Dokken have split with bassist Sean McNabb and replaced him with Mark Boals.
And mainman Dan Dokken says one of the reasons for the change was that McNabb didn’t play with a plectrum. Boals, known for his work with Yngwie Malmsteen, does use a pick and, according to Dokken, gives the band a more aggressive sound – similar to that which they had with former bassist Jeff Pilson.
Dokken tells The Classic Metal Show: “It’s hard to replace Jeff Pilson. He plays with a pick, which I like. I don’t like people that play with their fingers. It’s not the same. I like Peter Baltes-type bass players who play with a pick, and Sean doesn’t.
“And so it didn’t have a lot of ‘attack.’ And I needed a really killer singer that was as accomplished as Jeff Pilson. And he was sorely missed, you know. So I meet Mark Boals, who’s played with Ted Nugent. He did four albums with Yngwie Malmsteen and he’s a great lead singer.”
Dokken also says that McNabb was not as dedicated to the band as he would have liked.
He adds: “Sean is doing acting and solo projects and other bands. Sean’s a very motivated guy and has got a lot of stuff going on, but I need a bass player that wants to be in Dokken.. not to be in Dokken to promote himself.
“There was a time when I asked him to turn down because he was crushing everybody on stage with the bass volume, and I went over and asked him to turn down, and he didn’t. So I went over and turned the amp down, and he walked back to the amp and turned it back up.
“Now, you don’t do that in Dokken. You don’t do that in any band. You don’t do that in Whitesnake or Priest or anybody. If you do that as a hired gun, and you go up and the lead singer tells you to turn it down, and he turns you down and then you turn yourself back up, you’d be on a bus taking a slow Greyhound home. So that was kind of the last straw.”
McNabb was juggling his career in the band with his acting work. He plays a role in TV shows Sons Of Anarchy. Dokken’s most recent album was 2012’s Broken Bones.
