Chords for Dokken's George Lynch on His Steroid Use: "You pay the price for all cheating" - Interview
Tempo:
135.15 bpm
Chords used:
Am
Abm
Eb
E
C
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Am] Health-wise, there was a time where you were trying to be a bodybuilder, is that wrong?
Well, getting into bodybuilding sort of backdoor and I just ended up participating in some
of these, quite a few of these bodybuilding competitions as a vehicle because my two teenage
boys were involved and [Abm] it gave us something to do together.
It was kind of a goal-oriented kind of enterprise, you know.
So we would work out for months and do our training and our dieting and we had something
to train for.
That was kind of the point of it, to give them something healthy to do rather than something
less healthy to do.
Even though, in the end, bodybuilding, the things that were required of what I got into
with bodybuilding ended up being worse for my health than anything I've ever done in
rock and roll.
Like some of the supplement stuff or that kind of thing?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
You didn't do steroids though, did you?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Nobody gets looking like that without actually, you know, just being naturally aspirated and
it's very, very common and you really can't compete without doing it.
It's really a very disingenuous kind of, call it a sport, quotes, you know.
It's really a drug contest and that's why it kind of niffs me every time I see any kind
of documentary or any kind of article or something about bodybuilders.
The first thing I look for, are they talking about the elephant in the room?
No.
Very rarely.
A lot of times those guys are like broken too.
I was talking to somebody the other day where I was like, the rock seems to be in good shape.
I mean, he still works out [Eb] all the time and I don't see that.
But a lot of the bodybuilder guys I saw a documentary recently where they're just like broken.
They can't even move later in life.
Is that due to the steroids or is that due to just working out like that?
No.
Because what happens when, first of all, there's all kinds of levels of steroids.
The football, go to the beach and bars kind of level of doing a little of this and that
just to kind of get an advantage.
Good for the girls and impress their friends, beef up their football and that kind of stuff.
Then there's the next level, which is like staying on these cycles for extended periods
of time, doing multiple cycles and stacking stuff.
Stacking means adding different steroids on top of each other to get complementary effects,
compound effects.
And then there's, then you go to another level, which is you add in the growth and growth
is a whole other level.
Anytime you see any of these pro guys, they're taking growth as well.
Growth is a completely different animal.
It'll get you into freak zone and a strip away fat and you'll put on muscle like crazy.
Of course, you still work out and still diet, but you can't get these freak bodies or even
these sort of like admirable looking physiques without doing some kind of cheating.
And you pay the price for all cheating.
And that's what I found in my life is looking at other guys that I went through this with
and what's happened to them.
And as you said, looking at and see what's happened to a lot of these pro guys later
in life, there's no free lunch.
What were some of the consequences?
Oh, go ahead.
Finish your thought.
Yeah, there was no, there's just no free ride.
You're going to get some great advantages.
You're going to feel great.
You're going to look great.
It's going to be awesome.
And then you're going to pay for it.
It's a Faustian bargain with the devil.
How far did you go into it?
I never went into growth or anything like that, pro level stuff, but I did some serious cycles.
I'd say I was sort of in the middle bracket for a while, for a good number of years.
And what that can do to you is that you can end up having cardiovascular and heart problems
develop, definitely joint problems and all kinds of, you know, what you're doing is you're
building more muscle fiber than your tendons and your joints can naturally deal with because
of your body, the design of your particular body.
We all have a homeostasis point where we want to, the set point our bodies want to be at
ideally, just naturally cellular level.
And you keep tricking that to get an advantage.
You're going to pay for it some other way.
There's always a weak link there.
That weak link will pay.
A lot of different things that can develop because of that [E] later in life.
Do you have joint pain or do you have any heart issues or anything like that?
Yeah, both.
Really?
I manage everything pretty well because I do, I'm not saying I'm a purist, but I do
pretty close to, I try to most of the time do a whole food, organic plant-based diet,
which has been proven to reverse heart disease.
And I do low inflammation eating so that I can reduce the pain and inflammation on my joints.
And I've successfully addressed that issue to a very large part just by doing that and
continuing to work out.
I do a lot of body weight exercises now.
I do more cardio and low impact stuff.
