Steve Lukather has spoken out about the new Van Halen album he’s working on with Alex Van Halen, and he can’t believe how good the songs are.

The Toto man, and a dear friend to the late Eddie Van Halen, was handpicked by Alex to help bring a posthumous EVH record to life, and while he remains coy on a lot of details during his new interview with Guitar Player, what he can say certainly whets the appetite.

As previously confirmed, Lukather won’t play a note on the album, since it was virtually complete before Eddie passed in 2020. Luke does reveal, though, that the music is one hell of a swan song for the beloved virtuoso.

“I’m telling you, this is not throwaway shit,” he attests. “When I heard them, I said to Al, ‘How fucking come you didn’t use these?’ And the answer was because nobody could write to it. So if you think this is a bunch of throwaway crap that we’re trying to Mickey Mouse together to suck the dollar out of poor, unsuspecting Van Halen fans, it’s not.”

While he admits he doesn’t know what the project will be called – he’s just Alex’s “sidekick,” he says – he sees it as a passion project that will give Eddie the send-off he deserves.

“This is not about money,” he confirms. “This is about love of the guys and trying to help. I’m not gonna be involved in an obvious way.”

Recently, Steve Vai revealed he was made privy to EVH’s vast library of unused material before EVH died and was stunned by its quality. It seems that Lukather reacted similarly when the Van Halen vault opened to him.

Lukather, onboard as the album’s co-producer, has laughed off the “ridiculous” rumors that he was essentially replacing Eddie in Van Halen, saying “there’s no need for another guitar player”. He did, however, reveal who plays bass on some of the tracks.

“It’s not pieces on the floor that have to be snapped back together and try to Mickey Mouse something together that might be sellable,” Lukather notes. “These are finished tracks with Ed and Al, and Ed’s playing bass on a lot of it. That’s all I can say right now because it’s a much bigger picture, and it’s Alex’s story to tell.”

That confirms that Michael Anthony, who played bass on all Van Halen’s albums – save 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth, which featured Wolfgang VH – is not in the picture. Nor are David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar, with the band reportedly on the hunt for a vocalist after a high-profile rejection.

So, expect one more album from the guitarist who changed the world, which will follow the release of Unfinished – a previously unheard Eddie Van Halen track that was shared by Alex back in 2024.

Steve Vai has revealed he’s heard a raft of unreleased Van Halen material and is in high hopes for the band’s highly anticipated forthcoming release, which will revive some of Eddie Van Halen's older demos.

Alex Van Halen recently caused a stir when he revealed that he and Steve Lukather were working on a posthumous Van Halen album using material the band recorded before Eddie's passing, intended as a successor to 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth.

The two rock heavyweights have a wealth of ideas to work with. And it turns out Vai has heard some of it.

“I was up at Edward’s house once, in his studio,” Vai tells Guitar Player in a new interview. “He had a room filled with tapes, and he was pulling them out, and we were listening. He would just sit, record, and play.

“I’ll tell you, nobody plays like they do when they’re sitting in their room alone,” he continues. “It was a whole library of tapes, and it was such great stuff.”

He adds that he asked Eddie about the prospect of turning his swathe of riffs and ideas into a solo album. The late virtuoso said that “he always felt that Van Halen was his solo records”.

In turn, Vai has given his blessing to the Lukather-guided project. Lukather is, he says, “the best guy to help with this” given how close Eddie and Lukather were.

However, after early rumors got out of hand, Lukather was quick to clarify his role in the album shortly after its announcement, explaining that he won’t play a single note on it after fans reacted to the news.

While details of the record remain scarce, we do know that Bad Company vocalist and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Paul Rodgers turned down the opportunity to front it.

Former bassist Michael Anthony, meanwhile, who was replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen in the band’s latter years, has his own thoughts on how the record should be released, and such a move would render the need for a vocalist redundant.

Vai, of course, has his own chapter in the band's history, having been chosen by Diamond Dave for his solo band. He says he got the gig with a little help from Billy Sheehan.

At just 32, Matthieu Lucas has managed to build something extraordinary.

The entrepreneur, guitarist, and music enthusiast has painstakingly chipped away at building the emporium that is Matt’s Guitar Shop from the ground up, attracting A-list clients from all four corners of the globe.

The journey was far from plain sailing. However, judging by the caliber of artist guitars gracing every inch of the walls in this slice of musical paradise – tucked away on an unassuming street in Paris – it has well and truly paid off.

“It was not easy because you just show up at a store, and you look like a baby, and somehow, you start talking big dollars to very reputable dealers or collectors, and some of them were like, ‘How is this possible… this guy is selling drugs somewhere,’” he quips, as he recalls the early days of his ambitious venture.

However, it’s perhaps Lucas’ marketing prowess and ethos – that even the most prestigious of guitars are meant to be played on stage – that has transformed him into the go-to guy for artist guitars, with players such as Marcus King, Craig Ross, Billie Joe Armstrong, Myles Kennedy, and Yungblud all getting in on the action.

“I was very inspired by banks and huge associations buying Stradivarius [violins] very early on and lending them to musicians on tour playing classical music,” Lucas says.

“Guitars need to be shared with the world. That's my theory. That's why we lend ours on stage all the time, and that's always going to raise the value. They're really artifacts of a very specific period when the guitar revolutionized everything.”

What inspired you to start Matt’s Guitar Shop in the first place?

It’s been a little bit more than 10 years, actually. Time flies! [However], it all started when I was 15 years old.

I was not really interested in music or guitar in general. I was just playing video games with a friend of mine. His father showed up in the room and he said, “Guys, you need to listen to AC/DC.” And then I said, "Okay, [I’ll] give this guy five minutes with his old band and then I'm going to be finished with him.”

And we listened, and Angus Young was really the guy who penetrated my brain, and my passion for guitar started there. Six months later, I was seeing AC/DC in a stadium and buying an SG copy, and that started it all. And then I just wanted to buy more and more guitars because I started to discover bands.

Step by step, I went to Paris guitar stores. I was hanging out in a store called Guitar Store in Paris, and the guy was nice to me, and he let me discover the world of guitar sales – buying, selling… the daily life of a guitar shop.

I was already buying and selling privately. So it [Matt’s Guitar Shop] started in an apartment in Paris – a very small apartment. Three years, maybe four years later, we had the opportunity to get the place here, and that was it.

What were some of the initial challenges, especially as a young businessman?

They really put you in boxes initially, and that was not easy, but step by step, we met people that trusted me, and I knew who I wanted to work with over time.

I don’t come from a musical family myself. So I was mainly listening to those guys in my headphones when I was younger. I was listening to Lenny [Kravitz] and Craig [Ross] quite a lot because I have deep respect for that duo and what they represent.

One day, I show up at Rudy's Music [in New York], and Rudy just traded me one of Craig’s main touring guitars, which was his 1964 ES-345.

I didn't have the money back then, so I said, ‘Give me three months. I'm going to buy and sell in France, and I'm going to come back and pick it up.’ And my friend, who was with me at this time, told me, ‘Are you crazy? This guitar is way too much money.’

It was a time when social media was different. I just sent a message to Craig on Facebook, and two weeks passed by, and I was like, ‘Okay, this guy is busy. He's never going to reach me.’ And, suddenly, my phone is popping off, and Craig Ross just answered me, and he was so kind. [He was like,] this guy is 22 or 23 years old, he just made a huge purchase for himself, compared to his capacity.

So when I bought this guitar, we met at L'Olympia in Paris, and we got that connection going. So, for me, just meeting him was great because Craig really proves that you can’t buy class. I met Lenny later, but with Craig, it's been like 10 years and I still have that connection with him.

Which artists’ guitars command the most demand and attention?

It's quite mixed. We have John Frusciante's 1961 [ES-]335 that he played on stage. We have, of course, Paul Kossoff's 1955 “Black Beauty”, which was also used by Eric Clapton during Cream because they used to trade guitars quite a lot.

I’ve had this guitar for almost 10 years now, and I don't regret buying it. Another interesting one is Steve Lukather’s 1951 Esquire. We [also] have AC/DC's Cliff Williams’ bass – we have number three, which was toured all around the world for four years with AC/DC.

How has your vision for the showroom evolved, compared to when you first opened the doors?

When I started this business with artists’ guitars, I had two kinds of people: the people who believed in it and the people who were laughing at me.

Now, I was very proud when I was assisting at the [Jim Irsay] auction in New York City because I think that the guitar changed the world, and that the guitar will still be listened to in 1,000 years, and all those guys will be gone, and what's left is the music and their instrument. [When you buy that guitar,] you are the owner of their legacy.

So we feel kind of amazed at the shop every day because I really believed in that market when it was not fancy.

What made the Jim Irsay auction different?

Everybody was waiting for that auction. That was, after all, the greatest collection [that ever existed] of artists’ guitars.

People are starting to understand that there are good aspects to buying a guitar – whether it's for the investment or whether you're a guitar player – but if you choose wisely, those guitars will never go down [in price] because there is always somebody richer than you who wants to have that guitar.

Why have the Jim Irsay guitars leapt in value in such a short time span?

It depends on the auction house you're dealing with, the place you're buying the guitar from, and the marketing around that.

Marketing is key when you want to sell a pricey instrument like that, and I think Christie’s did a great job. They went everywhere, and when you're doing that, you just attract the best buyers because they don't have any doubt about what they're buying.

Everything went through the roof because those buyers were brought together by Christie’s in one room. They could have been telephone bidders. They could be room bidders, or internet bidders, but they were all together in one room for this collection, which was exceptional.

I see that with the shop. I don't have a single customer older than 60, and usually my customers are between 25 and 50, so it's a new generation who just discovered the world of guitars, and those people are working hard to get those guitars.

When you put them in one room, I can guarantee you that you will see new world records. If Jimmy Page's “Number One” was in that room that day, that would be between 20 and 30 million [dollars] easy.

But who are these people? What are their backgrounds?

I can give you an example of one person I know: Bobby Tseitli in Chicago. Bobby is a good friend of mine – those guys are really amazing, and they're putting together a collection called Family Guitars.

I knew they wanted [Jerry Garcia’s] “Tiger” so much. I gave him a huge hug when he bought that guitar, and I can guarantee you that this guy probably cried like a baby in his room sleeping next to the guitar that night, and that everybody in the room was feeling amazed because he was bidding with all his heart. The night after, Derek [Trucks] played it on stage. I mean, what's better than that?

I think we should be thankful for those guys who believe in the market and make it dynamic because they're not only buying guitars; they are making the shows more attractive. Everybody in the room will remember the day they saw Jerry Garcia's guitar in the hands of Derek Trucks. [In terms of the buyers’ backgrounds], I never ask too much unless they talk about themselves.

For sure, at Christie’s, we saw hedge fund guys, tech guys, cryptocurrency guys… so it's new money, in a good way, not in a bad way. From what I can tell, we have more and more young people who are just working hard, and they could be in tech, they could be in sports, whatever… we have so many kinds of buyers, and that's the beauty of this job.

Do you think we're going to see David Gilmour’s Strat one on stage anytime soon?

I know by name the guy who bought it. I don't know him personally. If he reads the interview, [I would say] I think you should put that guitar on stage. But I hope all those guitars [from that auction] are going to be on stage soon.

How do most of these clients find you?

Social media helps. You put the guitars on stage, and people are always filming. The audience recognizes the guitar, and I get texts or messages on Instagram.

So, I think it's a win-win-win because the crowd is winning because they get to see a very special guitar that day. Marketing-wise it's great for the shop, and it's also great for the artist because when this is going to the press, the tour is gonna get some marketing.

When Marcus King was touring in Paris 10 years ago, he was playing in clubs [in front of] 20 people, and we were there already, and now he's more famous, of course. And he still loves to play that Paul Kosoff guitar. Every time he’s in Paris, he plays that guitar on stage, and it's one of his favorite guitars to play.

What trends are you noticing in the types of guitars that command the highest prices in today's market?

When I started, nobody really wanted a guitar from Green Day, for example. Now, I’m getting asked more often.

I think it's a generation thing – Green Day are getting bigger because the older they get, the bigger their legacy. When the band is getting older, their fans are also getting older, and they have more capacity to buy the items of their dreams. When artists pass away, sometimes you get a bit emotional. So, of course, people are missing them so much that they want their guitars.

But I would be curious to have one of those big “dinosaur” guitars on stage [at an auction]. After the success of the Gibson Keith Richards signature, [I would be curious to have] one of Keith's guitars going on stage, the black [ES-]355, the “Micawber” Tele... or Jimmy Page's guitars or Brian May's guitar or Paul McCartney's bass – those legendary guitars that are still used by them.

I think we would be surprised by the price they fetch because records are made to be broken and are made to be set higher every time. And again, it wouldn't surprise me in the near future if we see a guitar [sell for] between $20 and $30-40 million.

Do you see any risks or misconceptions for new buyers entering the vintage guitar market, especially those treating it as an investment?

I would suggest that you check the provenance of the instruments. You have to choose wisely. If you're advised wisely and if you decide to buy the guitar at the right price, that's great.

To give you an example, when I bought Steve Jones' guitar, I knew there were rumors of Steve selling the original one 14 times to different people.

So we checked the mother-of-pearl inlays. We checked all the dings and marks. We scanned the pictures of the guitar today, and we matched those mother-of-pearl inlays. When [there are] three matches, then you know.

Beyond the monetary value, what makes a guitar collectible?

The more provenance you have and the more history you have with the guitar [the better]. For example, if Keith Richards just played one guitar one time on the sofa two minutes backstage and signed it, that doesn't really make sense to me. But what matters to me is if he played it on stage. Why did he choose that particular one for his personal collection? Was there a reason sound-wise?

I don't agree with comments on the internet that say that, ‘Oh well, David Gilmour modified the Black Strat like 700 times over time…’ [If you want a pristine guitar,] then just buy a vintage guitar. Don't even look at an artist guitar.

I understand that it doesn’t make sense for some people to buy a $15 million guitar, but I think the more modifications it has, the more personal the instrument becomes – and that’s what makes its value even higher.

There's been a lot of criticism over the amounts spent at the Jim Irsay auction. What would you say to people who feel that collectible guitar prices have lost touch with reality?

I think we are living in a world where records are made to be broken.

I would get [that comment] from the perspective of somebody earning a medium salary. That's understandable, because for some people, it's just hard to feed their children, and then you see on the news that somebody just bought David Gilmour's guitar for $15 million.

But I would say it has been like this forever, in sports, the arts… let's not even talk about the football world. I think the world is discovering guitars with these auctions, with these pieces of history, [and] with the new players as well. The rich will always be richer. We can't control that. If they want the David Gilmour Strat for $50 million one day, that's it.

What's been your proudest moment of seeing one of your guitars being played on stage?

I lent Myles Kennedy Jeff Buckley's guitar on stage in Paris a few years ago. That was the final show I assisted before Covid, but that was a moment because it was at L'Olympia [in Paris].

It was full of symbolism. We were preparing for that day for four months. Myles was the perfect guy to sing Hallelujah on stage with the very guitar that Jeff recorded the song with. I still get chills talking about it.

[Another standout moment was when] I saw Craig Ross playing [Jeff Beck’s] Yardburst in Paris.

If I told my young self, [who was] listening to Lenny Kravitz and Craig Ross, that one day I would have Jeff Beck's guitar and then Craig would play it on tour, especially in Paris, my hometown, I wouldn't believe it. It was really a full-circle moment.

• Learn more about Matt's Guitar Shop.

As Alex Van Halen and Steve Lukather continue to work through archival material for a new Van Halen album, iconic British rock vocalist Paul Rodgers has explained why he declined the chance to front the band.

There’s been much talk – and mystery – about Alex Van Halen’s forthcoming Van Halen project. The drummer temporarily broke the internet last year when it was revealed that the late Eddie Van Halen’s longtime friend Steve Lukather, of Toto fame, had been tapped up to get the project moving. Soon after, Lukather made moves to clarify his role in the album’s creation, and that he wouldn’t be playing a single note on it.

Last week, in an interview with Brazilian outlet KazaGastão, Alex Van Halen shed more light on the album, explaining that it had been written and mostly recorded during EVH’s lifetime, and intended as a follow-up to 2012’s David Lee Roth-fronted LP, A Different Kind of Truth.

The project’s efforts, he said, were now going into finding a frontman, with Diamond Dave and Sammy Hagar, who’s been pedalling his Best of All Worlds tribute tour in recent years, reportedly not under consideration. Rodgers, however, was, but turned the gig down.

Consequently, Rogers – who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Bad Company in November – became a fixture in the rumor mill. As such, he’s taken to social media to burst that bubble and state that his health, which led him to miss the Rock Hall ceremony, was cause for concern.

“To squash the rumours, my health is good. I feel fit and strong, and I am rehearsing to perform on March 2nd at the Adopt the Arts Sound and Vision Awards in Palm Springs,” he writes. “Thanks to Van Halen for inviting me to work on a track with them, but I am in my acoustic, zen phase of life.”

Indeed, there’s certainly pressure and baggage that comes with fronting the band, given the heights they reached with both DLR and Hagar behind the mic. That was something that the one-time vocalist, Gary Cherone, felt when he joined the band in 1996. Speaking to KNAC in 2009 (via Van Halen News Desk), he admitted it was an “intimidating” gig.

And so the search goes on. Alex Van Halen previously hoped that Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant would get involved in the project. One could assume that, having asked Rogers, Plant has already distanced himself from the project.

The other caveat here is that Rodgers was invited to work on just one track. So was it intended as an audition, or could the pair be planning an all-star cast of singers? Only time will tell.

So far, there has only been one posthumous Eddie Van Halen recording, with Alex releasing the last song they wrote together, Unfinished, to promote his book, Brothers.

Alex Van Halen has shed yet more light on the elusive Van Halen album that he’s seemingly been working on with Steve Lukather – and it’s closer to being finished than any of us previously thought.

In fact, according to Alex himself, the record effectively is finished – and it sounds like it was finished before Eddie passed away in 2020. The only thing the band was missing was a vocalist to sing on the new tunes.

Last year, Alex Van Halen caused quite a stir when he revealed that a new Van Halen album was in the works. At the time, he said Lukather was onboard to help finish it, and while Lukather initially confirmed this, he later said, “I will not ever play a guitar note on a VH song ever!”

As Lukather explained, he was simply brought on to help go through a “ton” of unfinished recordings that Alex and Eddie had put together that “never saw the light of day”.

Now, Alex has set the record straight, revealing that an entire Van Halen album had practically been completed prior to Eddie’s death, complete with drums, bass, and – most notably of all – Van Halen’s guitar parts.

