As one of the most recorded guitarists in history, Louie Shelton has stories to tell about recording tracks by Boz Scaggs (“Lowdown”), Whitney Houston (her global breakthrough “Saving All My Love for You”) and Lionel Richie (“Hello”), among dozens of others.

But one gig hit particularly close to home — not for Shelton but for Guitar Player.

“I was playing at the Flamingo in Las Vegas with Seals & Crofts,” Shelton recalls of his time with the soft-rock duo from the 1970s. “There was another similar group that was alternating with us. On this particular night, the guitar player of the other group broke his foot, so I had to fill in for him for that show.”

Years later, Shelton had a chance meeting with the anonymous guitarist.

“I never knew who he was until much later, when I walked into the offices of Guitar Player magazine in Monterey, California, to introduce myself to the president,” he says. “And he says to me, ‘You may not remember me, but you filled in for me once in Las Vegas.’ It was Guitar Player magazine founder Bud Eastman!”

Shelton has spoken to us about his time recording for the Monkees. Here, he tells us tales behind two other sessions: one famous, one infamous.

Boz Scaggs’ “Lowdown”

By the 1970s, having made a name for himself through his session work, Shelton decided to expand his horizons by moving into production. Over the next decades he produced albums for soft-rock acts that included his friends Seals & Crofts, Art Garfunkel, and England Dan & John Ford Coley. But he still found himself in demand for studio recording.

“When I did a lot of those big records like the Boz Scaggs, Whitney Houston and Lionel Richie records, I wasn’t even a session player,” he states. “I would occasionally get called asking if I could come in for a session on guitar. And I’d go, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’

“But I had moved into producing Seals & Crofts and was officially a producer on the Seals & Crofts records. And when I started producing Seals & Crofts, I had used [future Toto members] David Paich, Jeff Porcaro and David Hungate [keyboards, drums and bass, respectively].”

In the fall of 1975, Paich, Porcaro and Hungate were at work on Silk Degrees, Boz Scaggs’ 1976 album. After years without a hit — including a memorable session with Duane Allman — Scaggs would score big with Silk Degrees, making him a breakout star and going five time Platinum.

“When David got the gig to do the Boz Scaggs gig, he thought I would be the right guy to join that little group. So he called me and asked me if I wanted to do it.

One of Shelton’s favorite moments on record is the fiery solo he put to tape on “Lowdown.” Scaggs has referred to the song — little more than a two-chord vamp from Em9 to A6 — as “an accident” that didn’t have “a chance in hell” of becoming a hit. Still, they all liked the song and put it on the album as the opener to side two.

“The solo was an improvised thing where they just simply asked me to fill in the spaces,” Shelton says. “We had a chord chart and they instructed me to play something from bar 38 or whatever. All of that stuff was spontaneous. Nothing was planned. I was just listening to the song and reading the chord chart and I improvised something straight off the cuff.

“And it was all a first take. There was no going back and punching in or planning a solo. I just played a clean rhythm with my Telecaster through a ’69 Fender Princeton Reverb amp throughout the song until it was time to play some guitar lines. Then when it came to the guitar solo, I had a little distortion pedal, a basic Boss pedal that cost $30, that I clicked on to add some color to the solo.”

Shelton’s solo was exactly the element the track needed to help it crossover from disco to rock. When a Cleveland disc jockey decided to play “Lowdown” right off the album — it hadn’t been released as a single yet — it quickly caught on with listeners, leading other radio stations to follow suit. It became the album’s breakout hit, serving as a gateway to Silk Degrees’ chart-topping success.

John Lennon’s Rock ’n’ Roll album

But not every session is as successful. Shelton was among the many guitarists — including Larry Carlton — hired to perform on John Lennon’s 1975 solo album, Rock ’n’ Roll. Produced by Phil Spector, the album was made over one year, from October 1973 to October 1974, during a time when Lennon was deep into partying and drinking.

The sessions were so loose that no one can be sure exactly who played on what songs. Carlton says that while he and Leon Russell attempted a recording of “Bony Moronie” with Lennon, the session ended in failure, yet both performers are credited on the album.

Shelton’s experience was quite similar.

“The session was very disorganized,” he recalls. “John pretty much didn’t have much say as far as the arrangement or anything else on that album. When John showed up for the session, Jim Keltner, the drummer on the session, introduced me to him, and John couldn’t have been nicer.

“But Spector, who was producing the session, came in late wearing a black cape, a top hat and the darkest sunglasses he could find. He was supposed to bring in an old Stax R&B record that he and John wanted us to cover for the session, but Spector didn’t have the record with him. They had to send his driver back to the hotel to retrieve it.”

While they waited for the producer to return, Shelton and Lennon chatted.

“We had a conversation about my playing on the Monkees’ ‘Last Train to Clarksville,’” he recalls. “John told me that I had a done a great job on it. But I told him that I was just copying George Harrison!

“It was a great opportunity to just have a chat with him, because I was a big Beatles fan. I was the kind that, even though I'm a guitar player that liked to listen to the jazz guys like Wes Montgomery and others, I’d also grab the next Beatles record and take it home and really listen to it with my sound system. So I was flattered that I even got to do that one session with John.”

When the driver finally returned with the record, Spector ordered Shelton and the crew to listen to the record and figure out their parts by ear.

“We had a lot of musicians in the room, but none of us were given a chart,” the guitarist explains. “Usually there's at least a chord chart. If you’ve got five or six musicians, you’d want to give them a chord chart but, instead we had to listen to the record and do our own chord charts.”

At the outset of Shelton’s session career, his gear had been limited to just a ’64 Fender Telecaster and a ’64 Fender Super Reverb combo. “Before all the session gigs, I could only afford one guitar, as we didn’t make a lot of money playing the club,” he explains. “So if I wanted a different guitar, I had to trade my old one.