And I still keep, I still do not heavy weights, but I still do weight training, but not anything that's damaged.
But I still want to put stress on my muscles and I want them to at least not atrophy as
I get older.
So try to diminish the atrophy in the muscle, which is just normal as you get older.
So yeah, there's all these things that I, common sense things that I do now to kind of maintain.
The anti-inflammatory kind of way that you're talking about, I'm constantly trying to improve it.
What's a typical day look like for you on the menu?
[C] Well, coffee's a good thing.
So, and also green tea is really important.
So I drink a lot of green tea, organic green tea.
I don't do any, I try to really just stay away from sugar as much as possible.
Unless it's in the form of fruit or something in natural form, that's part of the food.
So then the fiber slows down that insulin response.
Sodium, I stay away from that as well.
Never add salt to my food.
And I try not to buy anything that has salt added to it.
Really try to stay away from any kind of processed food, anything deep fried.
Don't really do dairy, no ice cream.
Occasionally I screw up.
You gotta live, you gotta enjoy life, but 90% of the time.
And no alcohol?
I do drink, yeah.
But it's how I average about a drink a day.
Again, everything's in moderation.
Well, getting into bodybuilding sort of backdoor and I just ended up participating in some
of these, quite a few of these bodybuilding competitions as a vehicle because my two teenage
boys were involved and [Abm] it gave us something to do together.
It was kind of a goal-oriented kind of enterprise, you know.
So we would work out for months and do our training and our dieting and we had something
to train for.
That was kind of the point of it, to give them something healthy to do rather than something
less healthy to do.
Even though, in the end, bodybuilding, the things that were required of what I got into
with bodybuilding ended up being worse for my health than anything I've ever done in
rock and roll.
Like some of the supplement stuff or that kind of thing?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
You didn't do steroids though, did you?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Nobody gets looking like that without actually, you know, just being naturally aspirated and
it's very, very common and you really can't compete without doing it.
It's really a very disingenuous kind of, call it a sport, quotes, you know.
It's really a drug contest and that's why it kind of niffs me every time I see any kind
of documentary or any kind of article or something about bodybuilders.
The first thing I look for, are they talking about the elephant in the room?
No.
Very rarely.
A lot of times those guys are like broken too.
I was talking to somebody the other day where I was like, the rock seems to be in good shape.
I mean, he still works out [Eb] all the time and I don't see that.
But a lot of the bodybuilder guys I saw a documentary recently where they're just like broken.
They can't even move later in life.
Is that due to the steroids or is that due to just working out like that?
No.
Because what happens when, first of all, there's all kinds of levels of steroids.
The football, go to the beach and bars kind of level of doing a little of this and that
just to kind of get an advantage.
Good for the girls and impress their friends, beef up their football and that kind of stuff.
Then there's the next level, which is like staying on these cycles for extended periods
of time, doing multiple cycles and stacking stuff.
Stacking means adding different steroids on top of each other to get complementary effects,
compound effects.
And then there's, then you go to another level, which is you add in the growth and growth
is a whole other level.
Anytime you see any of these pro guys, they're taking growth as well.
Growth is a completely different animal.
It'll get you into freak zone and a strip away fat and you'll put on muscle like crazy.
Of course, you still work out and still diet, but you can't get these freak bodies or even
these sort of like admirable looking physiques without doing some kind of cheating.
And you pay the price for all cheating.
And that's what I found in my life is looking at other guys that I went through this with
and what's happened to them.
And as you said, looking at and see what's happened to a lot of these pro guys later
in life, there's no free lunch.
What were some of the consequences?
Oh, go ahead.
Finish your thought.
Yeah, there was no, there's just no free ride.
You're going to get some great advantages.
You're going to feel great.
You're going to look great.
It's going to be awesome.
And then you're going to pay for it.
It's a Faustian bargain with the devil.
How far did you go into it?
I never went into growth or anything like that, pro level stuff, but I did some serious cycles.
I'd say I was sort of in the middle bracket for a while, for a good number of years.
And what that can do to you is that you can end up having cardiovascular and heart problems
develop, definitely joint problems and all kinds of, you know, what you're doing is you're
building more muscle fiber than your tendons and your joints can naturally deal with because
of your body, the design of your particular body.
