Top 60 Steve Lukather Quotes

I quit drinking, smoking, doing anything bad.

I’m always writing music.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

There are so many myths about us.

I worked with Paul McCartney, and he was lovely.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

That’s all that matters in music: fun.

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.

I’m no musical snob.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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

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

I played on Asia records with Geoff Downes.

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!

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

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

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?

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

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.

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

I’ve had a lot of self-esteem issues.

Self-deprecation is my game.

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.

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

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

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.

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

My son is a professional musician now.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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