Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Steve Lukather

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Steve Lukather.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Steven Lee Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a steady flow of session work beginning in the 1970s that has since established him as a prolific session musician, recording guitar tracks for more than 1,500 albums spanning a broad array of artists and genres. He has also contributed to albums and hit singles as a songwriter, arranger and producer. Notably, Lukather played guitar on Boz Scaggs' albums Down Two Then Left (1977) and Middle Man (1980), and was a prominent contributor to several studio albums by Michael Jackson, including Thriller (1982). Lukather has released eight solo albums, the latest of which, I Found the Sun Again, was released in February 2021.

American - Musician | Born: October 21, 1957

Source: Wikipedia

MTV ruined music for us.

Steve Lukather

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?

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

Believe me, when I saw 'Family Guy' do the bit on 'Africa,' I howled laughing.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

Playing live is one thing. Playing under a microscope is another.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

Self-deprecation is my game.

Steve Lukather

My son is a professional musician now.

Steve Lukather

Our music is harder to play than it sounds. It's the small details you don't realize are there until you try and re-do it.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

Everything we got was never given to us.

Steve Lukather

Being out of tune sucks.

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

In the '60s, people had diverse tastes, which made the musical climate that much better and more interesting.

Steve Lukather

Music was everything. Now it is just not as important as it used to be. When I was growing up, where everyone was trying to outdo each other by being more outrageous and sounding more different, now there is a homogeneous sameness to it all.

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

There are so many myths about us.

Steve Lukather

I thought that you had to work, work, work and try to be the best musician you could, and that's the only way you could make it. Then it turns out, halfway through the scene, they change the rules on you!

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

Nobody loves everybody.

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

I got to work with legendary people.

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

Gear not working on a live show - that is rough.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

Don't play too loud! Bleed-through on stage can be brutal to front-of-house sound.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

When a new record came out, the world would stop that day, and we would sit in somebody's house - whoever had the best stereo system - and sit in the middle of the two speakers and listen and discuss and listen again and go over the album notes and get out the guitar and start playing it and discuss and play some more.

Steve Lukather

Don't practise what you know - practise what you don't know.

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

Everyone I know, including myself, has missed or lost an audition.

Steve Lukather

I was a good father. I was a nice guy, pretty good guitar player, and funny as hell.

Steve Lukather

I ain't the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I've dedicated my life to music since I was 7 and my dad bought me a guitar and the 'Meet the Beatles' album.

Steve Lukather

I just think that there is something that keeps us together, to keep doing what we're doing. I can't really put my finger on it other than each record is like a little snapshot of my life at that particular moment, the way I play, the way I sound, the way I wrote, the way I sing, I can hear it.

Steve Lukather

I quit drinking, smoking, doing anything bad.

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

When the 'Thriller' album came up, we all knew that was going to be the cool record.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

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.

Steve Lukather

That's all that matters in music: fun.

Steve Lukather

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

Steve Lukather

Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Steve Lukather

Related Authors