for the fans," frontman Don Dokken said of the reunion. "We hope you like this album and video. There's a lot of great bonus footage of us having fun, so enjoy it."

Return to the East Live 2016 is set for an April 20 release via Frontiers Music Srl. You can preorder it here.

For more on Dokken, be sure to follow along on Facebook.

Break out your spandex and hairspray, because it’s time to head back to the Eighties. To many, the Eighties was the single most iconic era for rock guitar, as it produced so many legendary players.

In this new lesson video, Robert Baker kicks off the new year like it’s 1986, bringing you five iconic metal riffs for beginners. Rock out to riffs from Dokken, Def Leppard, and even Whitesnake.

You can grab the tabs for the lesson down below.

For more of Robert’s lessons, stop by his YouTube channel.

Dokken’s classic lineup of Don Dokken, George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown took the stage together for the first time in 20 years on September 30. The four musicians performed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as a one-off prelude to their six-show tour of Japan.

The videos below show footage from the group’s performance and include Lynch performing his signature tune, “Mr. Scary.” Clips of “Breaking the Chains,” “Into the Fire” and Dream Warriors” are shown as well.

Dokken previously acknowledged that many of the group’s U.S. fans would like the band to launch a full tour but says he likes working with his current lineup and fears old wounds might reopen if the original group stays together for long.

“My manager is getting hit up every day for pretty large sums of money to play festivals next summer, all over the world,” Dokken says. “But I had to say no. I love the band I have now; We’ve been together for 13 years, and I don’t want to hurt that franchise. Plus if we were to continue with [the original] lineup, old wounds might be opened, and I don’t want to revisit that. I don’t think any of us wants to.”

Got a question for your favorite guitarist? Let us be your go-between. The concept is easy — you submit your queries and we pass them on to some of the world's greatest guitarists. Only the sharpest and funniest questions will be used.

This month, we're giving you the chance to ask Eighties rocker Reb Beach anything you want! From his time as Winger's shredding lead guitarist to his spots in Dokken, Whitesnake and Alice Cooper...nothing's off limits!

Just email your questions to dearguitarhero@guitarworld.com and put "Reb Beach" in the subject line. Remember to include your name in the email body, so you can get credited in the magazine, and impress and annoy your jealous friends!

Here's the classic Winger video "Seventeen". Don't miss Beach's shreddy solo break at the two-minute mark:

More about Winger:

Winger to release highly anticipated sixth studio album Better Days Comin’ in April

Band’s First New Album in 5 Years Slated for Release via Frontiers Records

One of the most misunderstood Hard Rock bands to come out of the 80’s is returning with their first new album in 5 years. Winger is releasing Better Days Comin’ on April 18th in Europe and April 22nd in North America via Frontiers Records. The notorious band comprised of members Kip Winger on vocals/bass, Reb Beach on guitar, John Roth on guitar and Rod Morgenstein on drums, are back with their latest album. The album is available for pre-order on Amazon.com in a standard and deluxe configuration. The deluxe edition comes in a glossy digipak and includes the bonus track “Another Beautiful Day” and a DVD including a Making of the Album documentary as well as videos for the first single “Rat Race” and title track “Better Days Comin'.” An iTunes pre-order will be available soon. The band has always been known for their incredible musicianship and the trend continues on Better Days Comin’.

"On Better Days Comin’ we drew from our past to elaborate on our future. The band is stronger than ever and very excited about the music on this record,” explains front man Kip Winger. “We feel this album exemplifies the true sound of the band in every way."

From the opening riff of album opener “Midnight Driver of a Love Machine” to the final outro lick of “Out Of This World,” it is clear Winger is back and better than ever. Hard rocking songs like “Queen Babylon,” progressive rock movements like “Tin Soldier,” and touching ballads like “Ever Wonder” show the band’s diversity while always centering on great songs. The debut single from Better Days Comin’ is the adrenaline fueled rocker “Rat Race” that showcases some of the band’s best work of their 25 year career.