We all have a homeostasis point where we want to, the set point our bodies want to be at
ideally, just naturally cellular level.
And you keep tricking that to get an advantage.
You're going to pay for it some other way.
There's always a weak link there.
That weak link will pay.
A lot of different things that can develop because of that [E] later in life.
Do you have joint pain or do you have any heart issues or anything like that?
Yeah, both.
Really?
I manage everything pretty well because I do, I'm not saying I'm a purist, but I do
pretty close to, I try to most of the time do a whole food, organic plant-based diet,
which has been proven to reverse heart disease.
And I do low inflammation eating so that I can reduce the pain and inflammation on my joints.
And I've successfully addressed that issue to a very large part just by doing that and
continuing to work out.
I do a lot of body weight exercises now.
I do more cardio and low impact stuff.
And I still keep, I still do not heavy weights, but I still do weight training, but not anything that's damaged.
But I still want to put stress on my muscles and I want them to at least not atrophy as
I get older.
So try to diminish the atrophy in the muscle, which is just normal as you get older.
So yeah, there's all these things that I, common sense things that I do now to kind of maintain.
The anti-inflammatory kind of way that you're talking about, I'm constantly trying to improve it.
What's a typical day look like for you on the menu?
[C] Well, coffee's a good thing.
So, and also green tea is really important.
So I drink a lot of green tea, organic green tea.
I don't do any, I try to really just stay away from sugar as much as possible.
Unless it's in the form of fruit or something in natural form, that's part of the food.
So then the fiber slows down that insulin response.
Sodium, I stay away from that as well.
Never add salt to my food.
And I try not to buy anything that has salt added to it.
Really try to stay away from any kind of processed food, anything deep fried.
Don't really do dairy, no ice cream.
Occasionally I screw up.
You gotta live, you gotta enjoy life, but 90% of the time.
And no alcohol?
I do drink, yeah.
But it's how I average about a drink a day.
Again, everything's in moderation.
Key:
Am
Abm
Eb
E
C
Am
Abm
Eb
[Am] Health-wise, there was a time where you were trying to be a bodybuilder, is that wrong?
Well, _ _ _ _ _ getting into bodybuilding sort of backdoor and I just ended up participating in some
of these, quite a few of these bodybuilding competitions as a vehicle because my two teenage
boys were involved and [Abm] it gave us something to do together.
It was kind of a goal-oriented kind of enterprise, you know.
So we would work out for months and do our training and our dieting and we had something
to train for.
That was kind of the point of it, to give them something healthy to do rather than something
less healthy to do.
Even though, in the end, bodybuilding, the things that were required of what I got into
with bodybuilding ended up being worse for my health than anything I've ever done in
rock and roll.
Like some of the supplement stuff or that kind of thing?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
You didn't do steroids though, did you?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Nobody gets looking like that without actually, you know, just being naturally aspirated and
it's very, very common and you really can't compete without doing it.
It's really a very disingenuous kind of, call it a sport, quotes, you know.
_ It's really a drug contest and that's why it kind of niffs me every time I see any kind
of documentary or any kind of article or something about bodybuilders.
The first thing I look for, are they talking about the elephant in the room?
No.
_ Very rarely.
A lot of times those guys are like broken too.
I was talking to somebody the other day where I was like, the rock seems to be in good shape.
I mean, he still works out [Eb] all the time and I don't see that.
But a lot of the bodybuilder guys I saw a documentary recently where they're just like broken.
They can't even move later in life.
Is that due to the steroids or is that due to just working out like that?
No.
Because what happens when, first of all, there's all kinds of levels of steroids.
The football, go to the beach and bars kind of level of doing a little of this and that
just to kind of get an advantage.
Good for the girls and impress their friends, beef up their football and that kind of stuff.
Then there's the next level, which is like staying on these cycles for extended periods
of time, doing multiple cycles and stacking stuff.
Stacking means adding different steroids on top of each other to get complementary _ effects,
compound effects.
And then there's, then you go to another level, which is you add in the growth and growth
is a whole other level.
Anytime you see any of these pro guys, they're taking growth as well.
