Steve Lukather Quotes

“In sixth grade I had a band called The Blueberry Waterfall. I had borrowed a guy’s Fender Jaguar and Boss Tone Fuzz, which you plugged straight into a Blackface Twin. It was a little power trio – we were actually pretty good for our age.”

― Steve Lukather

“Music was everything. Now it is just not as important as it used to be. When I was growing up, where everyone was trying to outdo each other by being more outrageous and sounding more different, now there is a homogeneous sameness to it all.”

― Steve Lukather

“Playing live is one thing. Playing under a microscope is another.”

― Steve Lukather

“When I was starting my journey as a young guitar player, I was listening to The Beatles, the Stones, and all the British invasion bands, Top 40, Motown, and all the great music of the ’60s. Then the alien ship landed, and life changed again forever… Jimi Hendrix.”

― Steve Lukather

“When a new record came out, the world would stop that day, and we would sit in somebody’s house – whoever had the best stereo system – and sit in the middle of the two speakers and listen and discuss and listen again and go over the album notes and get out the guitar and start playing it and discuss and play some more.”

― Steve Lukather

“I have been using small teardrop jazz picks since I was, like, 14.”

― Steve Lukather

“Gear not working on a live show – that is rough.”

― Steve Lukather

“God bless classic rock. It’s been very good to me; I’ll tell you that.”

― Steve Lukather

“If it wasn’t for the Porcaro brothers, I don’t know where I’d be right now. My life would be completely different.”

― Steve Lukather

“People like our stuff, some people hate it, but that’s like anything, right? Some people love donuts, some people are allergic to ’em.”

― Steve Lukather

“I don’t believe that heavy strings make it all that much bigger-sounding. If anything, it can mess up your fingers, and you can get tendonitis, which is not cool.”

― Steve Lukather

“I play keyboards and have played on many a Toto record.”

― Steve Lukather

“I can’t sight-read classical etudes – I would have to see it and learn it. But yeah, I can read. It is a wonderful tool. It’s like speaking another language. Anyone that says reading music can hurt your playing is either stupid, lazy, or ignorant.”

― Steve Lukather

“Being out of tune sucks.”

― Steve Lukather

“I wish I had perfect pitch, but I don’t, and thanks to the miracle of YouTube, a bad night lives forever!”

― Steve Lukather

“As a session player for so many years, I have found myself in rooms looking around going, ‘Is this for real?’”

― Steve Lukather

“That’s all that matters in music: fun.”

― Steve Lukather

“That’s the thing, though: It doesn’t matter how much you’ve done or who you’ve played with. Do you have the passion?”

― Steve Lukather

“I was asked to be in Elton John’s band, Joni Mitchell’s band, and Miles Davis’ band. I couldn’t do it.”

― Steve Lukather

“I read a lot of biographies, and so much is just so boring or so, like, ‘Why did you say that?’”

― Steve Lukather

“When the ‘Thriller’ album came up, we all knew that was going to be the cool record.”

― Steve Lukather

“Don’t play too loud! Bleed-through on stage can be brutal to front-of-house sound.”

― Steve Lukather

“The right notes mean more than 1,000 mph arpeggios.”

― Steve Lukather

“If someone sees me with what looks like a beer, it’s always zero per cent.”

― Steve Lukather

“Believe me, when I saw ‘Family Guy’ do the bit on ‘Africa,’ I howled laughing.”

― Steve Lukather

“I don’t question things when they’re going right.”

― Steve Lukather

“We were just a high school band that loved music, you know?”

― Steve Lukather

“There are so many myths about us.”

― Steve Lukather

“Especially early on, I had no idea what I was going to be asked to do when I walked into a studio. I was doing 26 sessions a week – all day, all night.”

― Steve Lukather

“MTV ruined music for us.”

― Steve Lukather

“I got to work with legendary people.”

― Steve Lukather

“Don’t practise what you know – practise what you don’t know.”