When asked if Eddie’s old recordings were going to be used for this next album, Alex explained to KazaGastão (via Blabbermouth). “Well, these are recordings that were going to be the next [Van Halen] record, and that were stopped because [Ed] didn't live that long.

“The drums are already recorded. The drums, the guitar and the bass are already in there,” he continues. “What we didn't have is a vocalist, and obviously the subtleties and the glue – we call it the glue or the spackle.”

Van Halen confirms these recordings also feature Wolfgang Van Halen on bass, and that he and Lukather had attempted to recruit Paul Rodgers to sing on them: “It was very difficult for him to bring himself to say, 'No, I can't. Count me out.' I respect that.”

As for Lukather’s involvement, Alex says he was brought in to help smooth over the missing “glue” and “spackle”. He was on hand to help sort through the recordings and provide some "connective tissue”.

“Luke can play anything,” Alex notes. “I went to Steve's house several times and we played a piece of music and he goes, 'Yeah, I got it. That's it. That's all we need.' Then he can do all the connective tissues. He knows where to put the solo, as far as structure and organization.

“I've been fortunate enough to have Steve Lukather, who was a good friend of Ed's, and we're working on putting a record together, but it has to be of the quality and the level of where we left it. Not just to say, 'Hey, here's some music that we made. If you like it, that's great.' No. It has to be the quality that we expect.”

When the album will see the light of day remains to be seen. There’s been no official word about the project as of yet, and all that’s known has been pieced together from Alex’s various interviews. But, whatever the case, the new Van Halen record is very real, and it will be coming.

Back in 2024, Alex Van Halen shared Unfinished – the last song he ever wrote with his brother.

It’s widely known that Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were tough taskmasters when it came to the studio, particularly in terms of their session guitarists.

The most famous example of their forensic approach to the recording of guitar solos is 1977’s Peg, which saw the pair go through seven guitarists in order to secure the perfect solo. Big names such as Robben Ford and Larry Carlton took stabs at it before Jay Graydon finally nailed it.

Although fewer people know about it, a similar thing happened during the recording of Love Is the Answer by soft-rock duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, under the watchful eye of producer/engineer Kyle Lehning.

The track was a cover of a Todd Rundgren-penned song from Utopia’s 1977 album, Oops! Wrong Planet. In late 1978, the duo were in the studio laying down the track to what would become their final top-40 hit single from their final studio album, 1979’s Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jive.

Lehning, who was helming the production and engineering sessions for the track at Davlen Sound Studios in Universal City, had hired session supremos Lee Ritenour and Wah Wah Watson to track guitar parts, but what was put to tape wasn’t to Lehning’s liking.

“After the session was over and everyone left, I felt the guitar parts by Ritenour and Watson weren’t quite right for what we wanted,” he says. “I ended up taking the tape back to Nashville and added our longtime guitarist Steve Gibson to the track.”

But Lehning still wasn’t happy with what was laid down. Then a passing comment by Steve Lukather turned matters around.

“I went back to L.A. to continue work on the album,” Lehning says. “Steve Lukather – who was 20 at the time and already a well-known wunderkind – was doing overdubs on some of our other tracks for the album, and we finished early.

“He asked if I had anything else while he was there, and I said I had another tune that I really loved, but I didn’t hear anything for him to play. He asked to hear the track, so I played it and he said, ‘I have to play on this. Give me a track’.”

He continues: “Steve came up with the chimey guitar fill in the middle of every chorus. We ended up doubling it at half-speed. The master take had been recorded at 30 inches per second, but when Steve added the part, I felt it would be really cool if it were doubled an octave higher.

Rather than have him try to play it in the upper octave, we decided to record his second part in the same register while playing the tape back at half speed, 15 inches per second. The effect was like a shimmery, electric 12-string. I can’t imagine the record without that part.”

Looking back at the session, Lukather recalls using a very simple setup in the studio. “I used an early-Seventies Gibson ES-335 through a modded Fender Deluxe Reverb,” he says. “We also double tracked the two guitar parts. The effects were added later during the mix, where we added some delay and reverb.”

Lehning notes that post-recording, unlike in today’s studio world where plugins can easily and quickly achieve any desired guitar effect, the result was achieved through a painstakingly hands-on physical approach.

“Back in the analog days, the use of vari-speeding the tape was a common practice,” Lehning says. “That effect was used on the guitars where we’d double at slightly different speeds to get what later became a harmonizer effect. We also did a similar thing with the background vocals by slowing down the tape significantly, so that when they were played back at normal speed, the vocals would have an ‘angelic’ quality.”

Lukather’s pivotal six-string contribution helped to propel the song to Number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also peaked at Number 45 on the U.K. singles chart and provided the bookend to England Dan and John Ford Coley’s decade-long partnership. The track became another in a long list of hit records featuring Lukather’s guitar work.

“Kyle was great to work with, as he gave me a lot of room to try out stuff,” Lukather says. “I actually heard the answering-chime part in my head and then went for it. The half-speed idea was from my Beatles mindset – ‘What if…?’ – and Kyle let me have a go at it. It worked, and became a hit record.”

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Love Is the Answer, by soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, took a page from the Steely Dan school of studio perfection.

The track, a cover of a Todd Rundgren-penned Utopia song, went through a series of guitarists – among which were first-call industry session players Lee Ritenour and Wah Wah Watson – before producer Kyle Lehning finally found his perfect match.

“After the session was over and everyone left, I felt the guitar parts by Ritenour and Watson weren’t quite right for what we wanted,” he tells Guitar World. “I ended up taking the tape back to Nashville and added our longtime guitarist Steve Gibson to the track.”

However, Lehning was still dissatisfied, when an off-handed comment by Steve Lukather finally turned things around.

“Steve Lukather – who was 20 at the time and already a well-known wunderkind – was doing overdubs on some of our other tracks for the album, and we finished early.

“He asked if I had anything else while he was there, and I said I had another tune that I really loved, but I didn’t hear anything for him to play,” he continues. “He asked to hear the track, so I played it, and he said, ‘I have to play on this. Give me a track.’”

The result? “Steve came up with the chimey guitar fill in the middle of every chorus. We ended up doubling it at half-speed.

As Lehning recalls, the master take had been recorded at 30 inches per second, but Lukather's impromptu riff led the producer to envision the part doubled an octave higher... with a slight twist.

“Rather than have him try to play it in the upper octave, we decided to record his second part in the same register while playing the tape back at half speed, 15 inches per second. The effect was like a shimmery, electric 12-string. I can’t imagine the record without that part.”

Lukather's six-string contribution would help the track clinch the Number 10 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 – the perfect bookend to England Dan and John Ford Coley’s ten-year partnership.

For more from Lehning and Lukather, plus new interviews with Marcus King and Robert Fripp, pick up issue 600 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

Getting endorsed by Jimmy Page is something most guitarists could only dream of. However, Steve Lukather is one of the lucky ones who’s received the highest of compliments from the Led Zeppelin icon.

Aside from releasing nine solo albums, Lukather has sat in and recorded on more than 1,000 records for the likes of Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. What's more, over the last decade or so, he's been working as part of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

“I have a funny story about Jimmy,” the session legend tells Forbes. “It was the one and only time I ever met him. I went over to this Guitar Center thing honoring Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap. In fact, I ended up producing four tracks on their next record because of that night.

“I showed up with Eddie [Van Halen] and my boys,” he recalls. “Hey, we're going to meet Jimmy Page, a big deal, right? Jimmy's standing there greeting everyone. He points at me.

“I think he's pointing at Ed, of course, but it's me, and he motions for me to come over. He said, ‘You have something that these other guys here don't.’ And I go, ‘What's that, Jimmy?’ He said, ‘You understand and I understand, but those other guitarists don't. We were studio players. They don't know what that means.’”

Page went on the say that he had read that Lukather wasn't being taken seriously because he was just a “studio guy” – a notion that Page, once a session guitarist himself, strongly opposed.

Lukather adds, “‘That's the opposite of the absolute truth. That sets you above these other guys,’ Jimmy said. I asked if I could give him a hug, and tell people he had said that. He laughed, gave me a hug and said, ‘Sure.’ That meant the world to me.”

Indeed, pre-fame Page cut his teeth in the session world, eventually becoming the first-call guy for renowned producer Shel Talmy. As a result, he secured sessions on songs by the Who and the Kinks, and even lent his chops to the incidental music of the Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night.

Earlier this year, Lukather set the record straight on his reported involvement on a new Van Halen album.

Back in 1992, Guitar World sat down with the creative triumvirate at the head of Spinal Tap – guitarists David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, and bassist Derek Smalls.

The occasion was Break Like the Wind, the band's highly-anticipated 1992 reunion album. It saw the group move proudly forward with their humorous, hooky brand of brash heavy rock, while also having some looks back – in the form of the proto-Tap skiffle tune, All the Way Home, and the flower-power throwback, Rainy Day Sun – at their musical journey to that point.

Most notable, though, was the album's title track – a proggy epic that featured not one, not two, not three, but four guest guitar solos from a dream team of six-string gods – Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, and Slash.

It was, St. Hubbins and Smalls told Guitar World, meant to be a surprise tribute to Tufnel, ever their tone-master and fretboard-melter. Touching, eh?

Tufnel, though, was if anything a bit miffed by the headline-grabbing lead spots – intruding as they did on his creative vision.

Asked by Guitar World to discuss the track in question, St. Hubbins pointed to the surprise factor as being a sore point, saying “He [Nigel] is a bit sensitive about it. He really didn't know about all this.” Tufnel added, with a touch of bite, “It's what you call a sucker punch.”

The two guitarists proceeded to bicker a bit, with St. Hubbins maintaining that the collaborations were merely intended as a nice tribute, and that Tufnel misunderstood the intention of it.

“I understood it very well,” he countered. “It was a surprise – that part of it worked – and I understand the tribute part, but I walk in and see on the board, from left to right, ‘Neve’ [the recording console], then ‘Beck, Satriani, Lukather, Slash.’ I thought it was a send-up. As if I'd said, ‘Here's the vocal track: David Bowie.’ [David St. Hubbins] would have gone, ‘Ha ha ha. Very funny.’ ‘No, David. The real David Bowie is singing on this instead of you!’”

The guitarist went on to say that he merely wanted to be let in on the decision: “The point is, ask me. Say, ‘Nige, what 'bout this idea?’ Give me the chance to say no.”

St. Hubbins, in turn, said, “And you would have said no, because of your modesty. What we asked them was, ‘How would you like to come in and replace eight bars by your idol, a person you respect?’ They really do respect Nigel.”

“You know, you can't pay Jeff Beck just to play on your record,” Derek Smalls added. “You can't ring up the musicians' union and say, ‘Give me Jeff Beck's number.’ It would cost you a fortune just to have him come in and do an eight-bar solo. He did it out of respect. And Nigel's too modest to acknowledge that.”

Spinal Tap would later go on to share the stage with, among others, Satriani. In that case, Tufnel – while coming away amazed by the former's virtuosity – certainly, and unsurprisingly, had the upper hand when it came to volume.

Steve Lukather is renowned for his virtuosic yet melodic playing with Toto. And then there are his numerous solo albums and prolific session work for Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Lionel Ritchie, and an unfeasible amount of the other albums and artists that emerged from LA during the late 70s and 80s.

Much of his skill was put to use creating memorable hooky parts on tunes such as Michael Jackson’s Human Nature, but Lukather’s first love was blues-based rock, with him citing Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, and Joe Walsh (among others) as primary influences.

Though Lukather is able to rein in his playing when the song requires it, anyone who has ever heard Toto’s Hold The Line or his solo material will know he is just as skilled at letting rip with the best of them!

The examples here were played separately but with the intention that they would work when heard together in the form of a continuous solo.

Their objective is to demonstrate how Lukather uses blues-based licks in a more ‘polished’ setting, rather than being a technical showcase. The emphasis is on melody over scale patterns, though there are a couple of more rapid chromatic ideas in the final bars to add a bit of excitement. Think Toto, Steely Dan, or any of the melodic ‘yacht rock’ bands.

I’ve gone with a fairly high-gain tone and occasionally opted for the neck pickup, as this is a tone Lukather is fond of. These ideas can be easily adapted (or ‘reverse-engineered’!) to fit over a more traditional blues backing if that’s more your thing.

Key areas to watch are the pitching/accuracy of string bends, not being afraid of pauses between phrases, and rhythmic tightness where relevant. I hope you enjoy these examples.

Example 1

This first example can be viewed as predominantly D minor pentatonic (starting out in shape 4), but there are elements of the D minor scale, too. After that first bend, I’m touching the harmonic 12 frets up (at the 20th fret) to get a pseudo ‘feedback’ effect an octave above.

This is worth trying elsewhere as well, but it works best at volume or with a healthy amount of gain. Note the rhythmic phrasing towards the end, contrasted with the long-held divebomb to finish the line.

Example 2

Predominantly based around the shape 1 D minor pentatonic, this example makes a feature of the 9th (E) at the start, in keeping with the Dm9 chord in the backing.

As we go on, held notes are deliberately contrasted with quicker bursts, before we shift to shape 2 and a signature bend with a semitone raise to Bb added with the fourth finger. This can be surprisingly tricky, so don’t be too annoyed if it doesn’t fall into place immediately!

Example 3

Switching to the neck pickup, we’re about to get more rhythmic – but not before a couple of Joe Walsh-style double string bends. By this, I mean bend one string up, then switch to the adjacent string for a pre-bend, then down. This sounds way more complicated than it is, so check the transcription and watch the video and you should be fine.

Elsewhere, the rhythmic patterns are 90 percent pentatonic, but see if you can spot the D minor scale additions…

Example 4

If you look past the jazzy chromatic runs for a second, you’ll see that the basic patterns here are very much pentatonic, with extra embellishments added to the more conventional two-notes-per-string approach.

Though Lukather is very adept at alternate picking, he often mixes in more legato playing like this, with slides and pull-offs for a smoother, more relaxed feel. Once again, ideas like this fall under the fingers a lot more intuitively than it might seem at first.

Hear it here

Toto – Hydra

Released in 1979, Toto’s second album combined rock riffs with tight funk rhythms, plus, of course, lots of fleet-fingered soloing. The title track contains elements of prog and some nice bluesy soloing.

Also check out Mama and White Sister to hear Lukather in full flight. It’s interesting, decades later, to reflect on how much more ‘produced’ recordings generally sound in 2025, so to hear Lukather's tone and licks already fully formed like this really is testament to his tremendous talent.

Earth, Wind & Fire – Faces

Here are some great examples of Lukather’s session work from back in 1980. He manages to make it sound as if it’s the most natural thing in the world to move from soul/funk to rock soloing – and maybe it is for him!

Check out his ‘front-and-centre’ riffing and solo in Back On The Road; You Went Away also features some lovely (albeit more subtle) soloing on the play-out. Elsewhere, be sure to listen to the intro for Take It To The Sky, which has some impressive harp-style harmonics and jazz chord moves.

Steve Lukather – I Found The Sun Again

This 2021 solo album showcases how pivotal Lukather's guitar playing and vocals have been in Toto. Along For The Ride switches from a heavy psychedelic style riff to an out-and-out rock solo by the end, and you get the feeling this could have been the first take, as has often been the case in his studio work.

Journey Through displays a Jeff Beck influence with expressive whammy work. Be sure to listen to the title track to hear him negotiate some tricky chord changes while keeping a bluesy feel.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Former Jethro Tull lead guitarist Martin Barre has reflected on his relationship with the art of rhythm guitar, saying he avoided it like the “plague” until some sage wisdom he heard from Steve Lukather made him rethink his stance.

“In the beginning, I was a terrible rhythm player,” he tells Guitar World. “I sort of avoided it like the plague. But Steve Lukather famously has said that most of his sessions were playing rhythm guitar, and that made me sit up and take notice.”

Most memorably, Lukather played on Michael Jackson’s Beat It – which featured a legendary solo from Eddie Van Halen – but his session credits stretch far and wide. From Michael Bolton and George Benson to Cher, Alice Cooper, and Elton John, Lukather is a legend of the session circuit, and he's previously remarked how rhythm playing was at the heart of most of his sessions.

“I’ve been paid to play rhythm guitar 90% of the time,” he told Rick Beato in 2023. “Kids can learn every lick in the world from the Internet now, but a lot of them have no groove, because they haven’t learned how to play rhythm guitar – like that’s not important!”

Barre, then, was taking notes. Asked what he did to improve that side of his playing, he explains: “I examine every aspect of what I do. It could be my left-handed technique, using my little finger, more bending notes with it, scales, modes, or listening to and trying to play classical.

“There’s always some aspect that will grab me, and right now, it’s my right-handed technique,” he expands. “I knew that I needed to up my rhythm game. Even in playing solos, the rhythm of what you’re playing is vital for the feel. You can’t not be a good rhythm player. You have to understand it and feel it; otherwise, you’re not a complete player.”

After over 40 years in Tull – during which he helped turn a fledging group into prog rock icons and, unbelievably, beat Metallica to a Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental Grammy – Martin Barre left in 2011.

Discussing his departure from Tull, he gave a rather sharp response: “Essentially, Ian talked and I listened. You can draw your own conclusions.” But though he may now be a bandleader in his own right, Barre still believes: “I am Jethro Tull's guitar player. I was, I am now, and I always will be.”

Jethro Tull released Curious Ruminant, their latest album in the post-Barre era, earlier this year. Naturally, a certain portion of their fanbase will always clamor for Barre's return, but Anderson has been quick to quash such talk.

“Martin is doing his own stuff,” he recently told Classic Rock. “He should be having a whale of a time, instead of being embittered about Jethro Tull.”

Last week, a Dutch newspaper broke the guitar internet when it reported that Alex Van Halen had turned to Steve Lukather to complete a new Van Halen album.

Alex’s pick of the Toto guitarist and revered session shredder made a lot of sense. Lukather and the late electric guitar great Eddie Van Halen had a long-standing relationship, and – among their many collaborations – most famously worked together on Michael Jackson’s Beat It. But now Lukather has taken to Instagram to set the record straight.

As per De Telegraaf’s report, Lukather was quoted as all-but-confirming the story after he was approached by the newspaper for comment while playing the Netherlands with Toto.

“Did Alex say that?” the guitarist had responded to questions of a new album. “Oh, in that case, the news is true. Ed, Alex, and I were very close for years. It is true that we worked on it together.”