• The track listing for Better Days Comin’ is:
• 1) Midnight Driver of a Love Machine
• 2) Queen Babylon
• 3) Rat Race
• 4) Better Days Comin’
• 5) Tin Soldier
• 6) Ever Wonder
• 7) So Long China
• 8) Storm In Me
• 9) Be Who You Are, Now
• 10) Another Beautiful Day (Deluxe Edition Bonus Track)
• 11) Out Of This World

Jeff Pilson is a busy man. In addition to his regular role as Foreigner's bassist, he's also been dividing his time with a host of other projects.

He's working with other former Dokken members George Lynch and Mick Brown on the next T&N album, and he's just finished producing the upcoming Kill Devil Hill album and Loveless Fascination, the first new Starship album featuring Mickey Thomas in almost 25 years.

Below, we discuss all the projects mentioned above and a whole lot more.

GUITAR WORLD: How did you get involved with Mickey Thomas' new Starship project?

It started off from a songwriting angle. I was working with another producer on a project, and he ended up hearing a bunch of my songs. He also was working with Mickey Thomas at the time and said, "What would you think if I worked these songs with Mickey Thomas, who's planning on doing another Starship record?" I loved Mickey and already had the songs available, so I said, "Sure, why not?" He started working with Mickey on the album, but things just didn't work out. That's when I got involved as the producer as well.

What's your approach to producing a Starship album as opposed to something by Foreigner, T&N or Dokken?

For every project you do, you have to respect it as its own entity. You just use your experience to go in and decide what's the best way to approach every aspect of making the album. From the songwriting and rehearsing, to the pre-production and recording. Each project has its own unique character, and it's one of the things that makes producing so fun. With Starship, it was a little different because they were using mostly my songs, so I had a clue ahead of time. I just needed to find out where Mickey wanted to go with them and then make it happen.

What was it like working with Mickey?

It was an easy, smooth working relationship. It was also very inspired, and as a result, it's very uncluttered.

Tell me a little about how you wrote the song "Loveless Fascination."

It started off in a hotel room a few years ago. I was just playing around and the opening riff came to me. I remember I was using a John Bonham drum loop to get me started [laughs]. A lot of the music I had worked out in my hotel room and then when I got home, I started working on vocal melodies. Lyrically, I always try to be honest with what I'm feeling. A lot of what I write is what's going through my mind at the time. Sometimes I'll try to get into a storytelling state of mind, and other times it's more social consciousness. I see what's going on around me and I react to it.

Can you give us an update on T&N?

George [Lynch] and I are planning to start writing again sometime in the fall. We've already completed recording the basic tracks for seven more Dokken songs [along with drummer Mick Brown]. We really have to write only half a record, but when George and I get together, we tend to write a lot. So we'll see what happens. The plan is to write half new stuff and then bring in more guest vocalists for the Dokken material with the goal of having it out by the fall of 2014. Touring-wise, it's difficult to commit right now, but we'd love to figure out a way to make it happen sometime at the end of next year.

What other projects are you working on?

I've just finished producing an album for Kill Devil Hill [Rex Brown, Vinny Appice, Mark Zavon and Dewey Bragg]. We just finished a few weeks ago, and that will be coming out sometime late fall. I'm very excited about that one as well. It's great music, songwriting and playing.

Have you always been a bassist?

The very first thing I learned was the cello when I was 11. It wasn't until the following year that I started playing bass. When I was 13, I moved from the Midwest to a little town on the West Coast, and it was there that I fell in love with playing. It became my outlet. That's when I really started to get serious about it. From that point on, I knew it was what I wanted to do.

Tell me a little about your current setup.

I’ve got a '73 P-Bass with '66 pickups that I run through an Ampeg SVT (AV, a limited model from a few years ago). In the studio, I use all my basses through Ampeg SVTs, and I also use the Ampeg SVX plug-in from IK Multimedia. It's by far the best bass amp plug-in out there.

Do you see the possibility of a Dokken reunion taking place at some point?

I never want to say never. The problem with a reunion is that it would be even more time-intensive, and right now it's hard enough finding time to do everything I'm involved with, and I know George is involved in a lot of other things as well. So I don't know if a reunion would happen anytime soon, but I certainly would never rule it out.

For more about Jeff Pilson, visit his Facebook page. For more about Foreigner, visit foreigneronline.com. To keep up with T&N, visit their official website.

