In an interview with Cobras & Fire Podcast, Dokken guitarist George Lynch talked about the early days of the band and shared a memory about Gene Simmons which the KISS icon hesitated to mention in his autobiography.
Considered as one of the most influential guitarists of his time, George Lynch had many unforgettable performances with Dokken and later with his solo band, Lynch Mob. He also played with the band called The Boyz, which played a showcase for KISS icon Gene Simmons, however, he left after Van Halen‘s performance without hearing The Boyz.
Recently, Lynch talked about the time he met Gene Simmons in an interview he joined which was told by the KISS icon previously in a different way. During the conversation, George stated that Gene mentioned them as the band he actually came to see a second time with Ace Frehley. In his autobiography, Simmons talked about seeing Lynch’s band, Exciter, after watching Van Halen and said that they actually sucked.
However, Dokken guitarist suggested that his run-in with Gene was quite different than what he wrote in his book. Lynch stated that Simmons actually talked about signing them even though he didn’t discuss that part in his book. George also stated that the first time the KISS star saw them, they were The Boyz and he again talked to them about how he liked their music.
Here is what George Lynch stated about how Gene Simmons really reacted to his band:
“Yeah, we did a freaking tour with them. I did read some – I don’t normally read rock biographies, but I did read the Van Halen one. And there was a thing in there where Gene just made a really quick mention about us being the band that he actually came to see a second time with Ace.
And he talked about signing us. He didn’t really discuss that in the book, which was the case. Unfortunately, Van Halen came out after us, and they just shifted gears and got Van Halen, but his mention in the book was, ‘Yeah, Exciter was on that too and they sucked.’ That’s all he said.
I think the first time he saw us we might have been The Boyz, and he liked us and talked to us, we were playing Starwood, and I think by that time we changed our name to Exciter and got a different singer.”
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