Steve Lukather
Encyclopedia
Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American
guitarist
, singer, songwriter
, arranger
, and record producer
best known for his work with the rock band Toto
. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer
, arranger
, and session guitarist
on more than 1,500 albums. He was also a member of jazz fusion
band Los Lobotomys, a collaboration of notable session musicians. While his work with Toto was predominantly based on pop rock
music, Lukather's solo and side-project work spans many genres including rock
, progressive rock
, jazz
and funk.
Session keyboardist David Paich
and session drummer Jeff Porcaro
were high school friends with Lukather. Lukather was invited to join in forming their band, Toto, in 1976 when Lukather was nineteen years old. He was a member of Toto from that time until the band split up in 2008. Lukather's reputation as a guitarist and his association with Paich and Porcaro, who were also established artists, allowed him to secure a solid flow of session work in the 1970s and 1980s. He is a prolific songwriter, writing or co-writing many songs for Toto and other artists. His career has encompassed hundreds of performances and album appearances with Toto and other well-known musicians. Lukather has been nominated for twelve Grammy awards, and has won five times.
Lukather is known for his efficiency in the studio, often recording tracks in one take using minimal sound processing. While he once used many guitar effects in the studio and on stage, he now frequently disparages such practice, and instead advocates clean tones and minimal studio processing. Lukather plays primarily a signature electric guitar manufactured by Ernie Ball Music Man
bearing his nickname, Luke. He also plays Yamaha and Ovation acoustic guitars.
Steven Lee Lukather was born on October 21, 1957 in San Fernando Valley
, California
. He first played keyboards
and drums
, and then taught himself how to play the guitar starting at age seven, when his father bought him a Kay acoustic guitar
and a copy of The Beatles
album Meet the Beatles. Lukather claims that the album "changed his life" and that he was greatly influenced by the guitar playing of George Harrison
in particular.
In high school, Lukather met David Paich and the Porcaro brothers (Jeff
, Steve
, and Mike
), all of whom became members of Toto. Lukather, who had been a self-taught musician until then, began taking guitar lessons from a musician named Jimmy Wyble
, who expanded Lukather's knowledge of different aspects of music, such as orchestration
. It was during this period that Lukather became interested in the idea of becoming a session musician, which provided opportunities to play with a variety of famous musicians.
Jeff Porcaro, who was playing drums with Steely Dan
, became a mentor to Lukather and furthered his interest in session work. Lukather's first job in the music industry was studio work with Boz Scaggs
, after which Paich and Porcaro—who had become prominent session musicians in their own right—asked Lukather to join them in forming Toto in 1976, along with Bobby Kimball
, David Hungate
, and Steve Porcaro
. Lukather turned down an offer to join Miles Davis
's band because Toto was leaving the next day for a world tour.
After the 1990 dismissal of their fourth vocalist, Jean-Michel Byron
, Toto was without a lead singer until around 1997; Lukather assumed most of the vocal duties for the band during that time. He performed lead vocals for every track on 1992's Kingdom of Desire
and 1995's Tambu except for two instrumental tracks. The Tambu single "I Will Remember", co-written by Lukather and Stan Lynch
, reached #64 on UK charts. Some Tambu reviewers contrasted Lukather's vocals with those of former singers such as Bobby Kimball (and indeed, panned the entire album), some concert reviewers noted that he struggled vocally on certain songs, and a number of backup singers and guest vocalists accompanied the band's live shows during that period. It was not until Toto brought back former lead singers Joseph Williams and Bobby Kimball to collaborate on 1998's Toto XX
that Lukather returned to lead & backup vocals.
Lukather's songwriting contributions grew from a smattering of tracks on early Toto albums to almost every track from the late 1980s. He wrote very few of Toto's earlier hits by himself however, with the exception of the hit single "I Won't Hold You Back
" from Toto IV
. Lukather has admitted that writing lyrics is not one of his strengths. Thus, he collaborates with other band members to complete song ideas and make them into viable album tracks. Lukather contributed to all but one song on Toto's 2006 album Falling in Between
.
Lukather has frequently expressed frustration in the media over Toto's decline in popularity in the United States since peaking with Toto IV. The American segment of the Falling in Between tour was not well-attended, and Lukather commented that American audiences prefer the mainstream "cookie-cutter" music typically heard on the radio. He acknowledged that Toto maintains a large overseas fan base, but has criticized the American music industry (MTV
in particular), and characterized the industry as catering to "any bonehead with a computer and a cute haircut". He has also criticized popular guitar magazines for covering unremarkable guitarists.
In June 2008, Lukather decided to leave Toto. This decision directly led to the official dissolution of the band. On his website, Lukather stated: "Honestly I have just had enough. This is NOT a break. It is over. I just can't do it anymore and at 50 years old I wanted to start over and give it one last try on my own." In February 2010, the band announced that they would reunite to support Toto bassist Mike Porcaro, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease
.
, playing with a wide range of artists from Aretha Franklin
to Warren Zevon
. He performed the guitar solo for Olivia Newton-John
's popular 1981 single "Physical
", which was Billboard's #1 single of the 1980s. He has performed on over 1,000 records spanning 36 years. He largely credits fellow Toto members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro for getting him exposure in the industry.
Notable sessions include: Michael Jackson's
"Beat It
" and "Human Nature
" (co-written by Toto member Steve Porcaro
), Stevie Nicks
' "Stand Back
" single from Nicks' 1983 album The Wild Heart
, several tracks from the Don Henley
album I Can't Stand Still
, several tracks from the Jackson Browne
album Lives in the Balance
, two tracks from the Lionel Richie
album Can't Slow Down, and the Richard Marx
album Repeat Offender. Besides sessions, Lukather has also written hits for such artists as The Tubes
and George Benson
, for whose song "Turn Your Love Around
" Lukather won a Grammy award.
Lukather has had a very successful solo career for 23 years and released six solo studio albums: Lukather
(1989), Candyman
(1994), Luke
(1997), Santamental
(2003), Ever Changing Times
(2008) and All's Well That Ends Well
(2010).