James Wood is a writer, musician and self-proclaimed metalhead who maintains his own website, GoJimmyGo.net. His articles and interviews are written on a variety of topics with passion and humor. You can follow him on Twitter @JimEWood.

After tracking songs for what was once to become a new Lynch Mob album, drummer Brian Tichy proposed the idea of bringing together George Lynch, Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown (the “Big Three" of Dokken) for a project similar to what Heaven & Hell was to Black Sabbath.

The result is T&N, and a new album, Slave to the Empire.

The album is packed with melodic, thought-provoking music that captures the spirit and magic of the classic metal genre. Featuring seven original songs (with Pilson on vocals) as well as five re-recorded Dokken classics with vocal performances by Tim “Ripper” Owens, Doug Pinnick (Kings X), Sebastian Bach and Robert Mason (Warrant), Slave to the Empire also adds to the mix the hard-hitting, multi-talented drumming of Brian Tichy.

A second album of new material and classic Dokken songs is slated for next year that will also coincide with a tour.

I spoke with Lynch to get his thoughts on Slave to the Empire as well as his other passion: the documentary Shadow Train.

GUITAR WORLD: What’s the genesis of the T&N project?

Initially, Jeff [Pilson] and I were writing for what we thought would be the new Lynch Mob record, but it turned out not to be a “Lynch Mob” kind of album. Instead, we decided to turn lemons into lemonade and do our own record. One of things we wanted to do was make a concerted effort to make the connection between our Dokken legacy and our newer writing efforts by combining classic Dokken songs alongside our newer compositions.

Was there ever thought given to an all original Dokken reunion?

There’s always been talk of it, but it went nowhere, obviously.

What was it like revisiting the Dokken material again?

It was a little surreal recording those songs again with the same guys. It was also a lot of fun. We were so comfortable with the material, having all been playing it on and off for years. We felt that we could liven the music up and bring new life to it.

How do you come up with your riffs?

I can’t really say how it works. I think that after listening to all of the music I grew up with, a creative synthesis occurs and something just flows through me. As long as I’ve got a good sound, I just plug-in and with the magic of the studio, inspiration hits. It’s an adventure. The thing is, you never know what’s going to happen when you plug-in and get together with a group of guys and start creating.

Does Slave to the Empire have a message?

Absolutely. The whole record’s a message. On the surface, people might say that it’s a political one, but I prefer to call it an exploration into truth and human nature. That’s really the job of the arts and music specifically; to convey a message beyond what the music might imply. Historically, that’s how it was done in the past, especially during the late '60s and early '70s. Rock and roll music was a catalyst and vehicle for change and we felt the need to take up that torch and continue to do that as best we can.

Are there plans to tour with T&N?

We’re not going to tour together as a band most likely until next fall, upon the release of the second record. The next record is about half done. All of the Dokken material has been recorded. We just have to finish writing the new original material.

What Dokken songs can fans expect on the next album?

Songs like "When Heaven Comes Down," "Til The Livin’ End" and "Just Got Lucky." "Just Got Lucky" actually ended up being insane. The latest plan is to have Sass Jordan, a wonderful Canadian female vocalist, singing it. She has a very soulful and gritty voice. It’s just beautiful. A wonderful rendition of the song.

Have you ever considered writing a book about your life and experiences?

I’m not really a big fan of the rock biography. I think they’re more self-indulgent and full of a lot of self-congratulatory stuff. Throwing a bunch of people under the bus and throwing a lot of dirt out there. I’m more consumed with the work at hand and moving on. Affecting change through music. The music actually serves the same purpose as the book. I get to tell stories in the context of the song.

What other projects are you working on?

Right now, I’m working on a record with the drummer from Korn [Ray Luzier] and the singer from Kings X [Doug Pinnick]. A still-unnamed project, but we’ve started writing and will be working on that through the middle of December.

The other thing that consumes most of my time is my movie project (and band) called Shadow Train. We’re doing a lot of filming, playing and working on a soundtrack/record. The film deals with a lot of political and human nature issues and history. I’m working with a lot of really great people, including Mark McLaughlin (a producer from PBS and The Documentary Channel) and Vincent Nicastro, who made another Native American themed documentary called The Blue-Eyed Indian. There are a lot of guests on it: street poets, political thinkers and speakers. People from the native community including medicine men and shamans. It’s a powerful, nerve hitting film. We’re all driven by passion.