― Steve Lukather

“I really try to play to my strengths, man. I’m never going to be Guthrie Govan: he’s a brilliant player.”

― Steve Lukather

“My son is a professional musician now.”

― Steve Lukather

“What happens is people go, ‘I want to play the guitar,’ and the first thing they do is hit Google: ‘How can I play this?’ and the next thing you know, you’ve learned all these tricks, but you’ve never learned how to play rhythm guitar with a groove.”

― Steve Lukather

“Everyone I know, including myself, has missed or lost an audition.”

― Steve Lukather

“My band did the Teenage Fair battle of the bands – problem was we were 11 years old! They gave us a prize for youngest band ever.”

― Steve Lukather

“I did grow up with Michael Landau, my brother since we were 12 years old. That was competition but in the best way. He is such a monster, always was, and we had a blast growing up playing in bands and early recording and are still the best of pals.”

― Steve Lukather

“I love to create and play, I can’t stop, hahaha!”

― Steve Lukather

“There’s so many players that I love and admire. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Mike Landau, Robben Ford, Lee Ritenour, Jay Graydon, John Scofield, Warren Haynes – the list goes on and on.”

― Steve Lukather

“A great solo does not make a great piece. Rather, a great solo in a great song – that’s what makes a 10 out of 10. It’s the combination of emotional feel and inventive ideas.”

― Steve Lukather

“In the ’60s, people had diverse tastes, which made the musical climate that much better and more interesting.”

― Steve Lukather

“Self-deprecation is my game.”

― Steve Lukather

“We’ve had to develop a super-thick skin. We’ve been beaten up more than any band in history.”

― Steve Lukather

“Everything we got was never given to us.”

― Steve Lukather

“When people make fun of us, it’s fine. I get it.”

― Steve Lukather

“People think being famous is fun. It’s not. Even a little bit of fame. It’s bizarre. It’s weird.”

― Steve Lukather

“To me, our signature song was ‘Rosanna.’ That was the ultimate Toto track, where everybody had a chance to shine.”

― Steve Lukather

“I can hear the youthfulness of my playing on, say, ‘Hold The Line.’”

― Steve Lukather

“Y’know, it’s funny: I didn’t think I’d be playing ‘Hold The Line’ at 60 years old. I was 19 when I first played that.”

― Steve Lukather

“I’ve never stopped working, and I still have ‘pinch me’ moments all the time.”

― Steve Lukather

“We’ve become an underground thing for kids, because we never got the love our peers got back in the day. Kids are loving discovering us, and I’m happy to be that band.”

― Steve Lukather

“I’m a weird guy with a weird sense of humor.”

― Steve Lukather

“I quit drinking, smoking, doing anything bad.”

― Steve Lukather

“I was a good father. I was a nice guy, pretty good guitar player, and funny as hell.”

― Steve Lukather

“I just think that there is something that keeps us together, to keep doing what we’re doing. I can’t really put my finger on it other than each record is like a little snapshot of my life at that particular moment, the way I play, the way I sound, the way I wrote, the way I sing, I can hear it.”

― Steve Lukather

“The music business used to be filled with people who love music.”

― Steve Lukather

“I ain’t the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I’ve dedicated my life to music since I was 7 and my dad bought me a guitar and the ‘Meet the Beatles’ album.”

― Steve Lukather

“I thought that you had to work, work, work and try to be the best musician you could, and that’s the only way you could make it. Then it turns out, halfway through the scene, they change the rules on you!”

― Steve Lukather

“Fans are always in for a treat when they see us in person.”

― Steve Lukather

“We have always been like The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac in that we have numerous lead singers.”

― Steve Lukather

“We always felt it helped during live shows to have multiple lead singers to give our voices a break.”

― Steve Lukather

“I don’t just sit around and play ‘Africa’ in my house.”

― Steve Lukather

“You look out in our audiences, you don’t see a sea of white-haired people. You see a lot of younger people.”

― Steve Lukather

“I’m always writing music.”