Questions, naturally, were raised about the technicalities of such a move, after Alex had first discussed using AI to turn “little pieces” of Eddie’s unfinished solos into completed material. This left many speculating that such a concept may have fallen by the wayside, with others believing Lukather could have been drafted to play guitar on the new record. The truth of Lukather's involvement, though, is a little more straightforward.

“For the record: Ever since Alex Van Halen dropped we were gonna work together I think there is a huge misunderstanding,” Lukather's new statement, commenting on a post remembering Eddie from seven weeks ago, reads. “I will not ever play a guitar note on a VH song ever!

“Al asked me to help him go thru a ton of unfinished recordings of Al and Ed writing and recording that never saw the light of day,” he continues. “As of now, that’s all I got.

“The fact that ANYONE would think for even a second that I would play anything on this is ridiculous.”

“I have too much love and respect for that and... I play nothing like Ed... more as a co-producer or something. I am honored Al would ask me though. Let's see…”

Lukather’s fairly blunt comments may burst the bubble of the many Van Halen fans who had been buoyed by last week’s news, but there are two interesting points to dissect here.

First of all, Lukather has confirmed that he is (or already has been?) involved in some sort of project with Alex, meaning that there is a determination to do something with Eddie’s as-yet-unfinished material.

We’ve already heard one new song, Unfinished, released last year to promote the drummer’s new memoir, and Michael Anthony has spoken about a vast archive of riffs and demos on multiple occasions, meaning there's a depth of material to navigate.

Secondly, if his role is more of a co-producer rather than as a gun for hire, perhaps AI will still play a part. It was vital in helping the Beatles bring one last song, Then and Now to the fore – and win a Grammy for their troubles – and Alex has confirmed he’s already approached OpenAI for discussions.

“A bunch of licks don’t make a song,” he told Rolling Stone last year. AI then, could analyze “the patterns of how Edward would have played something.” He even hoped Robert Plant would get involved.

That could still happen yet, and with Lukather on board in a production or creative director-type role, there is plenty of intrigue as to how this project will come to life.

If extraordinary reports coming out of the Netherlands are to be believed, Alex Van Halen is working on a new Van Halen album – and Steve Lukather has been recruited to help him complete it.

The Van Halen band name has been the subject of much speculation over the past few years, from talk of the ill-fated tribute tour with Jason Newsted and Joe Satriani that never quite worked out, all the way to Sammy Hagar’s recent Best Of All Worlds tour, which many considered to be the next best thing.

An actual new Van Halen album, on the other hand, was never really considered to be a likely possibility, even if there has been concrete confirmation – most notably from Michael Anthony – that an archive of unreleased, unfinished Van Halen does indeed exist.

The general feeling was, though, that this would never see the light of day, and as such, any talk of a 13th Van Halen studio album – especially one without Eddie himself – was futile.

However, it seems as though a new Van Halen record is exactly what we’ll be getting, and the band’s first album since 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth is on the way courtesy of Alex Van Halen and the Toto guitar great, who may or may not be playing electric guitar in place of Eddie Van Halen.

Reports of the pair’s collaboration emerged in the Dutch press earlier this week, with De Telegraf [paywalled] quoting Alex Van Halen as saying, “Ed and Steve Lukather were very good friends and they often worked together. There is no one who can do this process with me as well as he can.”

Lukather, for his part, told De Telegraf: “Did Alex say that? Oh, in that case the news is true,” said Lukather. “Ed, Alex and I were very close for years. It is true that we worked on it together.”

Lukather’s involvement in the project makes sense, and his long-standing connection to the Van Halen name makes him an ideal candidate for the job.

After all, he was close to both Van Halen brothers, and worked with Eddie on Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Eddie also played bass on Lukather’s solo debut record, and helped cut his 2003 Christmas album, Santamental. The pair also jammed onstage on numerous occasions over the years – and even had a secret supergroup.

In other words, it’s no surprise that Alex Van Halen tapped Lukather for the project, and now all that remains is to ask, what exactly will this new album sound like, and who else will feature?

Will Alex Van Halen and Steve Lukather team up with any former vocalists? Will bassist Anthony be brought onboard?

Alex has made no secret of his desire to revive old Van Halen parts, and even revealed he’d contacted OpenAI about the possibility of rounding out some of Van Halen’s old guitar demos.

Could this new album finally bring those to light, and will it tap into the never-before-heard archive of Van Halen material? Only time will tell.

Steve Lukather never holds back. His honesty and humor are always present in his interviews – which is why a recent AI-generated article has him looking to set the record straight.

“I read an interview I never did, which was culled by AI from several different articles,” Luke tells Guitar World. “The shittiest part was some fucking horrible clickbait thing saying I think all modern guitar players rely too much on technology. I never fucking said that.

“I want people to know that’s not how I feel. Some of the greatest guitar players of all time have come as of late. I’m a fan; I’m not an asshole. When I read that fucking clickbait thing, I was mortified.”

He emphasizes: “I have nothing but respect for my fellow guitar players, whatever the level of technique. The competition is staggering – that AI headline was bullshit.”

Are there any young players who have caught your eye recently?

“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.

“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.”

There seems to be a rise in reverence for session players like yourself. Why do you think that is?

“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.

“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!”

Was there ever a time in the studio where you made a mistake with the solo but it ended up on the record?

“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!’

What's your favorite Toto solo?

“There’s weird solos I’ve done that aren’t famous. I try not repeat myself, which is hard when you’ve done this for as long as I have. I don’t like playing the same licks for every solo.

“But there’s a song called 21st Century Blues on our last full-length album, Toto XIV, and it was a nice homage to Larry Carlton. I used to write Steely Dan-influenced songs for every one of my solo records because that was a big part of my life. I was heavily influenced by that level of quality, musicianship and craftsmanship.”

You’re heavily influenced by The Beatles too. What’s the most misunderstood element of Beatles guitar playing?

“That’s it’s not guitar playing, man – it’s composition. It’s the composition within the composition. Paul played a lot of the solos, which used to piss George off, but the thing is John, George, and Paul always found something incredibly memorable or hookish to play.

“As a session player, I remember referring to Beatles things when I was searching for parts on other songs. I’d go, ‘I need that sound from Fixing a Hole; that might work here.’ The Beatles were always in the room. Every record I ever made, somebody would say, ‘Give me a little Beatlesy thing, man.’

“Nobody walks away from a Beatles record going, ‘That’s the greatest guitar solo I’ve ever heard.’ You might walk away going, ‘That’s the most perfect guitar solo I’ve ever heard.’ But you’re not walking away ablaze by technique; you know what I mean?”

What was it like playing alongside George Harrison in the early ‘90s?

“I actually got to do it a couple of times. I met George a few days before we were doing a tribute to [Toto drummer] Jeff Porcaro after he tragically passed. 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.

“I know I was cracking him up, and we hit it off. I said, ‘You want to come down to the show? I’ll leave a couple of tickets for you,’ never in a million years thinking he’d take them. So, we’re sitting in the dressing room. The last thing we were going to do was A Little Help from My Friends – the Joe Cocker version, ironically – and I’m at the piano getting the vocal parts down.

“Somebody goes, ‘There’s somebody here to see you.’ I say, ‘Dude, right now? Really?’ They go, ‘I think you want to see him. 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 into a room, it’s a different vibe, man. It’s a different air. So I gave him my Les Paul – which, just by him holding it, increased its value by a million dollars! I know this because there’s pictures of George is playing it and I got it appraised. Not that I’d ever sell it. My son Trev, a great guitar player, will get it.”

Did you feel some of that same aura while working with Paul?

“Not the same aura – they’re all so unique people. The greatest people, man. You think the most famous people in the world would be assholes, but it’s not the case. They’ve got really great souls, man, and they’re fun to be around. The first time I got to play with Paul was when we did Thriller with Michael Jackson – I was thrilled to be there.”

What was that like?

“It was all cut live. Paul and Michael were in the studio singing live. So I was able to ask every geeky fucking Beatles question about the recordings while we were there for two weeks, having lunch and hanging out. They were just the nicest people.”

Speaking of Michael, Steve Stevens recently told Guitar World that Michael Jackson’s feedback to both him and Eddie Van Halen was that he ‘liked the high notes’. Did Michael give you similar instruction?

“I wasn’t doing solos, I was going parts, so it’s a different vibe. We were working on the middle section of Beat It, and we’d be going at it for 30 minutes, and I said, ‘We’ve got to change it up,’ so that was my addition to it. Michael liked that. The only way I could tell what was happening with Michael and Quincy Jones was when Michael started dancing!”

So most of his communication was non-verbal in your case?

“It was a pocket thing – if I was in the pocket, it was swinging, and he started dancing, and that was the take. If he was looking at me funny… it had to be how he wanted it to feel. But with the solos and the high notes, I could see how he would say that!”

This past fall, you played a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing on Jeff Beck’s Strat. What was that like?

“Surreal – so much so that it threw me off completely. I played that guitar at his house many years ago, so you have to look at this from my point of view: here I am at the Hollywood Bowl in front of 16,000 people in my hometown, standing on the stage where Jeff Beck stood, where The Beatles stood, and where Jimi Hendrix stood, probably playing Little Wing too.

“This was toward the end of the set. I think Billy Gibbons had Jeff’s guitar then John Mayer had it [Joe Perry also planned to use Beck's Strat on Aerosmith’s cancelled tour - Ed], and they wanted me to do it. The whole moment freaked me out. You kind of get a brain fart from just being emotional about the actual reality of it.

“All these synapses in my brain hit at once, and it was just a very overwhelming emotion. I’m going to get to play it again in London, I think, in a couple of weeks. I’m not gonna do that song, but I’ll use that guitar to do something else.”

What stuck out most about Jeff’s guitar?

“The reason it sounds so great is because of Jeff Beck, not because of the guitar. It’s a nice Strat, but if you put the thing in the stand, does it make any noise? No. Somebody’s gotta pick it up and play it. Believe me, you put 10 guys out with the same guitar and have them play the same blues lick, and it’s going to sound 10 different ways.

“So you realize that the magic that’s in that guitar is his sweat and his notes. It actually felt like a living thing. Sounds cheesy, right? Jeff was a very important person to me. We were friends and worked together on tours; he was my hero. Who’s the best in the whole world, man? You can’t say; it’s impossible. But who’s in the top five? Certainly Jeff Beck.”

Is it surreal to watch Jeff Beck’s guitars and gear being auctioned off?

“Yeah, especially since I played a lot of those guitars through the years. But I think it’s great for his wife Sandra – you know, she’s gonna get sorted out. Nobody was playing them and she wanted people who would actually play them. That’s why she wanted to take this particular Strat and pass it around to get other people’s love for it.

“I was honored to be one of those guys – and I get to do it again. I’m excited about that, even though I’m a Music Man guy through and through. In fact, I’ve got a new version coming out, the L5. But I’ll cherish the moment. We’re human beings; it’s very emotional for me.”

Can you give any insight into the upcoming L5?

“I always like to have new inspiration sonically and physically. There’s some different pickups in there that are really cool. And it’s got a relic’d thing that I wanted to try that. But I’m not reinventing the wheel; it’s pretty much the same guitar, but we try different little things.”

• Lukather is currently touring Europe with Toto.

Steve Lukather has recalled the time he performed secret jam shows with Eddie Van Halen, Steve Morse and Albert Lee, surprising audiences by booking the gigs under false names.

In his latest conversation with YouTube music sage Rick Beato, Lukather brought up the band after a prompt about his lesser-known talent for chicken-picking – a skill Lukather humbly dismisses as something he can “bullshit” his way through.

“I used to do these fun little tours with Sterling Ball, who was Ernie Ball’s son,” explains Lukather in the clip below [approx. 7.45].

“We’d have this thing called Biff Babies All-Stars. We would just show up places and the guitar players, it was me, Steve Morse, Albert Lee and Eddie Van Halen. And occasionally somebody else might come sit in too.”

The group initially came about thanks to all of the player’s association with Ernie Ball Music Man and featured Sterling Ball on bass, Sherwood Ball (“a great singer”) on vocals, Jim Cox on keyboards and session pro John Ferraro on drums.

“We play at the Palomino under some weird name, we’d just show up, so nobody would know. By halfway through the set, the place was jam-packed, and we’d just mess around – call out goofy tunes, like we would in junior high school.”

While the gigs were just for fun, Lukather says he was still stretched on occasion – as you might be in that kind of company. Not least when it came to Albert Lee’s signature tune, the masterful hybrid-picking monster that is Country Boy.

“Occasionally, because of Albert and Steve, they'd end with Country Boy,” explains Luke. “I would practice for a little bit to get in that, because it's all major chords. You can't just play the blues!

“So you try to play through that, you have to define the thirds and try to find a way around here and there. But I'll leave that [chicken-picking stuff] to the big boys. Under pressure back then, with a couple of beers in me, I would go for it – and I'd do alright!”

The guitarist recently told Guitar World about another star-studded appearance, which also involved his late friend Eddie Van Halen, as Lukather recalled the first-time he jammed with George Harrison – and loaned him his ’59 Burst for the gig – a move he says has since added a million dollars to the guitar’s value.

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 fazed 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.

Michael Jackson’s mammoth hit Beat It may have benefitted from some incendiary electric guitar flare at the hands of Steve Lukather and Eddie Van Halen, but legendary producer Quincy Jones saved the song from becoming an out-and-out metal track.

Jones is credited as the man behind the desk for many of Jackson’s biggest hits, including Thriller, Bad, and Billie Jean, but his influential oversight of Beat It could potentially have been his most impactful contribution to the King of Pop’s back catalog.

After hitting upon a winning formula with 1979’s Off The Wall, the Jackson/Jones partnership was revived for what would be the Thriller album, with the singer reportedly looking for an all-killer-no-filler LP.

Jones had been eager to include a rock song in the record’s assortment of radio-ready jams, and enlisted Toto’s Steve Lukather – upon the recommendation of producer David Foster – for the job.

In a recent interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, Lukather reflects that he may have first handled the rock song assignment with a little too much enthusiasm.

“The thing that people never say about Quincy is what a great casting director he was. He had a Rolodex of musicians of all sorts that he could grab at,” he says of the late producer, who passed away earlier this month.

“You never knew who you were gonna get with Quincy. I was trying to play it cool because I was a young fan, up in the room with the greats: ‘Oh, Stevie Wonder’s playing keyboards today, that’s kind of cool.’

“Beat It, we did it backward,” Luakther continues. “Michael’s lead vocal and the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo were done with a couple of small overdubs but no click track. Jeff [Porcaro, drummer] made a click track and then a drum part, and I played a bunch of really wild guitar parts, because I knew Eddie’s solo was on it – I was doing real hard rock, a quadruple-track riff.

“Quincy wasn’t even there,” he expands. “He was at Westlake doing overdubs on Billie Jean while we were fixing Beat It – so we’d be on the phone and he goes: ‘It’s too metal, you gotta calm down. I gotta get it on pop radio! Use the small amp, not so much distortion.’”

Lukather likened Jones to a “casting director” in the way that he created his dream team of musicians, who would deliver the songs for the artists he was producing for. Jones, Lukather says, “is the only guy that can do a solo album without playing or writing anything.”

The hiring of hot-shot shredder Van Halen backs that up, even if it reportedly caused David Lee Roth to quit Van Halen.

“I’d used all these Marshalls, then Quincy called me,” Lukather had previously told Guitar World of Jones’ un-metalling process. “So I plugged in my Fender Deluxe, backed off the distortion, and gave him what you hear on the final record.”

Jones had reportedly given Van Halen a blank check for his contributions, knowing his presence would make all the difference to Jackson’s rock song.

“I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in,” Van Halen told CNN in 2012. “And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We’re all a little bit strange. I didn’t know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, ‘Look, I changed the middle section of your song.’

“In my mind, he’s either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he’s going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, ‘Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better.’”

It reportedly took Eddie Van Halen around an hour to track his parts, but the impact that has had on the music world since is seismic. In fact, it cracked the top 10 in Guitar World's list of the greatest guitar solos of all time.

Paul Jackson Jr. has hooked up with almost everyone, although usually on a behind-the-scenes basis. Remember Michael Jackson’s Beat It? That’s his rhythm work alongside Steve Lukather. And Daft Punk’s Get Lucky? That’s Jackson too, along with Nile Rodgers.

“You get your report card in kindergarten and it says, ‘Plays well with others,’” he tells Guitar World. “You have to cooperate and listen well. You realize the singer is always gonna be first.

“You have to adjust your parts so they augment and accentuate what’s going on and make the track feel good. You have to compliment what’s happening vocally, instead of playing a bunch of stuff where it’s gonna get in the way. They’ll just end up turning that down – or turning it off.”

He says he’s “not really proud, but fortunate” to have enjoyed a stack of career successes – so much so that he refuses to boil his experiences down to a singular high point.

“I’m grateful that I’m still doing things like the Oscars, which I’ve done four times. I’ve done the Grammys, the Emmys, nine seasons of American Idol and The Tonight Show.

“I’m honored, blessed, and grateful – but the thing I’m most honored by is that after this amount of time, people still like the way that I play guitar.”

Was session work a planned route for you, or did you fall into it?

“It’s something I aspired to do. I met Lee Ritenour when I was 15 and saw what he was doing; so my trajectory was to become the world’s greatest session player. I had a lot of help from Lee and Ray Parker Jr., who, at the time, was getting out of sessions to focus on a solo career. I had a lot of help from a lot of people.”

How did you develop your signature style and tone?

“Which one are you talking about? I’ll use a quote from the great drummer, Ndugu Chancler, who I worked with a lot. I asked him, ‘When are you gonna let me play in your band?’ He said, ‘When you start playing like Paul Jackson Jr.!’

“It’s a lot of practice, listening, soul-searching and praying. You take everything from everyone you listen to until it pops into your own style. All of that ended up being the Paul Jackson Jr. tone, if you will.”

What gear were you primarily working with when you started?

“I had a Gibson ES-335 and a Fender Telecaster that my folks bought me. And then I had a pedalboard my dad made: a Mu-Tron Envelope Filter, a Mu-Tron Octave Divider, a flanger, Echoplex, and a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah. It grew from there – and obviously it’s still growing.”

Was that the gear you brought into your early sessions with Donald Byrd?

“That was the same gear. The way I got on those sessions was very interesting: I was doing another record with the great Wah Wah Watson, and he says, ‘Hey, Paul, you wanna play on a Donald Byrd record tonight?’ I said, ‘I would love to.’

“He said, ‘Show up at Factory Sound at 7 o’clock, and you’ll be on the record.’ I said, ‘Does Donald know I’m coming?’ Wah Wah said, ‘No, but it’ll be okay.’ And so, basically, he just put me on the record Thank You… For F.U.M.L (Funking Up My Life). That’s how I ended up working with Donald Byrd.”

