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00:00Steve Lukather, how are you, man?
00:01I'm doing great, man.
00:03How are you?
00:04Ready for the 11th, you guys, along with Metta Work and Christopher Cross.
00:07Such a cool vibe here.
00:09But before we get started, there it is, 1982.
00:121982, man.
00:13That's the first time that you guys played Pine Knot.
00:16Well, it's almost, you know, August is when we're playing there again.
00:19That's wild.
00:20You know, what is that?
00:21I don't want to do the math on that.
00:23It'll tear up them.
00:24But you know what?
00:25We're thrilled there because, I mean, ticket sales are great.
00:29And we're just thrilled to play the venue.
00:31It's always been.
00:32That was the first venue.
00:33When I was at Boss Gags, when I was 19 years old in 1977,
00:37Pine Knot was the first shed I ever played.
00:40And it was a great night.
00:42And it has a special place in my heart.
00:45It's a silly question, but I'm someone who will never play a musical instrument,
00:48especially on stage at the level you've done.
00:51When you're on stage, are there moments where you get taken back,
00:55where all of a sudden you get a wash of memories?
00:57Well, yeah, man.
00:58When we played the Hollywood Bowl last year in L.A., my hometown, you know,
01:04and the Jeff Beck family gave me the guitar to play.
01:08It's the traveling guitar.
01:10It's going around a different one of Jeff's guitars.
01:12And Jeff was a friend and an absolute hero of mine and his wife.
01:16Sandra was giving it to different musicians to, you know,
01:18put some love on and share it.
01:20And I got to do that.
01:22And the first night was at the Horn of Poland Strat that I played.
01:26I've worked, you know, I've worked with Jeff, toured and did some recording.
01:31We were friends, for real.
01:32And I played that guitar when he was alive, you know, and it was just a trip from him at the Hollywood Bowl,
01:38standing where Hendrix played it, where Jeff Beck played it, and then here I am standing there
01:44and playing the Hollywood Bowl in my hometown where the Beatles and it all started.
01:47And I kind of, you have these moments where you just go, holy shit.
01:50And I kind of, like, looked the other way and made a stupid mistake, of course.
01:53But it was overwhelming.
01:56The emotion was so heavy to realize that after all these years come full circle,
02:02to have that moment on that stage.
02:05You know, there are moments every once in a while where you just kind of get overtaken by emotion.
02:10And it's real.
02:11It's, you know, we're human.
02:12You know, I mean, it was like the full circle of a dream I never thought was even attainable.
02:16I was watching the Sabbath, the whole tribute show, and when Ozzy was singing Mama, I'm Coming Home,
02:23and the vocals, I don't know how the band kept it together because none of us did.
02:28I mean, those moments, and I know you and Tony have been friends for years, right?
02:32Well, I mean, not friends for years.
02:33I've met him.
02:34I'm a great honor.
02:35Yeah, you know, I've met.
02:36Yeah, I mean, he said something nice about us, actually, recently.
02:39And the guy asked him what he was listening.
02:40He goes, well, believe it or not, but listen to Tony, not the hits, the other stuff.
02:44He goes, these guys are really good.
02:46But to get a love from that, I mean, that meant the world to me, unsolicited, if you will.
02:51And, you know, I've always been a fan.
02:53I mean, I had the record when the first album, when it came out, you know, when I was young.
02:57You know, we all loved Sabbath, man.
02:58You know, and the whole genre of music, I mean, I love that.
03:02I mean, I have so many friends in it, and I enjoy jamming with those guys every now and then.
03:07I mean, Slipknot's an incredible band, you know?
03:10Yeah.
03:11A little bit friendly with Corey the Singer, you know?
03:14And we did a charity thing once, and he was really so cool, like, really surprised.
03:19You'd be surprised how much all these, you wouldn't think that I would hang out with this
03:24guy in this genre of music or that guy.
03:26But in the end, we're all just guitar players.