, Richard Marx
, Jan Hammer
, Steve Stevens
, and fellow Toto members Jeff Porcaro and David Paich. Lukather has said that the album was produced very simply, and that a lot of ambient studio noise, such as counting off on various tracks, is audible on it. He also credits bands Pink Floyd
, Cream
, Led Zeppelin
, and guitarists Jimi Hendrix
, David Gilmour
, Jeff Beck
, and Eric Clapton
as influences on the album. The single "Swear Your Love" came from the album.
and David Paich participated as well as David Garfield, John Peña, Chris Trujillo, Lenny Castro
, Larry Klimas, Fee Waybill
, Richard Page
, and Paul Rodgers
. Lukather recorded the album in mostly live takes with little overdubbing
.
Some international fans were confused about whether Candyman was a Steve Lukather album or a Los Lobotomys album. The Japanese and US releases of Candyman were under the Los Lobotomys name rather than Lukather's; the Japanese release also featured a version of the Hendrix song "Red House
." The European release of Candyman was credited to Lukather alone. Additionally, the touring band for the album was sometimes introduced as "Steve Lukather and Los Lobotomys" and sometimes as just "Los Lobotomys."
The song "Borrowed Time" was released as a single in Europe and included "Red House" as a B-side
.
, harmonica
s, Mellotron
s, and experimental guitar, bass, and drum sounds.
The US version of Luke includes a version of the Jeff Beck
song "The Pump." The song "Hate Everything About You" was released as a single.
, and Steve Vai
and drummer Gregg Bissonette
. When Lukather's record company, Bop City Records, approached him about recording a Christmas album, he quipped, "Why me? Do I look like Father Christmas to you mofos?" The company wanted him to do the record knowing he would approach the project with a unique angle and produce something different from the typical Christmas album. Lukather recruited keyboardist Jeff Babko and guitarist Larry Carlton, who Lukather had worked with previously, to help arrange the songs. The project was a challenge to Lukather, who had to be creative to turn the traditionally simple songs into something interesting for listeners without altering the fundamental structures. He said of the album, "But I never dreamt in a million years that I'd do a Christmas record."
The musicians Lukather chose for Santamental, most of whom were involved in the hard rock genre, lent a heavy feel to the album. Van Halen recorded guitar tracks for "Joy to the World" after not having been in the studio for some time but immediately made an impression on Lukather with his level of playing. Vai provided guitar work for "Carol of the Bells" along with Lukather's son Trevor, then 14 years old. Slash, who recorded his part in one take, played on the Lukather/Stan Lynch composition "Broken Heart for Christmas". Lukather spoke highly of Slash after the project, calling him the "Keith Richards
of our generation". Well-known session guitarist Michael Landau
played on the song "Look Out For Angels", and there is a version of "Jingle Bells" featuring a big band
and sung by Sammy Davis, Jr.
s such as Bill Champlin
, Abe Laboriel, Jr., Leland Sklar
, Steve Porcaro, and from Lukather's son Trevor. Joseph Williams provides backing vocals on five of the tracks. Lukather wrote the songs for the album with his son and a handful of other musicians using basic equipment in a hotel room. His song-writing philosophy is that if a song sounds good with only guitars and vocals, it will likely sound good after a full production.
Lukather collaborated with Grammy Award
-winning engineer and producer Steve MacMillan on the project, with the goal of introducing some new methods and techniques into the recording process. Lukather described the final tracks as "perfectly imperfect", preferring to record with the five-piece backing band in one room and in one take. MacMillan encouraged Lukather to use "organic, vintage tones". As a result, Lukather eschewed effects
and played the guitar parts directly through tube amplifiers manufactured by Marshall
, Vox
, and some boutique brands. Lukather commented that MacMillan served as a valuable "second set of ears" in the studio, often encouraging him to keep parts that he normally would have discarded.
and Larry Carlton
and others. In 1985, Lukather released the instructional "Star Licks" guitar video featuring many of the guitar parts from the first five Toto studio albums. It was released on DVD
in 2005.
Lukather has been a long-time member of the band Los Lobotomys, a collaboration of session musicians including jazz and be-bop player David "Creatchy" Garfield and Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro. Los Lobotomys formed in the mid-1980s and played regular shows in the Los Angeles area, often inviting whatever session musicians happened to be available and in the area. They recorded an album under the Los Lobotomys name in 1989, and the band was heavily involved in the recording of Lukather's Candyman. Los Lobotomys recorded a live album in 2004 comprising several tracks from Candyman and from the 1989 album.
In 1998, Lukather received an invitation to tour Japan with fellow guitarist Larry Carlton after Japanese promoters requested that Carlton's annual tours each be different from the last. Lukather and Carlton exchanged some recorded material and decided that a collaboration would be interesting. Lukather was flattered by the invitation to tour with Carlton, citing him as his favorite guitarist. Lukather speaks highly of their stage efforts, although the two were admittedly outside their normal realm of work. He stated in an interview that "you can hear us having fun on the record—you can hear the smiles on our faces."
After several shows, the duo realized that they should record their collaboration even if just for their own use. Guitarist and producer Steve Vai heard one of the subsequent recordings and expressed interest in releasing it under his Favored Nations
label, also home to artists such as Eric Johnson
and Dweezil Zappa
. Vai and Lukather mixed and produced the recording, which is said to be a mixture of jazz, blues, and fusion music. The resulting album, No Substitutions: Live in Osaka
, won a 2001 Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Album reviewers described Lukather as having a heavier style than Carlton. Lukather and Carlton later did an international tour in support of the album.
In 2005, Lukather was noted for his rendition of the Jimi Hendrix song "Little Wing
" at a gala 90th birthday celebration for jazz guitarist Les Paul
.
Lukather has also been participating in projects such as the Fermatta Master Class Series showing his support for music education around the world.
In 2012, Lukather will feature on the G3 Tour
alongside Joe Satriani
and Steve Vai
.
He is now husband to Shawn, and father to Lily-Rose, born in 2008.
Lukather resides in the Los Angeles area. His son Trevor is an active professional guitarist, frequently performing and now and then attending events with his father.
