Steve Lukather

Jimmy pay it's Brian May your friends. You know. It's like, you know, I said, you know what, I had no idea what color it was going to be, because I've been dying it since I was thirty two years old, thirty one years old, so I didn't know what color was underneath. I'm kind of glad it's white because it gives a little bit more of a thing. And you know there and also people were giving me shit and say hey, you weren't a wig or something like that, and going, no, dude, why would I wear a wig

that looks like this? And when it all went, I still got the hair. So I said, well, I'm just going to be an old embrace my old age. You know, I'm going to be sixty six in October, so I'm not trying to fool anybody. It was just the knee jerk thing I've been doing for thirty years, and that kept doing it and then it just became a pain in the ass. So fuck that.

ever going to come back right. It was a very terrible time for me. I mean I went into a manic depression hole that may doctor was scared about. I was taking medication sport, and that got all squirrel.

a black hole. After first couple of months, it's like, ah, they great have being homes in the Nine Stabs some time off, and then it started to suck day by day. There was nothing to look forward to, no reason to get out of bed. I descended into my own private hell and it just lost its way and I had a massive breakdown. I did. I ended up in hospital and ended up in a crazy house. It was very scary time for me. I didn't know what to do with myself, Bob, I really didn't. I'm sorry. I've been

NonStop since I was a kid. You know. I did my first union sessions in nineteen seventy six when I was eighteen years old at United Western three where they cut pet sounds, and that's when I was going, Wow, this is really starting to happen, you know. And I never stopped. I've been busy ever since, unless I wanted to take a few weeks off the vacation, which was not often. So when it all just stopped, I'm like, what do I do with myself? I don't know what to do, you know. And it was a very scary

time for me. And once I pulled out of that dive and got myself together and got with a great doc and cleaned all that grubbish out that I was taking for this depression, which was not good for me at all. And of course, you know if one makes you feel better, what happens if you take five? You know what I mean? And they got to that, you know what I mean. I was ashamed to say it, but I lost control of my life and it was

a terrible time for me. And when I came out of it and woke up, I wanted to make some music. I knew we were going to get back on the road. I was once I started back in and we could do something again. Plan okay, we can tour again. Got all that together and we had two months off and I go, I want to do something. So I called up my old pile David Page, then Joseph Williams, my total partners and childhood friends. I said, let's make a

record like old school. Let's make a shamelessly eighties who gives a fuck record like I'm not trying to Oh, I'm not going to change the world. I'm not going to sell eight million copies like we used to. But I want to scratch the you know. I want to make a fun record with all of us guys and invite back Simon Phillips, who hadn't played with us in a long time, was our drummer, legendary drummer. And Shannon Forrest, who played with us last time the last incarnation I

Just a Lease Clark came in. Jurgen Carlson from Government Mule. My Son produced and co wrote a track I Just did. We did it in three weeks, from soup to nuts, and then I sat on it for a year because we went on the road, and then we mixed it and it's coming out in June sixteenth.

go along with it. Plus I knew him as its like this guy's great, perfect and we all fought and everybody else fell in love with him, and then we started making the records together.

going to call? So I called either Stan Lynch, who's a dear friend who used to be the drummer in the Heartbreakers, but he's also a great lyricist, producer, did the Eagles, Handley and all that stuff, and he writes incredible words and he knows he has my demented sense of humor as well. And then Randy Goodram was the other guy who was my go to when it comes to writing ballads and stuff like that. We had we have something. I write these piano songs, and I have

it all together except the words I can. Then we talk about how I'm feeling, what I want to write about, and he comes back with this poetic stuff that I would have never been able to come up with on my own. Because you know, I can write words. I'm also better at editing what somebody else gives me. I need a help getting started with it. Then I'm a closer. I like to finish stuff, but I'm not afraid to ask for help from guys that really are good at their gig, you know, and Randy's one of the best.

Start thinking about it too much, Oh I'm gonna have to redo that, and then it's never as good. Maybe sonically might be better, but we're as we're recording on pro tools are logic. When we were working in logic, it just sounds great, so there's no reason to redo it. So we sort of like made this as opposed to the last time, where everybody was in the room at

the same time, everything live. This time, we just the three of us, Joseph, myself and David were working and we'd start overdubbing and start coming up with stuff in the forum would take place. We'd have a song done in less than an hour every day, with the exception of the lyrics. But we start overdubbing, and you know, I said, let's just shamelessly overproduce this like we used to.

done real fast. Simon Phillips can read, you know, first take stuff, you know, and he knows what to play. I'd have to tell him. He here, he goes, I know what to play. So the nothing no more than one or two takes on anything. The other stuff I set to Shannon Forest via the Internet and he was living in his studio in Nashville, and he's he's an unbelievably great studio. He's a great engineer, great player, and he'd send me back the stuff. Now I go, that's great.

Or sometimes I was in the room with Simon Trevor and I went out. My son Trevor, who worked on the record, co produced his track. He produced his track. He didn't cop we just like I want to let my son go with it. But that's what we can talk about that later. But I just I try and know who to call. It's like you know who to call, who's going to do the job. And I wanted to work with my old friends too. You know, people think O Simon's on the band anymore, so I almost hate him,

and that's not true. He thinks everybody moves on. It was his choice to move on. We're all still friends, you know.

it's all here, fresh airs. Make this sound great. And then we come in and I go, yes, no, no, do this, do this. I mean I know how to tech talk. I just don't sit behind and press the buttons myself. You know what I mean. I know how to speak engineer.

kind of dealing with this one at this point. And I love the tour. I loved and that's where we make all of our money. But that you know, I'm away from home, you know that's what that is. I just finished three months without coming home, just like last week. But making music is something I need to do. It's not something I do for the cash per se. We know that there's no real money in the recording business

new music anymore. This money in the old music. Our Spotify numbers are scary good and uh, you know, billions of streams. And I made a great deal when I took over management of the band eight years ago. I made a great deal with Sony because they didn't know what they had and Spotify was brand new, so I got it the best percentage that you could get. I'm not going to say what it is, but it's thirty percent more than we were getting on a regular record.

Plus so I love Spotify. Everybody hates Spotify. I love Spotify, the gift that keeps on giving baby.

into our music due to this crazy Africa shit. You know, It's like that was the funniest thing that ever happened to me, but it was also the best. I'll take it. It's a gift, thank you, lord.

going to see like any radio play. When we put it on the album was the last thing we cut on Total four, and Page had this great groove and all of this stuff. Thought wow, that's really interesting. And the lyrics were never done. It was just the melodies. And then we read the whole record and then Dave and Jeff, you know, Page was going to Africa. I'm feeling this vibe. We're going, okay, well, what are the

words gonna be? The melody was killer, the groove Jeff Pacaro was the muse behind all of that, you know, he put put together. We started doing all these loops without the late great Al Schmidt, God bless them, our engineer at the time, and we did it old school loops, real loops, like tape loops. We're holding it with the cant soul and stuff, you know, and we just wanted experiment you know, we were young guys, you know, didn't you know, lived in the studio, loved it, you know

what I mean. And we spent like six months making that record, if not more, because it was like, if you don't have a hit record, you're gonna get dropped from the label. So it was our fourth record. We said, well, we've better bring it. So at that point we were like, okay, So Dave had this cool vibe and at the end they brought the lyrics and I was laughing at the lyrics. I'm going, Dave, we're from North Hollywood. You know what

is this? You know, what are you talking about? It was just a fantasy song that Dave used to He's you know, him and Jeff and they were into this, you know, history, and they would all stuff like that, and they just started grabbing went for it, you know, all these ridiculous were serengetty and of course it doesn't make any sense. I mean everything, well those don't really you can't see to kill the majority. You know, Let's say everyon's trying to like look at it like as

a science project. Man, it's a goofy little song that we never really thought was gonna hit the nerve. The song we thought we had was Rosanna. We thought, okay, you know that's that's really us. That says it all. And we were proud of that, and that was the first thing we cut. The record company said we love it. We were off the hook. Okay, great, and then we just had fun making this record and we had it was our fourth record. We started to get a vibe

as a band. We started feeling like we'd made three records and toured and it really felt good. Everybody who's writing song, David was going come on, bring some song, and we did. And it was really a band effort, really truly was, and we had a blast doing it. But Africa, who knew. I actually said at one point I've been quoted as stupid quote. I was very young. I said, I'll run naked down Hollywood Boulevard if this song's ever hit, Well, nobody would want to see that now.

