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Steve Lukather Interview: Ever Changing Times...
Steve Lukather is a man who needs no introduction to most guitarists the world over - and it's safe to say that pretty much anyone who's listened to popular music over the past 30 years will have heard his work: from Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and Madonna through to Roger Waters, Don Henley and Boz Scaggs - not forgetting his multi platinum band Toto - Steve Lukather is one of the most recorded and acclaimed guitarists in history.
In total, Steve's played on well over 3000 international albums - including the largest selling album of all time Michael Jacksons 'Thriller'. He is also one of the very few guitarists to have successfully straddled the rock, blues, funk and fusion genres - he is simply one of the most respected players out there. Ask almost any pro guitarist - particularly rock, and even more especially session pro's - to name some guitarists who they admire and it's a good bet that Steve will be mentioned. He is, and will always remain, the 'Ultimate LA Session Guitarist'
Steve grew up in the heartland of Hollywood to a family steeped in show business - indeed his grandfather was drinking buddies with John 'The Duke' Wayne! - but rather than follow his families footsteps and work in the TV and Film industry, Steve instead chose to enter a rather different branch of the entertainment world.
In the early 1970's Steve attended a rather special High School, as he explains: "At the time nobody realised it, but my High School had a load of kinda legends: the Porcaro bothers - when I was there Jeff Porcaro was already with Steely Dan - and Mike was there when I was... Mike Landau, Bruce Gowdry, Tim Pierce, Carlos Vega - yeah, you could say our High School was pretty wild! Our music teachers... well, one teacher thought we were all like aliens and didn't like us at all - but one kinda loved us! But, you know, we all just kind of found each other: most of us grew up together in the valley of Los Angeles, and yeah - it was a really cool place to grow up!"
Steve made his mark quickly, playing with Boz Skaggs whilst still in his teens and quickly became one of the most sought after studio guitarist in America. In 1977 Steve and his High School buddies formed Toto - and from then on his place in musical history was assured.
Often reviled by the mainstream critics as a soulless example of studio slickness and corporate rock, Toto have nevertheless achieved amazing success - 1982's 'Toto IV' sold millions of copies, spawned worldwide hit singles and won six Grammy Awards - and have survived a myriad of personnel changes over the years, to emerge over 30 years later with one of rocks biggest and most longstanding fan bases: one that remains truly international to this day. They also, along the way, created some of melodic rock's greatest and most enduring songs - material that has stood the test of time rather better than some other bands they were always associated with by critics looking for an easy peg to hang the band on.
A contributing factor to this would have been their unparalleled musical proficiency: indeed in addition to Toto, Steve - and the rest of the band (especially the mighty Porcaro Brothers) also lived, worked, and reigned supreme through the golden age of the LA studio session world. Steve would regularly play three or four sessions a day - often all with household names! - in a pre pro tools era when all the studio dudes really had to be able to play!
The last couple of years have seen a genuine renaissance for Toto, with the best selling and critically praised 'Falling In Between'' and an amazing 2 1/2 years on the road playing sold out concerts around the globe.
Now, in early 2008 Steve is gearing up for his fourth vocal solo release 'Ever Changing Times' so we caught up with Steve to get the low down not only on the new album, but also on what the future might hold for Toto...