Steve Lukather has been talking about a pivotal moment in his life, when as a 19-year-old guitarist he recorded his solo on Toto’s debut single Hold The Line.
In an interview with Guitar, he describes the pressure he felt under that day, way back in 1978. “I was scared shitless. I was in the studio with my guitar cranked to 10, and all of these guys were behind the glass looking at me like, ‘You better bring it, kid.’ They counted off four bars, and off I went.”
“I had no idea what I was doing. I thought to myself, ‘If I fuck this up, I’m over.’”
Lukather’s nerves were understandable. He was the youngest member of the band. David Paich and Jeff Porcaro were both much more experienced session players and bassist David Hungate and frontman Bobby Kimball were both nearly a decade older than the tyro guitarist. He had a lot to prove.
“Jim Keltner was there, so was Waddy (Wachtel) and Kootch (Danny Korthmar),” Lukather remembers. “I’m sure they were all going, ‘Who’s this young punk ass? How did he get in here? He must’ve jumped the line or something.’”
David Paich had come up with the song and showed Lukather the riff at a practice at his house. “He played me the riff on the piano, and I could hear how good it would sound on guitar. It was exciting. Jeff looked at me and went, ‘Yeah, man, that’s the shit!’ We all knew it had something. Some songs aren’t there at first. This one was.”
“I wanted to be in the band so bad,” the guitarist recalls. “I was young and hungry. I mean, as far as I was concerned, this was the ultimate band. It was insane. And Bobby Kimball was a firecracker of a human being. Being near him was like sitting next to an M-80 – he was a big presence. That voice of his could break glass. Boy, he could sing.”
Luckily, Lukather nailed an improvised solo in one take.
A few months later, the young guitarist experienced another life-changing moment: hearing the song on the radio for the first time. “I got a call from Paich – ‘Turn on 95.5 right now!’
"I’m in my underwear, I had just woken up. I turned on the radio and started screaming. Of course, I’m dancing around the house in my underwear. Who wouldn’t? We were on the radio.”
“It was surreal – the dream had come true. But you know what they changed the most? They cut the solo the fuck out to make it shorter so it could be on AM radio. They cut it out like it never happened. I remember being in my car going, ‘All right, we’re on the radio!’ Then it gets to the end and I’m like, ‘What?’ That’s what stations did."
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