Plus I probably leave a trail like sparks, you know, my nutsack hitting the pavement running full speed. But it turned into this massive thing, and then once the TeV show then peopled parodies of it, then it was like some club in the UK just be torture for me. They only played that song for like twenty four hours in the club. Now I would have hung myself behind the bar after the third play, but that's me. But it became this thing, and then it became an internet thing,

and then it was everywhere. And then this girl who was a Weezer fan saw it on Stranger Things and a parent those guys were doing covers, you know, and they she beg begged them to do it. Took a while. I don't know. I was not involved in that part, and they they're not fan, they don't like our band or anything like that. They were just like the middle finger to us. And it backfired on them because now they have to play it every night for the rest

of their life. But they weren't doing particularly well and this brought them up and gave him a hit record. So we both won from that. And I tried to reach out to the guy Rivers and say, hey, man, you know, he totally middle fingered me, man, you know, and I'm like, really, dude, the guy is struggling to play bar chords is middle fingering me. Okay, I'm glad it worked out for him, you know. I mean, I don't have a hold of grudge or nothing like that.

It helped us help them, But we did one of their songs right as a reply, you know, and then Universal bought it and shelved it and so wouldn't end up on the radio anywhere. They played it once on KROQ, and then they never played it and they buried it. It was kind of wow, man, Okay, it didn't even give us an even shot. But you know we did it as a joke too. It's a wink wink, you know. And then we carried on, let's do some.

I've just done again updated. But I you know, I've just spent too much time and money and broken hearted moments over litigation. It's not worth the hassle or the cost to do that when I just want to make some music with my friends. So we all make solo records and we all work on them. So I still get to work with my friends without paying the ass of hearing from somebody's lawyer. You can't use this or where's my percentage or all that we pay everybody every

night we play live from the gross. You know, people that wish me dead, I pay them. And the rest of it is, I just shut my mouth and play the guitar. And I got no fight with anybody anymore, Peace and love, no grudges, no anger. I'd let on, let go. I have a very good psychiatrist, and I'm not on any medication right now.

you know, we get the advantage of that. But the people that aren't in the band, like are you know. I don't want to get into all this because it's.

band that was like beyond the dream. We felt. It was overwhelming, really, I mean we were like, oh, wow, thank god we got a record on the on the radio again. Rosanna was a hit, and oh we're gonna begin. But then I think Snowball and we had We weren't even members of Nerost to vote for ourselves. You know, people got pissed off that we want It's like we were also on like, you know, god knows how many records that were nominated that year, you know what I mean.

We were on everybody's records at least one of us. And I won for Best R and B Song for a song I wrote for George Benson with Jay Grayden and Randy and Bill Champlain. We did that in ten minute. That was a ten minute writing session, you know, that was and it became a Grammy Award winning song. You know. So it was like it was overwhelming to sit there and look around and going like, are we really here? Is this really? Did we really pull this off? I

mean it was it was astounding. It was a great feeling. And then we want everybody turned on us. Oh there's a fix, those guys know everybody blah blah blah. We didn't, like we're talking about, we didn't vote for ourselves, you know, we didn't know. It was a weird, freaky thing, like every time we get success, everybody would punch us in the face, you know.

income stream that there is. I mean, for me, I'm going I would rather give my great grandchildren a thousand dollars check from old great granddad they never met, you know, over my neighboring rights. Because I played on thousands of records. That's a big check every year. And that's only in Europe. You know, the US decided to middle finger US and not give us anything for that either. But you know, all these records in this these it's it's sort of

self perpetuating. You know, there are people that will be listening to this stuff. Maybe not as many people, but people I just don't want to give it up. Everybody I know that's given it up has regretted it, going, oh my god, what have I done? Because you don't get anything anymore. It's done over, not another penny. So even if they give you some gazillion dollar check, government

gets half, then the people take their percentages. Then everybody's who gets a piece or whatever, and the next thing you know, it's watered down and all of a sudden, this income stream that you've had consistently is that you know, our songs believe it or not, get played all the time. Man, the numbers don't lie, they're there, And why would I want to sell that? I mean, did I look into it?

they went from seven bucks to twenty bucks. Well, they never adjusted it. They never adjusted it for the artist. But that's when all the executives started flying private and make more money than the artists, like a lot more money. And they never figure. Oh, they were retooling. That's why, because it wasn't been forty years of retooling. Have you tooled it yet?

a world where everything's gone to shit. I feel pretty good about it. As long as I don't read the news, I'm great.

three brothers and sisters. But that's after I'm dead. In the meantime, I still have it. I was threatening to to use it and bring out some of the old stuff that I used to use. But you know, I love my music man guitars, and I've been planning for thirty years and that's it. And they give me everything I need and they keep getting better and better. But the fitchure stuff I keep. I got hundreds of them. They're in my storage space, you know.

and they just wrick them out. I don't know that was the one to get because all my heroes had those, like you know, Jimmy Page and you know Eric Clapton and played these you know all my Jeff Beck, you know all my heroes and the later friends. Uh. You just I wanted that sound when you picked it up and played it, I got it. I remember when I bought my fifty nine first. It was on our first tour and we were in Phoenix somewhere and I went out and got you know, somebody said there was one

there and I went down and bought it. It was like four thousand dollars. I remember my account and going four thousand dollars. You you know you can get these things for free. Now, what do you need a fourth? I said, no, you don't under you don't understand this is like and they only made a handful of these after that, there's no more. There's a lot of fakes now and stuff.

You gotta be careful with that. Uh. But uh, I bought this thing, and now, I mean I had it a praise for like, you know this one because it's been on a lot of hit records. George Harrison played it when he played with us at the Amphitheater after Jeffrey Percaro passed, and so I voted, I mean it has all this history in it, you know, of all these and uh, it's worth like six hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Now, I was appraised, and when I die, it might be worth more than that.

collecting vintage gear at that price. Now it's collectors and people that got to have it, really rich people.

and all that. His son, Sterling took over the company and was working with Eddie van Halen on making him a what do you call it a signature guitar because he you know, and they they did. And I was hanging out at ads and stuff like that, and you know, they're as, what do you think of this guitar? What do you think of these pickups? I gave him a little input on the back pickup, and they made Eddie's guitar, which I really dug and I said, and they said.

And Sterling, also known as Biff to his friends, Biff goes, let me, because you're not a feeling, let me make your guitar. And I feel like, give us the give us your favorite guitar, and let us put on a computer. And well, every little divid every little thing we're gonna make, we're gonna make that happen. And it turns out one of the luthiers at Valley Arts was hired by Sterling to work for his company, had already worked on my stuff.