Is there a tentative release date for the film?

We’re hoping fall 2013, but that might be wishful thinking. Making a film is much more difficult than making a record, which is difficult enough. [laughs]

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Dokken hit “Dream Warriors” from Nightmare on Elm Street. How did that song come about?

It’s kind of interesting that you ask me about that because I was actually just over Jeff’s last week doing some T&N photo shoots and interviews for Japan. We were in his studio and he had the original recording machine that we used to track that song. It was an old Akai Beta Recorder; an obsolete machine that’s just a monster. Jeff still has it. It was interesting to see that again because I do remember the process of writing and recording that song and it took me back.

• We were commissioned to write the song specifically for the film. Jeff and I were familiar with the first movie and already had an idea of what we were writing. We knew the name of the song and the premise and concept of the movie. We just fed off of that.
• It’s a beautiful moment whenever Jeff, Mick and I get together.

Keep up with T&N at slavetotheempire.com. Visit the official Shadow Train website at shadowtrain.com.

Broken Bones, Dokken's 11th studio album, features a refreshing return to the signature sound reminiscent of such albums as Under Lock and Key and Back For The Attack.

With songs like “Empire," the title track and “Burning Tears," Don Dokken’s vocals are stronger than ever, and guitarist Jon Levin, now entering his second decade with the band, continues to unleash guitar fury, solidifying his place as one of the true metal greats.

I spoke with Levin about the different approaches he used for recording guitars on Broken Bones (Buy on iTunes) as well as his long-standing relationship with Charvel.

He also shares the story of why he decided to become an attorney and how he landed the role of a lifetime with Dokken.

GUITAR WORLD: What packages are available with the new Broken Bones album?

We have the standard CD as well as a CD/DVD combo. The DVD includes an interesting making-of video, along with a track-by-track segment where we talk about each individual song. There’s also some interesting behind-the-scenes footage and a few live clips as well.

How did you approach recording the guitars for this album?

I approached things a little bit differently on the guitar this time around, and it worked out well. I was tired of doing records where I’d find a sound that I thought was great, and by the time all of the other parts got on it and it was mixed, I wasn’t satisfied. This time, I recorded everything on an Eleven Rack. The nice thing about it was, every note I recorded also had a DI signal (the direct sound right out of the guitar). So, later on we were able to go back into the studio and run my direct through any amp I wanted, mic it up and bring it back until I found sounds that I felt were great! It really gave me a lot more flexibility!I also tried something different with my solos. In the past, I’d usually go into the studio, take a few passes at a solo and as soon as I found something I liked that sounded good, that was pretty much it. This time, I came in only when I was in the mood and I’d do solo after solo until my inspiration ran out. I wouldn’t even listen to any of them at all. Then the next time I felt inspired to play, I’d go back to that song and do the same thing all over again. I did that over a number of days until I had about 15 or 20 different takes, and only then did I go through them and pick what I felt was the most appropriate direction for the song.Tell me a little about your relationship with Charvel.I’ve been with them since 2004 and couldn’t be happier. They are at a wonderful spot in their history right now, and Mike Shannon and Chip Ellis are just legends in the business. They’re doing a signature model for me that I believe is going to start out in a limited run. I’m very excited about that.Wasn’t there a period where you became disgruntled with the direction of music and actually changed careers for a while?Yeah, in the early '90s when the grunge thing came in. In my mind, I saw the entire concept of lead guitar just fall by the wayside. No one was playing solos anymore. It’s not that I didn’t like any of the bands; it just lost its luster to me. Once that happened, I decided to try a different career. So I went to law school, became a music attorney and started a record label.You credit George Lynch as being one of your influences.I do. George is a big influence of mine. So it’s pretty amazing that I ended up being in this band; which I’ve now been in for more than a decade.How did you wind up working with Dokken?I had known Jeff Pilson for quite a while, and one day he called and left a message asking if I’d be interested in coming in to play guitar on a few demos he was doing. The thing was, I had to come do it right away. I had been “out of the loop” for a while (being an attorney) and wasn’t sure what I was going to do. In fact, I was actually still in a suit at the time, having had spent the day in court. But my father, whose house I was staying in at the time, also heard the message and pushed me into doing it.So I showed up in the studio and found out rather quickly that it was for Dokken. I literally walked in, and within five seconds Don hands me a red Les Paul and says, “Play!” I asked him if I could at least hear the track first and he said, “No, just play. It’s in E." [laughs]. I wound up playing two solos that day; one of which is on "The Irish Song" from a Japanese release called Long Way Home. That’s actually my lead from that day on there.A few weeks go by, and I get another call from Jeff. Only this time he says, “Hey man, we’re playing at the Dallas Starplex for 20,000 people. How do you do under pressure?” I said, “Give me the song list!”As guitarist for Dokken, has being an attorney ever come in handy for you?Absolutely. I specifically remember an incident that happened during the Hell To Pay Tour in 2004. We were playing a show in Oklahoma City and I had about 10 minutes left to go on stage when I suddenly realized our tour manager was nowhere to be seen. We all immediately figured something was wrong, and sure enough, I checked my phone and there was a message from him saying, “Hey, man! You gotta come bail me out! I’m in the Oklahoma City jail!” Apparently, he had gotten arrested for something really silly. After the show, we pulled the tour bus up alongside the jail. At this point, I’m still in my leather pants from the gig and still sporting really long hair. So I go in looking to try to get my “client” out of jail. The lady there thought I was crazy; she didn’t believe for a minute that I was a lawyer. Fortunately, I had my bar card on me, so I showed it to her and was able to get him out! [laughs].Keep up with Dokken at their official website and Facebook page.Photo: Devin DeHaven

