Fact: Right now, some radio station somewhere in the world is playing a song Steve Lukather wrote, performed on, or both. It doesn’t matter what time of day this statement is spoken. Every time it’s said, it stands as fact. As the guitarist and co-founder of Toto, Lukather has sold over 40 million albums and scored 10 Billboard Top 40 hits. If we factor in his contributions as a session player, those numbers get much higher. We sat down with Steve to discuss his new solo album, I Found the Sun Again, his life and times as a session player, and the challenges of navigating life throughout the pandemic.
Greetings Steve and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing this morning?
Steve Lukather: Great man! Well, I’m doing as well as I can be. How are you doing?
It’s snowy and cold here in Chicago, but we’re getting by.
SL: Oh Jesus. I’m just about ready to step outside right now. It’s blue skies and sunny. We saw aliens in the sky last night. It was pretty fucking weird. Seriously man! I saw some shit and thought, “No, I’m not high.” I’m just going, “What the fuck was that?!” We got it filmed and everything!
It’s funny you say that. On the 4th of July, my buddy and I were hanging out in my backyard and I swear we saw a UFO in the sky. I have a video of it too.
SL: There’s some shit going on out there man. I can hear…I got hearing aids that make sure I can hear *laughs*! You try putting this shit in your ears for fucking 45 years and see what happens. I wore headphones for 25 years as a session player. Feedback and 120 db on stage and shit like that. Your ears are gonna get fried after 45 years in the business. I’m actually the spokesperson for Widex, the hearing aid company, because it saved my life. I got tinnitus and everything.
Well I imagine it helped.
SL: Yeah, really a lot. Basically, they put your ears on a graphic equalizer and they find out what frequencies you’re deficit and bring it up to flat. All of a sudden, I can hear everybody talking again. I can hear the high end. I can hear articulations that I couldn’t hear before. Anyway, that’s an ad for Widex. Let’s get on with this interview!
Awesome! I’d like to start by congratulating you on your excellent new album, I Found the Sun Again. When did the ideas for this album first start to come together?
SL: Oh wow, thanks! It’s an old guy just having fun with my fucking muso friends. We made the record in 8 days.
8 days?
SL: 8 days. We did a song a day, complete. No demos, no rehearsals, no click tracks, no computer manipulations. All songs are live and untouched. I overdubbed the vocals. Joseph Williams did a few background vocals at his house. I did the lead vocals after we did the track. I did a few overdubs. Maybe doubled a guitar part or added a keyboard or tambourine or something like that. But it was one and done. 8 days, done. Everything you hear is live and real. I’m not trying to sell a million records or do a hit record with Cardi B or something like that.
Did this come together during the pandemic or beforehand?
SL: The month before. The month before we all had to wear masks and turn into fucking…the cast of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Which is a movie I did watch recently and went, “This is a little too real for me. Stop!” *laughs*
When it comes to writing for a solo project, do you take a different approach than you would with Toto?
SL: Yeah. This time I wanted to do it all live. I want to do it with no demos, no rehearsals, no nothing. Just charts. I got together with Jeff Babko, a genius keyboard player. David Paich came in and played Hammond and piano. Him and Jeff traded back and forth. “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”, one of my favorite tracks, is almost live in the studio. There’s a Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix kind of feel. You can feel everybody not really knowing what they’re gonna do. You can’t fucking put that on a fucking grid. It’s not zeroes and ones. It’s human beings playing like, “This one counts boy. You don’t get to do it again. You don’t get to fix it again.” So I wanted to see if I still had it in me to do that. I don’t know what kind of music I play. I follow the cracks. I love heavy shit. I also love jazz. I also love funk. I also love Pink Floyd and Hendrix. All the covers I picked set the tone for the record. I wanted to do the record like they did in the early 70s where they all played live and overdubbed the vocals. You had to fucking play.
I got nothing to prove. I can’t keep up with the shredders. There’s a 7 year old girl in Japan that plays faster than anybody. Who cares? It’s like a magic trick. Once you know the trick, there’s no magic anymore. How fast do you need to be? What are you really saying with all that. These guys fucking practice it all up and make it perfect so everybody sees them play perfectly every time, but no human being is perfect. There’s shit that I bend a little out of tune. There’s a little squeak here and there. You know why? *screams* Because it’s fucking real! It’s not just a compressed box of shit that goes out there and sounds like everybody else. Look, there’s some really great music. There’s some incredible music going on, but I’m 63 years old. What am I gonna do? Cow down to try to impress 12 year old shredders? I can’t do that. It’s not my generation to do that.