I love what they were doing with d and I got involved in this company and then we became best friends. And I've been there for thirty years this year, and I love the guitars I've been There's four different versions of my l four is coming out and I've done very very well by this. A lot of people have bought them and used them over the years, and I'm really proud and honored to be a part of that.

A great instrument is a great tool, but in the hands of an amateur, it sounds. You can give my super expensive less ball to somebody that can't play, and it's not gonna make them play any better.

love it. I mean it's not I'm not a tech guy. I don't take my guitars apart put them back together again, because if I did, either be parts left out. My dad used to get mad at me when i'd make models when I was a kid because I put it together and then I'd leave parts out. Oh I forgot. I didn't mean to put that I'm not an idiot, I'm just lazy.

Like my whole new record is just the Bogner amp and music man guitar, same guitar, same amp on every song, so you can, if you bother to listen to it, you can hear the versatility of different tones that I can get out of this effortlessly. I'm not into dragging. I used to be famous for always all the big racks of digital gears, and it was a great time. It was a great era, you know what I mean.

But you know, at the same time, I wanted to simplify myself, you know, So I just use a couple of stop boxes on the ground, which are little fects pedals that could be taken out and thrown away and changed over. And I do everything manually, stepping on it myself, you know, if I want it, and I just have a little pedal board playing through the guitar into the amp.

My my parents bought me all looking and now cute that as he loves the Beatles, that little fad that was going to just be there for five minutes, you know. So I got a really shitty acoustic guitar which is now a lamp in my house. My parents. My parents made it into a lamp and gave it to me on my twenty first birthday. It was like a five dollars k guitar that was like screwed on neck. The action was like ten feet off the neck, a punishment guitar.

But they gave me that in a copy and Meet the Beatles when I was like seven or eight years old, I maybe just turning eight, and I didn't I became obsessed, you know, and I would lift up the needle and just on the on the record player at the house and just play the solo O and Oregon. So my dad screamed to me to stop doing that. You know, if I hear this one more time, you know, I'll be whacked around the house or something. But I you know, I never grew out of it, man, I just had

to grow into it. I was determined to make noise of this thing. You know.

and a very strange thing happened to me. I mean, one day I could was struggling, and one day, all of a sudden, my hands fell into the first position chords. And it was freakish and weird. I could get into this whole story about my grandmother with the psychics.

So one of my grandma's friends came over my mom's mother, who was very hip, God bless her, she was fantastic, and she put her hand on my mom's pregnant tummy. I said, no, it's a boy. I hear music all around him, music, and something's gonna happen to him when he's seven or eight, and later down the line, people are gonna know who this kid is. Music all around him. And my mother said, oh great, I'm gonna have a

musician son. Would she imagined like a guy with a little beat nick beerd needle hanging out of his arm, junkie guy, you know, jazz musician or something you know. And I saw the Beatles on the installment show, got a guitar, and all of a sudden, one day I could play it. It was the weirdest thing I could never explain to nobody. I'm sure, everybody's going yeah bullshit right bah w man man, I swear of got it

happened to me. And then from there I was able to hear things and pick it out on the guitar. Then I meet all the older guys I started, and I had my first band when I was nine, but everybody else was twelve.

the Stones, that was our whole life. The British invasion was our whole life. And I could play uh, you know, uh the songs of the era. You know, I could play like Gloria by them, you know, I could, and we've been a house of the Rising Sun and then Beatles stuff. You know, I saw her standing there, Please please me. We just sing and play man, you know, we could you buy? Then I bought, you know, the Songbook of the Beatles, and it showed you the positions of core that I didn't know. So I sponged up

all that. And then I found older guys that could play good, and I stole all their stuff, and I just was a sponge. I could play whatever. And then my ears started working for me and I could play stuff off the radio. So the older guys wanted to play with me because I could teach everybody how to play their parts. And it was just for me. It was my life. For them, perhaps maybe not until some of the guys in my neighborhood started picking it up. And then I met my dear friend Michael Landau, who's

a legendary guitar player. When we were twelve years old, we were the two hotshot guitar players in la you know, we were the same, you know, and we've been best friends ever since. And it worked out well for us. But we found like minded people in junior high school. The bass player in our band, now John Pierce was He started out with us, he was in our high

school band. And when I met the Piccar brothers in high school, everything changed and then it was real serious and we found out about studium musicians.

like talking to him, so what is this? You know? Well, you know she learned how to read music and all that stuff, you know, because I was playing by ear from the time I was seven to fourteen. And that's when Mike moved in next door and we started hearing about studio musicians and stuff. Who are these names on the back of these albums that I love, same names. Who are these guys? And uh, that's the short version of it. And then my dad said, Okay, man, you

gotta have to study music. If you're gonna do this, I want you to. He talked to his friend Carl Furtina, who was the main musical contractor at Paramount, because my dad was working on at the time. I think it was right before Happy Days or something like that. My dad was an assistant director production manager for television and film, as was my grandfather. I have no interest in that.

That was heinous to me. Boring, boring, boring. Music was my whole thing and I had I had a gift for it, I guess, and to take it to that next level. My dad wanted me to study. As it turns out, when he wanted me to studies, when I met the Picar brothers and all this stuff, and me and all my friends start studying music hard, like we

had to catch up learning how to read. We could play good, but we didn't have the basics, you know, so it was really hard to learn how to read music after you played for a while, because it was you have to go back to maryhad a little lamb in terms of ability to site read the notes on the paper, and that was harder to do, but you know, you had to get it together.

So we started play on sessions like demo sessions for singer songwriters. Started like joining the minor leagues for studio playing before, because nobody had home studios or recording devices that they got anytime at all. They were hired guys to get paid twenty bucks or two and or something

like that. So started to get a feel of what it was like, you know, headphone, studio time, sound, getting it all together, coming up with parts really fast on the spot without any rehearsal or demos or anything like that. We were the demos, so we had to come up with our stuff. Turns out that was a useful skill to learn, because I spent ninety eight percent of the time as a professional studio musician coming up with my own parts on everything we ever did.

a guy you should meet. And Steve had the hotshot band, still Life in the first version of it, and we had heard Jeff Pacarr was already a legend at that point before he was even famous. Yet he was like, I have you heard this guy? The best drummer that there is, and you know, and when I met Steve, we hit it off and he had a band and he wanted to use I'm looking for another guitar player, and so me and I I grabbed Mike Land and

I said, come on, we'll do this together. We were convinced we could both get the gig because it was at the time when Steely Dan was really happening. A lot of two guitar playing player bands that they were looking for that sort of a thing. So rather than choose between us, he said, I want both of you guys to be in it. And that's how I met David Page and how I started the reality meeting all these people that were the names on the back of records after high school and I got out. I it

was just it just happened really fast. All of a sudden, everything started to happen really quickly, and I got the gig with Boss Skaggs for the Silk Degrees Tour that changed my life. And that was thanks to Jeff and Steve Pacaro and Jay Wendy, who was a famous keyboard player at the time and one of my he was

a close brother of mine. I met Willie Ornellis drummer who introduced me to Larry Carlton, who Jeff knew and everybody, and I started meeting all the guys that I met, David Foster, the young David Foster, and he was a big, huge help to me, and we became fast friends and I did all his stuff, and then I started playing on hit records. Boss Boss was looking for a band, you know, and he's looking for a guitar player, and Jeff and those guys said, yeah, get look at her.