Did you get to pick Donald’s brain?

“Not really pick his brain, but he liked what was coming out of the guitar section. I was really young so I was taking a lot of cues from Wah Wah. I was basically a sponge, soaking up what I could.”

Around a year later, you worked with B.B. King on his record Take It Home. How did that happen?

“I started doing some sessions with keyboardist Joe Sample, who said, ‘I’d like to see how you work in other situations.’ I started recording with the Jazz Crusaders, who were producing B.B. King, so I ended up on those sessions.”

What was the key to finding space alongside B.B.?

“Listening – always listening. Your first musical tool is your ears. You have to listen to what the other person is doing; listen to their approach, their style and their space. Then you can make the adjustments accordingly.”

Around that same time, you were on Donna Summer’s Bad Girls record. Is that you playing on Hot Stuff?

“Oh, yeah – I did play on Hot Stuff. By that time, I had my Gibson Les Paul Standard, so I used that. And I used my Paul Rivera modified Fender Deluxe and cranked it all the way up. That’s pretty much what I used on Hot Stuff; it was just the bridge pickup, and I came up with the part pretty quickly.”

What’s the trick to seamlessly transitioning from jazz to blues to disco?

“The trick is listening and working enough in each genre to where you can be convincing. It’s difficult to be an expert in all genres, but it’s not difficult to play convincingly in all genres.

“You’ve gotta remember all these guys who did sessions were originally jazz guys. All of them are from New York, Chicago, Philly and LA; so it’s about listening and adjusting to the situation.”

Your work with The Jackson 5 opened the door for your work with Michael Jackson. Could you tell he was going to be a star?

“I met Michael when he was about 19 and he was already a star. We worked on the Destiny record, and I ended up doing a lot of work with Jermaine Jackson, writing, producing, and playing guitar with him.

“I worked on a song called This Place Hotel with them. We were in the studio and Michael said, ‘I want you to play something.’ He puts in a little cassette tape, and sings the solo and records it. I listened to the the tape and took it phrase by phrase, and the solo on This Place Hotel is what Michael actually sang to me.”

Give us the fly-on-the-wall perspective of working on Thriller, which also featured Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather.

“Actually, working on Thriller didn’t have a lot to do with Michael. It had more to do with my association with Quincy Jones. I’d worked on a record by James Ingram called It’s Your Night; and after that Quincy was doing Thriller, so he called me in.

“Beat It was interesting because there was a demo that, I think, guitarist David Williams had played on. What I did was I doubled the bassline, the fifth, the chorus and the verse. Luke played on a secondary part in the verse; and, of course, Eddie Van Halen did the solo. But the rest of the guitars were Steve Lukather and myself.”

Were you in the studio with Luke or Eddie?

“No, I never saw them. But it depends on the session. I’ve done things with Luke where we’re in the studio at the same time, and I’ve sessions where there’s three players in on the session. It just kind of depends on the music and the approach.”

What gear did you use during the Thriller sessions?

“I had a Valley Arts Rosewood Strat, another ES-335 and my Les Paul too. I had the modified Deluxe, and I think a compressor and an ADA Stereo Tapped Delay, which like a slap-back, flanger, phase-shifting kind of thing.”

Did Michael give much input as far as guitar sounds, or was it mostly communicated through Quincy?

“On that record, no. There’s a song called The Lady in My Life, where Rod Temperton wanted me to play some octaves; so I did that with my thumb, like Wes Montgomery. And there was a rhythm part I came up with on P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), where Quincy just put me in the studio and said, ‘Create.’ I came up with all those parts.”

Did your approach and gear change much during the Bad sessions when you recorded songs like Dirty Diana and Leave Me Alone?

“Every situation was different. With Leave Me Alone I came up with the part, but I don’t remember it that well. Dirty Diana – that was a part the arranger, Jerry Hey, wrote out. I tuned my guitar down from E to C#, and he came up with this part that was really, really cool.”

Your association with Michael was strong into the ‘90s, as you played on Dangerous, HIStory, and Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix. Did your rig evolve to reflect the times?

“Yeah – by then, I probably had my second Bradshaw rack system. I couldn’t tell you everything in there, but I remember that I had some Mesa Boogie stuff and I had the Stereo Tap Delay. I also had a tri-stereo chorus and a dbx 160x compressor. I was pretty much exclusively using Bob Bradshaw to build my rigs back then.”

What kept Michael coming back to you for his records?

“The Lord blessed me to be in a situation where what I did with Michael was very successful. It’s the old adage: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – I was fortunate enough to be associated with Michael on records that did very, very well.”

Pushing forward to 2013, you played on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, which also features Nile Rodgers. How was it decided who would play on what?

“I wasn’t in the studio with Nile. I was in with the two guys from the group, Thomas Bangalter and G-Man [Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo], and they said, ‘Here’s the song – just create.’

“One of them was Get Lucky, which Nile is on, and one was Give Life Back to Music – they felt what I came up with was so integral to that song that I actually got a writer’s credit. It was just about listening to what was there and creating.”

Can you remember what gear you used during the Daft Punk sessions?

“That was a later iteration of the Bradshaw rig. I was using a Tri-Ax preamp and a dbx 160X compressor. Amp-wise, I had a Mesa Boogie 20/20 Dyna-Watt Power Amo – two of those. I had a Fryette power amp that’s 50 watts a side; so depending on whether I wanted a lot of clean headroom or a little crunch, I would pick which power amp I’d use.”

Could you reduce your rig to one guitar, one amp and one pedal?

“The one amp would be easy. Rivera makes an amp called the Stage IV now, which is interesting because it’s like the Deluxe I modified in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but with channel-switching and an effects loop on both channels.

“The one pedal would probably be an MXR Dyna Comp compressor – I use a lot of compression on a lot of things. The cool thing is you can crank it up if you wanna use it as a clean boost. And you can also set the amp to overdrive or distortion, and use the compression as a gain down.

“If I could only use one guitar, it would probably be the PRS Fiore, which is the Mark Lettieri model. I put a Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker in mine at the neck position; so I can get the funk sound with the bridge and neck, and then I get the Strat sound with the bridge and middle pickup; and then, a blues sound, because of the mini-humbucker in the neck.”

What’s your best advice for someone looking to get into your line of work?

“Be prepared, listen, and learn different styles and techniques. You’re gonna have to use all of them. You’re gonna play country, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, neo-soul and classical.

“The idea is practice, practice, practice. I had a young lady ask me, ‘How do I get more followers on Instagram?’ I said, ‘Do you know who Justin Bieber is?’ She said, ‘Yeah…’ I said, ‘Do you think he has any problems getting followers?’ She said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘That’s because he’s doing something that’s follow-worthy.’

“Practice and hone your craft. Do something that’s follow-worthy, and people will follow you. In the words of Suga Free by DJ Quick, ‘If you stay ready, you ain’t got to get ready.’

“That’s one piece. The second piece is – anything you endeavor to do, work hard at it as if there was no God or divine help. And if you’ve done everything that you can do, trust God like you haven’t worked at all.”

• Jackson’s most recent EP, Stompin’ Willie Presents More Stories, Part 1, is on sale now.

Session veteran Paul Jackson Jr. has handled six-string duties for B.B. King, Daft Punk, Whitney Houston, Elton John, George Benson, and the Temptations, to name but a few. However, it was his work on Thriller, Michael Jackson's game-changing behemoth of an album, that kicked off his trilogy of collaboration with the King of Pop – which also encompassed 1987's Bad and 1991's Dangerous – further cementing the guitarist in pop history.

However, his working relationship with Jackson precedes Bad. At just 19, Michael Jackson was already a household name, fronting The Jackson 5. Paul was working on the Destiny record when Michael approached him to play a solo that he had come up with.

“We were in the studio, and he said, ‘I want you to lay something [down].’ I said, ‘Okay, great,’” he tells Guitar World.

“He puts in a little cassette tape, and he sings the solo and records it. So, I took the tape and took it phrase by phrase, and the solo on This Place Hotel is what Michael actually sang to me.”

Despite meeting Michael before his solo music reigned over the global charts, Paul reveals that he landed the Thriller sessions through Quincy Jones, who produced the album.

“I’d worked on a record by James Ingram called It’s Your Night, and after that, Quincy was doing Thriller, so he called me in to work on those sessions.”

On Beat It, the hit single that also includes Eddie Van Halen's iconic solo, Paul received a demo that already had a guitar part, played by the fellow prominent session player David Williams.

“So what I did was I doubled the bassline, the fifth, the chorus, and the verse,” he recalls.

“Luke [Steve Lukather] played on some other stuff; there’s a secondary part in the verse, and he played that. And, of course, Eddie Van Halen did the solo. But the rest of the guitars were Steve Lukather, and myself.”

As to whether he actually met Lukather and Van Halen during those sessions, Paul replies: “No, I never saw them. But it depends on the session. I’ve done things with Luke where we’re in the studio at the same time, and I’ve done sessions where there’s three players in on the session. It just kind of depends on the music and the approach.”

Guitar World's full interview with Paul Jackson Jr. will be published next month.

Beloved by fans all over the world, ‘Luke’ is a legendary player. Among countless A-list recording sessions, he has played with Michael Jackson, Boz Scaggs, Lionel Richie, Earth Wind And Fire, Joe Cocker, Michael Bolton, Aretha Franklin, Peter Frampton and countless others.

He’s also worked with Elton John, played with three of The Beatles, and is currently a member of Ringo’s All-Starr Band. Steve’s technique is legendary, and he was already making a name for himself as a world-class soloist while still in his teens.

Rhythmic variety is a big part of his style, mixing up different kinds of rhythms to add drama to his solos. The use of sextuplets is a big facet of this, as playing in groups of six means that the chord tones will fall differently compared to when playing in groups of four or eight notes.

If you were to play a bebop line that’s meant to be played in groups of four but presented the notes in groups of six, the harmonic feel would be completely different.

Therefore the lines that you play in sixes need to be designed with thought in order to fit the harmony. Of course you don’t always have to land chord tones on the beat, but this is a consideration. Our examples and the sample solo feature many sextuplets.

Steve’s string-bending chops are pretty insane – just check out the second solo in Rosanna by Toto. One of our examples here pays tribute to that approach but I was merciful with the pacing of the idea.

Steve often makes use of chromaticism, a bold strategy on modern pop-rock records, yet always makes it sound exciting and appropriate. His use of chromaticism is sophisticated but doesn’t venture into be-bop vocabulary.

He has a jazzy way of working between the chord tones but never attempts to shoehorn jazz lines in where not required. He will use melodic 3rds in semitones which land on consonant notes over the chords. He’s also a big fan of Eddie Van Halen, so you’ll find some picking-hand tapping along with other expressive techniques mentioned here.

Lukather is an incredibly imaginative rhythm guitarist, too. For a great example of this aspect of his work, check out Boz Scaggs’ album Middle Man. Steve came up with remarkable guitar textures which work beautifully with the other guitarist on the record – Ray Parker Jr.

The track Breakdown Dead Ahead features a classic Lukather solo with some killer bends and characteristic chromatic 3rds. And what about his amazing breaks in Lionel Richie’s Running With The Night, and Randy Crawford’s You Might Need Somebody? The list goes on and on…

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 9, Bass 6, Middle 4, Treble 7, Reverb 3

Steve has been wedded to his Music Man ‘Luke’ models in various pickup configurations and finishes for many years. He uses Bogner Ecstasy tube amps and Strymon (among others) pedals.

Go for a deep, clean rhythm tone with some nice modulation and delay, and a heavily overdriven lead sound where the notes remain clearly defined. Add digital delay and reverb to taste.

Example 1

This line works chromatically around the intervals of the F chord but in a lovely bluesy manner. This approach continues with the use of the relative F minor/F blues scale over the Ab chord. Take this in small sections to both master the notes but also for you to hone in on phrases that you’ll particularly want for yourself!

Example 2

This features a major 3rd (four-fret) bend and weaves a line in sixes ending with 3rd intervals moving chromatically to resolve in bar 4. It’s classic Lukather.

Example 3

We introduce tapping to add a little more flash. Steve doesn’t do a lot of this (in part to respect his friend, Eddie Van Halen) but when he does it sure hits home!

Example 4

This line extends the tapping idea by turning up the heat a little, so take it slowly until you perfect it. Note the bend from the 6th to the b7 in bar 4 – tasty!

Example 5

This line starts with alternate picking but moves into a sliding motif that works its way down the neck. Note the chromatic notes that target chord tones.

Example 6. The Solo

The solo ties together many of the examples’ approaches. You’ll find a lot of Steve’s natural bluesiness throughout but there also many instances of chromaticism.

Steve Lukather has been filmed playing Jeff Beck’s White Fender Stratocaster for a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing during a recent Toto show.

During the concert, which took place at the Hollywood Bowl last Sunday (September 1), Lukather and his Toto bandmates indulged in a seven-minute cover of the Hendrix classic, for which the electric guitar hero played a rather notable Strat.

That Strat was one of Beck’s main go-to guitars, and has become synonymous with the late guitar great’s style and sound.

Identifiable from its reverse headstock, Olympic White finish and split roller nut, the guitar was originally built by the Fender Custom shop around 2014, and used by Beck for much of the latter years of his career.

But it was pulled out of hibernation for the Toto show, and was used by Lukather for an extended effort that saw the virtuoso doff his cap to the guitar’s former owner – and Little Wing’s original writer – with nearly two minutes of flat-out soloing.

“I’ve got something special to do tonight,” Lukather says to introduce the cover, and the Strat. “I normally don't play a white Stratocaster. This is a special one. This is Jeff Beck’s guitar.

“His lovely wife Sandra and his closest friend and guitar tech brought this out, and they’ve been bringing it out to guitar players to put a little of love on it. Jeff and I were friends.

“They asked a certain amount of guitar players, but they’re just getting started. They asked Billy Gibbons, John Mayer and me, and they’ve probably got a long list. I wish this would make me sound like Jeff Beck, but it won’t.”

And so Lukather’s use of Beck’s Strat seems to be one of the first of potentially many cases of players using Beck’s guitars for live performances. In the description of the video, it is noted that “Steve Lukather plays Jeff Beck’s White Stratocaster as part of a musician’s project to honor Jeff’s legacy”.

True to Lukather’s words, we’ve already seen Mayer use Jeff Beck’s White Strat during Dead & Company’s recent residency shows at The Sphere. Although it was first speculated to be a Custom Shop replica, Joe Bonamassa later confirmed it was indeed the real deal.

At the time, it was assumed JoBo’s keen eye for iconic guitars had helped him with the identification, but now it’s entirely plausible that he knew it was Beck’s White Strat because Bonamassa himself is also involved in this mysterious “musicians’ project”, and is clued up on the whereabouts of Beck’s instruments. Could he be next to partake in this “musician’s project”?

It’s certainly an exciting prospect, and fans of Beck will no doubt be pleased to see his presence and influence live on with the continued use of his guitars. Having Beck’s guitars out on the road for a range of tribute covers seems a better way of honoring his musical memory than by keeping them under lock and key.

We are now into the fourth generation of Steve Lukather’s Ernie Ball Music Man signature guitar line, with Luke IV defying cinematic convention by being the most thrilling instalment of the franchise. But once upon a time – let’s call it the ‘80s – the Toto guitarist and session ace was more associated with the Fender Stratocaster.

This was a more innocent era, when vintage electric guitars were not so sacrosanct (read: expensive) and so the bold Lukather, his career in the ascendancy, modded his, swapping in EMG active pickups, giving it the whole Valley Arts makeover that was en vogue at the time.

Just before this guitar turned into The Robot Strat, it and Lukather appeared on the September 1983 cover of Guitar World, and as part of our celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Strat, we’ve been tracking down these cover stars and the players who played them. So this, you might say, is the story of The Robot Strat, how it started, and how it’s going.

Where and when did you buy this guitar?

“It would have been the late ’70s. I don’t remember where I got it – not Norm’s [Norman’s Rare Guitars]; it would have been a wannabe Norm’s down in Studio City. I guarantee the spot doesn’t exist anymore.”

Why did you choose it?

“I just wanted a Strat. [Laughs] It felt good, and I liked it. There wasn’t that much more to it beyond that. I had played Les Pauls and other guitars, and for whatever reason, I was searching for a Strat. I came upon that ’64, and that was it.”

You ended up modifying it, right?

“I did. That guitar has a massive history and looks totally different [now] than it did on the cover. If you remember that funny-looking guitar I had back in the ’80s with the robot painted on it, that’s the same guitar as the one on the cover.

“I had put EMG pickups in and didn’t care that the guitar was vintage because I had no connection to it. I ended up bringing it to Valley Arts Guitars and said, ‘I’ll let you fuck with this guitar; it doesn’t mean much to me,’ and they made me a new neck, put a humbucking EMG and two single-coil EMGs in – and they painted the robot.”

What notable recordings did you use this guitar on?

“Literally, every record I did from mid 1984 to 1993. After I got it back from Valley Arts, the Robot Strat was my main guitar until I started using Music Man. If you look at any live show from the ’80s, you’ll probably see me playing it – especially in ’86 and ’87, when that guitar was everywhere. I played on about a billion records, and that guitar was on all of them.”

Why did you choose this guitar for your GW cover shoot?

“It’s funny because, at that point, the ’64 Strat had not become the Robot Strat with the EMGs and the Valley Arts neck, so it wasn’t my main guitar, per se.

“So, the same day I was supposed to do the Guitar World shoot, I was working at the studio with [producer] Keith Olsen, and I had to run, so I grabbed the first one I saw. I was like, ‘Shit, I need a guitar for this shoot. This one will do. I had no allegiance to any guitar then, so I grabbed the Strat and ran to the shoot.’”

Do you still have this guitar?

“I still have it. I went through a phase where I was getting rid of shit, and I sold some vintage shit I could have made a lot more money on, but whatever; how many can you play at once? But I still have it; it’s in its case at home. It’s been a while since I broke it out and played it, but it felt pretty good the last time I did.

“I bet it needs an upgrade, so who knows when we’ll see it again. I only kept the guitars that meant something to me and have a history, so that fits the bill. I saw people were making bogus copies of it in Germany and Japan, though, so it must have meant something to other people, too.”

Those who descend from guitar greatness are more than likely to pick up the family trade. Not only are they surrounded by music from an early age, they are uniquely poised to receive (free) lessons from their parents.

Trev Lukather is one such player who began his electric guitar journey as a youngster, having received some formative musical advice from his father, Toto great Steve Lukather.

