Quote Originally Posted by Human Error
Dokken started hitting the road in March and so far played a few shows, I checked a few reviews and some sugget that Don is making a vocal progress while others say that he's still struggling even with lowered keys. I would be happy if Don could regain his '2006 form when he still had some power and could hit occasional higher notes, I just don't expect him to be able to sing Lightning Strikes Again(the song, not the album) or Til The Living End. For Don to be able to sing on listenable metal album shouldn't be very hard with good rest and some studio magic, the problem is, they may suffer without Jon Levin in the songwriting department. Though Lynch and Pilson wrote some of the best 80s metal songs together back in the day they haven't released anything decent in the last 20 years. Lightning Strikes Again was a great album, definitely their best studio work since Back For The Attack.

As for Tim Owens I respect him as a singer but I don't see him as the right guy to fill in for Ronnie James Dio. His voice just doesn't fit, I agree that Jorn Lande is the best possible option and Steve Grimmett also would be a decent fit.
Yeah, I was definitely happy when I heard Lightning Strikes Again. Erase The Slate was good too, but I'm not a big fan of the other 2 post-Lynch albums, then again, I didn't really like Dysfunctional or Shadowlife either, I was surprised that Dysfunctional is Don's favorite.

My gut feeling is that a reunion will happen, there's enough interest and both Don and George are open to it, plus George joined them on stage a few years back.

One thing that's funny to me is these days Dokken is grouped in with a lot of bands who not only did they not sound like, but they weren't grouped in with in the 80's either. Don talked about this in an interview mentioning that in the 80's they always toured with bands like Judas Priest, Accept, Dio, ACDC, Van Halen and the Scorpions, not the LA bands. And they were definitely a notch above the LA bands in terms of musicianship, songwriting, their ability to perform 3 part vocal harmonies live and Tooth And Nail for example has a much more raw sound and is more aggressive than what the LA bands were putting out.

As far as guys covering Dio? Tony Martin did a very good job on the Sabbath stuff in the 80's, one of the best I've heard, also, Patrik Johannson of Astral Doors performed the entire Lock Up The Wolves album with Rowan Robertson recently, he'd be another good choice. Maybe someone like Jeff Scott Soto too? Great singer and on Yngwie's Marching Out album it seemed like he was asking him to imitate Dio at times.

Haven't heard Steve Grimmett outside of Grim Reaper's See You In Hell album, which I liked, but don't remember him being that similar to Dio.