And I got there. And the day, first day of rehears I was so excited to get this gig. I wanted the gig so bad because Boss had, you know, one of the biggest records of seventy six seventy seven, and so I got to do the tour in seventy seven. And the first day, Less Dudak, who was a famous blues player, you know, he was working with Bo. More of a in the style of the Almond Brothers, you know,

that southern rock guitar player. And this stuff was Page's Riding, had more you know, adults in it, and a little bit more of a different groove. And the first day of rehearsal, Lesson Boss got in a fight and Less quit and Boss turned to the band. We're all rehearsing at Sir down in Hollywood, you know, and Boss goes, I think we needed to get another guitar player, and Jeff stood up and said, no, you don't, pointed at me.

He goes, calls him out, let him play, and he called out the song jump Street, which was a slide guitar song actually, but I didn't have a slide so I just did it my own way. And I apparently did really well because everybody kind of applauded for me afterwards, and Boss goes, well, I don't need another guitar player. I was nineteen years old, which was weird at the time. I was very young, not by today's standards, but very young at the time to be on that kind of

a tour. I mean I couldn't even go to the bar and have a drink after the gig, you know. And you know I got this gig. It changed my life. Boss changed my life. I owe so much to him. He made a big deal about me, invited me to play on the follow up record, which I gave me some solos on that, which really opened up my career. People going wow, this is an important record. Who's this guy?

This is good with? Get me that guy. And then Jake Graden, who was like one of my oldest friends, famous record producer, guitar player, he was the a guy at the time. He turned me on all you get lugat there man, you know. Yeah, and then he got out and went to be a producer and he gave me all of his work. And it's how it snowballs. You know, you play on a hit record, then everybody finds out about you and they've hired you, and you deliver,

and you have to deliver. It's luck to get in the door, but not luck to get called back twice. And so I lived that life and then the band was starting to happen. It was all at one time. It was like overwhelming. I don't even know how I how we made the time for it all. But I woke up with a smile and went to bed with a smile every day in my life for like twenty years, you know. I mean, it was all working for us. You know. It was really an incredible time in my life.

but we never heard him. Like, we'd all hang out at me and Landau and a bunch of our friends would go down to the Guitar Center Hollywood and play all the guitars we couldn't afford and play all the apps, so they used to let us do it because we were good. We were like, look at these guys, they can play it. And one of the guys who worked there is this is this guy from Pasadena, Eddie. You should meet him someday. We're like, oh, yeah, all right, and we didn't. I didn't know Eddie until after the

first album came out. I heard about it, but I didn't know he was the wonder, you know, he was this amazing guitar player. And I mean because there wasn't really, the communication wasn't like it is now. You'd hear rumblings, oh there's this ban Oh yeah, I wonder for better than they are or whatever, you know, cocky little bastards that we were, and you know, and then it all came together. We all became friends in the end, and

you know, we were doing our first album. I was doing a solo and pagewalks in with the first Van Aalen record. He goes, I got something for you to I want to play something, and I go, van Ellen, yeah, I heard of them, and he plays eruption. He drops the kneel on eruption on my fucking jaw hits the floor. I'm like, what the fuck is that? Who is the how is he doing that? And I got to play. I'm thinking, oh, I'm pretty good man for a nineteen

year old kid. And then fucking Eddie comes in and blows the socks off everybody, and then I was on a quest to meet him. I'm like, I gotta find out who this guy is. I want to meet Eddie van Aalen. And obviously that album just you know, changed rock and roll forever, and then added to like we meet at the California World Music Festival in seventy eight. We're both on the bill, and we met and said we got to hang out. And then some time went by and he called me on the once to come

over the house. I said, oh great. So I went over to his house and stayed a year one night and we became very fast friends immediately, and he would play me stuff like you know, they were already on there it was he was doing. He had a demo for Jump he played for me. I said, dude, keyboards too. I said, this is incredible. This is the number one record. He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, but Roth doesn't like it. I go, what are you talking about? He goes out of the keyboards like, oh, come on, I go this

this is a smash record. And that was the demo of it. And you know, it turns out I was right. But you know, he didn't need me to tell him it was. It was a you know already in stone that that was going to be a hit record. It was just a brilliant piece of music, you know. And I've always loved the guys, you know, I mean broke my heart to lose my friend. You know, we were close, man. I Drahm and Alex and I are friends. You know, I still talk to him all the time, and I'm

like Switzerland. I love all the guys. The only guy I don't know is David Lee Roth. I met him a couple of times, but I don't know him. But you know, I was other than that. I mean Mike and Sammy and all those guys and everybody else who had come through. I mean, we're all buddies. You know, those friendships I made and most of my still have, assuming people are still here, you know they were at the stage now that what sucks about getting all is losing all your friends.

we played some guitars a little bit. You know, let me check out your guitar, let me check out your you know, there's that magic amp that was on the first album. There's no magic, camp man, I sound just like me coming to this stuff. You know. It's the magic is in the person who's playing the guitar. You know, you can get the same gear. It doesn't mean anything,

you know. I mean I believed me. I played a lot of famous guitarsn't It didn't help by playing at all, But it was neat to play and see how they set it up because everybody's guitars are set up a little differently. It's a personal thing, you know.

But that's you know. I make friends for life unless something weird happens.

I didn't. I didn't hotdog it at all. I play, I down shifted, play melody, play, play something more memorable. Because there's a seven year old kid in Japan that can play faster than you can blink, you know, and it almost becomes a parlor trick that's meaningless. I mean, there's some really young talent they't get me wrong. There's some incredible younger players that are just great blues players, great people doing different things with the instrument. There's some

new bands. I'm just whoa, what the hell is that some young guitar players that are and female guitar players that are really incredible. You know, you're never going to hear the word, oh, she's good for a chick, which is completely insulting. I understand that. But the girls are like, you know, the girl's bad ass. Many better look out, you better look out. Man. It's just it's just I look at the women and guitar players. It's just great

guitar player. If I started naming them all off right now, and there's a bunch that I could, i'd forget somebody and feel bad. So I don't want to do that. But the watch out for the girls. They're coming and they're just this is good, if not better than most of the guys.

same festival. And it was just great to see him gig because I han't seen him for a while. He's with Johnny deppho was a really lovely guy and really nice guy, and they were just having fun together, man, you know, and the band was kid. He played so great and it was like he was like I saw him, He's like, oh, don't expect too much. I've been playing. I'm going to shut up. You're gonna devastate And he

did just ripped it a new asshole. You know. It's like, you know, well, there's Jeff Beck and then there's everybody else. And that's not to take anything away from all the other amazing musicians I know, but I think Jeff was like every guitar player's favorite guitar player.

Didn't think he's hybrid version of both. But Jeff Beck sounded like Jeff Beck when it was just all skin on strings. That's how the magic is in him. I played his guitar, I don't sound like Jeff Beck playing his guitar. He'd pick up an attitude guitar and when he played it was in tune. I'm convinced he had perfect pitch. We didn't even know what that was. I mean, he was very unschooled. Everything was by ear and by feel.

