![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/STEVE-LUKATHER-Q-and-A-DEC-2010.jpg\" "\\"STEVE-LUKATHER-Q-and-A-DEC-2010\\"")
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By Russell Hall <\/strong><\/p>\n Steve Lukather is feeling a little philosophical\u00a0these days. The reason, he admits, is because he\u2019s just come through an especially tumultuous year. \u201cI\u2019ve reassessed things,\u201d says the veteran guitarist. \u201cI stopped drinking and stopped smoking, and started going to therapy. It\u2019s like the warranty is up at age 50. I have lots of friends who aren\u2019t well due to the ridiculous things we did in our youth.\u201d Lukather has earned the right to pause and take stock. The 53-year-old guitarist and singer has appeared as a session player on more than 1,000 albums, beginning when he was a teen. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Miles Davis and Michael Jackson are among the many major artists who\u2019ve sought his services.<\/p>\n Still, he is best known for his work with Toto, the band he founded with a few high school friends in 1977 and saw blossom into a hit-making powerhouse over the following decade. The group sold more than 30 million albums during its lifetime as a recording unit, thanks to beloved singles like \u201cRosanna,\u201d \u201cHold the Line\u201d and \u201cAfrica.\u201d Toto broke up in 2008, only to re-form for a tour in early 2010 to benefit bass player Mike Porcaro, who is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or \u201cLou Gehrig\u2019s disease\u201d). The band\u2019s most recent lineup includes Lukather, founding keyboardists David Paich and Steve Porcaro, singer Joseph Williams and drummer Simon Phillips. Toto has tour plans for 2011, although Lukather doubts the group will ever return to the studio.<\/p>\n In the late 1980s Lukather began staking out a successful solo career. His latest, All\u2019s Well That Ends Well<\/em>, showcases his playing in a dazzling array of styles, from the incendiary blues-rocker \u201cFlash in the Pan\u201d to the Beatles-esque ballad \u201cWatching the World.\u201d \u201cYou can hear all my influences in these songs,\u201d says Lukather, whose solo tour begins in February. \u201cI wanted to prove to myself that I could make a \u2018personal best\u2019 album, and I feel I\u2019ve done that.\u201d The California native spoke to us at home in Los Angeles about the new album, his session work and the future of Toto.<\/p>\n What was your goal for All\u2019s Well<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n I wrote nearly all the lyrics myself for the first time\u2014and most of it is autobiographical, and painful. As a player and songwriter, I wanted to write melodic music with chord changes that weren\u2019t clich\u00e9d. I wanted the chord changes to be interesting, but not go over people\u2019s heads. I wanted people to shake their heads and go, \u201cWow, I didn\u2019t expect that!\u201d But I also didn\u2019t want it to just be jazz-fusion wanking. I wanted to make music that\u2019s not just for musicians, but have it still possess the craftsmanship that musicians would appreciate.<\/p>\n Was making the album cathartic?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was\u2014but I\u2019m not alone in that. I just returned from a tour of Europe, and some of the people in the audience were singing along with every tune. People really feel these things I\u2019m singing about. It\u2019s a tough time for everybody. Matters of the heart are\u00a0the same for everyone. We all bleed the same, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve written about.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Do you believe session players get the respect they deserve?<\/strong><\/p>\n The press hasn\u2019t always been kind. Some hear my name, or hear the name Toto, and they immediately slam the door, so to speak. They think, \u201cAh, he\u2019s just a studio musician. He\u2019s not really important.\u201d But I\u2019m very proud to have been a studio musician. I remember meeting Jimmy Page [who got his start as a session player<\/em>] for the first time. It was an event at the Guitar Center 20 years ago, and we were in a room full of other pro guitar players. He took me aside and said, \u201cI want to tell you something. You see all these guys here? They\u2019re not studio musicians, and they don\u2019t know what that is. I used to do that. You should be very proud of that.\u201d I nearly got a tear in my eye.