“But as the sessions became regular work, I was able to I buy an ES-335, a Fender Strat, a Gibson Byrdland and a bunch of acoustic guitars. But the Telecaster was my main electric guitar, and still is to this day. The Tele seems to handle just about everything.”

For months after the session, Shelton heard nothing about it, and no new Lennon album was released. Spector had been taking the master tapes home at night and they “disappeared” some time after the sessions wrapped.

“The master tapes from the sessions went missing and because of that, John and Phil had a falling out,” Shelton says. “A couple of years after my session, Phil got into a car accident in L.A. and they found those tapes in the boot of his car. And that’s when the album, with the session that I played on, finally came out.”

Back in June, many an eyebrow was raised when John Mayer wielded a reverse-headstock equipped white Stratocaster during one of Dead & Company's shows at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

The guitar bore an eerie resemblance to Jeff Beck's Custom white Strat, and it was soon confirmed – by none other than Joe Bonamassa – that it was in fact the genuine article.

Last week (September 1), during Toto's performance at the Hollywood Bowl, Steve Lukather got his own turn on Beck's iconic electric guitar, using it, appropriately, for a soulful take on Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing.

In the process, the session legend also revealed that his and Mayer's use of the Strat was part of an ongoing project of sorts – spearheaded by Beck's widow, Sandra – to put the late guitar hero's late-career favorite in the hands of various prominent admirers onstage.

“I’ve got something special to do tonight,” Lukather told the enthusiastic crowd prior to the performance. “I normally don't play a white Stratocaster – I've owned them – [but] this is a special one. This was brought from England – it's Jeff Beck's guitar.

“His lovely wife Sandra and his closest friend and guitar tech brought this out, and they’ve been bringing it out to guitar players to put a little of love on it. Jeff and I were friends – we worked together a bunch over the years, in the studio and live.”

Lukather went on to reveal that other big names have been approached by the Beck camp – the aforementioned Mayer and Billy Gibbons, specifically. But, he emphasized, “they’ve probably got a long list.

“I wish this would make me sound like Jeff Beck, but it won’t,” Lukather joked, perhaps underselling his subsequent cover, which was replete with fiery – but always melodic and graceful – lead guitar work.

Now, the big and obvious question is, who's next?

Mayer and Lukather have already taken their turns, with Gibbons confirmed to be in the wings as well.

Though one must take his encyclopedic knowledge of vintage guitars into account, Joe Bonamassa's role in confirming that Mayer was using Beck's Strat at the Sphere would seem to indicate that he's aware of the ongoing project as well.

Either way, we can't wait to see who takes the magical Strat for a spin next...

When it comes to session guitarists, Steve Lukather is at the top of the list. Wikipedia claims he has recorded tracks on more than 1,500 albums, and while the web encyclopedia is known to get a thing or two wrong, we’re not about to dispute that fact.

Though he’s known best for his work with Toto, Lukather has played on countless hit records for artists that include Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Peter Frampton, Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson… The list goes on. He’s also enjoyed an acclaimed solo career for over 30 years.

GP’s Matt Blackett sat down with Luke for an interview several years back, and in this excerpt, Lukather talks about four of the most surprising moments he’s ever had in his life as a session guitarist – which just goes to show that even a seasoned pro like Steve can be in for a shock once in a while.

Let’s talk about Lionel Richie’s “Running with the Night."

He called me and said, “I want you to play a solo on this song of mine.” It was right after “Beat It,” and everybody wanted to get a rock guy to solo on pop/R&B stuff. I show up with my ’Burst and Rivera-modded Deluxe Reverb, and I cranked it all the way up.

He plays me the song, and I just started noodling through the whole thing. I said, “I think I’ve got it. Let’s do it.” He said, “You just did.” I said, “Come on! I was just kind of wanking my way through.” He goes, “I love it. It’s fantastic! You don’t need to do it again.” That was a 10-minute session.

There was no chart or anything?

I showed up blind, man. We never got demos. We never got to rehearse. I think James Carmichael, his producer, had a road map, but it was all A minor. I said, “Let me fuck around with it,” and they rolled the tape.

GP’s Jude Gold called your “Running with the Night” performance a “zero-take solo.” Do you have any other zero-take sessions?

I once did a solo on a David Crosby record without ever hearing the song. We had done one song and Crosby said, “Luke, do a solo on this other track.” I love Croz, but I was trying to finish up because I wanted to go hang with Danny Kortchmar – he was the other guitar player. We’d been there all day. 

Crosby said, “Let me play you the song.” I said, “No, man. What key is it in? Roll the tape.” With all due respect, I knew it wasn’t going to be “Giant Steps” or anything like that. I just reacted to what I was listening to. I played the solo in one take and it was done. He said, “You bastard! You never even heard the song!”

You’ve told the “Beat It” story a million times [Lukather played guitar and bass on the 1982 Michael Jackson track, which features an Eddie Van Halen solo]. What’s another Thriller story?

“Human Nature” had no guitar part on it. The running joke was that Steve Porcaro wrote the song, so it’s really a Toto song with Michael Jackson singing [Porcaro played keyboards in Toto]. 

I had been working with Quincy Jones since his The Dude record, and I came up with a lot of parts for that. I’d get a chord sheet and come up with these quirky little muted parts. So Quincy knew I did that, and he called me and said, “Look, this is a great pop song, but it’s not funky. I need you to funk it up.”

I started noodling around, and I came up with the entire guitar part. It was all me. I wrote that part on the spot, to the point where he gave me arranging credit on the record, and we got nominated for a Grammy. We didn’t win, but it was nice for him to give us the credit. 

We were all over that Thriller record – me, Steve Porcaro, [Toto keyboardist] David Paich and [Toto drummer] Jeff Porcaro.

What about the Tubes’ “Talk to Ya Later”?