Lukather reflected on his early years as a budding musician in an upcoming interview with Guitar World, during which he shared the words of wisdom his dad imparted on him – and pinpointed the moment he knew he wanted to be a guitarist.

“I always describe it as how kids throw baseballs with their dads or kick the soccer ball. I picked up drums when I was three or four and just started playing,” he reflects. “I was able to play to a click. I had a pocket, which was my way of hanging with my pop and jamming. 

“And then, when Toto reunited, I was 12 years old, and my dad did his first solo, the crowd was reaching out for him, and I was like, 'I gotta do that, man. I have to play guitar. I want to be just like my dad.'”

When he decided he wanted to play guitar for a living, Trev was able to turn to his dad for advice. And, while Steve Lukather’s soloing skills are renowned, he encouraged his son to develop a strong rhythmic and songwriting base before breaking out the box.

When he did start soloing, though, Trev found inspiration in some external forces.

“I didn't even start soloing until I was five years into playing,” he tells GW. “My dad always said, 'Focus on your rhythm and writing songs,' so I did that. But when I got the itch to start doing guitar solos, I got into Neal Schon, Trevor Rabin, and Eddie Van Halen. 

“But most of all, the number one was David Gilmour because I loved how he was so melodic. He wasn't a shredder, but he could hold one note for multiple bars, and your soul left your body. 

“I took a little bit of every one of them as an influence and started messing with my own style, but it just kind of came naturally, man. I just kind of found my way.”

Keep your eyes peeled on GuitarWorld.com for the full interview with Trev Lukather. 

In the meantime, check out our interview with Steve Lukather for Luke Sr.’s thoughts on Eddie Van Halen, championing melody and his recent unabashedly ’80s solo album.

When Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes was hailed as “a landmark in rock music history”, it was no exaggeration. The former Dire Straits leader has pulled together an astonishing lineup of famous players to appear on a charity single in aid of noble causes including Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America. 

Going Home (Theme From Local Hero), a song written by Knopfler and originally released back in 1983, was recently reworked as an extended showcase in which he is joined by legendary guitarists including David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Brian May, Slash, Steve Vai, Ronnie Wood and Joe Walsh. Poignantly, it also features the last ever recorded work of guitar icon and innovator Jeff Beck.

And elsewhere, layered within Knopfler’s six-string tapestry, is longtime Toto man and general session legend Steve Lukather, who was more than happy to lend his licks. “Are you kidding me?” Luke tells Total Guitar. “To be a part of something like this, which is so cool, and to be on this with all those cool players for such a great cause – it’s an honour. I just wanted to be a part of it.”

In his typically Southern Californian way, Luke breaks down the experience as only he can. “It was special to be a part of something so great,” he says. “I hope it raises millions of dollars for the cause because it’s a really good one. I don’t know Mark personally, but he’s very into philanthropic work, as we’ve seen with him auctioning off all his guitars. 

“I can relate to getting to the point where you have a warehouse full of shit and you say, ‘Why?’ I’m at a stage where I want to give back and just be thankful for what I’ve got. I’m into simplicity now. So, it’s very easy to want to be a part of it…”

So how did you end up involved with this project?

“It’s funny, because I was very flattered to get the call. I was immediately into it and said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’ They basically reached out to me out of the blue, which had me saying, ‘Wow’, as they already had so many people involved. I made zero demands and just did what I did. It was a lot of fun.”

Once you dug in, what were your initial thoughts regarding what you were hearing?

“The biggest thing was that I didn’t want to put much input into it other than trying to find something cool to play. I hadn’t heard the full track at first, so I wasn’t sure what they were gonna keep, but my initial thought was something like, ‘Man, this is such an undertaking to get so many people like this on one track!’”

What was your approach?

“I knew that the track was stuffed from top to bottom, so I had to figure out a way to play over all of that. I kinda figured I should stay outta the way, and I came up with some cool rhythm parts and stuff like that. I said, ‘Seems like everyone else is playing all this crazy stuff.’ And I appreciated that, and my thought was to do something a little lower key.”

Did Mark give you any direction?

“Interestingly, no. When they reached out, I was like, ‘Wow, you’ve got so many people, so what do you want me to do here?’ And they basically said, ‘Just do what you do.’ I said, ‘Well, thanks!’ So I had no other input other than, ‘Try and find something interesting to play.’ And like I was saying, that wasn’t easy since there are so many amazing players in one zone.”

While working out your parts, did anything immediately stick out?

“It was hard since they sent me a pre‑mixed [song], so I had to work with this in-progress thing. I couldn’t dissect it and take it apart to see who was who. That said, some players’ styles are more obvious than others, so there was that. I also didn’t have a lot of time, so it wasn’t something where I could get super-deep into it. I just found some little parts, added them, and I guess they liked it!”

Surely you found a way to add some of those quintessential Steve Lukather touches?

“Ah, you’re too kind! I realised that there was a lot of single-line stuff going on, so that impacted how I went about adding some rhythms and the textures I used. And as far as Mark goes, I’ve been a big fan of his playing forever, though we don’t really know each other. We’ve met briefly, and his stuff definitely stuck out. I was just honoured to be asked to be a part of it.”

The track features the final recording by Jeff Beck…

“Knowing Jeff was on it was pretty cool. I mean, it’s no secret how much I love Jeff Beck’s playing, man. We’d known each other since ’82, and I’d worked with him on a bunch of stuff. Jeff was and is my favourite single-note guitar player ever on this Earth. Granted, I know there are many great players, but if you ask anybody, they’ll tell you Jeff was the guy.”

Did you find Jeff’s contributions particularly moving?

“I haven’t heard the final mix, so I can’t say for sure. But that cat never stopped moving forward and never stopped moving the needle. He was a quirky dude, man, but at the same time, he blazed his own trail. I don’t think there will ever be anyone like him again. He’s up there in the same space as Hendrix, and he’s one of the true innovators of the guitar.”

Considering how Jeff’s playing often brought guitar circles together, it’s special that his last recorded piece is part of track designed with the same purpose in mind.

“Jeff was a one-of-a-kind player and guy. I toured with him, got to record with him, and all that stuff. When Jeff played, everyone else would stop playing and listen. I would be like, ‘Okay, let’s watch the master work.’ 

“He always brought something special to the game in the sense that you can hear one note and go, ‘Oh, there it is. There it is, man!’ It never had to be a flurry of crazy notes. It just had to be one fucking note that would bounce off the wall and back at the listener. One note, and everyone would be on their feet. That’s a special player.”

Though you don’t know Mark, has his playing affected you much?

“I’m a huge fan. Mark is another one of those unbelievable, unique and wonderful players. He’s a fingerstyle guy, and his touch is amazing. From what I’ve gathered over the years and from what I’ve listened to – which is a lot – Mark is an incredible guitarist. And like I said before, he wasn’t there when I recorded and gave me no notes. He never said, ‘Play this, or do that.’ There are so many players on this track, and so much is going on, but they just let me be me.”

There are 54 musicians on the track, and yet you found a way to stand out.

“It’s crazy, because the initial thought was, ‘What the hell am I gonna play?’ But I found this little muted part, with more than a few notes, and managed to create some parts that fit well in there. It was important for me to stay in my lane, you know? I felt like I needed to jump back because, with all these players on there, I just wanted to find something to help the track and not get in the way.”

Your career as a session player served you well to that end!

“I think so, too. I’ve done that in a lot of instances in my life, and maybe that’s why they sent the track to me – they knew I’d do something like that. But it was flattering not to be told what to do, and it was cool that they said what I did was great. They said, ‘Oh, this is different from what everyone else did, thanks!’ It was a lot of fun and a massive honour to be in the same musical space and on the same track as players I consider my favourites, many of whom are dear friends.”

Where did you record your parts?

“I don’t have a home studio – I believe in separation of church and state! Home is home, and work is work. But I’ve got a million friends, and my son [Trev Lukather] has a studio, but he wasn’t around. Otherwise, I would have asked him.

“So, my old friend [Toto vocalist] Joseph Williams said, ‘Come over to my house, and we’ll do it.’ He engineered it, helped me put it together, and we sent it back. The big thing was to be in a place that I thought would sound good, so that’s what I did. It took maybe an hour.”

What was your recording rig?

“I had my Music Man [Luke 4 HH] that I’ve been playing forever, but my rig was a little different. I have a totally new pedalboard that my tech is putting together for me with all different stuff, but it’s still being built. So, I had this Mickey Mouse temporary rig with the Music Man, one of my favourite 50-watt Bogner amps, my Shure SM57 mics, a little reverb, and some compression. That was it.”

Do you feel any one player stole the show?

“That’s impossible to answer. You’re talking about a roster full of legendary people, all of whom have their own voices. I dig them all for different reasons. I mean, the whole ‘who is the best’ thing is just an impossible question. Hell, who is the most beautiful person in the world? I can say these types of things and ask them, but none of it matters. Everybody has their own voice and can play great shit – and that’s what I heard. The track and the people speak for themselves. I can’t pick a favourite.”

A lot of people are referring to this as the We Are the World of guitar playing. That’s heavy praise.

“Once you get a lot of great people together for a good cause, all the bullshit goes away. If you’re doing this for nothing other than the cause and because you want to be a part of it – which is the way this was – it can’t go wrong. They came to us with the idea that this was a charity project, explained what it was, and that Mark put it together and wrote the piece.”

And how do you view and relate to it on a personal level, if at all?

“It sounds like something Mark would write, and he procured amazing people, which again leaves me very flattered. I made the cut among some amazing players who are friends and heroes. It’s a cause toward a very positive thing. Whenever I can give back, I do it. I’ve been blessed, so I need to give back. But need aside, I want to give back, too.”

• Going Home (Theme From Local Hero) by Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes is out now.

Preparing to hit the road playing the songs that made him famous with Toto, the joy on Steve Lukather’s face is vivid. “Nobody laughs harder than me,” he says. “I’ve enjoyed the ride, and man, what a ride it’s been.”

Back in ’78, when Luke was a fresh-faced 20-year-old kid out of California’s San Fernando Valley, he couldn’t have imagined the wonders that awaited. When he peeled off the solo from Hold the Line, sure, his love for guitar was evident, but did that signal what lay ahead?

“I never thought in a million years that I’d be playing this when I was a 66-year-old adult,” he says. “But there’s still an audience for it – not just people rolling in wheelchairs and iron lungs, but a lot of young people, too.”

Some wonder what keeps Toto’s flame burning, but Lukather thinks he has it figured out. “It started with the demented success of Africa. That went crazy. And people still love it. It still baffles me, but it was a wonderful gift as it puts butts in the seats!”

The band’s continued success isn’t just about live shows, either. “I know a lot of guys complain about streaming, but not me,” the guitarist says. “It’s really helped us, even though people are pissing and moaning.

“When I first took over the management stuff, I made a great deal with Sony for streaming. We get a lot of streams, and over the last eight or nine years, we’ve gotten billions of people listening to the music. So even though I’m an old bastard, I have no complaints.”

When he talks about the songs he’s lived with for decades, it comes down to gratitude. “This is my whole life laid out via music,” he says. “It’s like smelling grandma’s apple pie, you know?

“The smell of that pie does something to your brain, and these songs do that for me. They’re pleasant memories. Grandma might not be around anymore, and you miss that, and I think that’s what these songs are in that I miss them.”

He continues: “I was a teenager when I started, and now here I am, pension age. I gotta laugh at myself; I’m the luckiest motherfucker in the world, man. All I ever wanted was a long career – and I got it. I’m still doing it. So I’m the luckiest guy on planet Earth. I’m slapping myself most days to believe it.”

Yet Lukather’s impact and relevance loom large; not just as a player, but as a positive force in a world that’s often stifling for creatives. “The world is unhappy. I get it, believe me,” he says. “I got kids who have to live through this, but I still find ways to push that aside.

“Just before you called, you know what I was doing? Playing my guitar. I was sitting here, thinking to myself, ‘I really love playing this thing. This old piece of wood sure has been good to me.’ That’s all it takes. I can sit here and find joy in picking up this instrument and still being able to play. All of this is a blessing. If I can do it, so can anyone my age. I still love the guitar. Man, that’s the truth.”

Just before Toto hit the road, Lukather dialed in with Guitar World to reveal – in no particular order – the 12 guitarists who shaped his sound.

1. George Harrison

“I’m starting off this list spontaneously because if I don’t, it won’t work, and it’ll be impossible. I have to start with George Harrison. In the early days, George was my number-one guitar hero. He’s the reason why I play.

“The wonderful sounds he made on The Ed Sullivan Show did it for me. Then there were the first Beatles records, which were like the on-switch for my life. George was where it started for me. Without him, none of this would have started for me.”

2. Jeff Beck

“Jeff changed it all. From being a fan as a kid, to working with him and getting to know him in the studio, to playing live shows and seeing how he did what he did – man, I would have to shake my head. I would think, ‘Man, this cat’s an alien.’

“The things he did were not the things normal human beings did on guitar. Wherever he was from, man, it was somewhere else. What more can I say? Losing Jeff hit hard because he was one of the greatest of all time.”

3. David Gilmour

“Gilmour’s whole thing, with his sound, how his touch affects those sounds and makes them sound huge, is incredible. I really wanted to get that sound when I was a kid – what he did on Dark Side of the Moon, which got me into him.

“I heard that, started going backward, and went forward in real time. I’m honored to call him a friend, as he’s one of my all-time heroes. David makes one note sound huge, like it’s banging off the wall – boom! It’s fantastic. He’s a really nice man, too.”

4. Larry Carlton

“I’ll go with Larry because his performance on Steely Dan’s The Royal Scam was life-changing for me. After that, I listened to everything he did, going backward and then forward.

“And then I got to work with him, and we won a Grammy together. I’ve been very fortunate to work with many of my childhood heroes; I’m deeply thankful for that honor.”

5. Michael Landau

“Michael has been one of my best friends since we were 12, and he’s an incredible musician. He’s always raised the bar higher over the years and made me a better player because we grew up together. I was like, ‘Fucking Landau, man, he’s great.’

“Honestly, we’ve played in a million bands together, done sessions together, and he’s just one of the finest ever to pick up the guitar. He’s unique and very special, and he’s always made me better. That’s the truth.”

6. Jimi Hendrix

“You gotta understand that, as a kid in the ‘60s, I grew up seeing this guy do what he did in real time. When his first album came out, it was like aliens had landed. It was like watching The Exorcist – it was shocking. When I was so young, hearing Hendrix, it scared the shit outta me. It changed the whole standard.

“Learning about the Hendrix E chord was amazing. I figured out where to put my fingers and kinda eked it out on my own. But again, it was scary – and it sounds funny to say – but seeing and hearing it in real time was much different than listening to it now.”

7. Eddie Van Halen

“My bro, Eddie, changed the world. Like Hendrix, watching what Eddie did in real time was wild. I got to know him very well, and he was a very special human being. The places Eddie’s musical head were coming from, man, he didn’t think like a regular person.

“His riffs, where he felt them from, the timing, and how he dressed them up were so unique. It was like, ‘Wow. I never woulda thought to do that.’ That was Eddie’s whole style – I never would think to do that. I don’t know where guitar would be without him, but he spawned a whole lot.”

8/9. Al Di Meola / John McLaughlin

“I’m gonna have to have these two together – even though it might piss them off! They’re both friends of mine, and I’m honored to say that; but I don’t think there’s a lot of love between them at this point.

“That’s hard for me to rationalize because they’re two of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life. But anyway, both guys smacked me in the face as far as sound and style. They’re incredible players.”

10. Steve Hackett

“Again, I watched this guy in real time. I wore Selling England by the Pound out, and Steve’s unique way of playing was striking. He wasn’t just a guy in a band looking to take a solo – he was integral to the composition with his beautiful legato playing.

“And he was one of the first tapper guys, which was crazy to hear. He’d do these riffs, and they were hard to replicate. I never tried to play like Steve, but I love how he plays. He’s an astounding player, and he’s still out there doing it.”

11/12. Jimmy Page / Eric Clapton

“This is where it gets so hard, man. As far as directly influencing me, I’m gonna say Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton not only because of their playing but their compositions. I remember dropping the needle on those Led Zeppelin and Cream records and trying to learn the solos. I put hours into doing that.

“I wanted to know where that was coming from. I wanted to play like the guys on those records. I spent a lot of time listening to Stairway to Heaven and Crossroads, which have perfect solos and made me feel like they were in the room with me.”

• Toto are currently touring North America – see TotoOfficial.com for full dates.

Music Man released its first Steve Lukather signature guitar – the Luke – back in 1994, and over the years the Luke model has evolved with various Luke II and Luke III models. 

To celebrate the Luke’s 30th anniversary, Music Man has introduced the Luke 4 30th anniversary model with an HSS pickup configuration similar to the original, plus new Luke 4 HH and SSS models.

The 30th anniversary version is a hot-rodded Superstrat, but the SSS model we reviewed is more of a “Superbstrat”, based on the traditional triple-single-coil ’50s standard solidbody that guitarists all know and love, but packed with a ton of high-performance upgrades, refinements and modifications.

The Luke 4 SSS has a figured roasted maple neck that has become a regular feature of Music Man guitars for a while now, made to specifications that include a 25.5-inch scale length, 12-inch radius and 1 5/8-inch nut width. The rosewood fingerboard sports 22 low profile, wide nickel frets. 

A new twist is that the alder body is roasted as well to provide the lighter weight and resonance of a vintage guitar that has naturally dried over several decades. The body is finished with high-gloss polyester in a selection of Scoville Red, Diesel Blue or Bareback (natural) color options, while the neck is protected by a gunstock oil and hand-rubbed special wax blend finish.

The newly designed Music Man HT single-coil pickups were developed using technology derived from the technology behind the creation of Ernie Ball’s Cobalt and M-Steel strings, and they are voiced to provide outstanding clarity at high output while maintaining body at lower volume levels. 

Controls consist of a five-way blade pickup selector and master tone and volume controls, the latter featuring a push/push function that activates a built-in preamp boost circuit. Boost is set at the factory to +12dB, but a trim pot inside the control cavity allows users to adjust output between 0 and +20dB.

Internal trim pots also enable adjustment of silent circuit’s hum reduction and the balance between the blade position 1/3/5 bridge, middle and neck single-coil settings and the 2/4 parallel bridge/middle and neck/middle settings.

The vintage-style tremolo has bent steel saddles and is set up in a floating configuration. The spring tension from the factory is somewhat light, resulting in buzzy trem warble when the strings are aggressively snapped, but extra springs are provided for players who prefer less buzz. The trem arm is a little slim and light for my preference, but it seems suitably sturdy and solid. 