There’s some brilliant, brilliant new musicians. Brilliant, especially in metal. But that’s…okay, I don’t know how to do that *laughs*. I started out playing rhythm guitar to The Beatles records. My first lesson wasn’t “Eruption”. My brother Ed (Van Halen) tried to carry that with him his whole life like he started something. It became a monster. He tried to light the barbecue and he caught the whole fucking world on fire *laughs*. Now I’m not taking anything away from the guys. You look at Steve Vai or Joe Satriani or John Petrucci or Steve Morse or Allan Holdsworth. The list is endless. It’s been done. The technique is there, but where are the songs?
Exactly. It’s funny you mentioned The Beatles. A couple of these songs, particularly the title track and “Run to Me”, really have that Beatles sound going on.
SL: Well yeah. It just so happens I’ve been in Ringo Starr’s band for 9 years. I’ve worked with Paul. George was my friend and we played on stage together. Me, him, and Eddie Van Halen. There’s magical moments in my life I can’t…I have to pinch myself and ask if I was really there.
Having those experiences, how would you describe your relationship with The Beatles?
SL: Well that’s the thing. When I saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 and got my first guitar and a copy of Meet The Beatles, I was 7 years old. I never stopped. Once I got that thing in my hands, I figured out how to play it. Then I started taking lessons when I was 15 to learn how to read and do shit. I met the Porcaro brothers and was honored enough to meet David Paich who taught me how to make records and produce. I’ve worked with the greatest engineers and producers in the world and I was a sponge. I took it all in, no matter what style of music I was playing.
I never knew what I was gonna do day to day when I was a session guy. How many times do you get a chart that says G, Em, A, D? What are you gonna play over that? That’s what the shredders don’t understand. How do you create something from nothing? On the spot, without fucking rehearsal, without fucking knowing what you’re gonna do? That’s a muscle that people don’t have anymore. The jazzers do. Snarky Puppy, the greatest fucking new band. Look the fuck out for those cats. They’re doing some new shit. These are the young guys. Matter of fact, I stole their drummer to be in the new version of Toto *laughs*.
No kidding!
SL: Yeah, for real! Me and Joseph Williams both got solo albums coming out on the same day, on the same label. We wanted to work and David Paich can’t tour anymore. We had an ugly lawsuit and it all went wrong. So Joe and I were gonna go out anyway. Paich and I lost the lawsuit, but got a percentage of the name, so we’re gonna use it. Try and make our money back. Carry on the legacy of the music. Why do I play it? There’s tribute bands that do it. Some do it really well. I don’t have anything to prove at this point in my career, 45 years in. But I have to do something for myself. Make me feel like I’m a real musician and not just some computer jockey.
When you speak about going into a session and having to come up with a solo or part on the spot, let’s say the solo in “All Right” by Christopher Cross. Was that an instance of such?
SL: Yeah, that’s what I played because that’s what I heard when he played me the song. Then I doubled my guitar part right after we did the fucking take. And I did the solo, right in front of everybody in a couple of takes, all in the same day.
Wow.
SL: That’s what you had to do! That’s how you became a professional musician. If you didn’t have those chops, then whatever. I’m old school and people make fun of me. “Yeah Toto, blah blah blah. “Africa” makes me wanna fucking kill myself blah blah blah.” Dude, we cut that record in 1981. You think you wanna kill yourself *laughs*?
Aside from the 5 original songs, you’ve got 3 covers on here.
SL: I had those before I had any other music. I wrote the music a month before we were going in. I was like, “Babko, you gotta help me out here man. I got some ideas. I need to finish them up.” Then I called Stan Lynch from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to help me with some lyrics. Joseph Williams really helped a lot on the whole record. Everybody brought their best game. Jeff Babko is a fucking genius. He fucking wrote all these beautiful charts that were easy to read, but still had enough detail in it to know where you were going. We’d run the chart once and take 2 was the whole record, live. We never went past take 2. It’s magical when guys don’t know what they’re doing yet. When you get great players in a room, you hand them a good piece of music, you give them a vibe of what’s going on. You just go, “Let’s run this track and see how it feels.” We’d run it and iron out any mistakes or anything that’s a difficult passage. I’d go, “I’m gonna point at you for this solo. And then I’m gonna point at you. Watch my cues.” That’s what we did. 8 days and then 8 days to mix and master, 1 song a day. It was 16 days in total. Done.