David Foster was producing the record, and he said, “I need you to co-write a song with Fee [Waybill, Tubes singer].” I had never met Fee, and some of the other guys in the band were pissed off that they brought in a ringer. I didn’t know until I got there that there was any bad vibe at all.

So it was me, [drummer] Prairie Prince, Foster and Fee. I came up with the opening riff, and we ran with it and came up with the song. It was written and recorded in less than an hour. I overdubbed a bunch of guitars on it, and I also played bass, because the Tubes’ bass player refused to play on the track. He said, “It’s not a Tubes song. It wasn’t written by us.” And it was their first hit!

For the solo at the end, there was one track left, and I had to do the thing in one pass. At the very end of it, it’s a little flat, but they wouldn’t let me fix it. There were certain imperfections on records back then. 

All the records of my childhood have things like the tambourine being way on top of the beat or something. But there’s a charm to the strings being out of tune, or the horns being a little off. It’s a vibe. Nobody cares. The standard for that is a lot different now.

Steve Lukather has shared the second taster from his new album, Bridges.

The "Someone" visualizer follows up the release of last month’s “When I See You Again” lyric video.

Slated for release on June 16 via the Players Club/Mascot Label Group, Bridges is the Toto frontman’s ninth studio album.

“I see it as a bridge between my solo music and Toto music,” explains Lukather. “The fact that Joseph Williams, David Paich and I wrote most of the record, and the fact I invited many of the old Toto gang to come and play – co-writers like Randy Goodrum and Stan Lynch – brings all this together.”

While he states Toto “will never record another studio album,” Luke is happy to point out that he is still good pals with most of his old crew.

“We still love writing and creating and recording together, and we will no doubt continue to work with each other on our respective solo works,” he says. “It's complicated, and at the age I am now, I do not wish to do anything complicated.”

Throughout the course of his solo career, Luke has enjoyed a close working relationship with prolific songsmiths Goodrum and Lynch.

“These guys are the guys that come in and write the lyrics way better than me,” he admits. “I knew they would bring it as always and they did. They are also dear friends as well, and we love working together.”

Working as a team player as far back as his 1989 debut, Lukather, the session ace is keenly aware of how other people’s strengths can elevate a solo project.

“I do have input to the lyrics,” he adds. “I give them ideas of what I want to say and they articulate my feelings into the music, and then perhaps once I see their first drafts we talk about it, edit here and there, and the end result is what we have on this record.”

Pre-order Bridges here.

The following appeared in the February 2018 issue of Guitar Player

When Steve Lukather was a kid, he had a recurring dream: He’d walk onto a huge stage in front of a vast audience with a guitar in his hands. “But right before I’d play my first note,” says Lukather, “I’d always wake up.”

It was only in real life, at age 19, that Lukather finally experienced that dream.

“The first real show I played was at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with Boz Scaggs,” he says. “There’s a photo of me at soundcheck with this huge grin on my face, because I’m like, ‘This is my moment. I’m having the same old dream, but, this time, I know I’m not going to wake up.’ It was a magical night. It changed everything for me.”

Fast forward to October 21, 2017, and Lukather is living another dream: He’s turning 60 years old at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas while backing a Beatle. “Why do I have Steve in my band?” says Ringo Starr before the show. “Because he was free [laughs]. He’s also good at getting the audience to stand and clap. Showbiz is his middle name.”

Lukather’s tenure with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band is just one of many dream gigs the guitarist has lived out on stage and in the studio. The dreamiest gig, of course, is Toto.

Lukather established the multi-platinum rock group in 1977 with his North Hollywood homies (keyboardist David Paich, and the Porcaro clan of keyboardist Steve, drummer Jeff, and bassist Mike) – the same posse of studio aces who worked with Lukather in various combinations on legendary recording sessions for Boz Scaggs, Randy Newman, Michael Jackson, Don Henley, Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, and other superstars during the golden era of session work in the late ’70s/early ’80s.

You can read all about it right from the source. Lukather’s adventures during the session era and beyond are detailed in the guitarist’s autobiography (co-written by Paul Rees), Steve Lukather: The Gospel According to Luke.

“I swear on the lives of my four children that every story is true,” he says, “Everything is in there. Well, maybe not everything. Let’s just say I can never run for office [laughs].”

At the time of this interview, Lukather was celebrating 40 years of Toto and, in a numerical coincidence, 40 million album sales worldwide. To mark the occasion, the band released 40 Trips Around the Sun (Sony/Legacy), a best-of album featuring remastered hits, as well as three previously unreleased tracks.

“Things have never been better for Toto,” says Lukather. “Everything we were told could never happen for us is now happening for us. And we don’t even have a manager!”

Why doesn’t Toto have a manager?

Well, I had to become Manager Guy. I have a staff, but Toto is my only client. I found out that classic-rock bands don’t need a manager just to call the agent, and say, “Book a tour,” and then take 15 percent.

All a band like us really needs is a tour manager, a production manager, good accounting, and a guy like me working with a great agent. And this new approach has really paid off.

We’ve always done well in Europe and Japan – that has kept us and all of our families alive – but the U.S. opened up for us in a huge way in the last few years, and that’s due to hard work. I mean, how many bands get a second chance in America?

Seeing Toto play at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles was amazing, because you’re the only band I can think of that has multiplatinum radio hits and takes things to the moon and back with extended solos.

We take pride in musically pushing things out there beyond what you might expect at a typical rock show, and we do give each member a moment to shine. I like to do my guitar spot within the context of a song.

I did “Red House” last year, even though Joe Bonamassa told me, “That’s the most over-played blues song in the world.” I said, “I used to do this one with dear Mike and Jeff Porcaro 25 years ago, so it has special meaning.”

Eddie Van Halen, Mike Landau, and just about every other pro musician who had the night off was watching you that night. Is it nerve-wracking playing for all those heavies?

