I quit drinking, smoking, doing anything bad.
— Steve Lukather
I've never stopped working, and I still have 'pinch me' moments all the time.
To me, our signature song was 'Rosanna.' That was the ultimate Toto track, where everybody had a chance to shine.
Everything we got was never given to us.
In the '60s, people had diverse tastes, which made the musical climate that much better and more interesting.
There's so many players that I love and admire. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Mike Landau, Robben Ford, Lee Ritenour, Jay Graydon, John Scofield, Warren Haynes - the list goes on and on.
My band did the Teenage Fair battle of the bands - problem was we were 11 years old! They gave us a prize for youngest band ever.
My son is a professional musician now.
Playing live is one thing. Playing under a microscope is another.
Especially early on, I had no idea what I was going to be asked to do when I walked into a studio. I was doing 26 sessions a week - all day, all night.
I don't question things when they're going right.
The right notes mean more than 1,000 mph arpeggios.
When the 'Thriller' album came up, we all knew that was going to be the cool record.
I was asked to be in Elton John's band, Joni Mitchell's band, and Miles Davis' band. I couldn't do it.
As a session player for so many years, I have found myself in rooms looking around going, 'Is this for real?'
Gear not working on a live show - that is rough.
I have been using small teardrop jazz picks since I was, like, 14.
I'm a weird guy with a weird sense of humor.
Y'know, it's funny: I didn't think I'd be playing 'Hold The Line' at 60 years old. I was 19 when I first played that.
People think being famous is fun. It's not. Even a little bit of fame. It's bizarre. It's weird.
We've had to develop a super-thick skin. We've been beaten up more than any band in history.
When I was starting my journey as a young guitar player, I was listening to The Beatles, the Stones, and all the British invasion bands, Top 40, Motown, and all the great music of the '60s. Then the alien ship landed, and life changed again forever... Jimi Hendrix.
I love to create and play, I can't stop, hahaha!
Everyone I know, including myself, has missed or lost an audition.
I really try to play to my strengths, man. I'm never going to be Guthrie Govan: he's a brilliant player.
I got to work with legendary people.
There are so many myths about us.
Believe me, when I saw 'Family Guy' do the bit on 'Africa,' I howled laughing.
Don't play too loud! Bleed-through on stage can be brutal to front-of-house sound.
I read a lot of biographies, and so much is just so boring or so, like, 'Why did you say that?'
That's the thing, though: It doesn't matter how much you've done or who you've played with. Do you have the passion?
I wish I had perfect pitch, but I don't, and thanks to the miracle of YouTube, a bad night lives forever!
I can't sight-read classical etudes - I would have to see it and learn it. But yeah, I can read. It is a wonderful tool. It's like speaking another language. Anyone that says reading music can hurt your playing is either stupid, lazy, or ignorant.
I don't believe that heavy strings make it all that much bigger-sounding. If anything, it can mess up your fingers, and you can get tendonitis, which is not cool.
We've become an underground thing for kids, because we never got the love our peers got back in the day. Kids are loving discovering us, and I'm happy to be that band.
I can hear the youthfulness of my playing on, say, 'Hold The Line.'
When people make fun of us, it's fine. I get it.
Self-deprecation is my game.
A great solo does not make a great piece. Rather, a great solo in a great song - that's what makes a 10 out of 10. It's the combination of emotional feel and inventive ideas.
I did grow up with Michael Landau, my brother since we were 12 years old. That was competition but in the best way. He is such a monster, always was, and we had a blast growing up playing in bands and early recording and are still the best of pals.
What happens is people go, 'I want to play the guitar,' and the first thing they do is hit Google: 'How can I play this?' and the next thing you know, you've learned all these tricks, but you've never learned how to play rhythm guitar with a groove.
Don't practise what you know - practise what you don't know.
MTV ruined music for us.
We were just a high school band that loved music, you know?
If someone sees me with what looks like a beer, it's always zero per cent.
In sixth grade I had a band called The Blueberry Waterfall. I had borrowed a guy's Fender Jaguar and Boss Tone Fuzz, which you plugged straight into a Blackface Twin. It was a little power trio - we were actually pretty good for our age.
God bless classic rock. It's been very good to me; I'll tell you that.
That's all that matters in music: fun.
Being out of tune sucks.
I play keyboards and have played on many a Toto record.
