Jeff Porcaro was one of the greatest drummers that ever lived: as the session musician who played on hundreds of hit records, including the biggest selling album of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller; and as the driving force in Toto, the LA rock band that crafted classic radio hits such as Africa, Rosanna and Hold The Line.
But after Porcaro’s death at the age of 38 in 1992, his band was able to continue – with the help of one of the few drummers capable of replacing the seemingly irreplaceable.
London-born Simon Phillips was a friend of Toto guitarist Steve Lukather, having backed Lukather on a solo tour.
However, when Phillips was approached about joining Toto he was still the drummer for The Who, having toured with the British rock legends in 1989 and recorded with singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend for their respective solo projects.
It wasn’t easy for Phillips to juggle his commitments to the two bands. Nor was it easy fitting into Toto as their token Englishman.
But he stayed with Toto for 21 years before giving up his position to Keith Carlock in 2014.
And as he now tells MusicRadar, he remains hugely proud of his work with the band...
If Steve Lukather hadn’t called you in ‘92 to join Toto, would you have remained as The Who’s drummer?
“Oh, yeah, definitely. Because, even at that time after I moved, I was always going to move to California. That was nothing to do with Toto at all. My plans to move were hatched a couple of years before that.”
And the plan was to set up your own studio in LA?
“Yes. I had a studio in England. To me, having a studio was very, very important. But I didn't know quite how to do it, or how it was going to happen.
“I was still playing with Pete [Townshend], after I moved to the US. We did the album Psychoderelict together.
"I also did ‘Daltrey Sings Townshend’, which we did at the Carnegie Hall. And then they called me for The Who’s Quadrophenia tour in ‘96.
“So at that point I was definitely the drummer of The Who. It was only Roger who used drummer Zak Starkey for his solo gigs, but when it came to The Who, I was always going to be the drummer.
“But then I joined Toto. And I was only able to work with The Who when Toto weren’t on the road or doing a record.
“In 1996, we were doing a tour to promote Toto’s album Tambu. So I kept having to say to The Who, ‘Um, well, I can’t make it. I can't do this until our tour’s over.’ And eventually they said, ‘Well, we've got to get going.’ And that was it. Roger probably said, ‘Come on, let's just bring Zak in, and let's do it.’”
When you joined Toto, what was your approach to playing Jeff Porcaro’s drum parts?
“Before joining the band I used to listen to Jeff on records and I thought, ‘How old is he?’ He sounded much older than he actually was. He was always a very mature player.
“People loved him and still do love his playing, and it's just perfect. I remember hearing one of the last records that Ray Charles did, and it was one of the last records Jeff did, too. He played beautifully on that record.
“Everybody knew Jeff was a great drummer, but I think the first thing I've always done – it was the same when I joined The Who to replace Kenney Jones – and with Mick Jagger to play the Stones tunes that Charlie [Watts] played – I approached it from the music point of view, the musical way. I just played the tunes.
“The tunes have a particular groove, so you know what to play, but in terms of concept, I play the music.
“I'm not there to copy the drummer, and that is the reason why Toto asked me to play. They didn't want somebody to come in and try to imitate Jeff – because, frankly, it would be second best. It would never be as good as the real thing.
“So I've always gone for playing the song, because I grew up in studios playing songs. And that’s really the only way I know how to do it.
“And it was very, very different. Although the songs are still the same, and they still sound the same, my approach is different, my sound is different.”
What guidance did you get from Steve Lukather and the other guys in Toto?
“They just felt: ‘We've lost Jeff. We can't get him back. And we don't want to be on stage thinking it's not sounding the same.’
“They wanted somebody who had already a following and a style – a strong style. So that's how that happened.
“I came in, and obviously, it's not just respecting Jeff, it's respecting the music. I think that's what people don't really get sometimes. You've got to respect the music that you're playing.
“Now on the personal side, I met Jeff a few times, but didn't really know him very well. I got to know him in the 21 years that I was with Toto. I got to know him very well, actually. Not personally, but about him.”
Even so, did you feel like an outsider in that band?
“Toto was a very tight-knit family, and I was kind of the fly in the ointment. I was a complete outsider.
“I didn't grow up in the valley, in Los Angeles. I grew up in London. We speak differently, and the first few years were hilarious. With pretty much everything I said, they were going, ‘What?’
“The other issue was that I didn't want to just be the drummer. I was also doing a lot of production, a lot of engineering. I wanted to be very much part of the whole thing, not just playing drums, because I would have got bored real quick.
“I think as we got to know each other, they realised, ‘Oh, wow – you know how to do this!’ So I ended up mixing stuff. I ended up recording two albums for Toto [1999’s Mindfields and 2006’s Falling In Between].
"I did a live mix of one of the tours that we did on DVD, mixed it in surround. So that to me was very much the crux of being in a band. That's what I wanted to do, so I became a co-producer of the band, which is great, and I think it also gave the band a lot more longevity, too.”
And how would you sum up that whole period with Toto?
“It was always with respect to Jeff, and mainly with respect to the music, especially the older music. And, then I became part of the new music and a co-writer as well, so, it was great. It really worked out.”
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