With Toto
With Los Lobotomys
Influenced by blues-rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page
, jazz guitarists such as Larry Carlton and Al Di Meola
and session players like Jay Graydon, Larry Carlton, Dean Parks, Ray Parker jr., Lee Ritenour, and many more..., Lukather is known for a "melodic and intense" playing style. His vibrato is very pronounced and his exaggerated wide bends are instantly recognizable. Well versed in theory, Lukather can follow chord charts and changes as a jazz musician would, and this ability enhances his value as a session musician. In interviews, he has explained how he thinks of the guitar in a "chordal cluster" format, and not the typical "linear scale" format.
Lukather's approach to engineering his sound in the studio is usually very simple. He is not known for doing a large number of takes or for incorporating much overdubbing—rather, he has a reputation for doing only single takes for many parts. Although he enjoys the technical mastery that is possible in the studio, Lukather prefers the dynamic of performing live on stage. He has stated that dynamics
are the most important element of producing a recording with good sound quality.
Despite being known in the past for having an intricate effects rack, Lukather now claims to play mostly free of effects after seeing some overdone commercial effects processors named after him. Other than some delay
, he has not used many effects in recent years. He has held a long association with Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics, who designed and manufactured key elements of Lukather's effects rack. Lukather is one of the few official endorsers of EMG pickups, having collaborated on his own Lukather signature "SL20" pickup system. The pickup system is a single unit incorporating two different types of pickups (including a humbucker
), single volume and tone knobs, and a pickguard
.
Lukather is an endorser of Music Man
guitars and has a signature model named "Luke". The guitar started out with only MusicMan specifications (including a Floyd Rose locking vibrato, later replaced with a vintage-style fulcrum bridge), but in 1998 the manufacturer made several customizations to the model to better fit Lukather's playing style. Music Man also produces a Ball Family Reserve Steve Lukather Model that features upgraded hardware and materials. Lukather has also been known to play Ibanez
, Tyler
and Valley Arts
guitars as well as a vintage Gibson Les Paul
. His relationship with Ibanez and Valley Arts yielded an endorsement for a brief time in the 1980s with the release of the Ibanez Roadstar RS1010SL and Valley Arts Custom Pro Steve Lukather Signature guitars in 1984/85.
Edison Award:
Musicians Hall of Fame:
Eddie Christiani Award:
Guitar Player's Gallery of the Greats:
Gibson:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
best known for his work with the rock band Toto
Toto (band)
Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, and session guitarist
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
on more than 1,500 albums. He was also a member of jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
band Los Lobotomys, a collaboration of notable session musicians. While his work with Toto was predominantly based on pop rock
Pop rock
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music...
music, Lukather's solo and side-project work spans many genres including rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and funk.
Session keyboardist David Paich
David Paich
David Frank Paich is a session musician, keyboard player, recording producer, arranger, vocalist and main composer of the Los Angeles-based rock/pop band Toto. David is the son of the late jazz composer, musician, and arranger Marty Paich...
and session drummer Jeff Porcaro
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas "Jeff" Porcaro was an American session drummer and a founding member of the Grammy Award winning band Toto. Porcaro was one of the most recorded drummers in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions...
were high school friends with Lukather. Lukather was invited to join in forming their band, Toto, in 1976 when Lukather was nineteen years old. He was a member of Toto from that time until the band split up in 2008. Lukather's reputation as a guitarist and his association with Paich and Porcaro, who were also established artists, allowed him to secure a solid flow of session work in the 1970s and 1980s. He is a prolific songwriter, writing or co-writing many songs for Toto and other artists. His career has encompassed hundreds of performances and album appearances with Toto and other well-known musicians. Lukather has been nominated for twelve Grammy awards, and has won five times.
Lukather is known for his efficiency in the studio, often recording tracks in one take using minimal sound processing. While he once used many guitar effects in the studio and on stage, he now frequently disparages such practice, and instead advocates clean tones and minimal studio processing. Lukather plays primarily a signature electric guitar manufactured by Ernie Ball Music Man
Music Man (company)
Music Man is an American guitar, and bass guitar manufacturer. It is a division of the Ernie Ball corporation.-Early years:The Music Man story began in 1971 when Forrest White and Tom Walker talked with Leo Fender about starting a company they would call Tri-Sonic, Inc...
bearing his nickname, Luke. He also plays Yamaha and Ovation acoustic guitars.
Early life
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. He first played keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
and drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, and then taught himself how to play the guitar starting at age seven, when his father bought him a Kay acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
and a copy of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
album Meet the Beatles. Lukather claims that the album "changed his life" and that he was greatly influenced by the guitar playing of George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
in particular.
In high school, Lukather met David Paich and the Porcaro brothers (Jeff
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas "Jeff" Porcaro was an American session drummer and a founding member of the Grammy Award winning band Toto. Porcaro was one of the most recorded drummers in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions...
, Steve
Steve Porcaro
Steven Maxwell "Steve" Porcaro is an American keyboardist and composer, who was an original member of the rock/pop band Toto....
, and Mike
Mike Porcaro
Mike Porcaro is best noted as the bass player in the Grammy Award winning band, Toto.He is the middle brother of Toto members Jeff Porcaro and Steve Porcaro...
), all of whom became members of Toto. Lukather, who had been a self-taught musician until then, began taking guitar lessons from a musician named Jimmy Wyble
Jimmy Wyble
James Otis Wyble was an American guitarist, noted for his contributions to both jazz and Western swing. He was born in Port Arthur, Texas and died in Los Angeles, California....
, who expanded Lukather's knowledge of different aspects of music, such as orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
. It was during this period that Lukather became interested in the idea of becoming a session musician, which provided opportunities to play with a variety of famous musicians.
Jeff Porcaro, who was playing drums with Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
, became a mentor to Lukather and furthered his interest in session work. Lukather's first job in the music industry was studio work with Boz Scaggs
Boz Scaggs
William Royce "Boz" Scaggs is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He gained fame in the 1970s with several Top 20 hit singles in the United States, along with the #2 album, Silk Degrees. Scaggs continues to write, record music and tour.-Early life and career:Scaggs was born in Canton,...