03:28We're all just guys.
03:29You know, maybe we do a different version of what's happening with it.
03:32But we all came up wanting to do what we were doing, and we got successful.
03:38So it's kind of like, there's always a respect, no matter what kind of music, what style it
03:43is, that musicians that have got some legs on it, got more than 20 years, can get some
03:48extra love, you know?
03:49Is there a song with Toto that, I want to say hard, because for you, Steve, I mean,
03:54you've been doing these long enough, but one you really like to lean into and make a meal
03:57out of when you're playing?
03:59Well, there's a few.
04:00Some of them are not the hits, but although I do get to play a lot of the end of Rosanna
04:04or something like that.
04:05You know, we have parts where we play the songs pretty much like the record, like the
04:10way people want to hear them.
04:11And then we have parts of it where we can jam and we get going, and it's different every
04:15night, so that's fun for me, because the level of musicianship in the band is at the
04:20highest level I can get, you know?
04:24I always screw up the title of the song, you know, I'll Supply the Night, I'll Supply
04:28the Love, that song, right?
04:30Okay.
04:30Play it, we'll play that one.
04:32All right, that song, to me, is chaos in the best way, because right in the middle of
04:36it, it turns into a Star Wars theme, and it's got like a disco theme.
04:40Star Wars wasn't out when we recorded that.
04:43So Star Wars stole your shit, okay.
04:45I was just, you know, just having fun with it, you know?
04:49It's sort of a spaced out, you know, semi-mushroom moment, but, you know, we did stuff like that.
04:56It's cool, though, and my son's studying music, my son Adam, and he wants to be a producer.
05:01He's studying music at Wayne State, and he loves it, and he listens to your stuff, and
05:05he'll be with us at the show, and it's cool, because Steve, like, he leans back and goes,
05:08damn, there's a lot going on.
05:10I mean, you guys really built these songs.
05:13It wasn't as simple as just laying down a track and doing some vocals, and you're good
05:16to go.
05:16I really enjoyed producing the records.
05:20Like, we always loved the big productions on albums, you know, the Pink Floyd stuff,
05:24Elton John's Goodbye, Yellow Vic Road, The Wall, you know, Dark Side of the Moon, and,
05:31you know, Sergeant Peppers, and, you know, all the ones that had these massively, like,
05:36yes, and, yeah, Genesis, the original Genesis, and all that.
05:42I love all the versions, but I was always, you know, the original Genesis, I was still
05:46in high school, that touched me.
05:48All the, you know, we're sort of a product of every influence that we've ever listened
05:52to, whether it be Top 40 Radio, Motown, or regular straight pop, or all the hardeds,
05:59late 60s, 70s rock, you know, and prog, and all the other stuff of the year.
06:06We just kind of, since the Beatles, the Stones, and all that came, I started to learn how to
06:11play, you know.
06:11I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, and now I've been in a band with Ringo
06:16for 13 years, you know.
06:17I've had a lot of moments, you know, working with people that I always admire.
06:23Well, and that's what's cool, I think, don't you think, right now, Luke, that we're at a
06:26point where everyone, it's okay to listen to more than one type of music, and, you know
06:32what I mean?
06:32It was a period, like, growing up, where, like, if you listen to country, or you listen
06:35to rock, your friends would judge you, and now, like, nobody gives a shit.
06:38If it's good music, it's good music.
06:40Well, you know, a lot of people hated us at the beginning because of the diversity.
06:44Not only do we play different styles, we have different singers.
06:46Even on the first album.
06:49So, and they made up the story about we were put together in board rumors, and we're a
06:56high school band.
06:57And when we were in high school, when I met the guys, when I met Steve Picard and the
07:01whole family, Jeff Picard was the drummer in Steely Dan, and those guys were David Page.
07:08Sorry, I got the hiccups.
07:09That's all right.
07:10David Page was playing a session player.
07:13And we wanted to do that and have a band.