I want you to know that we used to spend 6 months on records. I didn’t overproduce this thing. I produced up a couple of tracks, added some acoustic guitars, but I did it in the same timeframe. The track I did with Ringo was meant for his birthday. It was his birthday present in July. July 7th was his birthday, so that’s how I got him in the video and we wrote the song as his birthday present. I said to all the guys in the band, in the All Starrs, “We’re gonna write him a Beatle-y kind of tune.” He liked it and he wanted to play on it. It was a great gift for and from my brother Ringo. He’s become a dear friend of mine after the last 9 years. We Facetime 3 times a week. We’re buddies. He lives 10 minutes from me, but I can’t see him!
I can’t hug human beings anymore. I want to fucking hug my friends. I just saw my neighbors for the first time in a year and it was like The Twilight Zone. We were 20 feet from each other yelling, “How are you doing?!” This is creepy shit man! We’re living in a creepy world right now. Everybody’s afraid everybody’s gonna infect everybody. The paranoia is fucking ridiculous. It’s like, “What shot should I get?” Am I gonna go to Dodger Stadium, just stick my arm out the fucking window and let somebody blindly shoot me up with something that hasn’t even been tested on animals yet? Are these really the end of days? They’ve been saying it’s the end of the world since Jesus walked the earth.
Well if it is the end of days, at least we’ve got a great soundtrack in this new album.
SL: *laughs* Nice segue dude!
The one cover that really blows my mind is your blistering rendition of Robin Trower’s “Bridge of Sighs”. I imagine Trower was a guitar hero of yours growing up.
SL: Oh I love Robin. Robin and I have the Hendrix thing in common too. We both love Jimi. He does it the Robin way. Mike Landau does it his way. I do it my way. We’re all a little twisted up. “Bridge of Sighs” is one of the great compositions of that era. I love Robin Trower and I love the song. It’s a great song to just go, “Okay man, let’s go for it.” I got a gigantic picture of Jimi Hendrix in my living room. I just looked at it and said, “This one’s for you and Robin.” That was all live. You can hear me fucking around with the pedals and shit like that *laughs*. I was just having fun, like a kid in a candy store.
The only time I’m having fun is when I’m really able to play with other players. All this “one guy at a time, make it perfect, line it up and put it on the grid; Everybody play it and manipulate it so it’s absolute perfection and articulation.” Fucking Miles Davis squeaked his horn. So did John Coltrane. I’ve seen some of the greatest jazz players in the world make mistakes and just laugh it off. It’s real. I think maybe the reason why my record sounds different is because I did it the old way and nobody does it that way anymore. Either they can’t or they’re just too locked in into “This is how we do it now.”, as opposed to actually having to show up with some chops like, “I don’t know what I’m doing today. I better fucking play good.”
I come from a different world from the people of today. I had to show up not knowing what was gonna happen, everyday for 25 years. I’ll play on a record here and there for a friend, but I don’t really do that anymore. It doesn’t exist anymore. The cats that do it send me a file. I’ll record at home. It’s taking the humanity out of music. You gotta be in the room smelling everybody’s fucking smelly armpits. You gotta get some grease in the fucking music.
They used to say Toto was slick. Motherfucker we sat in a room and played together. That’s what we sound like. I’m sorry if we play good and that pisses you off. Some fucking hipster in a fake leather jacket and a Ramones t shirt and a beer belly at 70 years old going, “Uh you suck.” Dude, just fuck off. If you can’t play, blow me.
Now when Toto formed, you all came from different musical backgrounds.
SL: No, we all went to high school together. Jeff Porcaro was the drummer in Steely Dan when I was in high school. Me and Mike Landau were the guitar players in Steve Porcaro’s band. John Pierce on bass, Carlos Vega on drums, and Jeff Porcaro and David Paich would come play at our high school gigs. They were already beyond hot shot session players that we wanted to be. Then I got the gig with Boz Scaggs when I was 19. I was on the road and Toto morphed out of that.
Well I was referring to the various different styles that you were into.
SL: The styles we were into is just because we liked all kinds of music. We learned it. We played it. Music in the 70s was much more difficult to play. The songs were harder. The prog rock thing was still real. We tried to up our game and sneak some of that into pop music. I was the guy that brought in the heavier guitar shit. It’s lightweight by today’s standards, but back then crunchy guitars could still get on the radio.