I didn’t even think about it. I just looked at my ten-year-old daughter. Seeing her with a backstage pass and a walkie-talkie like she’s out on the road with us cracked me up.

Plus, I’m at an age where I am starting to get relaxed about things, because I’m not in competition anymore. Sure, there was a little pressure that night, but those guys are my friends. If I were to make a mistake, those guys would laugh with me, not at me.

When you were putting together 40 Trips Around the Sun, was it weird diving into the raw sessions for songs recorded way back in the early and middle ’80s?

It was like playing with Jeff, Mike, and my 23-year-old self again. I discovered some things, as well. On “Spanish Sea,” for example, we added new parts to the basic tracks, including a new chorus that I wrote.

The solo, though, was from the original ’85 session, where Paich said to me, “Just play the melody.” So that’s what I did, and, man, it’s the simplest, most non-flashy thing I’ve ever played in my life.

You’re really good at telling a story with your guitar – like on your solo tune, “Song for Jeff.”

As I get older, I realize that ‘playing pretty’ is what I do best. I can’t be Mr. Fast Guy anymore – not that I ever truly was. There are a billion guitarists who can play unbelievably ripping guitar better than I can.

I’ve changed my whole thinking about guitar. I’d rather be more like David Gilmour than anybody else. On the new songs, for example, I really held back, played simple stuff, and tried not to play the obvious notes.

It’s hard to classify what kind of guitar player you are.

I know! I’m not metal, not jazz, not country, and not funk, but I do all of it. And I do it all in my own weird little way. I’m probably more rock than anything else, but that’s a broad description. My job as guitarist in Toto has always been to put teeth on the parts.

What was it that motivated you to play music in the first place?

It was never for fame. People might think, “I want to be famous.” No, you don’t. Even at my low level of fame, it’s the weirdest, most bizarre thing in the world. I had to build a gate in front of my house, because people would just show up at my door and freak out my six-year-old autistic son. But that’s nothing. I have movie-star friends who have TMZ parked in front of their houses. That’s famous.

I started doing music because I saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. By today’s standards, it might seem fairly tame. They were in suits, and they didn’t even have long hair yet. But for me, it was like that part in The Wizard of Oz when life suddenly goes from black and white to color. My life changed in one moment. My goal was simply longevity – to have a long career – not to become famous.

Was there ever a moment when your faith in guitar as a career choice was shaken?

I had a humiliating audition with Frank Zappa when I was 17. He embarrassed me in a room full of other guitar players, and I walked out of there trying not to cry.

I thought my career was over. But when I got home, I thought, I’m going to turn this energy into a positive. I’m going to prove Frank wrong. I’m going to make it, and someday he’ll know who I am.

So I played mad and practiced my ass off.

When I fell in love with the radio as a ten-year-old and started playing guitar, I loved the aggressive lead guitar on Boz Scaggs’ “Breakdown Dead Ahead.” I found out later that was played by you.

That was back when guitar solos weren’t shunned, but welcomed. I was playing solos on everybody’s shit. Boz really helped us – though we really helped him, too. If it weren’t for us, he would have just been a blues guitar player working through the scene.

Paich wrote him a bunch of hits, we played on those, and we sort of became the “L.A. sound,” if you will. Whether on purpose or not, Boz nurtured that sound, and soon we were all working all the time.

What was the biggest challenge of doing sessions back then?

Walking in with no rehearsal, having no idea what song you’re going to play on – or even what genre it’s going to be – and coming up with great parts. And you had to come with a good part quickly, because if you took too long, people would lose interest.

There was no editing your part together later in Pro Tools. Take the funky clean thing I came up with for Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature.” You’re in that room, you’ve never heard the song before, and Quincy Jones is two inches in front of your face going, “Come up with something funky for me right now.” That’s what we got paid for – not for reading the dots and playing what was written on the page, but for filling in the blanks where there was nothing on the page.

Being in that club of session players was great, because once you got in, you were in – if you got in. It was a hard club to get into. But while it took a little luck to get invited through that door the first time, it wasn’t luck to get asked back through that door a second time.

You played a pretty epic solo at the end of Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry.”

That was a great session. Aside from punching in one spot where I made a little mistake, I think that was a first take. I was extra thrilled to be on that song because Joe Walsh – who I’m the biggest fan of – did the first solo.

When I was in there, I had a whole room full of people staring me down. It was intense. Jeff Porcaro was looking at me like, “You’d better bring it, asshole.” That’s how it was. We all encouraged and pushed each other, and we all became successful.

Denny Tedesco made a cool documentary about the Wrecking Crew. You guys came a generation later. Someone should make a film about you guys.

Maybe someone will someday – probably after we’re all gone. We’re all over Thriller – the biggest record in history – and we get hardly any acknowledgement for it. Sometimes, I think we’re the Rodney Dangerfield of Rock. We get no respect [laughs].

I’m not saying, “Poor, pitiful me.” That would be ridiculous, because I’ve had an incredible career, and I’m very thankful for it. I just wish the critics would take us a little more seriously, rather than “that joke ‘Africa’ band.”

If you don’t like Toto, that’s cool. I don’t like everything, either. But even if you don’t like my band’s music, I’m probably on more than one of the records in your collection. You just don’t know it.

You’re an interesting blend of alpha dog and sensitive cat.

I’m a very sensitive cat. People don’t realize that about me, because I cover it up with humor, but this is an intense business to be in. It can really eat you up.

Some people think I have an attitude because I’m defensive about my band, but try taking shit for 40 years and not have a little edge. I don’t mean to be that way. I’m the nicest guy in the world until somebody draws first blood. Then, look out.

A lot of sessions are done in home studios now. Do you think a truly great album can be recorded that way?

Some artists can get away with making a record at home with GarageBand, and that’s cool, but you can’t make Sgt. Pepper, The Wall, or Dark Side of the Moon in your living room.