It was sometime in the mid-'80s that guitar hero George Lynch was on tour in Japan and happened across a little-known manufacturer of custom guitars.

That company was ESP, a company that now boasts guitar titans like James Hetfield, Jeff Hanneman, Alexi Laiho -- and yes, still George Lynch -- among its roster of users.

ESP is celebrating 25 years of their partnership with Lynch with a special video overview of the company's relationship with the storied guitarist. Watch both parts below.

Lynch released his 11th studio album, Kill All Control, last summer.

George Lynch, the man who wielded the axe for Dokken and now fronts his own bands Lynch Mob and Souls of We, likes to tinker.

At age 10, he remodeled his first electric guitar with a hack saw and “swapped the terrible pickups with new crappy pickups.” When he wanted a wall of amplifiers, he took the speakers out of his old amps and built new cabinets and put the speakers in those.

“I kept the old cabinets and stacked them on top of each other to make it look like I had a bunch of amps,” he said. “I would make these cabinets 6 feet tall, so they would look impressive, but they would only have one speaker in them. I made them out of Masonite and fiberglass and covered them with green shag carpet. Since I didn't know what I was doing, the new cabinets sounded horrible.”

A few years ago, he started his own guitar manufacturing company, Mr. Scary Guitars (www.mrscaryguitars.com), named after an instrumental jam on Dokken's 1987 album Back for the Attack.

In fact, when Guitar World called Lynch to talk about his new solo album, Kill All Control, which will be released July 19, he was at a computer salvage yard in Los Angeles.

“They have everything from amplifier tubes to torpedoes,” he said. “If there was an earthquake, you'd be buried under all the crap because they have stacks of junk that are 30 feet in the air.”

What do you do at salvage yards?

I come here to scavenge for parts for guitar and amplifiers and what not.

How did your interests in tinkering and guitars come together?

My dad was an audiophile appreciator, and he had a lot of old stereo equipment when stereo first happene. We had all this reel-to-reel and headphone equipment and he'd make us sit there and listen to all this music. A lot of it was classical and flamenco guitars, jazz guitar, which got me interested initially. Also, being there when Beatlemania occurred didn't hurt either. My name was George and the guitar player in the Beatles was named George, so I put two and two together.

A few years after I started playing guitar, the Four Horsemen — Hendrix, Page, Clapton and Beck — came along. I learned to play their records by plugging my guitar into an old console stereo. I would plug my guitar into the headphone input, which distorted the signal and forced it out of the speaker. That eventually killed the circuitry, but that was my first amplifier.