Do you think this musical diversity gave you an edge over the other west coast bands?
SL: No. I’ve been kicking my ass for 45 years because we don’t play the same song. That we could have “Hold the Line” and “Georgy Porgy” on the same record. At the time, the disco thing was still happening. David Paich was producing Cheryl Lynn’s first album with “Got to Be Real” on it at the same time we were doing our first album. So we were all doing sessions and stuff. We were sitting around the studio. Richard Perry would hire us all to play on Diana Ross’s record or whatever. And then it just kind of blew up.
It used to be the studio musicians were jazz guys trying to play rock. Now we were rock guys that could do the other shit. We were crazy and more rock n roll and partying. People would hire us just to be ourselves. They knew if they put a chord chart in front of us, we’d come up with something to make them look good. If you have a great song, you come up with great ideas to play around it. We got to work with some of the greatest artists of all time. We were in a room with Elton John and he was like, “I got a new song. What are you gonna play on it?” *laughs* I’m sitting right there thinking, “I better come up with something.” I had a wonderful experience there. I’ve had magical experiences. Miles Davis in my face and shit like that *laughs*. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but it’s been great. It’s a bit self indulgent. I realize that. I don’t expect to sell a million records or nothing like that. I’m a musician. I gotta make music. I have to challenge myself to do something a little bit different and that’s what I did.
I’d like to ask a couple questions about my personal favorite Toto album, Hydra.
SL: *laughs* Oh boy.
This album saw the band shift towards a darker, more progressive sound with fantasy themed lyrics taking center stage. What led to these creative shifts?
SL: We were getting beat up by the press. We wanted to prove that we were more than just a pop band. We kept trying to chase our own tail. You know, this band has had 15 incarnations. I’m the only thread that’s been in all of them. There were different musicians coming in and out, people sadly passing away. My brothers are fucking gone which just breaks my fucking heart everyday. Then there’s some ugliness and legal shit that I’m not allowed to talk about. It’s heartbreaking man. And then all of a sudden, I go from some 40 odd years on the road, almost 300 days a year between Toto, Ringo, and my other shit, to nothing. I wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning. I’ve already practiced today *laughs*.
So you’ve already put in a day’s work.
SL: Well, I’m better in the morning. Later in the day I start to just unravel a little bit. If I didn’t have anything to do and I didn’t have a wonderful girlfriend to look after me, cook for me, take care of me, and tell me I’m not insane *laughs* things would be a lot different.
Amen. Are there any memories that stand out to you during the making of Hydra and what’s your favorite song off of it?
SL: Oh God. We were just kids in a candy store with fucking money and a place to make music. We’d show up to the studio with nothing and just write something on the spot. “Hydra” was written on the spot by all of us. David had a few riffs. I came up with a couple riffs. We all put it together. It became the first band written song. We were just fucking around, trying to find our way.
So you used the same approach on that album as you would on a session.
SL: We always did. “Rosanna”, we hadn’t heard the song. David Paich shows up to the studio. He plays the first song, day one of Toto IV. It had a different groove altogether. Jeff goes, “No, we were listening to Steely Dan and Zeppelin’s “Fool in the Rain”. Let’s do this.” All of a sudden it started happening. We were trying to figure out who was gonna sing it. David came up with the key change so I would sing and then Bobby (Kimball) would sing. It was like, “That’s weird. Nobody’s done that.” We were just going by the seat of our pants. We had no pre plan or anything like that. There weren’t charts written out. We’d throw together a quick chord chart and go, “Okay!” I think “Rosanna” was take 2 or 3 or something like that. I think it was the second take. The whole end jam was never even talked about. That was all live on the spot. We didn’t even think about it. We never played it that way before. We were just improvising in the studio. Then we produced it up and it became this record of the year. We didn’t know. Then everybody hated us *laughs*.
The backlash of success. I’ve been fucking beat down by the press for 45 years. They still won’t lay off, the hipster press. The fake rock guys that think the less people you have in the band, the better you are *laughs*. I don’t know. I don’t get it. If you have remedial skills and you look right, then all of a sudden you’re a great band.
As a fan, I’ve always found it ironic how for decades these people would slam you guys, Sabbath, Rush, Styx, KISS…
SL: Journey. All that shit, which reminds me. My son is getting married to Jonathan Cain’s daughter. How funny is that?
No kidding! Congratulations!