There’s something about the wood of a great studio, the million-dollar console, the expensive microphones, the really great engineer, and the really great musicians and songs that make a record a classic that will last forever.

That’s why the Beatles got two billion streams in their first year on Spotify without even trying. No one’s ever going to catch up with those numbers. The Beatles are our classical music.

Speaking of the Beatles, what’s it like to play with Ringo?

It’s hard to describe how much I love playing with Ringo. Having recorded with both him and Paul McCartney on two songs on Ringo’s Give More Love album is the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten. I can die now.

Above all, I just love Ringo as a person. He’s a beautiful cat. He has a vantage you can only have if you’ve been one of the most famous people on earth for 50 years. You’re not going to get better advice than what he offers.

Plus, there would be no rock-and-roll drums without Ringo. He put drum fills on the map. Just listen to “Tomorrow Never Knows.” I’ve been with him since 2012, and he’ll have to kill me to get rid of me.

What’s your rig like these days?

It’s pretty straightforward. A few Ernie Ball Music Man guitars – including my signature models that are loaded with DiMarzio Transition pickups – and a couple of Bogner Ecstasy heads running in stereo.

I’m not even positive which pedals are in the loop these days, because my tech, Jon Gosnell, is so on top of things that I never have to think about the wiring. One pedal I use all the time, though, is The Luke. That’s my signature preamp boost from ToneConcepts. It works great as a distortion or a boost, or you can leave it on as a sort of mastering EQ for your rig.

I also use the Jam Wahcko wah and Waterfall chorus/vibrato. The Providence Anadime chorus is cool, too. No two choruses sound the same. Sadly, I’ll be forever known as the “Dytronics Tri-Stereo Chorus overuse guy,” because that title was somehow tattooed to me while I slept, due to one stupid guitar video that has followed me around forever like herpes [laughs].

There are TC Electronic and DigiTech delays, a MXR Uni-Vibe, an Xotic SP compressor, a Strymon blueSky reverb, and some other stuff on my pedalboard.

Lately, I’ve added Jeff Kollman’s signature Kollmanation pedal from T. Jauernig Electronics. I crank my Bogner up to about 8, kick on that pedal, and, amazingly, it doesn’t cause the tone to crash, as some overdrives will in that situation. It just makes things extra smooth.

Are you digging the next generation of guitarists?

Absolutely. Claims have been made lately that the electric guitar is dying, but I don’t believe it. They say sales are down, but I don’t believe that either. People are just buying stuff on eBay.

There are young kids who really get it. Sure, they start off playing the tricks and stuff – we all did that. But the cream rises to the top, and the best musicians are soon found out. I truly believe that Millennials are going rise up musically. It’s time. There needs to be an uprising of young 18-to-25-year-old kids who bring tunes that make us go, “Whoa!”

We need some amazing young kids who take a brave political, social, and musical stand, and bring on something positive. There needs to be another Beatles.

Order Toto's 40 Trips Around the Sun here.

This year sees the 40th anniversary of Toto IV ­– the triple Platinum-selling fourth studio album from stadium rockers Toto that spawned two huge hit singles: the Grammy-winning “Rosanna” and the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping “Africa.”

Back in the ‘80s, Steve Lukather was best known as the guitarist, singer, and co-composer for Toto. But in Los Angeles, a town known for its scores of electric guitar players, he also held the reputation of being one of the first guitarists – perhaps the first – to call when a screaming solo or crunchy rhythm part was needed.

As well as lending his world-renowned guitar playing talents to the band, Lukather – a talented singer – also recorded vocals for some of Toto IV’s key moments. Indeed, the song “I Won't Hold You Back” was both written and sung by Lukather.

In the wake of Toto IV’s release, Guitar Player met up with Lukather to talk songwriting, soloing, success and “talentless clods.”

The following interview extracts appeared in the April 1984 issue of Guitar Player…

After all the success you've had as a studio guitarist, what's the appeal of being in Toto?

It's a place where I can write songs and play. I can experiment with sounds and stuff I can't do on sessions. In sessions, you go and play. You can experiment around a little bit if the artist or producer is somebody you know.

Sometimes they'll say, "Hey, freak out and do whatever you want to do," which happens quite a lot more these days. I guess they trust me. As far as Toto, the band is the ultimate. In fact, I haven't been doing many sessions in the last year or so.

The success of Toto IV must have reaffirmed your faith in what you're doing.

Yeah. We found that we had been getting away from what we had originally intended to do, which is just be ourselves. We started reading and believing bullshit criticisms of us and tried to alter our sound to that. At least that's where my head was at; I can't speak for everybody.

I was getting pissed off at these critics. I'd say 90% of them are talentless clods who don't even know what they're doing. They couldn't tune a guitar or play a C scale on the piano. They couldn't sing anything; they've never written a song. They've never played in front of people or made a record.

They don't know the pressures. How can somebody write that any album is a piece of shit when somebody's put his heart and soul into it, no matter what kind of music it is – from jazz to rock to classical pieces to Moms Mabley?

Whatever the background of the artist, whatever their technique, it's still somebody putting their blood, sweat, and tears – to use a cliché – into what they’re putting out. This is their ass on the line.

It doesn't matter if it stiffs. It doesn't matter if it sells any records at all.

People ask, "What are they trying to say?" We're not trying to say shit! We're trying to make music to make us happy and to make anybody else happy who cares to listen to it. That's all.

When do melodies come to you?

They come at strange times. I can wake up in the middle of the night with one. Then I make the mistake of going, "I know I'm going to remember this in the morning," and fall back asleep and forget everything.

I find writing lyrics hard; I'm a terrible lyricist. I experience blood, sweat, and tears trying not to make them a cliché or corny.

What soloing philosophy do you apply to Toto songs?