When did you start building guitars for people other than yourself?

I used to assemble guitars for a lot of my students to supplement my income while I was teaching in various places. One of the people I worked for was Delores Rhodes, Randy Rhodes' mother, for a while. Randy got the Ozzy gig, but I got his teaching job. I would get $5 to $10 an hour, but I had kids to support, so I would build guitars for my students to supplement my teaching income.

In fact, Brent Woods, who plays with Jason Bonham's band, was a student of mine. I met up with him recently and he still has the guitar I built for him for $350.

The big news for you is the release of your new solo album, Kill All Control, on July 19.

The album is actually released as Souls of We in Japan, but as George Lynch everywhere else in the world. It started as a follow-up to the follow-up to the last Souls of We album, Let the Truth Be Known. The lineup started off with London LeGrand (Brides of Destruction), myself, Adrian Ost (drummer for Powerman 5,000) and Nic Speck (from Run Run Run) on bass. We went in as a band and our intention was to write and record a record in a month. We went in and wrote furiously and wrote the record in 10 days.The album features different lead singers. What happened?We went into the studio to record, and I ran into that “singer” wall. London is my friend and I love him, but a voice is not like a guitar. It's not a mechanical instrument, and singers are a different animal. Things just didn't work out and I had to look elsewhere for someone to complete the record, which took almost two years to finish. Had I known that retrospectively, I would have taken more time writing the music. [Laughs].Did the different lead singers dictate how the music was presented?I have an idea in my head of what melodies I would put in there if I could sing. I've hardly ever written with a singer and let them guide the ship. It's always been getting the song's instrumentals done first and then adding the vocals. We brought in Will Marten from Earshot and Keith St. John, who works with Montrose, and Mark Torien from the Bullet Boys.When were London's vocals recorded?London came back at the very end. I told him that he needed to be on the album, and we did a song that we worked on initially in his apartment. It's the lead track called “Wicked Witch,” and he did a beautiful job. Honestly, and I hate to say it, it made me cry. He'd been through a lot and it came out in his vocals. I think the best songs are the ones written from a personal place and a personal experience. Maybe it had that effect on me because I know him so well and I love him as a brother. He's a dear friend, and it's a beautiful song. I'm very proud to work with him on it.George Lynch's new solo album, Kill All Control, will be released July 19 on Rocket Science Records. For more info, visit georgelynch.com.

George Lynch, the lead guitarist for Dokken and leader of Lynch Mob and Souls of We, has announced a U.S. summer tour with the re-formed Lynch Mob.

The tour begins July 29 in Houston, Texas, and ends in late August on the West Coast. More dates will be announced soon.

Lynch's next solo album, Kill All Control, comes out July 19 via Rocket Science Inc. The album, Lynch's 11th, began as a follow-up to the Souls of We debut, Let The Truth Be Known. However, Lynch quickly realized the project was taking on a new direction with the addition of Powerman 5000 drummer Adrian Ost.

In collaboration with Souls of We singer London LeGrand (Brides of Destruction), Lynch said: “The creative juices just flowed and we wrote most of the CD in 10 days.”

Look for an upcoming GW interview with Lynch on GuitarWorld.com.

Lynch Mob tour dates:

• July 29HOUSTON, TX THE FLAMINGO ROOM
• July 30OKLAHOMA CITY,OK SAMURAI’S
• July 31DALLAS, TX TREES
• August 3 BUFORD, GA 37 MAIN
• August 4 DAYTONA BEACH, FL SICKBOYS
• August 6 FT. LAUDERDALE, FL CULTURE ROOM
• August 10INDIANAPOLIS, IN THE ROCK HOUSE
• August 11 WESTLAND, MI TOKEN LOUNGE
• August 12 BOLINGBROOK, IL TAILGATER’S
• August 13COLUMBUS, OH ALROSA VILLA (with Mr. Big)
• August 14NASHVILLE, TN 12TH AND PORTER
• August 25GILROY, CA 9 LIVES
• August 27ORANGEVALE, CA THE BOARDWALK