Most Strat connoisseurs should find that the pickups deliver the tonal qualities of their dreams. The midrange dip is right in the sweet spot to accentuate percussive treble snap and bouncy bass while still providing full body and depth. All of the classic Stratocaster tones are here, including Clapton, Hendrix, Knopfler and SRV and even Beck, with the tone knob rolled down about ¾, and you can punch it up to searing Luke leads with the preamp boost engaged. 

At $3,199, the Luke 4 SSS is not cheap, but most players would need two or three Strats to cover all of the tonal nuances and character the Luke 4 provides. The materials and immaculate craftsmanship, refined playability, balance and comfort and tech upgrades like the preamp boost and adjustable silent circuit also significantly up the ante in the model’s overall value.

For players whose axe of choice is of the triple single-coil variety, the Luke 4 SSS is worth the investment as it delivers classic Strat tones with modern refinement along with playability that will satisfy discriminating players for a lifetime.

Specs

• PRICE: $3,199 / £3,689
• BODY: Roasted ash
• NECK: Roasted figured maple
• FINGERBOARD: Rosewood
• NECK PROFILE: Soft V
• RADIUS: 12-inch
• SCALE LENGTH: 25.5-inch
• FRETS: 22 low-profile wide nickel
• NUT WIDTH: 1 5/8-inch
• PICKUPS: Three Music Man HT single-coil
• CONTROLS: Master volume with push/push preamp boost, master tone, 5-way blade pickup selector
• BRIDGE: Music Man floating vintage tremolo with bent steel saddles
• TUNERS: Schaller M6-IND locking
• OTHER: Preamp boost circuit with adjusted gain up to +20dB, adjustable silent circuit
• CONTACT: Ernie Ball Music Man

Somewhere, not long after Leo Fender’s invention of the electric bass guitar, a flowing beard, wire-rim spectacles, and a biting sense of humour became synonymous with the instrument. Those attributes belong to Leland Sklar, a bonafide bass icon and one of the most instantly recognisable figures in contemporary music. 

Wend your way through the vast archive of Sklar's back catalogue and you’ll find tracks that highlight various aspects of his well-honed playing style: a deep pocket, under-sung syncopation, and song-friendly sub-hooks. 

A seasoned studio player, Sklar’s also a stickler for being ready to record the first time he hears a piece of music. “If someone sends me an mp3 of the song in advance, I usually won't listen to it,” he told BP. “Or worse yet is when someone wants to rehearse a few days before the session. That's the kiss of death, because we're going to play some fresh, mind-blowing shit, and it's all gonna be gone when we hit the studio. Unless a song is deeply complicated, by the fourth take I'm starting to daydream.” 

Beyond the visual, ask any true bass fan about Mr Sklar, and a reverential reflection of classic recordings and performances comes to mind – the result of a remarkable career. So does Sklar see himself as an intellectual bass player?  

“Even though I had years of training and theory, when that red light comes on I don't really think about what I'm doing; I'm very visceral – I go by the seat of my pants and whatever my mood is in the moment. The best scenario for me is when someone has saved me the trouble by sketching out a basic chord sheet, so I can immediately start reacting to the song. The song remains supreme.”

A slamming track that has a taste of all of these attributes is Steve Lukather's Stab in the Back, from his 2008 solo release Ever Changing Times, which the guitarist describes as his nod to Donald Fagen. Sklar played his “Frankenstein 4-string” and teamed up with drum ace Abe Laboriel Jr.

You can watch a playthrough from Sklar's YouTube channel below.

Listen for Sklar’s fat pocket in the verse, and how he shortens every other downbeat-anticipating A. The pre-chorus is also full of Sklar goodies. Instead of sticking to a root-5 rock bossa pattern, Sklar jumps the octave, and anticipates the coming Fmaj7 chord by ending the measure on a C. The next bar is pure melody, as Sklar outlines a descending Fmaj7 chord, before leading with a trademark gliss into the A and a quarter-note triplet on beat three. Then, with the vocals laying out, he lets loose with an ear-grabbing F#m pentatonic fill. 

Similar magic can be found in the chorus: Sklar begins a diatonic climb up to the coming G chord, only to change direction midway and chromatically descend into it. Placement is the key, as he lands on beat three with the 3rd to start his melodic movement to the Cmaj9 chord. 

Feeling as liberated and reactive as he always does, Sklar then issues a syncopated descending line starting on the 9th of the chord, which keeps its motion going into the next measure. Finally, he doubles Lukather's guitar riff. Listen also for his spontaneous bass licks played over the A7 chord during the track's final minute.

These days, Sklar has circled back to his singer/songwriter roots with the Immediate Family and a new documentary that follows the unsung session musicians of the 1970s. “We've been around a long time and this is kind of what this film is about. It's just kind of a reflection on an incredibly golden age of music that's set through the '70s up to this point. It's been an incredible run.” 

Immediate Family is available now through Amazon Prime and AppleTV.

A member of Toto, Steve Lukather’s melodic solos and slick songwriting defined a generation of AOR-loving fans throughout the '80s. If you can recall the sweet sounds of pop-leaning rock classics like Hold the Line, I’ll Supply the Love, Africa and I Won’t Hold You Back, then surely you’ve dug into Lukather’s inspired licks. 

Of course, a player as inspired as Lukather can’t be held down, as evidenced by his expansive career as a sideman with the likes of George Benson, Michael Bolton, Michael Jackson, Cher, Peter Criss, Ringo Starr, Elton John and about a million others (including one especially cool appearance with George Harrison in 1992).

So, yeah… it goes without saying that Lukather has impacted the masses unimaginably. Through big hits, endless songsmithery and immense restraint in an era perpetually defined by shred, the San Fernando Valley native has managed to unintentionally soundtrack the music zeitgeist.

“It’s funny… I can’t even remember half of the things I’ve recorded,” Lukather says. “I’ve been on so many sessions that I’m lucky if I can remember any of them. People ask me, ‘Steve, what’s your favorite solo of yours?’ or ‘Do you think any of them are underrated?’ I always have to tell them, ‘I can’t remember.’ 

“I mean, I’ve got ones that I love, but I can never pick. It’s not for me to decide what’s best or most underrated, you know? I’ve always been one to try and write a good song and record a solo that people will remember. That’s always been way more important to me than shredding or competing.”

These days, due to a myriad of nasty legal dealings, Toto is no more. But that doesn’t mean Lukather is leaving behind the songs he helped create; quite the contrary. In addition to some of his most memorable solo cuts, Lukather happily plays many of Toto’s classics while on tour. And so, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that with his latest album, Bridges, Lukather is dialing back to the stylings that made him famous with his flagship band. 

“This album came together over the pandemic because of me sitting around saying, ‘Man… I’m so bored,’” he says. “But there was more to it. The pandemic was a weird time. The other side of Bridges becoming a reality was me being scared, thinking, ‘Are we ever gonna be able to come back? Are we ever gonna leave our homes again?’ 

“It was weird because it came out of nowhere, and it all hit me at once. Plus I had just broken up with my girlfriend, so I really wanted to do something significant. That led me to call my friends and make a record that is unabashedly '80s.”

During a break from the road, Lukather dialed in with GW to dig into the making of Bridges, his aversion to shredding and the challenges of making new music for a world that might not be listening.

Were you intentionally trying to make a stylistically different record from your last album, 2021’s I Found the Sun Again?

“I definitely did want to do something different because I think I Found the Sun Again was a bit more self-indulgent, so I was more focused on having fun again with Bridges. So I called up a bunch of my old Toto bandmates to be on the record because I really did want to harken back to that style of music. 

“Due to complicated legal issues, Toto will never make another record. But I still love that music, so I called up Simon Phillips, David Paich and even my son Trev [Lukather]. I love how it came out, but I think the sound results from just doing it for fun. We said, ‘Fuck it, let’s go in and make a cool, '80s-sounding record,’ and we did so shamelessly without denying ourselves what we wanted to do. I guess I needed to scratch that itch. It just came down to downshifting my approach.”

In what ways did you downshift?

“I just wasn’t trying to keep up with the insane abilities of the younger players. I’m a big fan and love it all, but my strength was always more melodic playing. So I said, 'Let me stay in that arena. I’ll leave the crazy stuff to the younger players.' As far as putting the parts together, all the solos were done in one or two takes, and I didn’t piece anything together. I really tried to make a statement where you could hum along and remember this stuff rather than just going, ‘Oh, wow….’”

Would you call this album a sort of ‘bridge’ – sorry, had to! – between Toto and your solo work?

“I think so. And that’s why I brought a guy like David Paich out of semi-retirement to write with me. We still love working together; we just didn’t want to call it Toto. And it’s not that I’m remotely ashamed of that music; I’m on the road performing that stuff now. But it’s complicated in terms of ownership and all the craziness of it all.”

How does your approach to guitar shift from project to project?

“First and foremost, I’ve gotta try to keep up. [Laughs] But don’t get me wrong; I’m not some old stiff thinking it’s over. But man, everybody seems to play so much fast bullshit, and I disagree with that entire concept. But there are so many incredible young players out there now, male and female. I’ve gotta say the women have stepped up. 

“Some of the best guitar players in the world today are women. And I think that’s great because when I started, there weren’t many. So while I hate even to differentiate between men and women because they’re all great players, the reality is that things have come a long way. So for me, it’s about trying to keep up with all these insane players while still being myself.”

What do you feel has empowered more women to pick up the guitar?

“People’s mindset has changed. It all starts there. Because it doesn’t matter what sex you are; a great player is a great player. Go ahead and blindfold-test anybody without telling them what sex the player is and see what happens. If the player is great, they’re gonna say, ‘Oh, shit, that was awesome. Who is that?’ 

“They’re not going to know if it’s a man or woman, and they’re not gonna be able to say, 'Oh well, that was pretty good for a chick,' or whatever bullshit thing. I wouldn’t ever say that, and I know it’s not politically correct to say that, but some people still think that way. But not me; I’m an old, peace-loving hippie from the '60s. [Laughs]”

You’re clearly tuned into what’s happening in music now, but do you ever feel beholden to what you’ve done in the past? If so, how do you balance the two?

“I think I was more beholden to my past as a player on this new record because I didn’t try to be too flashy. Like I said, I’ve always been known as a melodic player, and I’m cool with that. Back when I started, there was no such thing as 'shredding'. In the '70s, we were just trying to make good records. 

“But then Eddie Van Halen came along and changed the whole game. I remember him telling me once, ‘Man, I didn’t mean to start all this madness,’ but he really did change the entire game. That always cracked me up, as Eddie was the father of shred. But I never tried to do that, and I still don’t. I’m still the same melodic guy I’ve always been.”

Which solo from Bridges proved to be the most challenging?

“That’s hard to say. I think that each piece tells its own story, you know? So the most important thing for me was to craft memorable things. Again, I aimed to lean more melodic and avoid being too flashy. 

“But there are still a couple of flashy licks in there, which I guess means I can still play. [Laughs] But I think keeping it to one or two takes and not doing much editing meant I came away with some pretty clean, straightforward and memorable moments.”

Which electric guitars, amps and pedals did you bring to the party?

“You’re gonna laugh; I used one guitar for the entire record. [Laughs] And that was my Music Man Luke III. It’s the green one you’ve probably seen in my recent photos. As far as amps are concerned, I’ve been with Bogner for some time and love them. 

“They’re great amps. I’ve used a lot of different amps over the years, but I don’t really use anything else these days. And my pedals are the same ones I have on stage with me on tour. I used a little delay, reverb and a Jeff Kollman Bombastortion pedal. I didn’t do anything fancy, really. Like the songwriting and approach, I kept the gear minimalistic.”

What do you like most about Music Man guitars?

“This is my 30th year using Music Man guitars, and I love them. And we actually have the Luke IV coming out, which will have my own Music Man pickups that they wound just for me. I didn’t know if I wanted to do that, but they talked me into it. And I’m glad they did because they’re mind-blowingly good. But they’re great, versatile guitars. 

“They are incredible tools that give me everything I need in the studio and on the road. I love vintage guitars, too. I’ve got a bunch that will go to Trev when I’m gone, but there’s something about my Music Man guitars that have kept me with them for a long time. They’re beautiful guitars, play great, sound fantastic and do exactly what I need them to do.”

What are some challenges in making new music in a low-attention-span world?

“It really is a drag, man. I guess it would be easy to question why I’m still doing it, but I don’t. But it is challenging. Because when I was a kid, I remember crying and begging my parents for new records. It used to be an event when new albums would come out, and we’d all go out and get and scramble to get the latest [Jimi] Hendrix, Stevie Wonder or [Led] Zeppelin album. 

“And then we’d go to a friend’s house and sit around and take it in. And once we did that, we’d hang out and talk about what we just heard. But it’s not like that anymore. Now you put out an album, and it has a one-week shelf life. 

“It used to be six months, but it feels more like six minutes now. I mean… you’re lucky if you can get anyone’s attention with even one track, let alone an entire album. So I know it’s about singles and playlists now, but I still feel that as an artist, it’s essential to make a complete musical statement.” 

• Bridges is out now via Player's Club.

Ernie Ball Music Man and Steve Lukather have celebrated 30 years of professional partnership by launching the limited-edition Steamroller signature guitar, which spearheads an overhauled family of L4 electric guitars.

The Steamroller, limited to only 150 examples, is joined by two versions of the L4 template – the L4 HH and L4 SSS – though is undeniably the standout six-string of the lineup, which also marks the Toto titan’s fourth signature drop with EBMM.

As such, it makes sense to start with the HSS-equipped model. Indeed, though the Steamroller isn’t the first time Lukather has opted for a HSS configuration, it is one of the rare occasions where his signature models have come equipped with a Floyd Rose-style bridge, rather than the standard two-point tremolo system commonly found across the Luke range.

Build-wise, it boasts a black limba body with a flame maple top, which is paired with a figured roasted maple neck and 12”-radius ebony fingerboard. Other appointments include a custom Steamroller Walnut Burst satin finish, matching headstock, and that Music Man floating double-locking tremolo.

As for the other L4s, the dual humbucker model arrives in either a Gator Burst or Blue Dream finish, and pairs a maple top with an okoume body, as well as a V-profile roasted maple neck and rosewood fingerboard.

The SSS L4, meanwhile, instead opts for a roasted alder body, but otherwise shares a similar spec sheet to its HH sibling: both feature Schaller locking tuners, an adjustable 12dB push/pull boost control and a two-point tremolo.

Notably, that SSS configuration is also a rarity, with Lukather’s previous models usually opting for a dual humbucker or HSS approach. 

However, regardless of whether these numerous pickup configurations are familiar to the range or not, the L4's single-coils and humbuckers will no doubt sound unlike any other Lukather model currently available.

That’s thanks to the presence of EBMM’s Heat Treated pickups, which have been utilized in all L4 models. First unveiled at last year’s NAMM show, the HT pickups were said to have been inspired by “decades of guitar string research” and have since become a stalwart of Ernie Ball Music Man’s lineup.

On paper, the pickups now found on Lukather’s L4 models are said to outperform normal-spec pickups by providing extra output and excellent touch sensitivity – as well as a more powerful bass response and an expansion of higher frequency harmonics. 

“In our never-ending quest for tone and fresh sounds, the team at Music Man implemented their new HT pickups that really knocked me out,” Lukather said of his newest models. “As we have had three versions of the guitar, the new Luke 4 model is a fresh step forward in tone with their specially designed pickup technology. 

“I love all the different MM versions of my guitar and use them all, but this new one is gonna impress. So many new sounds.”

Price-wise, the L4 SSS and L4 HH are available now for $3,199 and $3,699, respectively, while the L4 Steamroller has a price tag of $3,999.

Lukather has previously heaped praise upon his new guitars and his relationship with EBMM, telling Guitarist: “I haven’t bought a guitar since I started working with Music Man 30 years ago [laughs].

“I got a whole new line, the [Ernie Ball Music Man Lukather] L4. There’s four different versions of my signature guitar with Music Man – it’s sort of like a hybrid of a Strat and a Les Paul and it gives me everything I need in one stop.

“Plus, I love the company. I love the quality of the guitars. I love that they take care of me so well in every aspect of it, you know?

“They send me stuff and I go, ‘I love this.’ I don’t think I’ve ever sent anything back. They just made me all brand-new [Heat Treated/HT] pickups – they’re astounding.”

To find out more, head over to Ernie Ball Music Man.

Toto need little introduction to the musically inclined; as a band, they have had over four decades of success, including winning several Grammy awards, an induction into the Musicians’ Hall Of Fame And Museum, and over 40 million albums sold. 

Perhaps more significant is the fact that they are individually and collectively heralded as some of the best musicians to ever grace the musical arena, having also played on countless sessions for some of the world’s most successful artists.

The classic line-up consisted of Steve Lukather on guitar, drummer Jeff Porcaro and his brother Steve on bass, keyboardist David Paich, bassist David Hungate and singer Bobby Kimball. It is this line-up that played on the band’s first few albums, which included Toto IV in the early 1980. It was this release that catapulted them to mainstream success with the mega hit single Africa, and of course Rosanna with its incredible improvised outro solo. 

Among the sessions that Lukather played on include legendary artists like Michael Jackson, Cher, Richard Marx, Lionel Richie, Barbra Streisand, Elton John and Diana Ross. The list literally runs on and on. Steve Lukather is also currently Ringo Starr’s guitarist – a dream come true for someone who grew up as a massive Beatles fan.

Lukather’s playing style is equal parts blistering technique, great melody and an incredible rhythm guitar pocket. It was his rhythm/riff playing and bass parts that set the foundation on Michael Jackson’s Beat It, that then allowed Eddie Van Halen to play one of the most memorable solos ever. But Lukather has always been an advocate for solid rhythm playing over flashy lead.

Steve has also toured and recorded with Larry Carlton. His playing more than stands up alongside that of his hero, and there’s not many who could swap licks with the jazz-blues master and not be found wanting.

Our lesson track is in the key of E minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D) and is built on single-note riffs. There are no chords in the arrangement but the overall sound lends itself to E Dorian in places (E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D). The C# note from this mode is played during the solo, which gives it a bluesy edge to the overarching rock sound. 

There are several chromatic lines in the rhythm and the solo, and the lead guitar phrase in bar 18, which moves chromatically from D down to Bb lends a rock-fusion style of melody to the more pentatonic and bluesy phrases. 

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 8, Bass 6, Middle 7, Treble 6, Reverb

Lukather is generally on the higher-gain side of things, so a good amount of preamp gain is in order (although Steve’s rhythm guitar often has less gain than you’d at first imagine). 

