Lucky Luke

As Toto toast their 40th anniversary with a new hits package and stadium tour, Guitarist finds Steve Lukather pinching himself, explaining eloquently that “Life is good at Lukey’s house, you know what I mean?”

- Henry Yates

Interviewing Steve Lukather is like riding a rodeo bull. You turn up with your list of carefully selected questions, hoping to gently probe the Toto guitarist on his 40-year catalogue and evolving gigbag. But you soon discover it’s more a case of holding on tight while he runs the conversational gamut. “My doctor,” he gabbles in one typical digression, “told me I should masturbate more.”

If Lukather is on giddy form, that’s understandable. It’s four decades since a crack-squad of LA session men set out under the dubious moniker of Toto (a name the guitarist always hated). The lineup’s ferocious musicality didn’t stop them achieving monster sales, especially on 1982’s Toto IV, home to global hits like Africa and Rosanna. But they were never critics’ darlings, and though Lukather’s virtuoso guitar work has always dazzled through the decades, any betting man would have assumed their commercial peaks were far behind them.

Given that, Lukather is as surprised as anyone to find Africa leading younger fans upstream into the Toto catalogue, prompting the band to release a 40th anniversary hits package (40 Trips Around The Sun) and book their biggest venues in years. “We’re selling out arenas,” gapes the 60-year-old. “We sold out the Royal Albert Hall. We’ve never had this kind of action before and it’s like, ‘Really? Now?’ It’s like some weird, demented joke, but I’m actually really fucking grateful.”

What are your favourite moments on the new 40 Trips Around The Sun compilation album?

“Man, that’s a hard question. I got four kids – which one do I love the most? There have been highlights. I can hear the youthfulness of my playing on, say, Hold The Line. To me, our signature song was