Growth is a completely different animal.
It'll get you into freak zone and a strip away fat and you'll put on muscle like crazy.
Of course, you still work out and still diet, but you can't get these freak bodies or even
these sort of like admirable looking physiques without doing some kind of cheating.
And you pay the price for all cheating.
And that's what I found in my life is looking at other guys that I went through this with
and what's happened to them.
And as you said, looking at and see what's happened to a lot of these pro guys later
in life, there's no free lunch.
What were some of the consequences?
Oh, go ahead.
Finish your thought.
Yeah, there was no, there's just no free ride.
You're going to get some great advantages.
You're going to feel great.
You're going to look great.
It's going to be awesome.
And then you're going to pay for it.
It's a Faustian bargain with the devil.
_ How far did you go into it?
I never went into growth or anything like _ that, _ _ pro level stuff, but I did some serious cycles.
I'd say I was sort of in the middle bracket for a while, for a good number of years.
_ _ _ And _ what that can do to you is that you can end up having cardiovascular _ and heart problems
develop, definitely joint problems and all kinds of, you know, what you're doing is you're
building more muscle fiber than your tendons and your joints can naturally deal with because
of your body, the design of your particular body.
We all have a homeostasis point where we want to, the set point our bodies want to be at
ideally, just naturally cellular level.
And you keep tricking that to get an advantage.
You're going to pay for it some other way.
There's always a weak link there.
That weak link will pay.
A lot of different things that can develop because of that [E] later in life.
Do you have joint pain or do you have any heart issues or anything like that?
Yeah, both.
Really?
I _ manage everything pretty well because I _ do, I'm not saying I'm a purist, but I do
pretty close to, I try to most of the time do a whole food, organic plant-based diet,
which has been proven to reverse heart disease.
And I do low inflammation eating so that I can reduce the pain and inflammation on my joints.
And I've successfully addressed that issue to a very large part just by doing that and
continuing to work out.
I do a lot of body weight exercises now.
I do more cardio and low impact stuff.
And I still keep, I still do not heavy weights, but I still do weight training, but not anything that's damaged.
But I still want to put stress on _ my muscles and I want them to at least not atrophy as
I get older.
So try to diminish the atrophy in the muscle, which is just normal as you get older.
So yeah, there's all these things that I, common sense things that I do now to kind of maintain.
The anti-inflammatory kind of way that you're talking about, I'm constantly trying to improve it.
What's a typical day look like for you on the _ menu?
[C] Well, coffee's a good thing.
So, and also green tea is really important.
So I drink a lot of green tea, organic green tea.
I don't do any, I try to really just stay away from sugar _ as much as possible.
Unless it's in the form of fruit or something in natural form, that's part of the food.
So then the fiber slows down that insulin response.
Sodium, I stay away from that as well.
Never add salt to my food.
And I try not to buy anything that has salt added to it.
Really try to stay away from any kind of processed food, anything deep fried.
Don't really do dairy, no ice cream.
_ Occasionally I screw up.
You gotta live, you gotta enjoy life, but 90% of the time.
And no alcohol?
I do drink, yeah.
But it's how I average about a drink a day.
Again, everything's in moderation. _ _
Well, _ _ _ _ _ getting into bodybuilding sort of backdoor and I just ended up participating in some
of these, quite a few of these bodybuilding competitions as a vehicle because my two teenage
boys were involved and [Abm] it gave us something to do together.
It was kind of a goal-oriented kind of enterprise, you know.
So we would work out for months and do our training and our dieting and we had something
to train for.
That was kind of the point of it, to give them something healthy to do rather than something
less healthy to do.
Even though, in the end, bodybuilding, the things that were required of what I got into
with bodybuilding ended up being worse for my health than anything I've ever done in
rock and roll.
Like some of the supplement stuff or that kind of thing?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
You didn't do steroids though, did you?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Nobody gets looking like that without actually, you know, just being naturally aspirated and
it's very, very common and you really can't compete without doing it.
It's really a very disingenuous kind of, call it a sport, quotes, you know.
_ It's really a drug contest and that's why it kind of niffs me every time I see any kind
of documentary or any kind of article or something about bodybuilders.
