THE DOCTOR announced half a dozen US tour dates for this winter and spring. The trek will begin Feb. 17 in Waterloo, New York and continue through March 18 in St. Charles, Illinois. More shows will be added soon.
Tour dates:
February 17 – The Vine @ Del Lago Casino Resort – Waterloo, New York
February 18 – Penn’s Peak – Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
March 10 – Surf Ballroom – Clear Lake, IA
March 11 – Medina Entertainment Center – Medina, MN
Tue. 17 – The Des Plaines Theater – Des Plaines, IL
March 18 – Arcada Theater – St. Charles, IL
During some of the recent THE DOCTOR shows, guitarist George Lynch joined the band on stage to perform three of the classics THE DOCTOR Songs: “Kiss of Death”, “When Heaven Comes Down” and “Tooth and Nail”.
Asked in a January 2022 interview with SiriusXMit is “Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk” what was the experience for him, george said, “It was [fun], in fact, more than I would have thought. I would have thought there… Because put on [Dokken, DOKKEN leader] and I had held animosity towards each other on different levels over the decades. And that’s kind of weird, when you think about it. And sometimes he is uncomfortable for me, because when I show up I have to sit there and of course they play the songs I wrote. And the [current DOKKEN] guitarist, Jon [Levin], is a wonderful guy; we are friends. But they do all my stuff, and then I leave.
“I think it comes down to, we’re artists, and if I spend my time crying about anything, I’m just going to hurt myself and the fans, and that’s not doing anyone any good,” george continued. “And so I try to stay positive about the whole experience. And it’s been, actually, good for everyone. The fans love it. I love doing it because the easiest thing I can do is play THE DOCTOR songs – songs that I helped write 35, 40 years ago that I can play in my sleep with one arm tied behind my back and go out and enjoy it without having to work as hard and just really enjoy what I do, enjoy the moment. And this is the path of least resistance. A lot of these other projects that I do, they’re not as easy to sell. When I do a KXM project or whatever, sometimes I have to work on it a bit – I make you have to work on it a bit more. What is it supposed to be? How am I supposed to write? What am I supposed to look like? How am I supposed to sell this? With THE DOCTOR, I have none of these issues or concerns because all the work has been done, we have already established who we are and I know what to do. So it’s really, like I said, sometimes the path of least resistance is the right one.”
As to why he only performs three songs with THE DOCTOR instead of playing the whole set, george said, “Well, it’s probably an economic question about put onfrom the side. I mean, put on bears the name of the group. It works on me across the board at this point, and obviously it works for put on, so if it ain’t broke, why fix it? And I don’t know…I’m just speculating that maybe he’s worried that something might come up if he gets into bed with me and now he doesn’t have what he’s been building for all these years. So there is this. And maybe financially it wouldn’t be so – I don’t know – not so [much of] a positive result for him. I am not sure; we haven’t talked about it. But what we are doing now is working. Obviously, what you just mentioned is something that everyone thinks about, but hey, it’s not for me to decide. But I sure think it would probably make sense [for me to play the whole set]; I could see that made sense. I’m already there – why not just go out and finish playing the rest of the songs that are part of my legacy? People would like that. There are many different ways to think about it. There’s what we do as a company, and I’m not ashamed of that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to talk about the business side of music. This takes nothing away from the art; that doesn’t take away from the creative part of it. They are two different sides of the same coin. We all need to earn a living. But you have to have that balance between enjoying and producing music that you love and that people enjoy, and at the same time it has to make financial sense. So I don’t know which one it is, why we’re not back together on a fuller basis, where I play the whole set, but I have a feeling it’s probably financial.”
Asked if the classic was discussed THE DOCTOR lineup reuniting once again to write and record new music, george said, “We have [talked about it]and the opportunity presented itself to each couple [or] a few years. And we had offers, and they are good offers. But it’s tricky at this point in all of our careers, when we’ve all sort of established ourselves on other paths, to all come together. And even if the offers are good, it’s not enough to make us stop what we are doing and redirect our careers to do it. Whenever it comes up, we always come up against these obstacles. It’s no one’s fault in particular, but it seems like an impossibility.”
In October 2016, the classic programming of THE DOCTOR — put on, george, Jeff Pilson (low) and Mick Brown (drums) — joined together to play the noisy park party in Japan. Luckily for fans outside of Japan, cameras were there to capture the performance and Frontiers Music Srl Posted “Return to the East Live 2016” in April 2018. In addition to the Japanese performance, the set featured footage from the only US show of the classic lineup in September 2016 at Badlands in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The package also included a new song titled “It’s Just Another Day”the first one THE DOCTOR track featuring the band’s classic lineup since 1997 “Shadowlife”and two acoustic reworkings of classic pieces.
Since the end of the Japanese reunion dates, THE DOCTOR continued to perform with the band’s current lineup – including bassist Chris McCarville, Wine and drummer Paw BJ (HOUSE OF LORDS).
THE DOCTOR recently finished recording a new studio album, tentatively due later this year via Silver Lining Musicthe label held by Thomas Jensenone of the founders of Germany outdoor wacken festival. This will be the band’s first album since 2012. “broken bones”.
Image credit: Singular Vision Productions