Steve Lukather

**nosebone** · 05-23-2019

I'm currently reading Luke's autobiography THe Gospel According to Luke while laughing my ass off!

Apparently Luke's band Toto is considered to be one of the originators of Yacht Rock and it pisses him off.

The genre is late 70s to early 80s smooth, funky jazzy California blend that started with Boz Scaggs Silk Degrees album in 77, where Luke got his start alongside Toto members Jeff Porcaro and David Paitch.

It's a fun read for anyone interested in the LA session scene from that decadent era of sex, drugs & rock n roll.

Luke is also on the two recent Guitarwank podcasts http://www.guitarwank.com/podcast

**Rick L.** · 05-23-2019

https://youtu.be/6Lnt0h7P-Uk

**ThomasKDye** · 05-23-2019

Originally Posted by Rick L.

https://youtu.be/6Lnt0h7P-Uk

Meh. No wonder Luke's so bitter these days.

**gearHed289** · 05-23-2019

Yacht rock definitely pre-dates Toto, but I can definitely see stuff like Rosanna and Africa getting lumped into that genre. Pablo Cruise and Christopher Cross come to mind when I hear that term. Luke is a funny guy with no filter. Dig that.

**ThomasKDye** · 05-23-2019

Toto also did this. Just sayin'.

**Scott Bails** · 05-23-2019

Toto is one of the quintessential yacht rock bands.

But they're also so much more, for anyone interested in exploring more.

**SteveSly** · 05-23-2019

Originally Posted by Rick L.

https://youtu.be/6Lnt0h7P-Uk

That is hilarious, thanks for posting.

Luke's book is actually a great read. The guy has literally played with everyone over the years and tells some great stories. If you like musician autobiographies I highly recommend it.

Regarding Toto. I have always had a love / hate relationship with them. There is no doubt that they have always been fantastic musicians. Just about every album they have done I have liked some of it and loathed some of it. I think they have written some brilliant material, but I also have despised some of their stuff. I saw them live for the first time when they toured with Yes, a few years ago. It was amazing how well they could pull off their studio sound live and they were really really good, but as usual, I only liked about half of the songs. I still own a few of their albums and thought their most recent one was one of their better overall efforts.

**GuitarGeek** · 05-23-2019

I remember reading an interview with him back around 2002 or so, and he was talkign about all the metal bands who were detuning their guitars, saying something like "They'll eventually have the guitars tuned so low, you'll crap your pants every time they play a power chords, and it's still gonna suck!". He also was asked about the studio scene in LA at the time, and he says something like, "What scene?! There is no studio scene anymore. You go in, play four bars, and they loop it for the entire song, the session is over in 10 minutes!".

BTW, Toto had some pretty cool songs that went way beyond the MOR stuff of their hits. Songs like Goodbye Elinore showed they could rock out when they wanted to.

**gpeccary** · 05-23-2019

One of the best goddamned guitarists on earth, bar none. There are about 27 pages of songs/albums he played on at the end of the book.
Saw him with Toxic Monkey at the Iridium, unbelievable. He comes out and says: "Welcome to the rehearsal concert! We haven't SEEN each other in eight years, we haven't rehearsed, so buckle up!" And they proceeded to just fucking kill us! He's so good.
He's also not a fan of the name either. If they had called themselves anything else, and Porcaro wanted to do something else outside his session gigs, they'd be selling out 40,000 seat arenas like they do overseas.
Horribly under rated guitarist in my opinion. People hear he plays for Toto they roll their eyes. And I'll GUARANTEE they've never seen that band live either. They'd change their mind and quick!
he deserves a thread like this...

**GuitarGeek** · 05-23-2019

Originally Posted by gpeccary

He's also not a fan of the name either. If they had called themselves anything else, and Porcaro wanted to do something else outside his session gigs, they'd be selling out 40,000 seat arenas like they do overseas.
Horribly under rated guitarist in my opinion. People hear he plays for Toto they roll their eyes. And I'll GUARANTEE they've never seen that band live either. They'd change their mind and quick!
he deserves a thread like this...

They've also probably never heard this, either:

I think Toto was so popular (remember how huge Toto IV was?) that a lot of people don't just sort of write them off as a MOR pop confection. And as a result, I think, you have a situation like with, let's say Prince, who a lot of just have no interest in because of how popular he was. And I think there's a parallel between Luke and Prince in that both were/are amazing guitarists, but a lot of won't give either the time of day to find out.