07:15And we actually pulled it off.
07:18And it's funny, like, Greg Filling Gaines.
07:21I'm a huge fan of his.
07:22And Behind the Mask is one of those songs I played that.
07:25I played that for my kid.
07:26And he looked at me and went, whoa.
07:28I'm like, oh, yeah.
07:29Yeah, yeah.
07:30Greg Filling Gaines is no joke, man.
07:31I mean, this dude leans into it.
07:33And Greg and I go, you know, he goes back to the very beginning of our band.
07:36And I met Greg when I was with Boss Gags in the 70s with Stevie Wonder.
07:41And then we started doing all the Quincy stuff when we were still very young.
07:46And we became friends.
07:47He was in a photo with us when we got our first platinum record.
07:50So he's family.
07:51And plus, he was in the band in the early 2000s for a while.
07:56Did a couple albums with us and tours.
07:58And everybody went splintered off, you know.
08:00But he's back.
08:01And it's really great to have him back.
08:02I mean, he really does.
08:04David Page's chair, that piano, he's the guy that really him and Jeff Ficarro put the band together.
08:09I'm just holding the candle, man.
08:11You know, I'm not Mr. Toto.
08:13I'm just keeping the music alive and trying to play it at the highest level of the best musicians that understand what that is.
08:19And I got him.
08:21And everybody gets along really well.
08:23And things are going great.
08:24I mean, I really wanted to get the United States back.
08:27I didn't want anybody to want us to die as an asterisk in 1983 or something like that.
08:32You know what I mean?
08:33Oh, yeah.
08:34They had a couple of hits.
08:35That Africa song.
08:37Oh, God.
08:37I mean, it's the greatest blessing and curse there is.
08:42You know what I mean?
08:44Christopher Cross.
08:45It's funny.
08:45Last time you and I talked, I'm waiting for the four hours that they didn't use of your interview for Yacht Rock, by the way.
08:52There's got to be a volume, too.
08:53There's got to be a volume, too.
08:54But, you know, the thing is, we were too much of a part of it.
08:59It would have been too much Toto.
09:01You know what I mean?
09:01Because since we were the guys that played on all those records, at least one of us.
09:06So, I mean, they had to stretch it out across the whole thing, give somebody else credit.
09:09Like, nobody mentioned that I co-wrote Turn Your Love Around for George Redman.
09:14It's a little bit crammy for that because it's too much Toto.
09:16It's like, okay, they gave George the love for it.
09:18But I'm not looking for the stroke.
09:19I did it as a favor to Christopher because Christopher's daughter is the producer.
09:24So, I was early on.
09:25He goes, Luke, if you do this for me, man, it'll really help everybody.
09:28I said, okay, man.
09:29I don't care what you want to call it anymore.
09:31Whatever.
09:32It's been called Soft Rock.
09:33It's been called West Coast.
09:34It's been called whatever name you want to come up with, you know.
09:39But at the end of the day, I'm going to be 68 years old in October.
09:43I'm going to try to be cool.
09:44I'm loving the fact that this 15 to 35-year-old age group is listening to our music and coming to our shows.
09:51As Africa, we've got them there.
09:53Great.
09:54And we find out that they start buying all the rest of the 18 records they didn't know we had.
09:59Was Christopher Cross always this good of a guitar player and I just didn't know it?
10:03Because the more I see him recently, he is a great guitar player.
10:08He is.
10:08I mean, I played on his early solo stuff, you know, some of the hits.
10:14You know, not Ride Like the Wind.
10:15That's him.
10:16And Sailor, that's all him.
10:17But the second album, I did solos on that and there were hits.
10:20I did the Arthur thing with him.
10:23I mean, we've been friends for a long time.
10:24That's how this whole thing got put together.
10:25When I put this together, it was my idea to solo to Live Nation.
10:29That let's take advantage of this genre without saying the word.
10:33I don't want to say the word.