, after which Paich and Porcaro—who had become prominent session musicians in their own right—asked Lukather to join them in forming Toto in 1976, along with Bobby Kimball
Bobby Kimball
Robert Troy "Bobby" Kimball is an American singer, best known as the longtime frontman of the rock band Toto.- Early life:...
, David Hungate
David Hungate
David Hungate is a bass player noted as a member of Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1977-1982. Boz Scaggs's Silk Degrees album of 1976 included Hungate and several other future members of Toto...
, and Steve Porcaro
Steve Porcaro
Steven Maxwell "Steve" Porcaro is an American keyboardist and composer, who was an original member of the rock/pop band Toto....
. Lukather turned down an offer to join Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
's band because Toto was leaving the next day for a world tour.
Toto
Lukather was the lead guitarist for Toto, as well as a lead and backing vocalist and composer. In the early years of the band's history, David Paich wrote most of the songs that appeared on Toto records and in the charts. Lukather also credits Jeff Porcaro for his leadership within the band. Lukather's role in Toto evolved, and following Porcaro's death Lukather felt that he needed to step up and make sure the band kept going. Lukather won three of his five Grammy awards for work with Toto, twice as an artist and once as a producer. Toto has sold over 32 million records.Jean-Michel Byron
Jean-Michel Byron is a South African born rock vocalist and lyricist, perhaps best known internationally as the lead vocalist for Los Angeles rock band Toto for their first Greatest Hits album, Past to Present, as well as the band's Greatest Hits Live...and More project...
, Toto was without a lead singer until around 1997; Lukather assumed most of the vocal duties for the band during that time. He performed lead vocals for every track on 1992's Kingdom of Desire
Kingdom of Desire
Kingdom of Desire is the eighth studio album by Toto, released in 1992. Guitarist Steve Lukather assumed sole lead vocal duties, as their previous lead singer, Jean-Michel Byron, was sacked following the Past To Present tour...
and 1995's Tambu except for two instrumental tracks. The Tambu single "I Will Remember", co-written by Lukather and Stan Lynch
Stan Lynch
Stanley Joseph "Stan" Lynch is an American songwriter and record producer. He was the original drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for 18 years until his departure in 1994.- Early years :...
, reached #64 on UK charts. Some Tambu reviewers contrasted Lukather's vocals with those of former singers such as Bobby Kimball (and indeed, panned the entire album), some concert reviewers noted that he struggled vocally on certain songs, and a number of backup singers and guest vocalists accompanied the band's live shows during that period. It was not until Toto brought back former lead singers Joseph Williams and Bobby Kimball to collaborate on 1998's Toto XX
Toto XX
Toto XX: 1977-1997 is a compilation album by Toto to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The album features rare original demos, outtakes, previously unreleased recordings and live tracks from the bands 20-year career.- Track listing :...
that Lukather returned to lead & backup vocals.
Lukather's songwriting contributions grew from a smattering of tracks on early Toto albums to almost every track from the late 1980s. He wrote very few of Toto's earlier hits by himself however, with the exception of the hit single "I Won't Hold You Back
I Won't Hold You Back
"I Won't Hold You Back" is a ballad by American rock band Toto, written and sung by Steve Lukather for their fourth album, Toto IV, released in 1982 . The song reached the top ten, peaking at number ten in the U.S...
" from Toto IV
Toto IV
Toto IV is the fourth studio album by American band Toto released in 1982 .The album received six Grammy Awards including Record of the Year for "Rosanna", Album of the Year for Toto IV and Producer of the Year for the band. It reached number four on the Billboard Pop Albums chart shortly after its...
. Lukather has admitted that writing lyrics is not one of his strengths. Thus, he collaborates with other band members to complete song ideas and make them into viable album tracks. Lukather contributed to all but one song on Toto's 2006 album Falling in Between
Falling In Between
Falling in Between is the 12th studio album by veteran American rock musicians, Toto. The album was released in February 2006 on the Italian label Frontiers Records, with a world tour to follow. It was the band's first studio release since Through the Looking Glass in 2002, and the first to include...
.
Lukather has frequently expressed frustration in the media over Toto's decline in popularity in the United States since peaking with Toto IV. The American segment of the Falling in Between tour was not well-attended, and Lukather commented that American audiences prefer the mainstream "cookie-cutter" music typically heard on the radio. He acknowledged that Toto maintains a large overseas fan base, but has criticized the American music industry (MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
in particular), and characterized the industry as catering to "any bonehead with a computer and a cute haircut". He has also criticized popular guitar magazines for covering unremarkable guitarists.
In June 2008, Lukather decided to leave Toto. This decision directly led to the official dissolution of the band. On his website, Lukather stated: "Honestly I have just had enough. This is NOT a break. It is over. I just can't do it anymore and at 50 years old I wanted to start over and give it one last try on my own." In February 2010, the band announced that they would reunite to support Toto bassist Mike Porcaro, who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a form of motor neuron disease caused by the degeneration of upper and lower neurons, located in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and the cortical neurons that provide their efferent input...
.
Session work
Lukather achieved notability in the 1970s and 1980s as one of the most sought-after session guitarists in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, playing with a wide range of artists from Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
to Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
. He performed the guitar solo for Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
's popular 1981 single "Physical
Physical (Olivia Newton-John song)
"Physical" is a song by Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John, released in September 1981. The song was an immediate success, shipping 2 million copies in the United States, being certified Platinum, and spending 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ultimately becoming Newton-John's...
", which was Billboard's #1 single of the 1980s. He has performed on over 1,000 records spanning 36 years. He largely credits fellow Toto members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro for getting him exposure in the industry.
Notable sessions include: Michael Jackson's
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
"Beat It
Beat It
"Beat It" is a song written and performed by American recording artist Michael Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones . It is the third single from the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller . Eddie Van Halen was hired to add the song's distinctive overdriven guitar solo, but was prevented by his...
" and "Human Nature
Human Nature (Michael Jackson song)
"Human Nature" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written and composed by Steve Porcaro and John Bettis, and produced by Quincy Jones. It is the fifth single from the singer's sixth solo album, Thriller . Initially, Porcaro had recorded a rough demo of the song on a...