Aim for a Soldano or Bogner-type sound if possible plus a bridge humbucker and whammy bar. Effects such as chorus, delay and reverb are all good choices to add to the sonic soup.

Steve Lukather rhythm guitar lesson

Pay careful attention to timing and watch out for the phrases and notes that don’t start on the front of the beat, of which there are many. 

Steve Lukather solo guitar lesson

The solo begins with a line that isn’t difficult to play but will require some precision in the way each note then slides a semitone to the next. Using your first finger and third finger is probably the easiest way to play this line.

Bar 23 of the solo features a signature Lukather idea; bend the second string up from the 10th-fret A note to the 12th-fret B with your third finger,  then play the C note with your fourth finger at the 11th fret while the bend is still held. 

The final bar of the solo has hammer-ons that are scooped with the vibrato bar; depress the bar just ahead of each hammer-on, and then release the note back up to pitch.

Steve Lukather has reached the point where all the buying and the selling and the sifting of the ether for new gear is over. Ever since he signed up on the Ernie Ball Music Man artist roster and developed his superlative S-style signature model, he has found the one.

But there was a whole lot of guitar shopping before that, a lot of scrambling around for gear. With his new solo album, Bridges, out now, the Toto guitarist and session legend dropped Guitarist a line to share some gear-buying wisdom – spoiler, there is “no magic guitar, no magic amp” – and talk about some of his greatest buys, gear regrets, and favourites from his collection.

What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?

“I played a lot of really shitty guitars when I was young. I started out with a Kay acoustic guitar, which was like five bucks at a Thrifty Drug Store. The action was so far off the neck, it was painful to try to get a noise out of – guitars were not very sophisticated in the early ’60s.

“Then the first electric guitar I got was another Thrifty Drug Store guitar called an Astrotone. That one fell over and broke its neck – somebody let somebody play it and they dropped it. My old man goes, ‘Well, you’re gonna have to play it with a broken neck…’

“So what I used to do was borrow guitars from people who had good guitars. A Fender or Gibson or something like that was rare back then, but they existed. My father would go on the road while he was working behind the cameras in the television movie business and he would come home and say, ‘Where do you want to go?’ Instead of going to the toy store, I wanted to go to the guitar store and play all the expensive guitars I couldn’t afford.

“One time I got in there and I grabbed this Les Paul Deluxe off the wall and I was playing my ass off, I guess. I was gonna put it on the wall again and my dad goes, ‘Well, let’s get it in the car… I thought he was buying me an amp, but he said, ‘No, the guitar, too.’ He gave up getting a new car for himself to give me an Ampeg VT-22 amp and a Les Paul Deluxe. My parents were great.”

What was the last guitar you bought and why?

“I haven’t bought a guitar since I started working with Music Man 30 years ago [laughs]. I got a whole new line, the [Ernie Ball Music Man Lukather] L4. There’s four different versions of my signature guitar with Music Man – it’s sort of like a hybrid of a Strat and a Les Paul and it gives me everything I need in one stop. Plus, I love the company. I love the quality of the guitars. I love that they take care of me so well in every aspect of it, you know?

“They send me stuff and I go, ‘I love this.’ I don’t think I’ve ever sent anything back. They just made me all brand-new [Heat Treated/HT] pickups – they’re astounding.”

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you ever had when buying guitars?

“It’s a treasured part of my collection, a Vox Teardrop 12-string like Brian Jones had. It has all the fuzz tones and all the stuff on, a palm wah-wah with the tremolo bar. It’s very strange and very rare and sought after. Tom Petty was buying a whole ton of them – those guys love all that stuff, you know? I bought it for 200 bucks, 35 years ago.

“God knows what it’s worth. Not only was it a great deal, but it’s such a weird one-off guitar with very unique sounds. It’s got that kind of Satisfaction fuzz tone sound on it. I don’t really go out collecting any more. I’ve got a lot of friends who do – Joe Bonamassa, who’s one of the greats of all time and a dear friend of mine. I mean, his house smells like an old Les Paul case!”

Can you tell us about the strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve had after buying a piece of gear?

“I’ve bought things that I thought I was gonna like more than I did or use more than I did, but I’d sell them or keep them. I have a few seller’s remorse [stories]. I had a ’58 Goldtop that I sold. I mean, I bought it for a couple of grand and somebody offered me $50,000 for it. And this was, like, 20 years ago, my daughter was going to college.

“I said, ‘Well, I haven’t played it in a long time,’ not thinking about the history that I had with that guitar. And I sold it to this Japanese guy for 50 grand, and I just took care of my daughter’s college for a year.

“And then I had a 1960 Les Paul with a thin neck, like Jimmy Page’s, which I liked, but it didn’t sound anywhere near as good as my ’59 ’Burst. I didn’t play it for, like, 20 years. I figured if I didn’t play it for 20 years, I could get rid of it. It was a great investment – what I paid for it and what I sold it for were like, okay, but then I’m going, ‘Why am I selling this?’ So I stopped doing that.”

What’s your best guitar-buying tip?

“Some people like a certain feel, you know? You get a guitar and when you put it in your hand and you feel it, it’s a personal connection, and you go, ‘Aww, this feels good – this is nice.’ And then you have the sound… I think it’s a really personal thing. In terms of really great guitars, there are a lot of options that you have today. Pretty good-quality stuff. Apples and oranges, you know, personal taste.”

When was the last time you stopped to stare in a guitar shop window and what were you looking at in particular?

“Sometimes I poke my head in and look around and I’ll see something that stands out from the rest; maybe an oddball guitar will catch my eye. But I don’t go out that much. I’m always working and on my off-time I still have two young kids. I’m a homebody. My days of scouring for guitars [are done]. I got enough guitars! I need to spend more time practising and less time looking.”

If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a budget guitar amp or a cheap guitar and a high-end guitar amp?

“Here’s a really good answer: there’s no magic guitar, no magic amp, there’s just magic people. I’ve played Eddie Van Halen’s guitars, Jeff Beck’s guitars, and I sound like me. A great guitar and a great amp? Sure, that helps. How could it not? But if you give a 1959 Les Paul to a 10-year-old kid that can’t play it’s not gonna make him sound like Gary Moore. You know what I mean?”

If you could only use humbuckers or single coils for the rest of your career, which would you choose and why?

“Wow, that’s a tough question, man, because I need them both. I can’t answer that. It’s like, my guitar is a hybrid of all that shit. So, I don’t know.”

Steve's go-to rig

“Two Bogner Helios run stereo just for some stereo delays and reverb. I put in the Gurus Echosex before the reverb that goes into the loop, which is this beautiful delayed chamber sound, still keeping your regular tone – you know, not buried in goo.

“I like a little goo, but I don’t want to be buried in it. I just got a couple of TC delay pedals. Hand-wired Jam pedals, a Rodenberg customised distortion box [Steve has a signature Rodenberg SL-OD pedal], a Bombastortion – Jeff Kollman’s overdrive pedal is killer, especially when you’re on high gain, you can get a little extra oomph out of it. I love it.

“What else is on there? The Strymon [Lex] Leslie simulator and the Strymon reverb. A Jam wah-wah, I have a TC chorus and a TC long stereo delay. Also, I got a Uni-Vibe and I use my Music Man guitars – and that’s it.”

• Bridges is out now via The Players Club/Mascot Label Group.

The ‘gear versus player’ debate – whether it’s the individual playing the gear or the gear itself that determines the overall quality of sound – seems to be edging closer to a conclusion with every passing day.

Not too long ago, Bettencourt recalled the time he played through Eddie Van Halen’s rig hoping to sound like the late guitar hero only to realize, “It’s all about your fingers.” Before that, John Petrucci experienced something similar when playing through Joe Satriani’s equipment.

Now, Steve Lukather has agreed with his electric guitar contemporaries, philosophically summarizing the entire conversation by suggesting there’s no such thing as a “magic guitar”, only “magic people”.

When asked to choose between a good guitar and a cheap amp or vice versa in the new issue of Guitarist, Lukather opted for neither: “Here’s a really good answer: there’s no magic guitar, no magic amp, there’s just magic people.”

To support his argument, the Toto guitarist – like almost all his peers who have entertained the topic – once again called upon the times he’s played through other guitar rigs, and the negligible impact such gear choices ultimately make on his sound.

“I’ve played Eddie Van Halen’s guitars, Jeff Beck’s guitars, and I sound like me,” he said. “A great guitar and a great amp? Sure, that helps. How could it not? 

“But if you give a 1959 Les Paul to a 10-year-old kid that can’t play it’s not gonna make him sound like Gary Moore. You know what I mean?”

Though admittedly a fairly extreme example, Lukather’s argument has been proven time and again by the industry’s big guns.

“The guitar is a tactile instrument,” Petrucci once told Guitar World. “You’re using the flesh of your hands to interact with it, and regardless of everything else you use, the sound you make comes from you.”

Bettencourt, meanwhile, concurred while speaking to Rick Beato: “[Playing Van Halen’s rig] was the big[gest] bitch slap of all time when you realize, ‘Holy shit, it’s all about you. It’s all about your fingers.’”

Heck, when Joe Bonamassa – arguably the most devout gear connoisseur on the planet – is putting the player’s own individual touch above the equipment they use, as he did while talking to Guitar Player back in 2018, the writing is probably on the wall.

Head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which also features an early look at Myles Kennedy’s all-new T-type PRS signature guitar.

A riff that everyone’s heard on a song that everyone knows by the most famous artist in the world – there’s probably not much we can tell you about Beat It that you don’t already know, is there? Aside from helping Michael Jackson’s Thriller become the world’s best-selling album of all time, Beat It received Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, as well as two American Music Awards. 

One of the key players in the recording was studio guitarist Steve Lukather, who recently spoke with YouTuber Rick Beato about the session. “Michael had to sing me the guitar lick, but the lead vocal and the electric guitar solo was already done. I would never have thought it was going to be a hit. I used to laugh at the title and stuff, but what do I know?”

While the infectious basslines of Louis 'Thunder Thumbs' Johnson had been a mainstay on much of Jackson’s Off the Wall and Thriller albums, it was, in fact, Lukather who played bass behind Eddie Van Halen’s iconic guitar solo on Beat It. “The bass guitar part was easy," said Lukather. "It was just the guitar part! It wasn’t like I had to be Jaco Pastorius or anything like that.”

Perhaps the craziest part of the story lies in the studio session at Sunset Sound. In a 2019 interview with Musicians’s Hall of Fame founder, Joe Chambers, Lukather said: “There was another take where Eddie had cut the two-inch tape, which means it wouldn’t sync up to all the rest of the tapes. So Quincy Jones called me, Jeff Porcaro and an engineer called Humberto Gatica to go to Sunset Sound and fix the track for him, working with just Michael's lead vocal, Eddie's solo and Michael hitting two and four on a drum case.”

“Jeff made a click track with his sticks and laid down the drums. I played the rhythm guitar first, but there was no bass on it. It was just a riff tune, so I said ‘bring me down a bass and I’ll play bass.’ Eddie Van Halen was on it, so I figured they were going for the rock shit. We sent it to Quincy and he loved it.” 

"Beat It was Michael’s riff, and when I changed it a little he started dancing, doing the Michael Jackson thing two feet away from me," Lukather explained to Guitar World in 2021. Jackson later said, “I wanted to write a song, the type of song that I would buy if I were to buy a rock song. That’s how I approached it.”

Bass seems to have always been at the forefront of Jackson’s music. Alex Al, Jackson’s bassist from 2001 and a member of the band featured in the documentary This Is It, concurs. “Bass was the most important instrument to him. He’d make references to Paul McCartney’s melodic bass playing, James Jamerson being upfront and center with Motown, or Stevie Wonder’s left hand.”

Thriller and Michael Jackson's This is It are both available on Amazon.

NAMM 2023: Ernie Ball Music Man has teamed up with Steve Lukather once again to create the next generation of the Toto titan’s signature guitar, the L4.

As the name implies, it’s the fourth instalment to Lukather’s expansive signature electric guitar range, and has been described as “the culmination of over 30 years of collaboration” between the two parties.

Five instruments make up the drop in total, which can be further split into three camps: the SSS-equipped L4, the HH-loaded flame maple-topped L4 and – perhaps most intriguing – the limited-edition, double-locking floating tremolo-equipped Steamroller model.

Though the Steamroller isn’t the first time Lukather has opted for a HSS configuration, it is one of the rare occasions where his signature models have come equipped with a Floyd Rose-style bridge, rather than the standard two-point tremolo system commonly found across the Luke range.

The SSS configuration that can be found among the drop is also a rarity, with Lukather’s previous models usually opting for a dual humbucker or HSS approach.

However, regardless of whether these numerous pickup configurations are familiar to the range or not, the L4's single-coils and humbuckers will no doubt sound unlike any other Lukather model currently available.

Why? Well, because in the pair’s “never-ending quest for tone”, the L4 models have all been upgraded with the brand’s Heat Treated pickup technology.

First unveiled at last year’s NAMM show, the HT pickups were said to have been inspired by “decades of guitar string research” and have since become a stalwart of Ernie Ball Music Man’s lineup.

On paper, the pickups now found on Lukather’s L4 models are said to outperform normal-spec pickups by providing extra output and excellent touch sensitivity – as well as a more powerful bass response and an expansion of higher frequency harmonics.

“In our never-ending quest for tone and fresh sounds, the team at Music Man implemented their new HT pickups that really knocked me out,” Lukather said of his newest models. “As we have had three versions of the guitar, the new Luke 4 model is a fresh step forward in tone with their specially designed pickup technology. 

“I love all the different MM versions of my guitar and use them all, but this new one is gonna impress. So many new sounds.”

In terms of aesthetics, Blue Flame, Gator Burst, Blueburst and Redburst finishes are all on offer.

To find out more, head over to Ernie Ball Music Man.

Those looking to get a toehold on Steve Lukather’s premium electric guitar tone can take five from hammering the Reverb search function and point their attentions towards the Foxgear site, where they might well find just what they are looking for. 

It’s called the Gurus Echosex 3º, it’s an emulator (and then some) of a vintage Binson Echorec echo unit, described by Lukather as “the most important” item of gear he owns – not to mention the most used. 

Lukather has used variations of the Echosex ever since it was first launched in 2014. This signature edition comes with his settings highlighted by Lukather’s tech, Jon Gosnell, in green text under the controls, but the invitation to experiment is very much extended to any player who mounts this on their pedalboard.

This is Lukather’s “always on” effects pedal. Many players will have one. Perhaps most pros. The Echosex is Lukather’s, and it is not just marketing pabulum either; when Alex Skolnick had a shot of the Toto guitarist’s rig last summer, revealing everything that was on the ‘board, he too noted how the Echosex was always on. 

Lukather’s signature Echosex 3º comes with a wholly redesigned power section, with its internal tube running at 262V just like the old Binson Echorec units. The dynamic response has been enhanced, with improved noise filtering to cut out any unwanted hiss and crackle.

But this being an emulator of a vintage echo machine you can get some very cool sounds from a relatively simple set of controls. The Mix Volume sets the level of the repeats. The Length of Swell dial is your feedback control, taking you from a single repeat to self-oscillation when you max it out, thus uniting two of the most disparate tribes in popular culture, the Toto and Radiohead superfans.

Echo sets the delay time, from 35ms to a generous 730ms. Age of Damage, meanwhile, oh, now your talking; this simulates mechanical wear and tear. If you’ve ever wanted to use one of David Gilmour’s old Echorec units but never had the chance, this might be the next best thing. 

There are no demos of Lukather's signature model but the demo of the regular Echosex 3º above will give you an idea how close it gets.

Finally, you have a Tone control to adjust how bright or dark you want those repeats, and this new edition of the Echosex pedal has the much-requested tap tempo, which has its own footswitch beside bypass/engage.

You’ll need a 12V DC from a pedalboard power supply to make it run. It’ll cost you $429, and a proportion of that will go to the Ed Asner’s Family Center for Autism. For more details, head over to Foxgear Distribution.

Vertex Effects founder Mason Marangella recently got the chance to talk in-depth with session guitar legend Paul Jackson Jr. Seated in the enviable surrounds of Oakland, CA’s 25th Street Recording studio, Marangella took the chance to ask him to play and discuss some of the most iconic licks from a career that took in some huge sessions, including Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Bad albums, plus massive contemporary singles like The Weeknd’s I Feel It Coming and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky.

Jackson Jr. starts by discussing Thriller album track Lady in My Life, which was later extensively sampled. In doing so he recalls the amp that became his go-to for much of that period: a Fender Deluxe that had been modified by Paul Rivera Sr. (the amp guru who later formed Rivera Amplification). He also reveals he had an offer from a Japanese buyer to purchase it for $15,000 some time back. 

“The Rivera-modified Deluxe was kind of like the Dumble before there was a Dumble,” reveals the session pro. “It was the go-to amp, all the studio guys used them, they're on countless recordings. What Paul Rivera, Sr. and Jr., did was to release the Stage IV, which to all intents and purposes is that amp.”

Elsewhere in the clip, Jackson Jr. is asked what contribution he made to Beat It and in a self-effacing response, shrugs off dubbing the iconic main riff from the song – alongside the more famous contributions from Steve Lukather and Eddie Van Halen – as “all I did.” 

Later he describes recording the Dirty Diana rhythm sections with his red Tom Anderson guitar and trusty Rivera guitar amp. “This is one thing I tell my students, regardless of genre… every song has to have a groove… Dirty Diana is really a groove part – a muted guitar part with overdrive on it.”

As Marangella explains at the outset of the clip, Jackson Jr. has not rehearsed or revised most of the material, yet put on the spot with nothing else than his custom PRS (note the PJJ truss rod cover), he manages to recall a rich variety of licks and rhythmic contributions to a huge array of songs.

Later, Jackson Jr. talks about tracking Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, including the stunning verse rhythm licks on Get Lucky. 

What’s perhaps most remarkable, though, is the sense of being able to trace a line of guitar playing DNA between the sound of classic Michael Jackson records, all the way through to the Weeknd’s mega hit I Feel It Coming. 

Watch the clip above – and if you hang in there, you’ll even benefit from an impromptu lesson in “intentional rhythm guitar” from the man himself.

And while we’re on the topic of great session guitarists, Eddie Martinez recently sat down with us to discuss the studio secrets behind classic records from Run-D.M.C., Mick Jagger, Robert Palmer and David Lee Roth.

Jeff Beck’s death on January 10 brought the guitar world to a standstill. We had lost the guitar player’s guitar hero, the one who everyone – beginner and legend alike – looked up to.

