When Heaven Comes Down

Album: Tooth and Nail (1984)
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Songfacts®:

  • Dokken guitarist George Lynch wrote this song with the group's bass player Jeff Pilson and drummer Mick Brown. The song finds lead singer Don Dokken awaiting the rapture, and poking a little fun at the concept of an apocalypse where only people of a certain faith are left standing.

    Despite his views on this particular religion, Lynch teamed up with the Christian rocker Michael Sweet (from Stryper) in 2014 to form a band called Sweet & Lynch. The two were able to look past their spiritual differences as they had a mutual respect for each other.
  • This song came to life at Lynch's house, where he had a little area he used as a studio. He and Pilson hashed out the song one night, and when Pilson left, Lynch worked through the night on the track. In our interview with Lynch, he told the story: "I had a melody in my head for the chorus. So I got my s--tty little plastic mic and plugged it into an Octavider and some echo, into a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder, and I recorded it.

    The sun was coming up, and I was singing really low, because I didn't have a lot of range. I'm a lousy singer, and I put all these effects on there - I put an Octavider and delay. I basically put all my effects on the mic! I wish I still had that recording."

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