10:34If you can call it.
10:35Right.
10:35I mean, just, I don't want to.
10:38I don't care.
10:39But I mean, I don't want to ingrain it, like tattoo it to me for the rest of my life.
10:43You know what I mean?
10:44Because in 20 years, they'll come up with another name for it.
10:49You know what I mean?
10:50But I thought, what an interesting summer package.
10:54Because, you know, a lot of the same people do the same tours every year in various permutations.
11:00This was like, okay, let's come out of left field.
11:02It's not heavy metal and it's not Taylor Swift.
11:04It's like, okay, we got something.
11:06Do you know where my kids found Colin and Men at Work?
11:09They discovered them from Scrubs, the episode where he walked around doing the acoustic version of Overkill.
11:15And then they went down the rabbit hole and went, these guys are really good.
11:18I'm like, yeah, yeah, Cargo's a pretty amazing goddamn album, the whole thing.
11:22But yeah.
11:23And you, obviously, the connection with Colin and everybody through Ringo.
11:25And Ringo's band together.
11:27Yeah, yeah.
11:28And we became close friends.
11:29I've always been a fan of him.
11:31We were, you know, which I just thought, let's go out on the road with our friends, man.
11:35And everybody's different.
11:36And everybody has huge hit songs.
11:38And everybody's really good live.
11:40And people, I think, are going to go, this is really good value for the dollar to see all three of these acts in one night.
11:46And everybody's got it.
11:47Yeah.
11:47And we're all friends.
11:48So it makes it this big, fun thing.
11:50It's not like Battle of the Eagles or anything like that.
11:53And the 11th, August 11th here at Pine Knob takes on sale, obviously, Pine Knob Music Theater.
11:59And we'll be there on the lawn, on the pavilion.
12:01This is a tailgating, Monday night, chilling.
12:03I will be there with my entire family, dude.
12:05We can't wait, Luke.
12:06All right, man.
12:07We'll come back and say hi.
12:08Well, absolutely.
12:09We'll get that set up.
12:10But most importantly, it's not about me.
12:11It's about you guys and what you do with Toto.
12:13Keep doing the music you're doing because there's so much that people, I don't like the word discover.
12:18I think they, I don't know what it is.
12:21You fall into music.
12:21Maybe we got some green.
12:23No, it's like three generations of people come.
12:25I mean, they discover it, whatever.
12:27I'm just happy to show up and then dig in the music.
12:31What are you listening to right now?
12:35Nothing.
12:36I'm telling my name.
12:36Nothing.
12:37I'm having an ear break right now.
12:39Are you?
12:40I do this for a living my whole life.
12:42I mean, does a doctor come home and dissect a frog, you know?
12:47Wait a minute.
12:47So there are days where you won't pick up a guitar, where you're just like, I'm already practicing.
12:51Just once already.
12:51I practice for a couple of times, a couple of times a day.
12:54I'm more on a tour.
12:56But I mean, I don't sit around and, you know, I listen to music, sure.
12:59But not that, you know, a lot of acoustic stuff.
13:02I like the old, you know, Miles Davis, late, early 60s stuff.
13:06You know, Four and More and kind of blue.
13:09I like, you know, turn it down low and just have a vibe.
13:12You know what I mean?
13:13And I'm learning harmonically.
13:15You know, you can always grab something from the geniuses, you know?
13:20Sometimes I listen to nothing, man.
13:23See, I respect that.
13:24Yeah.
13:24I always wonder because, you know, you hear things differently.
13:26You listen to music differently than we have.
13:28Okay, there you go.
13:32Hey, nothing wrong with that.
13:33Put up thoughts with Foxworthy and call it it.
13:35We need more comedy in this world, man.
13:37Amen.
13:37Hey, we will see you here, man.
13:39Can't wait for Pine Knob.
13:40Thank you, Luke.
13:41Thanks for having me, man.
13:41I'll talk to you later.
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