" (co-written by Toto member Steve Porcaro
Steve Porcaro
Steven Maxwell "Steve" Porcaro is an American keyboardist and composer, who was an original member of the rock/pop band Toto....
), Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
' "Stand Back
Stand Back
Stand Back is the fourth studio album by Canadian rock band April Wine, released in 1975 . It became the first album to ever achieve platinum sales in Canada.-Track listing:All tracks written by Myles Goodwyn unless otherwise noted....
" single from Nicks' 1983 album The Wild Heart
The Wild Heart (album)
The Wild Heart is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks. Released on June 10, 1983, a year after Fleetwood Mac's successful #1 album, Mirage, it reached #5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts and achieved platinum status on September 12th, 1983...
, several tracks from the Don Henley
Don Henley
Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up...
album I Can't Stand Still
I Can't Stand Still
I Can't Stand Still is the first solo album by Don Henley, released in 1982 originally on Asylum Records then re-released in 1999 by Warner Bros. Records. The album went gold, reached #24 on the charts, and released three singles, including the huge hit "Dirty Laundry," which reached #3 on the...
, several tracks from the Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
album Lives in the Balance
Lives in the Balance
Critical press focused on the political direction of Lives in the Balance. Music critic William Rulhmann wrote "...if Browne sounded more involved in his music than he had in some time, the specificity of its approach inevitably limited its appeal and its long-term significance." Critic Robert...
, two tracks from the Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
album Can't Slow Down, and the Richard Marx
Richard Marx
Richard Noel Marx is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He had a string of hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including "Endless Summer Nights", "Right Here Waiting", "Now and Forever", and "Hazard"...
album Repeat Offender. Besides sessions, Lukather has also written hits for such artists as The Tubes
The Tubes
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics...
and George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, for whose song "Turn Your Love Around
Turn Your Love Around
"Turn Your Love Around" is one of many major R&B, jazz and pop hit singles for George Benson. The song was written to help fill out Benson's 1981 greatest hits album, The George Benson Collection. It reached number one on the soul singles charts and number five on the Billboard Hot 100 singles...
" Lukather won a Grammy award.
Solo albums
Lukather
Lukather is the first solo album from Toto guitarist Steve Lukather released in 1989.-History:Lukather came about after Toto had been recording and playing for eleven years and the band consensus was to take a break. Since Lukather had a number of songs written that did not appear on Toto albums,...
(1989), Candyman
Candyman (album)
Candyman is the second solo album from Steve Lukather. It was a collaboration of musicians who were for the most part also in Lukather's band Los Lobotomys. Toto familiars Simon Phillips and David Paich participated as well as David Garfield, John Pêna, Chris Trujillo, Lenny Castro, Larry Klimas,...
(1994), Luke
Luke (album)
Luke is the third solo album by Steve Lukather released in 1997. It was a much different and more introspective album than Lukather's previous two solo efforts. The album is a concentrated collection of many of Lukather's musical influences, and he deliberately let those influences come out on the...
(1997), Santamental
Santamental
-History:When Lukather's record company, Bop City Records, approached him about recording a Christmas album, he quipped, "Why me? Do I look like Father Christmas to you mofos?" The company wanted him to do the record knowing he would approach the project with a unique angle and produce something...
(2003), Ever Changing Times
Ever Changing Times
Ever Changing Times is the 5th solo album of Steve Lukather. It's also the first album of him since he left Toto. In March 2008, a site was launched in order to promote the album...
(2008) and All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well (Steve Lukather album)
All's Well That Ends Well is the sixth studio album by Steve Lukather, released on vinyl and as a jewel case CD on October 11, 2010 by Mascot Records. In Europe a limited edition Digibook was also released, containing a booklet with studio pictures and liner notes from Lukather and producer CJ...
(2010).
Lukather
Lukather came about after Toto had been recording and playing for 11 years, and the consensus among the band members was to take a break. As Lukather had written a number of songs that did not appear on Toto albums, he decided to pursue a solo album, with the intention of presenting a dimension of his music that fans would be unfamiliar with. He collaborated with many notable musicians, including Eddie Van HalenEddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, Richard Marx
Richard Marx
Richard Noel Marx is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He had a string of hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including "Endless Summer Nights", "Right Here Waiting", "Now and Forever", and "Hazard"...
, Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...
, Steve Stevens
Steve Stevens
Steve Stevens is an American guitarist and songwriter.He is best known for playing for other artists and less known for his critically acclaimed solo efforts , collaborations Steve Stevens (born as Steven Schneider on May 5, 1959, in Brooklyn, New York) is an American guitarist and songwriter.He...
, and fellow Toto members Jeff Porcaro and David Paich. Lukather has said that the album was produced very simply, and that a lot of ambient studio noise, such as counting off on various tracks, is audible on it. He also credits bands Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
, Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, and guitarists Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
, Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, and Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
as influences on the album. The single "Swear Your Love" came from the album.
Candyman
Candyman, recorded and mastered from March 1993 through November 1993, was a collaboration of musicians who were for the most part also in Lukather's band Los Lobotomys. Toto familiars Simon PhillipsSimon Phillips
Simon Phillips is an English jazz, pop and rock drummer.-Career:Phillips began to play professionally at the age of twelve in his father's Dixieland band for four years. He was then offered the chance to play in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar...
and David Paich participated as well as David Garfield, John Peña, Chris Trujillo, Lenny Castro
Lenny Castro
Lenny Castro is an American freelancing percussionist in the studio recording industry in the Los Angeles area.-Early life:Castro is a percussionist of Puerto Rican descent and was born and raised in New York City. His father, Hector Castro, played the keyboard in a Latin style and gave his son...
, Larry Klimas, Fee Waybill
Fee Waybill
John Waldo Waybill , known as Fee Waybill, is the lead singer and songwriter of the band the Tubes...
, Richard Page
Richard Page (musician)
Richard Page , is an American musician who is the lead singer and bassist of 1980's US band Mr. Mister and is now a songwriter and solo artist.-Early life:...
