Steve Lukather has had the good fortune of playing alongside three of the Beatles – and could even go so far as to call them friends.
He has been a longterm member of Ringo Starr‘s All-Starr Band and recorded and hung out with Paul McCartney during the making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. However, the Toto man and session ace says it was a 1992 meeting with George Harrison that was the most rewarding for him.
“I had met George a few days before we were doing a tribute to (Toto drummer) Jeff Porcaro after he tragically passed,” Lukather tells GW in a new interview. “I said, ‘Hey, man, I just wanted to say hi and thank you for my career.’ He turned out to be the nicest, funniest guy I’d ever hung out with.”
Having hit it off, Lukather – who grew up idolizing Harrison’s playing and writing – tentatively suggested that he come down to the Porcaro tribute show.
“(I said) ‘I’ll leave a couple of tickets for you,’ never in a million years thinking he’d take them,” says Luke. “Sure enough, the last thing we were going to do was A Little Help from My Friends, which was the Joe Cocker version, ironically!
“So, we’re all sitting in the dressing room getting the vocal parts down, and somebody goes, ‘There’s somebody here to see you.’ I said, ‘Dude, right now? Really!?’ They go, ‘No, I think you want to see them – this guy’s from Liverpool…’ I went, ‘No fucking way.’
“The door opens up, and George is standing there. There were a lot of famous people in the room, but when a Beatle walks in, it’s got a different vibe, man.”
Lukather is not joking when he says there were famous people in the room. Eddie Van Halen was at the gig, as was Don Henley, David Crosby and a significant chunk of Steeley Dan, but none of these names phased Lukather.
Harrison, though, knocked him out, though. And not just because he showed up unannounced, but because The Beatle then hopped onstage to play in the Porcaro tribute, literally rubbing shoulders Eddie Van Halen and Lukather in the process.
“I gave him my Les Paul (to use), which, just by him holding it, increased its value by, like, a million dollars,” recalls Lukather, referring to his 1959 Gibson Les Paul, one of the famed ’Bursts. “I know this because I got my guitar appraised, because there are pictures of me and George, and George is playing that guitar.”
But while a ’Burst used on big-name sessions, and documented in the hands of a Beatle, would fetch a hugely tempting price, Lukather maintains it can’t compete with the emotional value of the instrument.
“I’m never gonna sell that,” says the guitarist. “My son Trev (Lukather), a great guitar player, will get it.”
Lucky Luke, indeed… Keep an eye out for Steve Lukather’s full interview on the site soon.
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