SL: Yeah. My son’s got a great new band called Levara. You should check them out. It’s hard, but it’s got hooks for days and the singer can scare the shit out of Steve Perry. Matter of fact, Steve Perry sings backgrounds on the record. He’s really good friends with my son. I don’t know Steve Perry aside from, “Hi Steve. How are you?” My son and he have actually even written songs together and shit that I’ve never heard. My son’s 33 years old and producing records for major labels. I’m really proud of him. He’s a real special dude. He really made his own voice. He wrote Halestorm’s first single, or co-wrote it, and got a gold single out of that one. He’s been playing on sessions with me since he was 13 years old!
When he was a little kid, I’d just throw him on the front couch. When I got my first divorce, the kids would come with me to every session *laughs*. “Go sit on the couch and shut up until I’m done! Here’s some money for the video games and order a pizza.” I had to look after my kids and work. I have 4 kids. I’ve been divorced twice sadly. My little kids haven’t got the music bug yet and they’re stuck in New Jersey. My youngest son is 10 and autistic. It’s really dangerous to fly with him, so we have to be very careful. I haven’t seen my little kids in 2 fucking months! They went to see grandma and grandpa for Christmas and then they got stuck there because of this fucking nightmare. I Facetime and try to talk to them everyday. It’s really hard because my kids have to do Zoom school and shit. We live in some fucking demented Twilight Zone world now.
Yeah it’s so bizarre.
SL: I feel for my kids. Is this the world we’re leaving them? Are you fucking kidding me? You’re afraid to touch anybody? No human contact anymore? What the fuck is going on? This is not psychologically good for the world.
And we’re going on a year now.
SL: You know, people are gonna really start to unravel about midyear. Not only from the disease, but from madness and alcoholism and crazy people doing crazy shit. It’s really hard to get through everyday. Pacing the house like you’re in a fucking ward. It’s like when you’re buried underground for 35 years and they let you finally come out *laughs*. I’ll tell you what. When we can come back out, it’s gonna be big. We’ll get through this. This is just a dark time in human history. They’ll be writing about this shit, the last 4 or 5 years of our lives, for all eternity.
That’s for sure!
SL: “You survived 2020/2021?”
They should start making us shirts reading “I survived 2020.”
SL: Well, nobody’s ready for bumper stickers quite yet because it’s all too real.
This is gonna be a dumb question, but are you aware of the Yacht Rock YouTube series?
SL: Oh of course. I played on every fucking record that’s on the fucking channel. It just happened to be called the era we did sessions. We didn’t know. Where’s my fucking yacht? I should get my own yacht for this shit.
Is there any truth to that episode of you guys trying to bribe Michael McDonald to play on “Rosanna”?
SL: *laughs* No, Michael McDonald’s been a friend since we were kids. Matter of fact, he got asked to be in the band right before he joined The Doobie Brothers, “Takin’ It to the Streets”. He was on the road with Jeff in Steely Dan when we were still in high school. Michael has been a dear friend for over 45 years. I adore the man. I played on his first solo album. We played together on tour. We worked together. Those guys with the fucking Yacht Rock. It started out as a joke and then it became a thing. It just so happened that us, as session players, the era that they make fun of, we were on every fucking record. Here’s the fucking hipster press with a lot more ammunition against us.
But you have to ask yourself, are any of your hipster bands able to do that? Are you able to walk into a session without any rehearsals or not knowing what the fuck you’re doing? You have to read your parts and come up with some music on the spot. Now! Not like “I’ll phone it in.” or “Let me learn it.” or “Let me hear the demo.” No, you had to fucking show up and play. If you couldn’t fucking play, you didn’t get called back and you were over. So the kind of pressure we had…there’s no pressure on people now. Nothing. I can make a fucking record with my dog barking and Melodyne it into a melody. Like I said, if everybody knows the magic trick, it ain’t magic no more.
Besides Michael, were there any other almost members of Toto?
SL: There were some guys that auditioned to sing and stuff like that. Richard Page from Mr. Mister was one. He’s a dear friend. I love him and I was on the road with him with Ringo and the All Starrs. There were guys that we tried out that didn’t just really quite seem to work. We kept trying to put a square peg in a round hole. We made some cool records with some of these guys. Joseph Williams is the only guy who, when he came in, we had multi-platinum records with. He’s a great writer and me and him have been friends since we were 14 years old. We’re still best friends. He’s the only guy I allow in my house since March of last year. He lives down the street and he gets tested with us every week. So he’s the one flesh friend I can actually hug and say hi to. The rest are all Facetime. This is the point now where it’s like, what have I got to say? Are we all gonna be depressed together and say the same shit everyday? I haven’t had a drink in 12 years, but if there was ever a time. I’m not gonna do that to myself because it poisoned me. You find other ways *laughs*.