, and Paul Rodgers
Paul Rodgers
Paul Bernard Rodgers is an English rock singer-songwriter, best known for his success in the 1970s as a member of Free and Bad Company. After stints in two less successful bands in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Firm and The Law, he became a solo artist. He has recently toured and recorded with...
. Lukather recorded the album in mostly live takes with little overdubbing
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
.
Some international fans were confused about whether Candyman was a Steve Lukather album or a Los Lobotomys album. The Japanese and US releases of Candyman were under the Los Lobotomys name rather than Lukather's; the Japanese release also featured a version of the Hendrix song "Red House
Red House (song)
"Red House" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and originally recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966. The song, a slow twelve-bar blues, "is one of the most traditional in sound and form of all his official recordings". It was developed during his pre-Experience days while Hendrix was...
." The European release of Candyman was credited to Lukather alone. Additionally, the touring band for the album was sometimes introduced as "Steve Lukather and Los Lobotomys" and sometimes as just "Los Lobotomys."
The song "Borrowed Time" was released as a single in Europe and included "Red House" as a B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
.
Luke
Released in 1997, Luke is a much different and more introspective album than Lukather's previous two solo efforts. The album is a concentrated collection of many of Lukather's musical influences, and he deliberately let those influences come out on the album. Luke is an experimental album, and like Candyman it was recorded mostly in live sessions with minimal overdubbing and processing afterwards. Luke also features instrumentation not heard on previous Lukather albums such as pedal steelPedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
, harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
s, Mellotron
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
s, and experimental guitar, bass, and drum sounds.
The US version of Luke includes a version of the Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
song "The Pump." The song "Hate Everything About You" was released as a single.
Santamental
Santamental is a collaborative project featuring several prominent musicians such as guitarists Edward Van Halen, SlashSlash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
, and Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
and drummer Gregg Bissonette
Gregg Bissonette
Gregg Bissonette, is an American drummer. Gregg was born in a family of musicians. His father Bud Bissonette plays drums, his mother Phyllis plays piano and vibraphone, and brother Matt Bissonette plays bass guitar. Gregg started learning to play the drums at age 5 from his father...
. When Lukather's record company, Bop City Records, approached him about recording a Christmas album, he quipped, "Why me? Do I look like Father Christmas to you mofos?" The company wanted him to do the record knowing he would approach the project with a unique angle and produce something different from the typical Christmas album. Lukather recruited keyboardist Jeff Babko and guitarist Larry Carlton, who Lukather had worked with previously, to help arrange the songs. The project was a challenge to Lukather, who had to be creative to turn the traditionally simple songs into something interesting for listeners without altering the fundamental structures. He said of the album, "But I never dreamt in a million years that I'd do a Christmas record."
The musicians Lukather chose for Santamental, most of whom were involved in the hard rock genre, lent a heavy feel to the album. Van Halen recorded guitar tracks for "Joy to the World" after not having been in the studio for some time but immediately made an impression on Lukather with his level of playing. Vai provided guitar work for "Carol of the Bells" along with Lukather's son Trevor, then 14 years old. Slash, who recorded his part in one take, played on the Lukather/Stan Lynch composition "Broken Heart for Christmas". Lukather spoke highly of Slash after the project, calling him the "Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
of our generation". Well-known session guitarist Michael Landau
Michael Landau
Michael Landau is a prolific session musician and guitarist who has played on a large number of albums since the early 1980s with artists as varied as Seal, James Taylor, Helen Watson, Richard Marx, Steve Perry, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis...
played on the song "Look Out For Angels", and there is a version of "Jingle Bells" featuring a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
and sung by Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
Ever Changing Times
Ever Changing Times, released on February 22, 2008, is a collection of songs Lukather recorded in 2007 while between Toto tours. The album contains contributions from a wide assortment of fellow session musicianSession musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s such as Bill Champlin
Bill Champlin
William Bradford "Bill" Champlin is an American singer, guitarist, keyboard player, arranger, producer, and songwriter. His performance work is principally associated with the bands Chicago and the Sons of Champlin...
, Abe Laboriel, Jr., Leland Sklar
Leland Sklar
Leland "Lee" Bruce Sklar is an American musician, singer-songwriter and film score composer. A prominent bass guitarist, Sklar has contributed to thousands of albums as a session musician...
, Steve Porcaro, and from Lukather's son Trevor. Joseph Williams provides backing vocals on five of the tracks. Lukather wrote the songs for the album with his son and a handful of other musicians using basic equipment in a hotel room. His song-writing philosophy is that if a song sounds good with only guitars and vocals, it will likely sound good after a full production.
Lukather collaborated with Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning engineer and producer Steve MacMillan on the project, with the goal of introducing some new methods and techniques into the recording process. Lukather described the final tracks as "perfectly imperfect", preferring to record with the five-piece backing band in one room and in one take. MacMillan encouraged Lukather to use "organic, vintage tones". As a result, Lukather eschewed effects
Effects unit
Effects units are electronic devices that alter how a musical instrument or other audio source sounds. Some effects subtly "color" a sound, while others transform it dramatically. Effects are used during live performances or in the studio, typically with electric guitar, keyboard and bass...
and played the guitar parts directly through tube amplifiers manufactured by Marshall
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
, Vox
Vox (musical equipment)
Vox is a musical equipment manufacturer which is most famous for making the Vox AC30 guitar amplifier, the Vox Continental electric organ, and a series of innovative but commercially unsuccessful electric guitars and bass guitars...
, and some boutique brands. Lukather commented that MacMillan served as a valuable "second set of ears" in the studio, often encouraging him to keep parts that he normally would have discarded.
All's Well That Ends Well
Lukather's sixth studio album, All's Well That Ends Well, was released on October 11, 2010 in Europe and Japan, and November 16 as a digital download worldwide. It draws from Lukather's personal experiences in the two years since Ever Changing Times. While Lukather focused on instrumental writing and production on previous albums but collaborated with lyricists, he wrote much of the lyrics for All's Well That Ends Well himself.Side projects
When not working with Toto, Lukather has participated in numerous side projects such as playing in Toxic Monkey with Bill Evans, Will Lee, Keith Carlock and Steve Weingart and touring with Edgar WinterEdgar Winter
Edgar Holland Winter is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their...
and Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...
and others. In 1985, Lukather released the instructional "Star Licks" guitar video featuring many of the guitar parts from the first five Toto studio albums. It was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2005.