― Steve Lukather

“There’s no such thing as a lead singer in our band.”

― Steve Lukather

“I got four kids.”

― Steve Lukather

“I played on Asia records with Geoff Downes.”

― Steve Lukather

“I worked with Chris Squire on a Greg Lake record in the early ’80s, worked with Alan White.”

― Steve Lukather

“We were never the trendiest band, but we’ve always been here.”

― Steve Lukather

“If it wasn’t for Boz, my life would’ve changed. Meeting the Porcaro brothers and getting that Boz Scaggs gig were two life-changing events for me. It all fell into place after that.”

― Steve Lukather

“I think, as you get older, you reflect at the silliness of your youth and the stupidity of some of the decisions that were made, and the ego and whatnot, or whatever played into it.”

― Steve Lukather

“Vocally and stylistically, we’d have different kinds of songs come on the radio, and people didn’t realize it was the same band. A lot of the time, a casual fan would come see us and go, ‘I didn’t know that you guys did that song. I didn’t know that was you!’ That was us!”

― Steve Lukather

“The Beatles are the ‘on switch’ to my life.”

― Steve Lukather

“When the Beatles were on ‘Ed Sullivan,’ life went from black and white to color like in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – and the irony I’m in the band Toto is not lost on me.”

― Steve Lukather

“I worked with Paul McCartney, and he was lovely.”

― Steve Lukather

“I worked with George Harrison – who was the reason I started playing guitar.”

― Steve Lukather

“We’ve always had a sense of humor – look at our name.”

― Steve Lukather

“I’m no musical snob.”

― Steve Lukather

“I listen to Miles Davis and Slipknot.”

― Steve Lukather

“I’ve got the coolest job in the world.”

― Steve Lukather

“When you’re young, you can burn the candle at both ends, and you’re fine.”

― Steve Lukather

“A lot of festivals on a worldwide basis that I am seeing, they’re trying to multi-genre it. Like, they put a wild card band on, like, us old guys that happen to have a record that has stayed in pop culture for as long as it has.”

― Steve Lukather

“There’s not an anti-Toto spray that will keep us down.”

― Steve Lukather

“I played all the guitar parts except the guitar solo on ‘Beat It.’”

― Steve Lukather

“We are guys from North Hollywood singing about Africa. What do we know about Africa?”

― Steve Lukather

“The greatest feeling in the world is performing and connecting with the audience.”

― Steve Lukather

“When I was a kid, thinking of just being near a Beatle was an unattainable dream.”

― Steve Lukather

“I’ve had a lot of self-esteem issues.”

― Steve Lukather

“I got caught up in 35 years of Saturday nights. Every night was like party night to me. As a young man, you can do that; it’s OK to be an idiot. But I woke up one day, and I realized that 35 years had gone by.”

― Steve Lukather

“I get up now at 5:30 in the morning. I practice the guitar for a couple of hours – I do that before I even start my day.”

― Steve Lukather

“I was doing our first album when I was 19. It came out as a hit, and I blinked – then 37 years went by. There’s a lot of stuff that happened in there, but once the snowball started going down the hill, I took the ride.”

― Steve Lukather

“’Rosanna’ was the hit, but ‘Africa’ resonated with everyone who heard it.”

― Steve Lukather

“Our music is harder to play than it sounds. It’s the small details you don’t realize are there until you try and re-do it.”

― Steve Lukather

“In sports, stats count. Music? Not so much.”

― Steve Lukather

“There is no one like Toto in history in that we were both successful as session musicians and also had a band that sold so many million records.”

― Steve Lukather

“There’s nobody like us in rock history. I’m not saying we’re the greatest band in the world – that would be ridiculous.”

― Steve Lukather

“Henley’s one of my favorite singers. I’ve maintained a friendship with Don over the years.”

― Steve Lukather

“Nobody loves everybody.”

― Steve Lukather

“The myth that ‘old’ guys can’t write anything fresh is just a myth.”

― Steve Lukather