And he made a point that he told me once he goes if it's normal, if it sounds normal, I'm not interested. So he would just come at whatever. It was a simple melody notes or notes. You know, it was an ease and E and F sharp's and F shark. However, how you attack it and how you make that feel with the touch is what changes everything. It's like your vibrados,

a thumbprint, a thumbprint. Nobody has no two alike. You know, That's that's the whole thing touches everything when it comes to playing the guitar.

some new blood in there now. There are other guy Paul Jackson, Junior, David William, the late Great David Williams. Yeah, those are the guys that you know, we were all working together and we were all brothers. Man, I mean it was I learned everything. Those guys are my heroes. The inspiration still are.

because they took all the money. Once the record companies figured out there was home studios and you can make records for you know, ten, you know, one hundred times less than what we were making them for. Then they took the budgets away. They say, oh, here's X amount of dog you can keep whatever you don't use. So everybody's like, well, I'm going to keep this money for myself. I mean, I'd like to hire so and so, but you know, maybe he'll do it for cheap, now, dude,

that's where the Union failed us miserably. Do you how much not I played on thousands of records, and that's not a facetious count, all right over my years, all the forty six, forty seven years or whatever it is now, And how much do you think my union pension is per month?

I haven't done it in a long time. It's like speaking French, and when you're living in France, you forget it if you're not living in France for a while. Anyway, getting back to it, and that's one thing. And those guys got good pensions for some reason. But the recording guys, guys like me who ninety eight percent of the time made up my own parts on the spot with no rearsal, no demos, play something great. Here's here's a chord sheet with you know, letters written on it. Count it off?

You know, we get we got shit? How much you think all the records I played for all of the years I've been in what's you've never been a.

on it for life. But that's the whole other story. But the musicians, I mean, you think they would have gone to bat for us, right, No, they didn't. So I get one thousand dollars a month taxable at fifty three percent in California. I wouldn't even be able to afford to live into the freeway for that.

on my record? I said, Mark, I go, what do you need me for? Number?

I mean, I I don't want to take somebody's money just to be a whore, you know, and take make them feel bad because I got it done in twenty minutes and they spend all this money, you know, like, Okay, I'd rather be enthusiastic about it and do it as a favor. And we do this a lot amongst ourselves with the barter system, Like I paid all the guys money throw double scale at least legitimate money to play on my record. Other people I go like, I'll do

yours if you do my. And we do a lot of stuff like that, you know what I mean, because there's not a lot of doing it anymore, you know. I mean, we can make a little bit, but you know I have a big nut. I mean, I have a lot of families, divorces and four children, well two of them are married, they don't need me anymore. But I got two kids that I still got to put through school and college, and you know, buy cars and nurture them until they're adults and they can take care

of themselves. So I mean, I gotta let you know. Being a session player was like the greatest times of my life. But it's time to move out of the way. I stopped doing it. When I start feeling like I better get out before I don't they stop calling me. I'd rather go out on top and just I had the good fortune of being able to start a solo career on the side and do some other weird side projects and still have the band to make a living.

I was told by Carlton Graydon Ritt and all the guys, you got ten twelve years, then you got to get out make room for somebody else. When you're a recording musician, when you're a TV film guy, once you get that gig, you never leave town. You stay there until you die, and you get the great pet and six bigger pensions and all that stuff if you're a recording guy. For

some reason, we got fucked on the deal. I don't know who made that deal, but it's a drag for all the musicians like myself who maybe don't have a band to carry on the rest of their life and make a living. And you know, I feel like you're a valuable member of the musical society.

got a little bit out of their minds. You know, all the drugs, the booth and the hanging and the craziness. You know, you read about all this stuff when you're a kid. Oh, when I'm a rock star, I get to do this and throw TVs out the window and be an asshole. It's not really how you want to live your life, you know what I mean? And as an older guy, I mean, yeah, we had fun, but we took the gigs very serious after hours, whatever and whatever. But like you know, there was all these rumors about

all the drugs, everything that we were supposed to be doing. Man, come on, man, to have your own band do that and then play on everybody else's records doing twenty some odd sessions a week. You can't be that fucked up man. If you are, then you don't get called back, so you have a very short career, or you get big time and outprice yourself. Oh I need X amount of

dollars to do the session. People, you might be able to get away with that for a minute, but it's like anybody else when they fall down the ladder, there's nobody there to catch you. They just move out of the way and watch it splat. You know. So I was given a lot of great tips and rules to live by by my older peers. Do this, don't do that, you know, shut up, don't be like that. And I listened, you know, but now I you know, we do the shows. I you know, I haven't had a drink in almost

fourteen years. I don't do drugs. I don't do you know. I'm That's not how I live. And you know, I mean, I the booze got to me. That was my poison. I would say. In the two thousands was when I got out of control and I almost ruined everything. I did, ruin a lot of things. Mostly I hurt myself and my reputation because I became a drunk and it was pitiful and I'm really ashamed of that and I'm really sorry about it. But I hit the wall and that was it, and I just I threw away the cigarettes

and the booze and didn't look back. You know.

I'd look away. Go. I know I looked bad. I felt bad. I wasn't playing well. I hated myself. My life was falling apart, and I had a little girl that had just come into the world who's now going to be sixteen. But at that time, I started going, this is not good, man, I can't do this, and people were worried about me, and I was blowing it. To be quite honest with you, I've been given this incredible gift of a career. And you know, alcoholism runs

my family, man. My mother died from it. You know other members of my family have been crippled by it and they've either died or come out of it. And I didn't want to be a casualty. I figured I'd better do this and I felt so bad and I was. It's one of those days. It was like worst day ever.

You know, you wake up in the morning, you feel like an elephant shit in your mouth and sucked your It sucked all your soul out, and you I walked out to the outside garage and I opened up the freezer and there was a bottle of vodka in the freezer, you know, And I just grabbed it and I started chugging it like it was water. And it was ten in the morning, and my then next my then wife walked out saw me. She and I turned around. She's caught me, she goes, So it's come to this now, huh.

And I suck I and I hated her for telling me the truth. And I said, that's it, man, I'm fucking done. I am done. I'm the cigarettes. The booze does she yeah, yeah, you quit before for a month, you'll be back, I go, not this time. And I never did, never went back, never touched a booze again. I did pitifully pick up cigarettes again for a minute during the pandemic and I was feeling all sorry for myself and fucked up on antidepressants, and I started and

I quit. I'm not I haven't smoked. I'm not smoking anymore. But for a minute there, that's a dangerous one. Smoking cigarettes is awful. It's the most awful thing. And I didn't drink, you know, I mean, that's the one thing I didn't crack there and I didn't, you know. But you know, I've done some very shameful things in my life. Man, I'm not a perfect guy. I'm not trying to put myself out there as be this saint when I'm not. But I tried to learn from my mistakes.

somebody that I took it personally, which I shouldn't know. Now, I laugh, I go, okay, well change the channel, you know. But you know, for a while there I was trying to drink all that pain and all this other weird shit that happened from my childhood, which I don't want to get into.

little and I was terrible in sports. I weighed about, you know, ten pounds wet, I was painfully shy, if you can imagine. But okay, no, but I was man, I mean, I was afraid of everybody, and everybody saw my weakness and picked at it. In an era when I was like I don't want to get on the school bus, seemed like, you know, and my parents, sare you getting on the school bus? You know? You got My father's like tough it out. Man, like when you used to get the old I'll see you at the

flagpole at three o'clock. I'm going to kick your ass. You had to show up. And I was an easy beat down, like when I remember playing dodgeball in school with the big red rubber ball. You're not supposed to throw it at the guy's head. He was always hit my face smack on full blast, you know, and I you know it. I know it sounds like, oh, poor beautiful Luca there blah blah blah, but humiliating, you know.

