Steve Lukather recently named Tim Henson as a young guitarist whose originality he finds remarkable and shared how a subtle mistake he made on Hold the Line ended up in the final recording.
With a legendary career spanning 51 years, the Toto guitarist and renowned session musician has played a pivotal role in creating classics like Hold the Line, Africa, and much of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. While Lukather has always been respected in the industry, modern audiences seem to appreciate his contributions more than ever, especially as the digital era sheds light on once-anonymous session musicians.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Lukather reflected on his early years in the music industry, recalling the spontaneity of studio sessions:
“Man, we walked in every day, and we didn’t know what we were gonna do. They’d throw up a chart with some letter on it, a few rhythmic notations like a little road map, and we said, ‘Let’s play something.’ There was no rehearsal, no demos, just, ‘What are we doing today?’
“It was a very exciting time in my life, and we were all hungry to do that. We were studying this stuff in high school. People are not made of ones and zeros – we’re flesh and blood who sat in a wooden room doing takes until we got something.”
He emphasized how musicians of his era had to get things right in just a few takes:
“If we did an overdub, we had to do it in one or two takes because there was no room to do it any other way. It was the old school; maybe the young kids are hearing that when they come to see it live. If I make a mistake, it’s loud and wrong – and I do make them every night!”
Despite being part of rock’s old guard, Lukather expressed admiration for today’s guitarists and was frustrated when he was misquoted in an online article suggesting that “all modern guitar players rely too much on technology.” Believing the piece to be AI-generated and based on a previous interview, he clarified his stance, stressing his respect for younger musicians.
Among them, he singled out Tim Henson as an exceptional talent:
“Tim Henson’s originality is insane. I would never have approached the guitar the way he does in a million years. And I love the fact that women have stepped up. It’s either you’re good at the guitar, or you’re not; sex has nothing to do with it. It’s exciting to see.”
Lukather also reflected on how entry-level guitar skills have evolved:
“Kids today start out learning Eruption as their first song – the first thing I ever learned how to play was an E chord! There’s quite a bit of difference in the entry-level of being a musician now, as opposed to 1964 when I was a single-digit kid who could play some Beatles songs.”
When asked if any of his mistakes ever made it onto a final track, Lukather admitted that Hold the Line contains an error:
“Yes! Hold the Line is a great example – that solo up until the three-part harmony at the end was one take. Where it goes into the three-part harmony is where I dicked it. There’s a room full of people and here’s the new kid in the band; there’s all this pressure on me. I ripped the first part of the solo normally, then I made a mistake and went, ‘Ah, fuck…’ But everybody was like, ‘That’s great, keep going!'”
Even with decades of experience, Lukather’s reflections highlight both his humility and his deep appreciation for the evolving world of music and guitar playing.
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