In recent years, there’s been a handful of bands playing the Toto sound. One in particular is The Night Flight Orchestra, who I believe opened for you in Europe. Are you flattered by the impact of those classic albums on today’s crop of new bands?
SL: Yeah, they’re a good band! I’m very flattered that anyone would give a fuck at all, to be honest with you. For as much shit as we’ve taken, the fact that there’s Toto tribute bands is a great honor. I know some people try to shut down their tribute bands. Who would do that? Why would you do that? These people love the music enough to try and learn to play it and wanna fucking have fun with it? God bless you man! Party on! Not only do you not get fucked with, you get a fucking handshake and a thank you. I’ve got no beef. I’m honored that anybody would give a fuck enough to try and play any of it. Some do it really fucking good too. There’s a bunch of them out there. There’s some amazing cats and I go, “They play it better than we do!” *laughs*
It’s funny you say that about the tribute bands. Recently, there was a Pearl Jam tribute band that got sued for exactly that.
SL: Yeah, I mean what the fuck? Come on Eddie! I love Eddie Vedder. I love Pearl Jam. I love those guys. I’ve hung out with Eddie a couple times. He’s a beautiful cat. This was way back in the day, but I don’t understand why they would do that. Unless something else is going on that I’m not aware of. I got no right to talk about Pearl Jam. I’m not in their business. *laughs* I have enough nightmares of my own. Some people get uptight about their “brand”. How about the fucking KISS band where they’re all dwarfs? How could you get mad at that? They dress up like fucking KISS! If there was a mini Toto, I’d fly there to see them myself.
That could be the next big thing!
SL: Just for the record, one of my best friends in high school was a dwarf. I got no hang ups about that. I’m not making fun of that at all. I have an autistic son for fuck sake. I know it’s not the same, but my family is all full of people that are deaf, blind, fucked up, missing shit, seizures. I don’t know man. My lineage has got some weirdness in it. Maybe that’s why I play the way I do. I don’t know what the fuck music I play. I just plug in. I like distorted guitars along with jazzy changes. What can I say? I like to dance in both arenas. I know it gets some music critics really uncomfortable because they don’t know how to fucking deal with it. I can write a pretty love ballad. Then I can play some weird fusion shit on the same record and they go, “I don’t get this cat. Fuck him. He sucks.” They just write me off because it’s over their heads. They want something they can dig their teeth into like 3 chords and a fucking fuzz tone and a fucking drummer who doesn’t know how to groove at all. Just bangs on shit. They bang on shit and have the finesse of a fucking rectal thermometer up your pisshole.
I can hear the hate mail now, but you know what? I’m 63. I’ve got 45 years in. Fuck everybody at this point. A lot of people love the music and a lot of people hate it. Hey, that’s your right. That’s cool. I understand that. But they’ve been writing the same shit about us for 45 years. “Oh these guys, blah blah blah blah blah.” Really? We’ve played on thousands of records for the biggest artists in the world and we suck? Okay. The name sucks, but I’ve grown to laugh at it. I have my own Toto toilet that rings out my bunghole every morning.
Last Fall, you and Joseph Williams announced a new lineup of Toto and a tentative tour billed The Dogs of Oz Tour. Can we expect new music from this lineup in the future?
SL: I can’t tell the future. I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. We had a whole tour booked and it blew out again. We lost so much of everything. There’s 40 people out of work. The domino effect of a loss of something like this is huge. Some people can’t afford the loss. That’s the problem. I saved money after getting ripped off when I was a kid. I survived 2 divorces. It was enough to know there’s gonna be a day when this is gonna end. I ain’t 20 years old anymore, so save for a rainy day? Guess what. It just rained. If that sounds too honest, at this point in the game, that’s all I can be. I’m not better than anybody else. I just got experience and I’m tired of fucking taking the punches. And thank you to everybody who loves the music. You’ve kept me and my family alive. I will come to your house and cook you dinner and kiss you on the lips. To the people that hate me, find something else. There’s a lot of great music out there.
For more information on Steve Lukather, visit www.stevelukather.com. For more information on Toto, visit www.totoofficial.com.
Dinner is served!