And then when I was you know, it's just kids that can be so cruel, and i'd see, I tell my old man, it's like, I mean, we got to go show up with the flag boys, like you got to show up. My dad was a marine. You don't puss out, you know. And you know, yeah, it made me. It gave me an edge, which I maybe he's still in there somewhere. It comes out every now and then something I'm not very proud of. You know. It was more like fight or flight whatever. I don't know what that.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here, but I mean, emotionally speaking, I had it, and there was weird shit in my family and stuff, you know, I want to dig up everybody's dirty laundry. But yeah, it was. There were as much great as there was, there was

equally some weird stuff. You know. Every family has it, man, you know, and I you know, I feel comfortable in my own skin for the first time in my life these last two years coming out of the pandemic, and I really learned to really appreciate what I had and who I had, and the people around me, and most of all my kids, you know, and the people that I loved to hang out with. Because the last incarnation of the band ended on my ironically my birthday, October

twenty first, twenty nineteen. I walked away from that going, there's some people here that I'm never going to speak to again ever in my life. And I said maybe, well, I said, I got to get away from this, and then the pen and said, I got I want to put together another version. I talked to the page. She said, I still want to keep doing this, but there's some guys that just don't want to be here and hate

my guts and they're going to do this anymore. So we were going to do all this and then the pandemic hit and then I was like all dressed up and nowhere to go. And that started me the depression and all the other weird stuff. I was really happy for a while.

more try. I had actually semi near death experience, you know, like I saw the light the tunnel and the light of God and all these things, and I thought I was dead. I really, I mean I went out. I don't know how out I was, but when I came to, I was in a hospital with a guy sitting at the end of my bed with a gun. Oh yeah, I'm like, where am I said, I'm in Hell. I wake up and I looked behind me. I'm in bed thirteen, and I go, I'm this it. I'm in Hell. I died and went to Hell. I am an asshole. I'm

not worthy of anybody's love or anything. I'm a piece of shit. And I kept going, I gotta take a piss can, I gotta take a I go, I'm in Hell, aren't I? He goes, you know, in Hell? I go, this is hell? Look around me, this is There's nobody here but you and me in this we're green room and I'm thirteen. I'm like coming, How did I get here? What happened to me? And it all started to come back together, and you know, and so they threw me

in this joint with these insane people. There was a couple of people in there that were nice to me, but the guy, the main guy, this Sigmund Freud, wanna be dude. And he'd be asking me things like looking at me, like trying to get me to confess the sins I didn't have, you know, you know, and it was and it was just I realized I gotta play this guy to get out. And he didn't want to. He thought it got weird when he started asking me how much money I made? The Yeah, I realized, why

is he asking how much money you made? Because he's looking at me like, going, you don't he knew I didn't belong in this joint. He's trying to figure me out and googled me or whatever. He said, Okay, let's see what the cats all about. When I he threw out a number at me, and I laughed at him. I said, I went like this, No, it's more than that. That's a finger pointing up for the non visual. Yeah, right, you know what I mean. I didn't want to say. I mean, if I say, you know, he threw out

a small figure. I said, I said, I do a little better than that, and I pointed up. I didn't want to say because I knew what he was trying to get out him. He said how much more money than I make than he did? And then he turned sour on me and he wasn't going to let me out like I was supposed to be three days out. Okay, that scared the fuck out of me, and I was really upset. But anyway, the only way for me to

get out was to go to a rehab. So I said, well, I'm not addicted to anything, but I'll go just to get out of here. So I said, give me a I told my son. I was like he had he's a pay phone. It was like scariest hell in there, man. I mean, there was guys just being in prison. Man, I'm going to belonging here? What the fuck? And scared the holy living shit out of me. I mean, more than anything in my whole life. And I've seen some pretty frightening stuff in my life. That was the one.

And so I checked myself. I mean, I said, okay, I'm going to go to this place in Malibu. Make sure it's a nice place. Cost me a fortune, but I didn't give a shit. I just wanted to get out, and I figure, you know what, this would be good for me. I didn't do it when I stopped drinking, and I didn't drink, but I figured, okay, in order for me to get out, I'll take a month and I'll go and I'll do everything they tell me to do,

and I'll still be by the ocean. I could take a walk by the ocean and you know, just kind of clear my head. And I met some really nice people. In there, and there's some other people. I'm going like, what am I doing in here? Man, like you know, and they're all like, I'm not allowed to say anything. There are some kids, you know, young people, and that

I really felt or there was struggling really hard. And I met a couple of nice people that you know, and I went to all the classes and went to the meetings on the beach and I did it for a while. And you know, first thing I did was called ringo when I got out and gone, dude, I really fucked up. And you know, his friendship is everything to me. You know, he's a very close brother to me. And and he talked me down and said, hey, you know, blah blah blah. I confessed my sins and all that stuff.

I mean, but I didn't fall off the wagon like other people do with something that was terribly addicting. Or I didn't start drinking or starting blow or do anything stupid. But I did do stupid shit with the antidepressants that I was taking, you know, and which were okay by my now former doctor.

leave here, but they wouldn't let me leave. It was scary. It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me, Bob. I'm not kidding you, man. It really put everything into perspective in my whole life. And I wanted to escape so bad. I didn't want to feel anything. I didn't want to deal with anything. And this, you know, a little bit, okay, last for a half hour and then whatever. But I just once I I realized it made me

feel better. I just kept taking it. It's not illegal, it's not addicting, but it'll fuck you up if you do too much of it, like anything else.

ground zero again. I was broken down to the nub, and I was very active and all the you know, I got a lot out of it, you know, I put You know, you get as much as you put into it, you know what I mean. But it was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. And I'm not proud of it. I mean, I don't really talk about it. I mean, you know, now everybody's gonna know about it and all that shit, but whatever, I don't care. I mean, I had some mistakes in my life, but

I'm not the only one. It was really surprising that at my age I would have let myself do that again. But I had. I kept going, are we coming back? Is it coming back? No, man, I don't know when it's coming back. And my depression led me down the road and I told my doctor, this is what's up. He goes, well, that's interesting, he goes, that might work for you. Well, once you get a green light from a doctor to a guy like me, forget about it. So the first thing I did was abuse it like

a drunk an addict, would you know? So I just changed poison. So I fucked myself up. But I still, you know, think about AA. I mean, I would go every day if I needed it, but you know, and and I went for a while. But I have a The guy that I met in there, who is now my psychiatrist, is an addiction expert, is now my sponsor as well, in the sense of I talked to him three times a week and sometimes more, sometimes a little less.

But I mean he's helped me through this and he knows everything that I'm doing everything, and I can get a lot of stuff off my shoulder that I didn't want to say in front of a group of people that know me. There's nothing anonymous about alcoholics anonymous, especially if you live in Hollywood, you know, I mean, the would be guys at an arm wrestle me on that. Hey,

it stays in the brotherhood and all that. But once you say something that you wish nobody ever knew in your whole life, and everybody knows about it, even if they swear not to tell, they still know when they look at you. And there's some things that I just didn't want anybody to know about, not you, not anybody.

be around anymore. And and it was like an incredibly painful thing for me to realize how badly I fucked up and I almost died, and I let everybody down. I've humiliated myself. Now where do I go? So I own it? You know, I mean, I mean that's part of the program. I mean, just to own your sins. So it's it's it's humiliating to talk about, but you know what, man, maybe it'll help somebody go, wow, you know how long go?