**chalkpie** · 05-24-2019

Originally Posted by Rick L.

https://youtu.be/6Lnt0h7P-Uk

Holy fuck that is funny!

**nosebone** · 05-24-2019

Originally Posted by gpeccary

.
Horribly under rated guitarist in my opinion. People hear he plays for Toto they roll their eyes. And I'll GUARANTEE they've never seen that band live either. They'd change their mind and quick!
he deserves a thread like this...

I don't think Luke is underated.

He's been on the cover of every major guitar magazine, has a trillion albums out and I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about him.

Except, Totos lyrics are incredibly cheezy and a lot of there 80s histrionics haven't aged well.

**Jerjo** · 05-24-2019

Older article about Toto's most prog moments

https://www.loudersound.com/features...ggiest-moments

**gpeccary** · 05-24-2019

Originally Posted by nosebone

I don't think Luke is underated.

He's been on the cover of every major guitar magazine, has a trillion albums out and I've never heard anyone say a bad thing about him.

Except, Totos lyrics are incredibly cheezy and a lot of there 80s histrionics haven't aged well.

Perhaps in the guitarist world he is, but I have a couple music buddies that are super informed and have wildly diverse tastes and roll their eyes when I mention him and they find out he's related to Toto. That's more what i was referring to as being under rated.

**Sturgeon's Lawyer** · 05-24-2019

Best. Toto. Cover. EVAH!

**nosebone** · 05-24-2019

Luke was surprised that Africa had such a long shelf life.

He thought it was a little wimpy last minute ditty.

**No Pride** · 05-24-2019

I read the book a couple of months ago; thoroughly enjoyed it! Luke is a great guitar player, no doubt about it! As for Toto, I think they were a band of great musicians who purposely set out to be commercially viable. Like others here, I like some of their music a lot and some of it kinda blows (and yeah Chris, their lyrics were usually pretty awful). But when they play live, it's a different experience than listening to their albums; they stretch out a lot and let the audience know they can PLAY! I've seen them live twice and those were some great concerts!

Luke has done a lot of fusiony side projects like playing on Derek Sherinian's albums and with various bands at The Baked Potato in L.A. I had a bootleg at one time (don't know what happened to it) of him and a band playing Mahavishnu Orchestra material, I think they called it "Doves of Fire" ... or something like that. They nailed it!

If you read the book, you'll discover that he has tons of respect for a bunch of other guitar players. He feels that his own success was mostly a matter of just lucking out; being at the right place at the right time.

**nosebone** · 05-24-2019

Ernie, do you have the album No Substitutions Luke did with Larry Carlton?

I saw that tour and it was great seeing those two play together.

Luke worships Larry.

**ronmac** · 05-24-2019

The guy can certainly play. I only saw him once, with Ringo this past tour. Of course he was great. Way down in the mix though. (That was the only real disappointment of the show.) It was super-cool to see him let loose on "Evil Ways," "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" and "Oye como va" with Greg Rollie in the band. Hell, it was cool to watch Ringo drumming to Santana music.

**Scott Bails** · 05-24-2019

Wonder why Rolie didn't do any of his Journey stuff?

**kid_runningfox** · 05-25-2019

Wonderful guitar player - absolutely one of my all-time favourites. Like many other's here, I have something of an ambivalent attitude towards Toto, but my god, those guys can play! Some of Luke's Los Lobotomys and solo albums are well worth checking out to see what he can do in a somewhat less formulaic environment than Toto, and there's some great LL live footage on YouTube. Incidentally, my main guitar for many years was an Ibanez Steve Lukather model from the early 80s - wonderful instrument with a truly beautiful neck. I sold it a couple of years ago, as I needed to thin the herd and it was no longer being played much, but they're well worth tracking down if you can find one.

**ronmac** · 05-25-2019

Originally Posted by Scott Bails

Happy that Rolie didn't do any of his Journey stuff?

Corrected that for ya.

**GuitarGeek** · 05-25-2019

Originally Posted by Scott Bails

Wonder why Rolie didn't do any of his Journey stuff?

You mean with Ringo? Probably because it's too obscure. I'm not sure how many people even realize the first three Journey records exist. I'm not sure having Rolie sing Any Way You Want It, Wheel In The Sky, or Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' would work too well. I can't even tell you the name of the Journey songs he sang lead on, but I'm sure if they broke out any of those, you'd have an entire venue full of people scratching their heads at stuff they didn't recognize.

By contrast, practically anyone who's going to go a show like that knows Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman and Oy Como Va, since they were hits and played regularly on classic rock radio, etc.