Lukather has been a long-time member of the band Los Lobotomys, a collaboration of session musicians including jazz and be-bop player David "Creatchy" Garfield and Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro. Los Lobotomys formed in the mid-1980s and played regular shows in the Los Angeles area, often inviting whatever session musicians happened to be available and in the area. They recorded an album under the Los Lobotomys name in 1989, and the band was heavily involved in the recording of Lukather's Candyman. Los Lobotomys recorded a live album in 2004 comprising several tracks from Candyman and from the 1989 album.
In 1998, Lukather received an invitation to tour Japan with fellow guitarist Larry Carlton after Japanese promoters requested that Carlton's annual tours each be different from the last. Lukather and Carlton exchanged some recorded material and decided that a collaboration would be interesting. Lukather was flattered by the invitation to tour with Carlton, citing him as his favorite guitarist. Lukather speaks highly of their stage efforts, although the two were admittedly outside their normal realm of work. He stated in an interview that "you can hear us having fun on the record—you can hear the smiles on our faces."
After several shows, the duo realized that they should record their collaboration even if just for their own use. Guitarist and producer Steve Vai heard one of the subsequent recordings and expressed interest in releasing it under his Favored Nations
Favored Nations
Favored Nations is a record label started by guitarist Steve Vai and former Guitar Center owner Ray Scherr in 1999. The first album ever released by Favored Nations was Frank Gambale's Coming to Your Senses in 2000...
label, also home to artists such as Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist. Though he is best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, gospel and country and western music into his recordings...
and Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa
Dweezil Zappa is an American rock guitarist and occasional actor.-Early life:Zappa was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of musician Frank Zappa and Adelaide Gail Sloatman, who worked in business. He is the second of four siblings: his older sister, Moon, younger sister Diva and younger...
. Vai and Lukather mixed and produced the recording, which is said to be a mixture of jazz, blues, and fusion music. The resulting album, No Substitutions: Live in Osaka
No Substitutions: Live in Osaka
No Substitutions: Live in Osaka is a live album by Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather, released in 2001 through Favored Nations. In 2002, the album won Carlton and Lukather the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album.-Reception:-Track listing:...
, won a 2001 Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Album reviewers described Lukather as having a heavier style than Carlton. Lukather and Carlton later did an international tour in support of the album.
In 2005, Lukather was noted for his rendition of the Jimi Hendrix song "Little Wing
Little Wing
"Little Wing" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix. It was first recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience on their 1967 album Axis: Bold as Love...
" at a gala 90th birthday celebration for jazz guitarist Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
.
Lukather has also been participating in projects such as the Fermatta Master Class Series showing his support for music education around the world.
In 2012, Lukather will feature on the G3 Tour
G3 (tour)
G3 is a concert tour organized by guitarist Joe Satriani featuring him alongside two other guitarists. Since its inception in 1996, G3 has toured most years and has featured many guitarists, including Steve Vai , Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Robert Fripp,...
alongside Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
and Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
.
Personal life
Lukather married Marie Currie (twin sister of The Runaways' Cherie Currie) in 1981. They had two children together: Cristina, born in 1985, and Trevor, in 1987. They later divorced in 1994.He is now husband to Shawn, and father to Lily-Rose, born in 2008.
Lukather resides in the Los Angeles area. His son Trevor is an active professional guitarist, frequently performing and now and then attending events with his father.
Discography
Solo- LukatherLukatherLukather is the first solo album from Toto guitarist Steve Lukather released in 1989.-History:Lukather came about after Toto had been recording and playing for eleven years and the band consensus was to take a break. Since Lukather had a number of songs written that did not appear on Toto albums,...
(1989) - CandymanCandyman (album)Candyman is the second solo album from Steve Lukather. It was a collaboration of musicians who were for the most part also in Lukather's band Los Lobotomys. Toto familiars Simon Phillips and David Paich participated as well as David Garfield, John Pêna, Chris Trujillo, Lenny Castro, Larry Klimas,...
(1994) - LukeLuke (album)Luke is the third solo album by Steve Lukather released in 1997. It was a much different and more introspective album than Lukather's previous two solo efforts. The album is a concentrated collection of many of Lukather's musical influences, and he deliberately let those influences come out on the...
(1997) - No Substitutions: Live in OsakaNo Substitutions: Live in OsakaNo Substitutions: Live in Osaka is a live album by Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather, released in 2001 through Favored Nations. In 2002, the album won Carlton and Lukather the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album.-Reception:-Track listing:...
(2001) - SantamentalSantamental-History:When Lukather's record company, Bop City Records, approached him about recording a Christmas album, he quipped, "Why me? Do I look like Father Christmas to you mofos?" The company wanted him to do the record knowing he would approach the project with a unique angle and produce something...
(2003) - Ever Changing TimesEver Changing TimesEver Changing Times is the 5th solo album of Steve Lukather. It's also the first album of him since he left Toto. In March 2008, a site was launched in order to promote the album...
(2008) - All's Well That Ends WellAll's Well That Ends Well (Steve Lukather album)All's Well That Ends Well is the sixth studio album by Steve Lukather, released on vinyl and as a jewel case CD on October 11, 2010 by Mascot Records. In Europe a limited edition Digibook was also released, containing a booklet with studio pictures and liner notes from Lukather and producer CJ...
(2010)
With Toto
With Los Lobotomys
- Los Lobotomys (1989)
Style and equipment
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, jazz guitarists such as Larry Carlton and Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola
Al Di Meola is an acclaimed American jazz fusion and Latin guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin. With a musical career that has spanned more than three decades, he has become respected as one of the most influential guitarists in jazz to date...
and session players like Jay Graydon, Larry Carlton, Dean Parks, Ray Parker jr., Lee Ritenour, and many more..., Lukather is known for a "melodic and intense" playing style. His vibrato is very pronounced and his exaggerated wide bends are instantly recognizable. Well versed in theory, Lukather can follow chord charts and changes as a jazz musician would, and this ability enhances his value as a session musician. In interviews, he has explained how he thinks of the guitar in a "chordal cluster" format, and not the typical "linear scale" format.
