Dette interview er en fortsættelse af Del I.
RZ: RockZeit
SL: Steve Lukather
RZ: How is working with one of your old heroes, Ringo Starr?
SL: He’s gonna be 85 this year, and we had two tours this year. I love him, I adore him. Over the last 13 years we have become very close friends. I think the world of him, I really do.
RZ: I have just listened to your solo album “I Found the Sun Again”, where Ringo was on the drums. Incredible. How was the recording process?
SL: We have been friends for long enough for me to say; I have never asked for anything, would you play on this one for me? ‘cause you know, it was very Beatles-inspired songs on this album, and he put the drums together for us, and it was great. A lovely gift. Hey man, I had the honor of making some music with him. Writing some songs where McCartney played the bass (only reheasal, not on the record). And you know it was me, Ringo and Paul…and I mean, you can kill me now! I can die now!…I got it all! (laughs). That is full circle for me.
RZ: Incredible. And I read about Ringo not using a click track, but just playing from the heart and the mind.
SL: People sometimes, they…hmmm, I will go to blows with people who say, that Ringo is a bad drummer. Not only was he the most inventive, coming up with the most interesting parts. None of those records have click tracks on them, and feel how they feel, just groovewise… the swing…you know Ringo has a secret weapon. He is not appreciated enough.
RZ: And the sound he makes…
Yeah, he still has the same freaking cymbals on every one of those records (The Beatles). And the bell! ding ding ding, that’s the same freaking bell you hear on “Let it be”. You hear that in the room!…it does something to you! It’s the frequency. Everything is about frequency. Life is about frequency.
Instruments that have kind of a history. You hit them, and you’re in the same room with the real thing that is on a record that inspired your whole life…it’s WOW! You just physically go; WOW, that doesn’t sound like everybody else. The way he plays it…it touches everything you know.
RZ: …and he makes it sound so easy, but it’s not.
SL: Well, he’s not a technical drummer, ‘cause he’s a left handed guy that plays a right handed drum kit. That is why the fills are so trippy. The way Ringo plays it; he will lead tom toms over to his left, and not his right, and that’s why he never plays “normal” stuff, you know what I mean?
RZ: …He’s like a “drum composer”…
SL: Yeah man, according to…nobody told him what to play. All those equal parts in the early Beatles songs. All those weird little things he made instead of just going 1,2,3 with simple beats …he put a thing to it. Parts that made every individual song something special. People that say that Ringo didn’t add anything to it (The Beatles style), that is a really dumbass statement.
RZ: When you have done some tracks with Ringo Starr & His All-Star Band, does he mail you a tracklist and you start practicing, or how does it go?
SL: No no, I just go to his house. It’s 8 minutes from here. Then we hang out…just hang out you know. I’m there all the time anyway. He sometimes asks; can you put on something, do this, do that (guitar arrangements for some songs). And I say; yeah of course! I take pleasure in it. I’m always up to something for him.
RZ: Was it also The Beatles that inspired you as a guitarist?
SL: When I started playing the guitar and tried to find a certain style, I thought the way George Harrison was playing solos, I just thought; I wanna make THAT sound!. The way he bends and the way he plays, the sound of it. It just got so much soul, you know. And I just had to do that.
So that was definitely number one. And then I started playing with some bands, and I could play some simple songs. Simple, but great songs. I was this young kid, and it was weird, ‘cause there were a lot of kids that could play the guitar, and for some reason I was able to play with some older guys…and then Hendrix’s music came, and I just thought; what sound is THAT? And then you know Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, and they obviously affected me.
But then I got into prog rock; Yes and Genesis, the early Genesis. I liked all the music of Genesis back then. That was in high school, for me the big prog rock years. We were inspired by all that. We didn’t have a record deal or anything, but we played live. Mostly we played cover songs. But in our own songs, we were inspired by that, and I knew, that I was going to do this kind of music in the future. We had the manifestation and the drive. We worked hard, studied hard, practiced hard.
RZ: I have been listening to the solo record “Luke”, and think I heard some industrial and grunge in it. Am I right about that?
SL: You can always say; do you wanna put a title on things, hmm. All I did is, I wrote some songs, and went to the studio…and that is what came out. If you’re gonna chase a trend, you’re going to miss it, because is has already happened. I mean I can be influenced by some music that is around at the moment, and maybe an engineer that I work with, wants me to do some different things, and I am open to that…do different stuff. And you know, from the first riff to the final product through mastering and that, it is two weeks straight up. A lot of work, and then I gotta learn some whole tracks from the record so I can play it live, and so on.
So I have to put on a record to listen and practice, I haven’t done that in a hundred years (laughs), but I’m doing it at the moment. This Toto tour right now, there’s a lot of stuff to learn. There is a lot of album cuts in it. ..We are going to play the hits of course. But all the other stuff is going to be completely different than this year and the year before. We got eight “new” old songs in the set. It’s really fresh, it’s not only 2 or 3 different things.
RZ: I heard you last time you were in Royal Arena in Denmark, in August 2022.
SL: That was the show were our keyboard player (Greg Phillinganes) got stoned before the show, and gave a 15 minute long solo. What is fuck is your problem, dude?? (laughs).
RZ: Yeah, 11 minutes and 30 seconds long. I think it was amazing!
SL: Thank you for the understanding, but it is not gonna happen this time, I promise. Is there gonne be a 20-minute-long solo this time?…no no, not this time!
RZ: I thought it was intended, because it was such an awesome piano solo!
SL: He was supposed to make a 2 minute long solo, but just went on and on, and we were standing backstage just thinking, what are you doing? FUCKING STOP (laughs). We got a bad review because of it. It says; “after the third song there was a 15 minute long piano solo!”. But that won’t happen again.
RZ: I thought it was amazing with all that jazz vibe in that concert, and I gave you guys 4,5 out of 5.
Well, you must be busy, you have other interviews here to day?
SL: No man, you are the only one today. I am gonna run off and spend some time with my kids and relax this weekend ‘cause I’m getting ready to go on tour. And I am gonna take another week here, and then we are out of here on the road again.
RZ: Very nice to speak to you. I’m honered to have had the chance to make this interview.
SL: Nice to see you too man…and see you there.
RZ: Yeah, and we are looking forward to reviewing the concert.
SL: Hey, God bless you for that. See you.
RZ: Thanks for now. See you.
