Quotes from 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.

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

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.

There is no one like Toto in history in that we were both successful as session musicians and also had a band that sold so many million records.

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 played all the guitar parts except the guitar solo on 'Beat It.'

I worked with Chris Squire on a Greg Lake record in the early '80s, worked with Alan White.

I listen to Miles Davis and Slipknot.

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

Being out of tune sucks.

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

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

When I was a kid, thinking of just being near a Beatle was an unattainable dream.

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

The myth that 'old' guys can't write anything fresh is just a myth.

There are so many myths about us.

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.

There's not an anti-Toto spray that will keep us down.

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

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

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.

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.

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.