I try to do what's right for the song. I could probably play a lot flashier on our records; I tend not to be so flashy. It just doesn't come across most of the time. On something like "Rosanna," I played a solo at the end which was never rehearsed.

This happens with our band a lot. We'll just play a take, and all of a sudden we'll start doing things we've never rehearsed or even talked about. The solo in "99" [from Hydra] was never rehearsed; it was the second take. That's what's so bitchin' about this band. We're all best friends.

People usually assume that people in rock bands don't really like each other because everybody is so egoed out, especially with a band like ours where there are a lot of studio players – people from different backgrounds who do the same thing.

How do you compose songs?

Most of the time it's multiples – several guys in the band will write a song. We'll just come with the tune and start playing. We don't write out charts or anything like that. I mostly write on piano. I don't know so much on piano, so I tend to write simpler things.

Plus, when you're composing on piano, you hear the full range of everything – the low end and the top end – and you can sing over it. I'm not talking about heavy rock and roll tunes – that's all guitar stuff, basically.

Isn't it the song that sells?

Absolutely. People don't buy a guitar solo. They buy a song. If you can add something to that song, then you've done your job well.

Are you happy with the way your career is going?

Very happy. My life is real together, and I'm very honored with what's happened. I take it seriously. I'm not the kind of person who walks down the street and people recognize at all.

What would you like to be doing in ten years?

Same thing. Just playing and grooving with making music. More important, I want to be respected by my peers.

I'd just like to be remembered for being a good player. I have nothing political or intense to say to anybody.

I just love to play music and be with people who love to play music.

That's it.

Buy Toto IV here.

Happy birthday to Steve Lukather!

Toto founding member Lukather is one of the most prolific session players alive, clocking up a staggering number of album credits to his name (over 1,500!) The multiple Grammy-winning guitarist has contributed to a vast number of works spanning genres and styles from pop to hard rock, and for several years has toured with Beatles drummer Ringo Starr in the All-Starr Band supergroup.

As well as being one of the most in-demand guitar players around, Lukather is a successful artist in his own right having recorded 8 solo albums to date, including this year’s I Found the Sun Again (featuring Ringo Starr on drums.)

Lukather was awestruck by the Beatles at an early age when teaching himself to play on a Kay acoustic guitar. Recalling his first encounter with the Meet the Beatles! album the guitarist said, "The sound of it overcame my whole soul, if you want to call it that. I knew that's what I wanted to do. I remember George Harrison played a solo in “I Saw Her Standing There” and just the sound of the guitar bending and the reverb struck a nerve inside of me."

Lukather later paid homage to George Harrison, recording “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” for Toto’s 2002 covers album Through the Looking Glass. And in this clip, the guitarist lets rip with an impassioned electric guitar solo as he performs the number live with Toto – the close-up shot allowing us to view his incredible technique at close quarters.

Check out the awesome Steve Lukather Collection at Ernie Ball Music Man here.

At 81 years old, Ringo Starr shows no signs of slowing down, citing his vegetarian diet and “staying active” as part of his recipe for longevity. “Staying active” indeed, Starr’s lengthy and continued solo career is now in its sixth decade – a musical voyage which began in 1970 with his aptly named debut album, Sentimental Journey.

Quickly following up this year’s Zoom In EP, Starr has announced his latest EP titled Change the World is now available to order (see link below). Much like Zoom In, Starr’s new extended play record – due out on September 24 – was tracked at his Roccabella West studio and features an assortment of guest artists.

Among the throng of guest musicians appearing on Change the World is Toto founder and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band member Steve Lukather who co-penned the EP’s lead single "Let's Change The World" with Joseph Williams (son of film composer John Williams). Both Lukather and Williams also play on the track.

Adding further electric guitar hero status to the recording is Eagles and fellow Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band guitarist Joe Walsh who appears on the EP’s closing number, “Rock Around the Clock.” A record-breaking hit in the mid-‘50s for rock ‘n’ roll pioneers Bill Haley & His Comets, "Rock Around the Clock” was a highly influential song for The Beatles, with John Lennon telling Playboy in the early ‘80s, "I had no idea about doing music as a way of life until rock 'n' roll hit me… It was "Rock Around the Clock"." 

Interestingly, Starr also played drums alongside The Who’s Keith Moon on the Lennon-produced Harry Nilsson version of "Rock Around the Clock” from Nilsson's 1974 album Pussy Cats.

"I've been saying I only want to release EPs at this point and this is the next one,” says Starr. “What a blessing it's been during this year to have a studio here at home and be able to collaborate with so many great musicians, some I've worked with before and some new friends." 

Pre-order Ringo Starr’s Change the World here.

Throughout the history of recorded music, many guitarists have created magic from the dimly lit booths of the studio, from legends like Tommy Tedesco, Jimmy Page, Larry Carlton, and Michael Landau to session master Steve Lukather, whose slick licks and smooth riffs have graced many recordings over the past several decades.

Luke has hundreds of sessions and recording credits on his résumé, which also includes being a founding member of the Grammy award-winning rock supergroup Toto. He has also released numerous inspired solo albums, each met with mass acclaim and celebration from his loyal fans all over the world.

There are many things you can learn from a player as talented and creative as Steve Lukather, and this lesson will focus on an area of his playing that has become a popular topic of discussion among guitarists for decades – his use of chromatic phrasing in his licks and solos, meaning notes that are a half step, or a semitone (one fret), apart and fall “in the cracks” between the notes of identifiable scales or arpeggios.

The majority of Luke’s ideas are blues-and rock-based, but he often reaches for jazzy sounds and uses chromatic ideas to help achieve them in creative and appealing ways. 

To begin, play through Examples 1a and 1b, which will help you get a feel for a chromatic legato lick that Lukather likes to use. This phrase creates an interesting slur of chromatic notes on a single string. 