<\/p>\n Toto was often critiqued as too slick. <\/strong><\/p>\n I think it\u2019s the stupidest thing in the world. Consider the world we live in now. There\u2019s Auto-Tune, everything is done on computers and recordings are done one person at a time. When Toto recorded, we all played in the same room\u2014together. People couldn\u2019t accept that we were good enough to play in tune and in time. To be able to do that was considered slick and soulless. There was a rumor that went around that we were a manufactured band, a group put together by record company executives. That cracked me up. We were a real band, going back to high school. All the criticisms hurt our feelings, but at the same time, I would be willing to take them again. We had\u00a0a successful career.<\/p>\n Do you ever write on keyboards?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes. I have a tendency to write ballad-y things on keyboards. It\u2019s all right there. Put your hands down and you\u2019ve got a whole orchestra at your fingertips. You\u2019re not thinking about whether you\u2019ve got a cool riff or a neat guitar lick. Writing at the piano creates a different mindset. The chords generate a different sort of melody\u00a0in your head.<\/p>\n How important is rhythm guitar?<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of players try to jump from A to Z without going through the middle. They pick up a guitar and instantly want to shred. They build that facility, but then they\u2019re not able to play with a drummer. Look at Jimi Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen\u2014guys who are best known for their leads, but who are also fascinating, brilliant rhythm players.<\/p>\n Do you still practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n I try to every day. Sometimes that consists of learning new music, or learning someone else\u2019s music. That helps with ear training, among other things. Then there\u2019s the technical aspect of practice, which might involve delving into Ted Greene\u2019s Chord Chemistry <\/em>book [1981], which one could spend a lifetime studying. Or I might turn to Nicolas Slonimsky\u2019s Thesaurus of Scales<\/em> and<\/em> Melodic Patterns<\/em> [1975], which can spark new ideas. I also listen to old bebop records. I\u2019m not one of those guys who transcribes Charlie Parker solos or anything like that, but I do have fake books with his solos written out. For me a lot of practice consists of just listening to things. I\u2019ll hear something and think, \u201cWow, that\u2019s interesting.\u00a0Let me try that.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you have a home studio?<\/strong><\/p>\n No. For years I\u2019ve been doing all my recording work at an L.A. studio called the Steakhouse. They have a huge Neve desk console\u00a0that used to be at EMI Studios in London.\u00a0Dark Side of the Moon<\/em> was recorded using some of those modules. I prefer old-school recording technology. I feel that\u2019s the way it\u2019s supposed to be done.<\/p>\n How would you describe your style?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m very chameleon-like, which goes back to all the session work I\u2019ve done. I can\u00a0tune in to whatever frequency is required. But within that, I\u2019m still me. I still enjoy going out and playing guitar without trying to be the world\u2019s coolest, fastest player.\u00a0It allows me to work out a lot of angst.\u00a0I see many young kids who have an\u00a0amazing facility for the instrument but have no real passion. Subconsciously\u00a0I\u2019m still trying to compete in that world, but I am what I am. If someone likes what I do, that\u2019s great\u2014and if they don\u2019t,\u00a0that\u2019s cool too.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the status of Toto?<\/strong><\/p>\n David Paich is retired. Steve Porcaro and Joseph Williams have successful careers writing for TV and film. Simon Phillips is happy in the jazz world. And I do what I do, which is tour the world and make my own albums. But we\u2019ll get together and play live occasionally, doing a few weeks here and there for the right reasons. It still feels great to be standing on stage with people I went to high school with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" STEVE LUKATHER Toto\u2019s guitar giant steps out on his own with an emotional new album By Russell Hall Steve Lukather is feeling a little philosophical\u00a0these days. The reason, he admits, is because he\u2019s just come through an especially tumultuous year. \u201cI\u2019ve reassessed things,\u201d says the veteran guitarist. \u201cI stopped drinking and stopped smoking, and started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1334,2314,970,1707],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3293,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3291\/revisions\/3293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}