you think I'm cool, every nobody's everything's all right. But I wasn't. I was fucking dying inside. And this little band aid that I would put on with this fucking shit blinded me to the reality of my situation. And it's my fault. I can't point the finger at anybody. I mean, it's my fault. And that's the end of it, you know. And I made a mistake and I fixed it, and I still believe. I believe in the AA program. I think it's a fantastic thing. Everybody needs a different

version of it, you know what I mean. There's a you know, one hundred different kinds of AA meetings in Los Angeles and different people in their own little clicks and stuff. I just preferred to get my treatment privately, and it's worked for me very very well, and I've got a lot of stuff out that's made me a much better person. The hardest part is forgiving myself. Some people are gonna hear this a guy. I knew that

motherfucker man, look at that loser. I knew. You know, they're going to get off on hearing this, you know, and because they don't like me for whatever reason, or they just get off on other people's pain, having any fame whatsoever, even at a low level like myself. You know, people you know, like they like to take you down. That's why I got off all social media. I don't I don't look read the comments anymore. I don't do

that because it was like cutting myself. There's always somebody who's gonna you know, I don't need to read I'm great. I don't need to read I suck. I don't need that. I try to do what I be the best me I can be, Try to forgive myself, be a better father, be a better friend. Maybe someday I'll meet a girl that makes sense for me, but you know, at this point, I'm better off alone. You know, I'm working a lot, work in my and my family is all I care about at this point. You know.

eight next month. They're both May babies or this month, so I mean, you know, they've seen the whole ride, and I'm very tight with them. You know, my old my oldest daughter went through her own alcohol issue, which she's been clean for a long time now, but you know, it's you don't go into this trying to be an asshole, you know what I mean. It's always starts out as fun and some people can stay in that zone. Normal people have a couple of drinks, spoke a joint, whatever,

you know. I I mean count weed. I mean, that's a whole other thing. But you know, when you start playing around with drugs that alter your mind or booze that alters your everything, it never ends well if you overdo it. You know.

son just got married. He married Jonathan Cane's daughter from Journey, who is a wonderful cat.

and writing songs for people. And he's done very well in a time when it's almost impossible to do well in the music business as a young artist coming up. You know.

and producer of the shows. He finds the guys. Ringo used to change out the band every year and a half, you know, so it was coming time to change the band. They were looking for new players, and I and Greg brought him to a show we were doing Tota was doing in Paris, and so he saw the show and saw me, and it was sold out arena and we did great, and he's like, yeah, that guy's okay, So he ran in. Ringo's the bottom line, it's always up to him, you know, who he wants in the band

and what music he wants to play or whatever. And the only thing I did was call up my buddy Jim Keltner and go Celtner put in a good word for me. Man, I really want to do this gig because him and Ringo are tight. And obviously there are a lot of people that have been in the band, were friends of mine or are still friends of mine. Why'd you want to do it so badly because it's Ringo? Man? I thought it'd be a great asset to the band.

I mean, I had got a chance to work with Paul McCartney on the first time during the Thriller record with Michael Jackson, and then we did the film and he hired me and Jeff Bacar to go do the film in London, so we got to hang out with him, George Martin and Jeff Emerck for two weeks, which was awesome, beyond austome. And I met Dave Gilmour when I was there because he wanted Jeff to play, So, I mean,

getting to meet all my heroes is pretty cool. And then I didn't see Paul for a while, and then I met George in a club George Harrison at the right three days before after you know, it was the year Jeff passed away in nineteen ninety two, and we were doing a benefit tribute concert room at the Amphitheater and everybody came out to this. Eddie van Halen joined up, Donald Fagan came out this before Steely got back together again,

and Boz came out. Michael McDonald was there, James Newton Howard was there, all the guys that have played in the band, you know, Lenny Castro, all of our brothers came out and played. And then I had met George a couple of days before. Just wanted to say, Hi, you're the reason why I play. I was, I was humble, and I'll and he said, no, sit down, stay for a while.

reason why I played the guitar. I just wanted to say I love you and thank you very much. I'm going to leave you alone.

have to be famous to relate to that. There's a brotherhood that once you joined a band, you just you either understand or you don't. Anyway, I said, we're playing like wy don't you combine? You know, combined and hang, I got the last song we're doing is Little Help of my Friends, and he laughed. He goes said, well, maybe I maybe I'll show up, and I said, I'll leave a couple of tickets for you just in case, but I know you're not gonna come. So we end

up there and we're rehearsing. David Crosby was there. I mean, like I said, I'm forgetting people that I And we're rehearsing the end bit and all of a sudden, somebody goes, hey, somebody's here to see I said, not now, man, I'm like, you know, I'm trying to figure. I'm sitting at the piano. We're all sitting around, throwing the parts around. He goes, no, this guy's from Liverpool. I go, you're shitting me. I turned around. There's George at the MP Theater, the old Amphitheater,

and sitting there smiling at me. He goes, he goes, he didn't think I was going to show up, did you?

was great and he came out and played. You know that there's photos of me, him and Eddie Van Hale and I mean George. He took it a little bit of a shine to me. And we started hanging out. Every time he'd come into LA he would, we'd come on, have dinner and stuff, you know, and he I'd see him all the time. I've got lots of George stories, but that would take a whole other hour. But long story short, I stayed in touch with him and then when that idiot stabbed him at his house. He little

lost touch with everybody. I'd hear like Kelder would say, George said to say, Hi, he's he's just hiding out at the house, man, you know, like, and I'm like, hey, I understand, you know, okay, edit we lose George. I mean try. I mean I was crushed, you know. And the whole Ringo thing started coming up, and that started became like, I really want to do this gig, you know, I really want to meet Ringo and I want him to like me, and I want to do this gig,

and I want to do. My friend Richard Page and all these great artists that were playing with him at the time put a good word in for me, and then Kelder put a good When I finally talked to me, he goes, because you had everybody in the world calling me telling you to hire you know, I'm doing a terrible impression. And the first and I got the gig, but I wasn't allowed to talk about it for like three or four months. I couldn't tell anybody because the

other band was ending. He didn't want it to get out that, you know, there was going to be changes, man, So I had to sit on that, and when I found out it was all going, I mean, I was so excited, thrilled to be in the band, you know, and I figured, wow, this is I told the guys been, look, I really want to do this band. Give me a couple of months off so I can do this. And at the time, Todd Rundren was in the band, you know, and Greg Rawley from Santana Journey in which we did

all the Santana's. Anyway, I thought, you know what I could as a studio player. I could play everybody else's stuff just the way they wanted to be played. So I figured I'd be a good asset to the band. And you know, I remember getting off the elevator in Canada for the rehearsals, you know, and he was standing that I just looked at him. It's like he's such a warm human being. Give me a hug, and he says,

all right, see you in the morning. And I've been there for eleven years and we become great friends, and that's a great honor. He's changed my life for the better and a He's been like the big brother had, you know, just always wise and positive and hilarious. And it's a joy to be around and make music with him. And see this guy who's gonna be eighty four in July. Every time I call him, he's on the treadmill. It's like your FaceTime on the treadmill a lot. You always

bothering me on the faith time. He's never he never stops. He's working on three EPs at the same time, getting ready to go on the road. Now we're you know, we leave in three weeks. We start rehearsals and it's a thrill. And I told him he's gonna have to kill me to get rid of me. Man. He laughs about it. And I have no idea why I've lasted this long. I mean, we just have a great relationship.