Perform the pull-offs using a single, fluid motion, emulating the smooth, legato phrasing of a saxophone or violin, and be sure to pull the string in toward your palm as you release it (as opposed to simply lifting the fretting finger up off the string) in order to keep the string vibrating and maintain an even volume level note to note.

Our next example will give you a chance to hear this lick in action, featuring the same type of slippery chromatic phrases heard during Lukather's “Never Walk Alone” solo, from the guitarist’s acclaimed solo album Candyman. 

Ex.2 is a slight variation on this lick and showcases the chromatic idea from Ex.1b in the second bar. The numerous passing tones in this phrase blur the key center and give it a jazzy, “outside” flavor.

Ex.3 is similar to a standout lick from the Toto classic “Rosanna,” which perked up more than a few ears when it hit the FM airwaves and topped the charts in the early 1980’s. 

This idea features some slick moves, including a few well-timed chromatic slides and plenty of jazz-flavored melodic-harmonic extensions, including strategically targeting the 9th and 11th, as it shifts and slides along and across the fretboard in tenth position.

The next idea, Ex.4, reveals a Lukather-approved “fill-in-the-blanks” chromatic lick in E7, including a number of grace-note slides and busy twists until you reach the climactic whole-step bend and vibrato at the end. 

This example is similar to a number of licks Lukather has played in his solos. Chromatic runs like these create a flurry of fast-paced movement, helping to give a solo an exciting and unpredictable sound.

Ex.5 is another fill-in-the-blanks chromatic lick that’s performed in the same key but in a different position and should help you see how to move these kinds of ideas around the neck. The phrase also features a sustained bluesy finger slide at the end, typical of what you’ll hear in Lukather’s improvising style.

Our next example, Ex.6, insightfully reveals an interesting area of Luke’s mastery of chord-scale relationships. 

The phrase features an anticipation of the D9 chord in bar 2 by foreshadowing it a half step higher before the chord change occurs. The harmonic tension is then resolved in bar 2 via a return to the “correct” key and an ending phrase that elegantly describes a D9 sound.

Finally, Ex.7 is similar to a slippery lick found in the Boz Scaggs classic “Breakdown Dead Ahead,” where Lukather takes a great solo and sprinkles plenty of choice licks over the catchy shuffle groove. 

If it has been a while, refresh your ears by giving this track a listen, and then give the lick a test drive. Be sure to maintain the same index-ring fingering as you chromatically walk down the top strings in bar 1, and also for all of the long slides in bar 2.

Play through these licks and absorb as many ideas from them as you can. Use them as inspiration as you strive to create your own original chromatic licks and phrases.

If you’re interested in learning more about this approach to lead playing, continue studying and borrowing licks from Luke, and find additional input from other chromatic-minded players, such as Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, Steve Morse, and John Petrucci. 

Open your mind and fingers to new sounds, movements, and ideas, and you’ll open your playing and fretboard to a new world of possibilities. Good luck! (All musical examples copyright 2016 BrewhaMusicInc.)

It was only a little more than a year ago that Steve Lukather announced that Toto, or, at least, the then-current version of Toto, was calling it quits. And yet, ever since then, the session ace and solo artist – worldwide pandemic lockdown be damned – has been on a ridiculously hot creative and professional streak.

“My life has turned around for the better during this year off, as unfortunate as it is for so many reasons,” he tells Guitar Player. “It was a self-realization for me – stay home, sleep in my own bed, be with my family and be present.”

Luke laughs. “It turned out to be weirder than I thought, but it has opened my eyes a lot. And I'm glad to have made the most of it.”

And make the most of it Luke has. For starters, there’s his new, rather excellent solo album, I Found the Sun Again, which finds him laying down slick, sinewy and this time out, somewhat shreddy, solos over five rock-pop-jazz originals and three covers – Traffic’s "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys," Joe Walsh’s "Welcome to the Club" and Robin Trower’s monster blues-rock guitar workout "Bridge of Sighs." 

He also shot a video for the record’s first single, the Beatlesque “Run to Me,” which – despite being a socially-distanced, at-home affair – still managed to include a visual cameo from guest drummer Ringo Starr.

What’s more, Luke pitched in on Denizen Tenant, the new album from Toto vocalist Joseph Williams (Williams in turn contributed to I Found the Sun Again), and the two have also announced a new version of Toto, which will make its debut on November 21 with a one-night-only global livestream before gearing up for the 2021 Dogz of Oz world tour. You can get tickets here.

But that’s not all: This past summer Lukather collaborated with Ernie Ball Music Man on the Luke III, the newest iteration of his popular signature model (wanna hear it in action? Cue up I Found the Sun Again), and became, at the ripe age of 63, a viral video star after he posted a clip that showed him taking revenge on a neighbor’s noisy leaf blower by blasting him into oblivion with some high-wattage licks.

“I’m more famous for that than anything I’ve done in the last 43 years," Luke says with a laugh. "Go figure.”

One of the first things that struck me about I Found the Sun Again is how immediate and live-sounding the record is.

Well, I did the album in eight days, soup to nuts. We would do a song a day – no rehearsal, no click. We’d run the song once to make sure everything was cool, and then take two was usually it. 

I come from an era that was accused of being overproduced, so I wanted to see if I could do it. So this record is the best of what I’ve got at 63 years old. And we made it quickly, made it live. It’s like it was in 1972, but with 2020 fidelity. That’s really what I was looking for. And I think we got it.

There’s some great lead playing on the record, and a lot of it – maybe more than we’ve heard from you in a while. How did you approach the solos?

I cut all the solos live. It makes you play different when you play that way. And I wasn’t trying to impress anybody. I was like, “Let me just play what comes out as opposed to what's going to amaze my guitar player friends.” Because these days there’s, you know, a seven-year-old kid in Japan that plays so fast you can’t even see his hands move. I can’t do that.

What do you think of people that can do that?