Lukather's approach to engineering his sound in the studio is usually very simple. He is not known for doing a large number of takes or for incorporating much overdubbing—rather, he has a reputation for doing only single takes for many parts. Although he enjoys the technical mastery that is possible in the studio, Lukather prefers the dynamic of performing live on stage. He has stated that dynamics
Dynamics (music)
In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...
are the most important element of producing a recording with good sound quality.
Despite being known in the past for having an intricate effects rack, Lukather now claims to play mostly free of effects after seeing some overdone commercial effects processors named after him. Other than some delay
Delay (audio effect)
Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
, he has not used many effects in recent years. He has held a long association with Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics, who designed and manufactured key elements of Lukather's effects rack. Lukather is one of the few official endorsers of EMG pickups, having collaborated on his own Lukather signature "SL20" pickup system. The pickup system is a single unit incorporating two different types of pickups (including a humbucker
Humbucker
A humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have higher output than a single coil pickup since both coils are connected in series...
), single volume and tone knobs, and a pickguard
Pickguard
A pickguard is a piece of plastic or other laminated material that is placed under the strings on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument...
.
Lukather is an endorser of Music Man
Music Man (company)
Music Man is an American guitar, and bass guitar manufacturer. It is a division of the Ernie Ball corporation.-Early years:The Music Man story began in 1971 when Forrest White and Tom Walker talked with Leo Fender about starting a company they would call Tri-Sonic, Inc...
guitars and has a signature model named "Luke". The guitar started out with only MusicMan specifications (including a Floyd Rose locking vibrato, later replaced with a vintage-style fulcrum bridge), but in 1998 the manufacturer made several customizations to the model to better fit Lukather's playing style. Music Man also produces a Ball Family Reserve Steve Lukather Model that features upgraded hardware and materials. Lukather has also been known to play Ibanez
Ibanez
is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as well as the first brand of guitars to mass produce...
, Tyler
James Tyler Guitars
James Tyler Guitars is a manufacturer of boutique electric guitars. The company is located near Van Nuys, California and was established in 1972. It was long regarded as LA studio musicians' "business secret", and consequently reached the public eye through studio musicians like Dan Huff, Michael...
and Valley Arts
Valley Arts Guitar
Valley Arts Guitar is an American electric guitar manufacturer currently owned and operated by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Mike McGuire and Al Carness founded the company in the mid-1970s in North Hollywood, California, a district of Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley; the name...
guitars as well as a vintage Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
. His relationship with Ibanez and Valley Arts yielded an endorsement for a brief time in the 1980s with the release of the Ibanez Roadstar RS1010SL and Valley Arts Custom Pro Steve Lukather Signature guitars in 1984/85.
Awards
- 1982 - Grammy Award for Best R&B SongGrammy Award for Best R&B SongThe Grammy Award for Best R&B Song has been awarded since 1959. From 1969 to 2000 it was known as the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, from 1962 to 1968 it was known as Best Rhythm & Blues Recording, and from 1959-1961 as Best Rhythm & Blues Performance...
: Steve Lukather, Jay GraydonJay GraydonJay Graydon is a Los Angeles songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, singer, producer, arranger, and recording engineer. He is the winner of two Grammy Awards with twelve Grammy nominations, among them the title "Producer of the Year" and "Best Engineered Recording". Jay Graydon has mastered many...
, Bill ChamplinBill ChamplinWilliam Bradford "Bill" Champlin is an American singer, guitarist, keyboard player, arranger, producer, and songwriter. His performance work is principally associated with the bands Chicago and the Sons of Champlin...
(for George BensonGeorge BensonGeorge Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
) - "Turn Your Love AroundTurn Your Love Around"Turn Your Love Around" is one of many major R&B, jazz and pop hit singles for George Benson. The song was written to help fill out Benson's 1981 greatest hits album, The George Benson Collection. It reached number one on the soul singles charts and number five on the Billboard Hot 100 singles...
" - 1982 - Grammy Award for Producer of the YearGrammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-ClassicalThe Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical has been awarded since 1975. The award had several minor name changes:*from 1975 to 1977, the award was known as Best Producer of the Year...
: TotoToto (band)Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
- Toto IVToto IVToto IV is the fourth studio album by American band Toto released in 1982 .The album received six Grammy Awards including Record of the Year for "Rosanna", Album of the Year for Toto IV and Producer of the Year for the band. It reached number four on the Billboard Pop Albums chart shortly after its... - 1982 - Grammy Award for Album of the YearGrammy Award for Album of the YearThe Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer...
: Toto - Toto IV - 1982 - Grammy Award for Record of the YearGrammy Award for Record of the YearThe Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. It has been awarded since 1959.-History:The honorees through its history have been:*1959-1965: Artist only.*1966-1998: Artist and producer....
: Toto - "RosannaRosanna (song)"Rosanna" is a song by the American rock band Toto, the opening track from their 1982 album Toto IV. This song won the Record of the Year Grammy Award in the 1983 presentations. Rosanna was also nominated for the Song of the Year award...
" - 2002 - Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental AlbumGrammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental AlbumThe Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality instrumental albums in the pop music genre...
: Larry CarltonLarry CarltonLarry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...
& Steve Lukather - No Substitutions: Live in Osaka
Edison Award:
- 1999, Lifetime Achievement Award, Toto, Holland.
Musicians Hall of Fame:
- 2009, Toto induction Musicians Hall of Fame, Nashville, USA.
Eddie Christiani Award:
- 2010, Lifetime achievement guitar award, Holland (along with Jan Akkerman & Brian May).
Guitar Player's Gallery of the Greats:
- Guitar Player Magazine winning Best Studio Player 5 years in a row in the readers poll.
Gibson:
- Voted one of the top 10 session guitar players of all time.