Boisterous, enigmatic and riding what seems to be a constant wave of bliss, guitarist Steve Lukather’s voice breaks over the line with the brightest and most enthusiastic greeting you could hope from a musician of his calibre.
Toto are returning to Australia for Falls Festival and a few select side shows after a ten-year absence; Steve is beyond excited. “A long time but you know, we’re coming back. We’re ready, can’t wait to be there!”
Trying to unravel not just 40 years of Toto, but 40 years of Steve Lukather, who as a session musician has recorded in the realm of 1,500 albums with many A-list artists, including Michael Jackson, Elton John and Aretha Franklin, to even begin a conversation with the man is a difficult feat – but of course ‘that song’ is a good place to start.
“'That song’?!” he laughs. “'That song’ has been very good to us.”
Steve admits he would never have called it; never in a million years say Toto’s 1982 hit ‘Africa’ was ‘the one’, that you could never have predicted what it would become and come to mean. “It’s so over the top that you just kinda laugh and say, ‘Okay, I’ll take it!’” Steve chuckles.
“What started as a fun, little exercise in production in 1981 turned into this golden nugget that all these years later is very current now, which is amazing to me for all sorts of reasons. I’ll take it, thank you very much.”
Not bad for a band who Steve describes as the tortoise and not the hare. He recently published his autobiography, 'The Gospel According To Luke', in which he not only talks of what goes on behind the veil of stardom, but Toto’s unpredictable success, his anecdotes coated with a dark humour as only Steve can deliver.
“I never set out to write a book, ever!” Steve cries, a little incredulously. “I did a Q&A at the Grammy museum in 2011 and they invited me to talk about my career on film.
“Have you ever seen 'The Actors Studio'? They did that to me, cards with secret questions, and I talked about all the artists I worked with in my career and I had people laughing, screaming, howling in the audience at my crazy stories and the way I talked and I guess that amused people – my agent said: ‘You’ve gotta write a book!’”
Despite telling his agent that there are some things that shouldn’t be dug up for the world to see, his agent said he didn’t have to write that book, just a book, not necessarily about the sordid tales of rock & roll – “Which is such a cliché at this point, anyway,” Steve adds.
He put pen to paper about people he’s worked with, the good times and the bad times, the painful ones as he puts it. “I don’t have a miserable life. I messed up for a while, I got well, I’m fine. It happens when you have a long career of 40 years. I knew what I wanted to do from a very young age – I just sort of blinked, woke up and wondered how did 40 years go by?”
Steve is a bubbly and outgoing guy, for sure, and while you may think that exposing his career and the negative aspects of the last four decades in a book might make him feel he was putting himself in a vulnerable position, he actually found the experience cathartic.
“It was funny, it was sad, it brought back all the memories, good, bad and ugly. So you know, I can add ‘author’ to my resume of everything I’ve done in my life – which is sure to piss off every English teacher I had in school!”
Indeed, with the release of his book, Steve has well and truly done everything. “What am I, am I a renaissance man?” he asks jokingly. “I’m having fun with it, I mean, might as well! You get one last go at the brass ring!”
These days Steve is constantly doing new things and pushing himself. “I didn’t sit around and waste my life,” he says.
“When I die and I meet God and he goes, ‘What did you do with your life?’ I can say, ‘I did a lot of stuff! Some of it really wasn’t good and I’m sorry about that part, but let’s talk about the good stuff! I was a nice guy, I didn’t sit around the house and watch TV and eat ice cream, I got out there and saw the world, made a lot of music and followed my dream – I’m still doing it after 40 years.’ It’s been a pretty good run, I’ve got nothing to complain about.”
And what of the day Steve greets the pearly gates? What of the people and work he’s left behind? “It’s weird, people are talking about my book and it’s almost like reading your own epitaph! As soon as they start giving you awards for no reason you know you’re dead! ‘A lifetime achievement award, have you picked out your plot yet?!’”
There’s no treading on eggshells for Steve, he tells it like it is, with a wicked honesty and an infectious humour. When all is said and done, whether you can stomach the music of Toto or not, Steve can say he got a pretty good run from it all and will go out still laughing.
“I’m trying to get buried next to the Toto dog from 'The Wizard Of Oz', no joke! They’ve said they’ll give me half of the plot next to the dog – I will have the last laugh!”
2018-2019 Falls Festival Dates
28-31 Dec - Lorne (Victoria)29-31 Dec - Marion Bay (Tasmania)
31 Dec-2 Jan - Byron Bay (NSW)
5-6 Jan - Fremantle (WA)
Falls Festival Sideshows
Thu 3 Jan - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)Fri 4 Jan - Festival Hall (Melbourne)