The first thing I look for, are they talking about the elephant in the room?
No.
_ Very rarely.
A lot of times those guys are like broken too.
I was talking to somebody the other day where I was like, the rock seems to be in good shape.
I mean, he still works out [Eb] all the time and I don't see that.
But a lot of the bodybuilder guys I saw a documentary recently where they're just like broken.
They can't even move later in life.
Is that due to the steroids or is that due to just working out like that?
No.
Because what happens when, first of all, there's all kinds of levels of steroids.
The football, go to the beach and bars kind of level of doing a little of this and that
just to kind of get an advantage.
Good for the girls and impress their friends, beef up their football and that kind of stuff.
Then there's the next level, which is like staying on these cycles for extended periods
of time, doing multiple cycles and stacking stuff.
Stacking means adding different steroids on top of each other to get complementary _ effects,
compound effects.
And then there's, then you go to another level, which is you add in the growth and growth
is a whole other level.
Anytime you see any of these pro guys, they're taking growth as well.
Growth is a completely different animal.
It'll get you into freak zone and a strip away fat and you'll put on muscle like crazy.
Of course, you still work out and still diet, but you can't get these freak bodies or even
these sort of like admirable looking physiques without doing some kind of cheating.
And you pay the price for all cheating.
And that's what I found in my life is looking at other guys that I went through this with
and what's happened to them.
And as you said, looking at and see what's happened to a lot of these pro guys later
in life, there's no free lunch.
What were some of the consequences?
Oh, go ahead.
Finish your thought.
Yeah, there was no, there's just no free ride.
You're going to get some great advantages.
You're going to feel great.
You're going to look great.
It's going to be awesome.
And then you're going to pay for it.
It's a Faustian bargain with the devil.
_ How far did you go into it?
I never went into growth or anything like _ that, _ _ pro level stuff, but I did some serious cycles.
I'd say I was sort of in the middle bracket for a while, for a good number of years.
_ _ _ And _ what that can do to you is that you can end up having cardiovascular _ and heart problems
develop, definitely joint problems and all kinds of, you know, what you're doing is you're
building more muscle fiber than your tendons and your joints can naturally deal with because
of your body, the design of your particular body.
We all have a homeostasis point where we want to, the set point our bodies want to be at
ideally, just naturally cellular level.
And you keep tricking that to get an advantage.
You're going to pay for it some other way.
There's always a weak link there.
That weak link will pay.
A lot of different things that can develop because of that [E] later in life.
Do you have joint pain or do you have any heart issues or anything like that?
Yeah, both.
Really?
I _ manage everything pretty well because I _ do, I'm not saying I'm a purist, but I do
pretty close to, I try to most of the time do a whole food, organic plant-based diet,
which has been proven to reverse heart disease.
And I do low inflammation eating so that I can reduce the pain and inflammation on my joints.
And I've successfully addressed that issue to a very large part just by doing that and
continuing to work out.
I do a lot of body weight exercises now.
I do more cardio and low impact stuff.
And I still keep, I still do not heavy weights, but I still do weight training, but not anything that's damaged.
But I still want to put stress on _ my muscles and I want them to at least not atrophy as
I get older.
So try to diminish the atrophy in the muscle, which is just normal as you get older.
So yeah, there's all these things that I, common sense things that I do now to kind of maintain.
The anti-inflammatory kind of way that you're talking about, I'm constantly trying to improve it.
What's a typical day look like for you on the _ menu?
[C] Well, coffee's a good thing.
So, and also green tea is really important.
So I drink a lot of green tea, organic green tea.
I don't do any, I try to really just stay away from sugar _ as much as possible.
Unless it's in the form of fruit or something in natural form, that's part of the food.
So then the fiber slows down that insulin response.
Sodium, I stay away from that as well.
Never add salt to my food.
And I try not to buy anything that has salt added to it.
Really try to stay away from any kind of processed food, anything deep fried.
Don't really do dairy, no ice cream.
_ Occasionally I screw up.
You gotta live, you gotta enjoy life, but 90% of the time.
And no alcohol?
I do drink, yeah.
But it's how I average about a drink a day.
Again, everything's in moderation. _ _