I made amends with the people that I needed to do that with, and the people that I have lost touch with for one reason or another. There's a reason for that. But for the most part, I mean, I'm more calm and happy and content and appreciative and more spiritual, closer to God, closer to everything. Realizing that I'm closer to the dirt napp than I am the beginning, you know, so I better savor these moments and make the most out of be healthy and be present, be there for

my kids. You know, I had to make all the effets, especially to my to my youngest daughter. I scared her and for that, I'm you know, it's taking a long time. Everything's cool now, we're closer than ever. But you know, it was a bad time, man, and I'm back and I feel great, And I wanted to make new music. I want to go on the road. That was a huge success for us last two years in the United States,

because that's always been an Achilles deal. We do great around the world, but getting the US back, you know, that was important to me before I die, And that's happening right now in terms of touring, what our value is and finally getting a little respect as they say, you know what I mean. I mean. I remember Henley telling me in nineteen eighty when we were working on his first record, there's a shameless name drop. I go, why of these guys hate us so much?

for it. And Ton's a great cat. I love the death and one of my favorite singers of all time, but you know, there's a through the years, I've worked with people that you know, I've stayed friendly with over the years. You know, we don't hang out all the time or nothing, but I get an email now and then what's up and how you doing? And I see, you know, in Ringo's brother in law is Joe Walsh, one of my all time heroes, and I see him every once in a while, and we work together and

over the years played together. Uh. You know, so I've got a chance to work with a lot of my heroes, which and that's how I pinched myself moments, you know, and then you I'm losing a lot of my friends too, which is like also very humbling, realizing I better take care of myself. You know, I'm not I'm the guy. If I stub my toe, I go to the doctor. You know what I mean. I'm not. I got a cyst in my eye. It's you know, it's just a

tear duc thing. But you know, at one point I during this last tour, I felt my right breast, I'm going with something in here. Man, Oh, this is gonna be it for me, right, So I go to the doctor. I find out it's nothing, you know, but I'm already you know, throwing dirt on myself and in the hole, you know what I mean. I'm very paranoid about that.

just it's it's it's a wonderful group of guys. You know, I love everybody in the band, and so I make it work. You know. It's where where I'm able to book around them, they book around me. It just means I'm away a lot. But I mean, I'm not going to ever say no to Ringo unless he wants to get rid of me. I mean that then that would

be up to him, but we'd still stay friends. But I think he's at the age now and I'm I shouldn't speak for him, but I mean he likes to be around certain people that he's comfortable with, like meeting like a new bunch of guys. I don't think he really feels like doing that at this point.

that's more than money. That's why I started playing in the first place, before there was money or anything but the music to care about. When I was just a kid, I never lost that feeling. Sure, you get tired, I mean there is the you know, harsh reality of the physicality of it. But man, now, man, I'm if we're doing it by bus, I'm as sleep. I do the gig, eat some food, crawling my bunk with my kindle, and

I read. I read spiritual stuff. I read UFO stuff, for science fiction stuff, you know, anything not music, you know, And I go to sleep early, and I wake up early, and I feel good. I eat right. I try to keep it together, you know, make up for the times that I did.

one nice car. I don't have diamond rings or spent you know, I don't worry about money. I spend it if I want to. But I'm not stupid with it either, because I've had it, lost it and had to make it back again. And when you get to be a certain age, you don't want to have to make it back again.

I was like, what are you kidding me? Jeff was going to do it, and we were going to put starting Toto off. We'd already had done demos for Toto to get a record deal, and Sony came to us and offered us the deal Columbia at the time without even seeing the band live. We weren't even a live band yet. We were just it was Dave and Jeff coming off Silk Degrees and all that. And obviously Jeff was and Steely Dan when we were in high school, Like we heard the Katie Light album before it was out,

We're the rhythm tracks. Jeff would come by and play us cassette of what they were doing, and we were just doing all Steely Dan stuff anyway, me and Landau. Landau was Danny Diaz. I was Jeff Baxter. That was the running wink joke that we had in high school. And after the Boss thing happened and I met Irving, who was incredibly nice to me as a kid, it was what a management team was. Irving was the manager, Craig frun was the tour manager, and Howard Coffin was

the count. And I was nineteen years old and these guys all took a little shine to me and irving you know i'd heard, you know, he came said, you want to go out with Steely Dan, Like does Flipper have a blowhole? Yes, you know, but I didn't realize that Donald and Walter had come down to rehearsal and kind of checked me out in the dark, you know.

And then I got to rehearse with Danny Diaz, the original guitar player that I played the solo on you know, Do It Again and Your Gold Teeth and Asia and all. You know. Danny's beautiful cat, great player, really unique and lovely guy and and his wife are great. Anyway, long story short, Without even meeting Donald or Walter at that time, I started getting together with Denny Diaz and going over who's gonna play what part? And then it all fell

apart for whatever reason that I wasn't privy to. And so I could say I was in Steely Dan for five seconds, but I never got to record with him. I did get to play with Donald at the Jeff Tribute, so that kind of fulfilled the fantasy, I think, and I worked with Walter at a at a guitar thing. Once we played together on stage, he was very nice. They were both really really nice to me. But you know that music is really important to me. That Steely

Dan is an incredibly important band to me. You know, musically, I mean Donald Faga's Nightfly album is a Desert Island album for me. You know, one of the greatest albums ever made. Should have beat us in the Grammys. It was a better record, but we were all fans of it, you know, and stanzas Test the time. You know, their music is just it's like it's like there's the Beatles in Steely those and Hendricks and stuff, and you know, that music stuck with me my whole life. You know,

I go, well, what about Zeppelin? What about Becco? What about you know Cream and all that. Yeah, of course that's all there. But in terms of songwriting production, Steely Dan, man, the Beatles, Steely Dan. Really that's in my DNA heart.

was beyond my wildest dreams. The one of w really hit me was when I was invited to do the Beatles fiftieth anniversary of the Ed Sullivan Show, right, and we were and you know, it was an all star backing band, Me and Peter Franton on guitar, and you know,

I could go on. Don Wills was the musical director, and there was all these great players that all the A list guys, and we got to back all these people that apparently CBS television shows to be artists, sing Beatles song and to make a long story short, I was honored to be there, to say the least. And then right before we were going it was busy week. We were rehearsals, and then we had the Grammys with Ringo to be on that show, and then this whole thing,

and Paul was there. It was a nice reunion to see him again. And we were playing right before we went on. I see Paul and Ringo in the flesh right here, and then I see the guys, and then I look up at the screen and they're playing Hard Days Night black and white, in which my grandmother took me to see ten times, if not twenty when I was a kid, bought me Beatle Boots the whole thing.

It hit me that, like that little shitty you know, that little kid with a shit eating grin, is now standing here fifty years later celebrating this thing with the real guys, and I would It was at that moment in my life I said, I really fucking pulled off the dream. I really pulled this off. I'm dems here. I mean, what am I doing standing here? This is incredible? I can I pinched myself, but I like, I got a little of a clempse. Man, I was a little

tear in my eye. You know, I'm like, like, this isn't ma, And I kept it was a personal moment that I not really share it. You know, I'm telling you this story. A couple people in my family know how I felt about it. But Ringo did that for me. Man, Ringo is such a friend. I mean he would dragged me along to be a part of this thing. You know, I didn't even ask him. I just said, Man, I'd love to be a part of that and to have been there, to be a part see the fifty years

of my life flash before in my lies. It was a it was a moment I'll never and it missed. Made me really really appreciate all of it not much more.

named Steve. I think it really got solidified in high school when Steve Pacar was the leader of Still Life, which was the band that we were, which is the second generation of the band that Jeff Pacar and David paichad in high school and they went off to be pros. Steve took over the band called it still Life. And with Steve it's every time somebody said Steve, both of us would answer, it's like, no, you're Luke. You're Luke okay, okay, and that I've been that ever since high school.

even hardly answer to Steve anyway. You know what I mean, I'm either Dad or Luke, and you know, Steve is just something that's all right, I have to fill out this passport, work permit or something.