GuitaristSteve Lukatheris best known for his nearly five-decade stint inToto.
(The full list of records on Lukathers official website is so long it stretches across 18 pages.)
Lukathers career outsideTotoreached a peak in 1982 whenQuincy Jonesasked him to play guitar on Michael JacksonsThriller.
Francesco Prandoni/Getty Images; Bobby Holland/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
When news of Jonesdeathhit, we reached out to Lukather to hear his memories of their work together.
I got to sit there and hear him talk about his life.
But even before that, he was a great producer and arranger.
The first record he ever produced was Its My Party by Lesley Gore.
He was just so talented.
He was like a great casting director.
He just had this ear.
He could go, Thats a hit song or Thats not a hit song.
He took a shine to me for some particular reason.
When I first met him, I was struck by how warm he was.
He was one of the warmest guys in the room.
This was way before the Internet where there are millions of picture of everyone.
He was so welcoming.
He welcomed me right in.
And when you make people feel great, they give you their best.
Some of these other producers got lucky and they turned that luck into a career.
That wasnt the case with Quincy.
He had a certain way of putting musicians together to create a different kind of sound.
Hed be like, Lets throw Lukather in there.
The next thing I knew, Im in a room with Stevie Wonder and all these guys.
It was like a childhood wet dream come true.
And then this magic would happen.
He created that magic.
Everyone played their best around Quincy.
He commanded the room.
Everyone was their extra best for every take.
I remember hearing his work on Michael JacksonsOff the Wallright when that record came out.
It just had that Quincy sound.
He took Michael Jackson and put that Quincy fairy dust on there.
And it was Rod Tempertons song.
The marriage of Rod Temperton with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson was a magical triumvirate.
Quincy would like you on it.
I was like, Yes, what time should I be there?
I remember thinking to myself, Wow, man.
A few months went by, and I kind of spaced out and forgot about it.
But then Michael Jackson himself called me.
I didnt believe it was him, and I kept hanging up.
But then I got a call a few hours later telling me it really was Michael Jackson.
I called him back, and he just laughed.
He thought it was funny.
The first song we did was The Girl Is Mine with Paul McCartney.
Its kind of a silly little tune looking back, but I got to meet my first Beatle.
We were just honored to be there.
When Paul and Linda walked in, there were cameras everywhere.
It was just mad.
Ive told the story a lot about how Beat It came together.
The short version is that there were two versions of the song.
The first version was done and Eddie [Van Halen] was going to do the solo.
Michael had meticulously laid down his parts to make it perfect.
At the time on actual tape, you needed that safety code to sync up the two machines.
If you cut it, its spoiled.
And even if you venture to edit it back together, it doesnt work.
And thats what happened.
But there was no click track.
So Jeff had to make one, and then we overdubbed to that.
It became this whole other thing.
And so I played all the riffs and played the bass along with what Jeff laid down.
We sent it to Quincy, and he said we put too many heavy guitars on it.
So I did that.
Human Nature was written by Steve Porcaro, our keyboard player.
That whole song is very much Toto and Michael.
There wasnt a guitar part when Steve wrote it.
Quincy looked at me and said to write one.
He went, I need this to be a little funky.
And so I came up with that little part right on the spot.
We had no idea how big the album would be.
When youre making it, you go, Oh, this is really good.
This is going to do well.
But you never know its going to be as big as it was.
And we made a lot of cool music together.
He wasnt afraid to let you try something new.
He was always like, Come on man, what you got?
If it didnt work out, hed say, That was a good try.
And I always wanted to try something new and cool to impress the boss.
They had me sitting right next to him.
And he was still all the way there [mentally].
At the end, though…listen, everyone gets older.
Ninety-one is a great run.
And Im just so happy he wanted me to work with him.
Me and my boys are just so deeply honored to be a small part of something as huge asThriller.