I mean, it's a sport. It's great if you can do it. But you know what’s really hard to do? Play eighth notes in time with a click track. It sounds so stupid, right? Watch. A lot of these guys never sat down and learned that stuff. Because they learned all the tricks first. 

I'm just glad I'm old and I don't have to compete in that world. It'd be scary. I'd be considered a shitty guitar player by today’s standards. But it's astounding what people are doing with the instrument. Look at Andy McKee, Jon Gomm and those guys. And Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and all the heir apparents. It’s insane!

Speaking of guitars, what was your main setup on I Found the Sun Again?

I used my new Luke III, the green guy, through a Bogner 4x12 with just a couple little gadgets on the pedalboard. Nothing really slick – I tried to keep it as pure as possible. If you hear a little delay on something that’s because that was the way it was recorded.

What do you like about the Luke III?

The versatility of tone, man. You start messing with the tone controls and the pickup switches and you get some very interesting sounds. And on this record I was really looking for, like, a sax-y kind of tone. 

Everybody seems to be going for the same tone these days and so I was just trying to do something a little different to stand out – because all those other guys are better than me! So I thought I’d better do something interesting because it's hard to have a voice in all of this. So I just try to do my best.

You tackle a few cover songs on the record, but the one that really stands out to me is "Bridge of Sighs." What led you to that one?

I did it because, one, Robin [Trower] doesn't get enough love. And two, it's a really great song to play. And not a lot of people have done it as far as I know. So it was just something fun to play on, really. I mean, this whole record is a vanity record in the sense that, you know, I'm not out there trying to write a hit single with Cardi B.

I don’t think you need to.

I was 19 when I made the first Toto record. So it’s amazing to me, the passage of time. And I still go back to those classic records that I liked when I was young, and they still give me goosebumps. But they say that the music of your childhood becomes the music of your life. 

So you know, there’ll be somebody at their 80th birthday party going, “Fuck you I won't do what you tell me!” This is a reality, man. The Beatles are like our Frank Sinatra now, you know what I mean? You go to Vegas and it's nothing but bands from my era. We are the Frank and Sammy of our generation! The funniest fucking shit I've ever seen in my life.

Well, you’re keeping your legacy going with this new version of Toto. Whereas just last year you made it sound as if the band was done.

Well, I didn't lie. What I said was that incarnation of Toto was done. I never said I wasn't going play to play Toto music with anybody else again.

What led to the end of the previous incarnation of Toto?

It was bad business, bad... You know, our original managers didn't deal with the name of the band properly. I was blamed for shit I didn't do. There were people fighting backstage. People wouldn't talk to certain people and sometimes it would almost come to blows. And I'd get in the middle of it. 

Other people hated me, and some people hated the road so much that everything was miserable. There was a lot of offstage shit going on that didn’t get brought onstage because everyone's a pro. Strap on the guitars, act like nothing's wrong. But it was really hard.

But I don't wish anybody ill. It’s just, I'm at the age now where, how many great summers do I have left? I'm not trying to be the biggest, best at anything anymore. I just want to have a good time and have a few laughs. If I can make a few dollars doing it, great.

The upcoming Toto livestream will be our first glimpse of the new lineup headed by you and Joseph Williams. What can you tell us about the performance?

Well, what we’re doing is kind of a slick thing. A livestream is usually, you know, “Set up some cameras and play.” Most people do it from their living rooms. We’re doing it a little differently. But I put together a new band so I had to spend some weeks in the studio rehearsing them to get them ready. 

It’s like, “Oh, yeah, I can't wait to play ‘Hold the Line’ again!” [laughs] We have to do some of those songs because I want to show people how this new band can sound playing them. 

So that's going to be part of our repertoire, and then the other part will be new solo material, old solo material, some other cool stuff. We have a lot of records to cull from and the ability to not do the same setlist we've been doing for the last eight, ten years. We can stretch it out a little bit.

When it comes to performing, you hit it out of the park this summer with your private backyard show for your leaf-blowing neighbor.

Leave it to that to make me famous! This guy was fucking with me for a long time. He cut down 40 years of brush that was on my side of the property while I was out on the road. Sawed down limbs that are my side of an oak tree and did it without telling me. Which you need a permit for. And there was some other shit that he started with my kid, who was six at the time. 

So then this guy starts up with leaf blowers, three of them, at 7:00 AM. That's a lot of noise – 120dBs! And I live in the Hollywood Hills, where the houses are close together. Old hippy town. So 7 AM, man? You don't do that. And I went crazy. I put my amp out on the trampoline and just cranked it. 

I’m out there barefoot, on wet grass, and I’m playing this guitar like shit, you know? Just trying to make noise to piss him off. [laughs] And then it went viral. Now I'm more known for that than anything. I went Number five on Reddit. Funniest shit I’ve seen in my life.

Apparently, Toto guitarist and session king Steve Lukather's neighbors have made a habit of having their gardeners and their leaf-blowers come by in the very early hours of the morning. 

Now, just about anyone would probably be annoyed by this after awhile, and might lodge a complaint. Lukather however, decided to take a different route when the gardeners showed up once again. 

Still in his pajamas, Ernie Ball Music Man signature model in hand, Lukather placed an amp on a trampoline in his backyard, turned it in the direction of his neighbors' house, cranked it all the way (and we mean all the way) up, and unleashed a tsunami of shred that probably would've been audible miles away.

“What happens when the dickhead neighbors’ gardener starts up 10 blowers at 7am! #goodmorningsunshine #fuckyou,” Lukather wrote in the caption to the video. You can check it out below.

Zakk Wylde, Bumblefoot, Joe Bonamassa, Phil X, Doug Aldrich and other famous axe-wielding pals all voiced their approval in the video's comment section, with Phil X writing "We've all thought of doing this but you did."

I think it's safe to say his neighbors were probably not as appreciative of the impromptu performance.