This 80s Rock Star Teaches…Meditation?

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Jeff Pilson doesn’t fit the mold of your typical rock star. While many musicians of his era were notorious for their reckless lifestyles and chaotic antics, Pilson, 66, has long embodied a radically different ethos. A founding member of the heavy metal band Dokken and currently the bassist and musical director for Foreigner, he has spent his career steeped in high-energy performances and relentless touring. Yet he’s also cultivated a passion for something worlds apart from the rock scene—yoga and meditation.

“My days off are spent tending to the old body,” quips Pilson while holed up in a hotel room in Chicago during a rare day off. In his characteristic calm demeanor, he explains how his experience with yoga is much more than a hobby.

“I’m a very high-energy kind of functioning person, so I think meditation allows me to be in control of my thoughts when there are stressful situations going on,” he says. In fact, yoga and meditation have played a profound role in shaping his career, his music, and his outlook on life.

How He Started With Yoga

Pilson’s experience with yoga began in 1978 when he sought relief from a debilitating back injury. “I was only 20, and it really scared me. But in a way, it was a blessing because someone had mentioned, ‘You should do yoga.’”

The very next day, he went out and bought Richard Hittleman’s Yoga: 28-Day Exercise Plan. “I had immediate results from the exercises,” says Pilson. “I felt like a different guy.”

For the uninitiated, Richard Hittleman helped make yoga accessible to Western audiences in the 1960s through his PBS television series, Yoga for Health. “He had a remarkable ability to make Eastern ideas relatable, and that book ignited my desire to meditate and deepened my connection to my yoga practice,” says Pilson.

Though the book is out of print, Pilson attests that its teachings remain relevant. “I’ve been practicing every day since,” he says. “It opened the door to a deep yoga practice that’s now the crux of my life.”

Making Sense of Rock, Yoga, and Meditation

Yoga and meditation didn’t just save Pilson’s back. They shaped his entire approach to performing by enabling him to focus on stage and handle the mayhem without getting rattled.

Pilson maintains a consistent meditation practice, whether he’s on the road or at home. His daily routine begins each morning with 40 minutes of quiet meditation—20 minutes dedicated to breathing and another 20 minutes for complete passive meditation. Later in the day, he incorporates simple yoga poses and concludes with an additional 40-minute meditation session.

Although he readily acknowledges that meditation is no easy ride. “Nobody starts off being able to meditate. It’s about learning the process,” says Pilson. Thoughts and emotions—anger, sadness, joy—will come at you hard, but the point is to push through these distractions and not being worried about perfection. As he bluntly puts it, “It’s about progress.”

It’s also not easy to make space for meditation while on tour. “Sometimes I don’t get into the hotel room until two or three in the morning because we fly late at night,” he says. “I can’t get up at six in the morning; I just can’t do it.”

Instead of adhering to a rigid schedule, he encourages flexibility. “You have to work around your lifestyle and make it something that’s very doable. A tip I always give people is to do what you can. Don’t push for too much because then you’ll end up sloughing off. That’s just human nature,” he advises.

His practice while touring typically consists of immersing himself in videos from the studio his wife founded, Hot For Yoga. “Of course, by now, I know the videos well enough I could do them by heart,” he adds, chuckling.

For Pilson, his practice supports more than his music. It also helps him navigate life by shaping his understanding of the self while keeping the ego out of the way. “That clarity is what I’m always working for,” he says.

It’s all an exploration of zeroing in on the deeper layers of existence, which has been a large part of Pilson’s lifelong pursuit of self-realization. This understanding isn’t theoretical. “Experiencing the ‘I’ is something that can only be done through experience,” he emphasizes. “I hate to call it a level of awareness…but when you get that purity of awareness, there is a bliss associated with it.”

A Side Hustle as Meditation Teacher

Rock and yoga are two sides of the same wild coin for Pilson. The intensity of a good riff isn’t far from the focus required in meditation. “Rock intensity comes from being fully in the moment and channeling energy while meditation is also about being present and controlling that energy,” he says.

The contradiction makes perfect sense to Pilson. Both worlds demand full immersion—raw rock passion tempered by yoga’s calm clarity. Meditation allows him to control his thoughts when the amps are screaming and everything’s on fire.  If you don’t blend your spiritual practices into everyday life, Pilson explains, what’s the point? It’s all about finding balance in the chaos. And vice versa.

Amid that chaos of being on tour, Pilson offers weekly virtual meditation classes to the public that share insights born from years of exploration. The classes are designed for those seeking solace amidst the noise. He even roped two of his bandmates into the meditative fold. 

As Foreigner slows their touring schedule to hit the road less frequently, Pilson’s ambitions remain as high as a rock star’s ego at a sold-out show. He’s currently working on a book that aims to resurrect the lost wisdom of Richard Hittleman’s Yoga: The Eight Steps to Health and Peace. “I believe it’s a disservice to the yoga community that this seminal work isn’t readily available,” he laments of the out-of-print title. He’s also putting his vision into action with upcoming yoga retreats alongside his wife.

As Pilson balances intensity with tranquility, he follows the belief that enlightenment doesn’t come from a singular pursuit but from the amalgamation of life’s many moments. It’s all part of the same beautiful, chaotic sound.