The tributes came thick and fast, and they gave us as sense of the enormity of Beck’s legacy. But Beck was such a central figure to the art of playing guitar that many similar tributes were paid to him when he was alive. When he was still blowing our minds in real time.

They say game recognises game, and that couldn’t be truer in this interview with Steve Lukather. Previously unpublished, this conversation took place in the early 2000s and reveals not only what Lukather, a bona fide guitar legend, thought of Beck, but is indicative of how all conversations of guitar excellence and its trailblazers invariably turned towards Beck. 

In this interview, Lukather explains what made Jeff Beck great, and reveals that there is a trove of unreleased material out there, featuring Lukather, Beck, and John McLaughlin, between Beck and Nile Rodgers. Who knows what exists on that archive. But more than that it is Lukather talking about his “favourite guitar player in the whole world”.

We heard a story that John McLaughlin, you and Jeff Beck were all recording on David Gilmour’s boat in London. You were producing Jeff at this point [for an unreleased album]. What happened to the tapes?

“What happened back then was John had written a piece for the three of us to play, but it ultimately didn’t work out. Jeff’s just trying to find his way and I was trying to help him as we’re friends – he’s my favourite guitar player in the whole world.

“I volunteered to help him and we checked out a whole bunch of stuff. Some of the stuff we did on Gilmour’s boat was pretty amazing; I was surprised he never wanted the stuff to come out. But he got into this techno thing so I respect him for that. I’m sorry it didn’t work out as I thought we did some pretty cool stuff.”

Didn’t he record a version of Chariots Of Fire with Nile Rodgers? 

“Jeff has more material in the can than he does have out, that’s for sure.”

That would make a good boxset sometime in the future!

“I wouldn’t count on it. He’s really funny about that – once he’s changed his mind to not release something he doesn’t want anyone to hear it. I’ve fond memories of what we did, even though it’s not come out.”

Do you find that you pick more with fingers these days after working with Jeff?

“Yes, most definitely. He’s been a tremendous influence on me as a player, and being able to hang with him, sitting around in a room and jamming with him like I did, I clocked a lot of stuff that he does. Then again, he never does the same thing twice. He’s not one of these guys that does licks, but he’s alien – like, whatever the weirdest approach you can take to play the guitar, he does it.

“There was a Tony Hymas tune and the whole thing was false harmonics, except they don’t always lie well, right? So he was bending up the wang bar perfectly in tune, hitting the harmonic and letting it down. He was doing it seamlessly, you couldn’t even tell if you weren’t looking. He just doesn’t play the guitar like anybody else [laughs].”

There’s the world of Allan Holdsworth and then there’s the world of Jeff Beck.

“Yeah, he’s an alien. It’s wonderful, he should just keep following his thing whatever he wants. I’m a fan.”

The really great guys do sound unique, though – you give a guitar to, say, Jeff, Eddie Van Halen or you and everyone will sound different.

“Well, that’s the funniest thing in the world. I’ve played Jeff’s guitar and with his band, Eddie’s guitar and so on just to see. And I sound like myself, although playing through their gear you find yourself playing their licks! Some of Jeff’s guitars are set up so strangely, though, that only he can play them.”

You mean, such as really high action? And thick-gauge strings?

“Just interesting ways that he does things. He can pick up anything and it will sound perfectly in tune; he’s just got that pitch inside him. He may not even know he’s got perfect pitch, but he does. We were writing something in his house once, just messing around, and I had my back to him. I had said, ‘Here’s a melody, kinda like this,’ and I played it and turned back to the desk to do something. 

“He played the melody, but it sounded a little strange. Not bad, just different, like, ‘How does he make it sound like that?’ So I turned around and he’s playing the whole lick down a half-step but bending up every string – but you don’t hear the bend up. I grabbed his hand and said, ‘Jeff, it might be easier if you moved it up a half step,’ and he just laughed at me. 

“It just goes to show he’s not like other guitar players. He hears it and will find it but not like a normal guitar player would. That’s what makes him Jeff Beck – if it sounds good ‘normal’, he’s not interested. If it sounds like anything he’s done before, he’s not interested.

“He’s one of those guys concerned with ‘personal best’. If it’s not kicking his ass, whereas it would be kicking mine or anyone else’s, it’s gone – he has his own standard. Which makes him the great, impossible-to-emulate Jeff Beck.”  

AOR legends Journey invited original vocalist/keyboardist Gregg Rolie and Toto electric guitar player Steve Lukather onstage for an electrifying performance of Santana’s Black Magic Woman last Wednesday (February 22). 

Journey are currently celebrating their 50th anniversary, and marked the occasion by reuniting with Rolie, a founding member of the band, at their Austin, Texas date for a six-song cameo performance.

Rolie and Journey’s lynchpin guitarist, Neal Schon, both performed in Santana prior to forming Journey in the ’70s, with Rolie serving as the original vocalist on many of Santana’s most iconic early hits, including Black Magic Woman (itself a cover of one of Fleetwood Mac's early smashes), Oye Cómo Va and Evil Ways.

An Austin local, Rolie dropped in on Journey’s show at the city’s Moody Center to perform an extensive run of tracks that included Just The Same Way (from 1979's Evolution), Of a Lifetime (from 1975's Journey), Feeling That Way and Anytime (from 1978’s Infinity), in addition to Black Magic Woman. 

For the latter performance, the band also invited Toto guitarist and tour mate Steve Lukather onstage and, fortunately for us, fan footage ably captured the moment. The 37-minute encore was concluded when Journey’s current vocalist, Arnel Pineda, returned to the stage to close the show with Anyway You Want It. 

Schon initially teased Rolie’s appearance at the start of the show, telling fans, “We have an extra special show tonight.” Later, he personally introduced Rolie for the encore. 

“We have a brother here,” said Schon. “Someone I started the band with 50 years ago. He first took me under his wing when I was 15 years old. He came and picked me up from school, [which was good] because I wasn’t going to school anyway…”

Journey’s 2023 50th Anniversary Freedom tour is set to continue throughout March and April. 

Head to Journey’s official site for tickets and information.

Last month, Joe Satriani hosted his G4 V6.0 Experience – a star-studded guitar camp for which he recruited Steve Lukather, Eric Gales, Mateus Asato and many more A-list electric guitar heroes for five days of tuition workshops and jams.

Now, further footage from the event has emerged online, capturing the four guitar heavyweights locking fretboards over a Miles Davis classic for one of the best jams of the year so far.

Backed by Satch’s house band – featuring drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte – the quartet deliver perhaps the finest 15 minutes of live guitar playing 2023 has had to offer as of February, serving up a range of mouth-watering exchanges that highlight their individual playing strengths.

Lukather, wielding his Ernie Ball Music Man Luke, calls his compadres to the stage, and after a brief line check and left-hand limbering warm-up, the quartet get cooking on their own individual efforts.

As the event’s host, Satch takes the spotlight first, using his Muscle Car Red-finished Ibanez JS2480 signature guitar to set the jam’s high six-string standards, which are duly followed up by Asato’s own stellar solo effort.

With his Classic S Suhr signature model in tow, the neo-soul virtuoso harnesses an edge-of-breakup clean tone to accommodate his own fingerboard pyrotechnics, which are characterized by dizzying chromatic runs and full-blown blues licks.

Lukather, seated up until this point, is next in line, standing for a million-miles-per-hour fretboard exploration that flexes the Toto maestro’s evergreen six-string stamina for what is without a doubt the fastest solo contribution from the whole jam.

Gales is a player whose jam reputation precedes him – he turned in one of 2021’s most astonishing live solos with Gary Clark Jr., after all – and his fine form continues here, with the blues titan bringing the rondo to a close in blistering fashion with the help of his Magneto U-One RD3 signature guitar.

The best part? The fact they do the whole round all over again for a second time, before converging into a show-stopping finale.

Elsewhere throughout the G4 V6.0 weekend, Satch called upon the likes of Cory Wong, Nili Brosh, Peter Frampton and Steve Morse to lead activities, with Alex Skolnick and John 5 – the latter of whom is busy rehearsing with Motley Crue – also joining the fray.

It’s the second jam from the G4 we’ve seen so far, after footage emerged of Satriani and Gales joining forces with Steve Morse for an extended rendition of Going Down.

As far as cross-genre link-ups go, few – if any – can top Michael Jackson’s 1982 smash hit track Beat It, which partnered the King of Pop’s commanding vocals with the fretboard ingenious of not one, but two of the finest players to ever pick up an electric guitar.

Conceived by a Jackson intent on avoiding the anti-disco backlash that took hold at the onset of the ‘80s, Beat It sought to appeal to a broader listener base beyond the vocalist’s current crop of fans – and aimed to do so by bringing onboard Steve Lukather and Eddie Van Halen.

The pair’s involvement in the track is well-documented and near-legendary. Lukather, who was 24 years old at the time, took and tweaked Jackson’s original riff, and ended up playing all the guitars and bass guitars on the studio recording.

The one thing he didn’t record, though, was the solo, which was duly supplied by a peak-powered Eddie Van Halen. After making some alterations to the track’s structure – something Jackson later thanked him for – Van Halen then committed to tape one of the best guitar solos of all time.

In the final mix, both Lukather’s riffing and Van Halen’s wild soloing help carry the track, but when they’re stripped away from the wider instrumentation and deprived of Jackson’s vocals, the sheer accuracy and elite execution of the pair’s playing is even clearer to hear.

Thanks to audio that isolates Lukather and Van Halen’s respective guitar parts in relation to the track, that accuracy – as well as some more nuanced six-string contributions – can be heard in all its glory.

Lukather’s rhythm chops, which form most of the four-minute video, are as clean as it gets, with the panned audio highlighting the Toto man’s doubled-up opening riffing, the two-part verse passages and some ultra-clean, unprocessed decorative strums that pierce throughout.

It also gives listeners a better insight into Lukather’s Beat It tone, which – after originally heralding from an assortment of Marshall guitar amps – was concocted using a Fender Deluxe with modest amounts of overdrive applied, as per producer Quincy Jones’ request.

At the 2:27 mark, Van Halen’s unaccompanied solo crops up, showcasing the two-hand tapped sorcery, whammy bar action and rapid alternate picking exchanges in pristine clarity. Not only is it an opportunity to hear Van Halen’s Beat It solo without distraction, it’s also a chance to get an up-close listen to the late guitarist’s surgical six-string accuracy and unrivaled soloing capabilities.

In fact, Van Halen’s contribution was so good, it gave birth to a long-held urban legend that the studio’s monitor speakers caught fire while Eddie was recording his solo. This turned out to be just a myth, but judging by the isolated effort, we further understand why it caught on as quickly as it did.

Though Van Halen’s contribution to Beat It has gone down in the annals of pop rock history, it took him less than an hour to record.

"I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in,” Van Halen once recalled. “And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We’re all a little bit strange. I didn’t know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, 'Look, I changed the middle section of your song.' 

"Now, in my mind, he’s either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he’s going to like it,” he added. “And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, 'Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better.'"

With 40 years of cultural ubiquity under its belt, it's all too easy to take Beat It, Michael Jackson's groundbreaking 1982 smash hit single, for granted.

At the time, though, it marked a watershed moment in pop music – a dancefloor-friendly R&B/rock crossover with a swaggering riff, unstoppable groove, bullseye chorus, and haywire electric guitar solo, all packaged immaculately together by one of the great pop producers of all time, Quincy Jones.

Jackson's previous solo album, 1979's Off the Wall, was propelled by a pair of brilliant chart-toppers – Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Rock with You. Driven by Jackson's commanding vocals, and Jones' ever-classy string and horn arrangements, they fit the time – when disco was at the absolute peak of its popularity and influence – perfectly.

By the dawn of the '80s, though, Jackson had become fearful of being swept up by the visceral anti-disco backlash that had developed since Off the Wall, and wanted its follow-up, Thriller, to exceed the former album in every way, and appeal to audiences its slick predecessor couldn't. 

That meant writing, in Jackson's words, “the type of song that I would buy if I were to buy a rock song”.

Enter: Steve Lukather.

Lukather was a first call session man and a member of Toto, who – in 1982 – were running hot off of a chart-topping hit of their own.

With his Toto bandmate, fellow session A-lister Jeff Porcaro, on drums, Lukather took Jackson's initial idea and brought it to life.

"Beat It was Michael’s riff, and when I changed it a little he started dancing, doing the Michael Jackson thing two feet away from me," Lukather explained to Guitar World in 2021.

“I’m 24 years old thinking I’d made the big time! I played the bass and all the guitars on that one, except Ed's solo. I’d used all these Marshalls, then Quincy called me back saying, ‘It sounds too big! I want to make this a crossover hit – use one of your little amps!’ So I plugged in my Fender Deluxe, backed off the distortion and gave him what you hear on the final record.“

Lukather brought the rocking (but measured) edge the song called for, but Jones knew that – to reach its full potential – the song needed an exclamation point, and he knew exactly who to call... 

Not expecting to hear from Quincy Jones of all people, Eddie Van Halen greeted the producer's call with a healthy dose of skepticism.

"I went off on him. I went, 'What do you want, you f-ing so-and-so!,'" Van Halen related to CNN in a 2012 interview. "And he goes, 'Is this Eddie?' I said, 'Yeah, what the hell do you want?' 'This is Quincy.' I’m thinking to myself, 'I don’t know anyone named Quincy.' He goes, 'Quincy Jones, man.' I went, 'Ohhh, sorry!' [Laughs]

"I asked, 'What can I do for you?' And he said, 'How would you like to come down and play on Michael Jackson’s new record?' And I’m thinking to myself, 'OK, ‘ABC, 1, 2, 3’ and me. How’s that going to work?"

Given a blank check by Jones to contribute to the song as he saw fit, the late guitar hero didn't hesitate to shift its gears. 

"I listened to the song, and I immediately go, 'Can I change some parts?'," Van Halen recalled. "I turned to the engineer [Donn Landee, Eddie Van Halen's own, longtime engineer] and I go, 'OK, from the breakdown, chop in this part, go to this piece, pre-chorus, to the chorus, out.' Took him maybe 10 minutes to put it together. And I proceeded to improvise two solos over it.

"I was just finishing the second solo when Michael walked in. And you know artists are kind of crazy people. We’re all a little bit strange. I didn’t know how he would react to what I was doing. So I warned him before he listened. I said, 'Look, I changed the middle section of your song.'

"Now, in my mind," he went on, "he’s either going to have his bodyguards kick me out for butchering his song, or he’s going to like it. And so he gave it a listen, and he turned to me and went, 'Wow, thank you so much for having the passion to not just come in and blaze a solo, but to actually care about the song, and make it better.'"

It took Eddie less than an hour, but – in both its artistry and truly seismic impact – it's indisputably one of the greatest guitar solos of all time. 

Additionally, in an amusing twist that only added to the Eddie Van Halen mystique, the solo even gave rise to an oft-repeated urban legend that the studio's monitor speakers caught fire while Eddie was laying it down.

Jennifer Batten, who served as Jackson's live guitarist from 1987 through 1997,
was all too aware of the solo's two-hand tapped power, and indeed, always chose to play it onstage just as Eddie did in the studio, telling Guitar World in 2020, "Somebody asked me the other day if I was told to play it that way or if it was my choice. It was definitely my choice because I thought it was one of the most perfect solos in history.

"I knew I couldn’t do better than Eddie. I was proud to play it as it was. And it was challenging. It’s still challenging."

Eddie Van Halen contributed the solo for free and, initially, didn't go out of his way to highlight his contribution to the smash hit. As the song rocketed up the charts, though, the author of the solo didn't remain a secret for too long.

"I’ll never forget when Tower Records was still open over here in Sherman Oaks," Van Halen recounted to CNN. "I was buying something, and Beat It was playing over the store sound system. The solo comes on, and I hear these kids in front of me going, 'Listen to this guy trying to sound like Eddie Van Halen.' I tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'That is me!' That was hilarious."

A prolific session musician outside of his role in long-standing rock outfit Toto, Steve Lukather has played electric guitar with some of the biggest names in music over the course of his career. 

And in a new conversation over on the YouTube channel of Sunset Sound, a legendary recording facility in Hollywood, California, the guitarist waxed lyrical on his encounters with two of the most notable guitarists of all time, Eddie Van Halen and Prince.

“I think I am one of the few guitar players who ever played with Van Halen live,” Lukather tells producer Drew Dempsey, Sunset Sound owner and president Paul Camarata, and recording engineer Niko Bolas. “I played with them in Texas. I played with them at the Cabo Wabo opening.”

“I sang background on a couple of records,” he later expands. “I just happened to be up and they’re like, ‘Come on!’ If memory serves me right, it would have been the F.U.C.K. [For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge] album, and [OU812]. Sammy was in the band. Ted Templeman was the producer when I went out there. I think it was Top Of The World. I just did some ‘oohs’ and sang in the background with them. It was no big deal. But I sang on a couple of tracks.”

In the same conversation, the Toto man, who’s known for his good-natured gabbing, also recalls getting off on the wrong foot with Prince at an early session for Valerie Carter’s 1978 album, Wild Child, something that would haunt him for years to come.

“I didn’t know Prince," explains Lukather. “So I go in, and the first thing hear is someone’s called Prince. ‘That’s his name!? Did he give that to himself?’ I’m just being a smart-ass. I didn’t know nothing about this guy! ‘Prince, huh?’ So, anyway, he’s there, and he’s just this quiet, skinny little dude."

“The day goes on and on and all this time Prince says nothing. I said to James [Newton Howard, the album's producer], ‘What’s wrong with this cat!? He’s creeping me out!’ He never said a freakin’ word to me. That was the first Prince encounter. I’m playing all day long and the cat never said nothing to me. He would just occasionally stare at me in a really odd way.”

The session wasn’t Lukather’s only encounter with Prince. He also recalls bumping into Prince again at Sunset Sound. The latter was there to mix his 1984 mega-hit-in-the-making Purple Rain, and, as Lukather tells it, he brought along some props to get in the spirit. 

“It was like 10 in the morning,” he says. “I was here [at Sunset Sound] for a tracking session... and he was sitting on that purple bike, that was in the movie – in a silver lamé suit – sitting on it! 

“He had this huge bodyguard, with the white hair. The cat was on the bike. I see him and say, ‘Hey, man!’ He goes [nods]. I got a little ‘uhh’. I am a big fan. Let me just say, as a musician… But he wouldn’t talk to me, man, and it lasted a long time!”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Lukather hints that he's filled in anonymously on rhythm duties for some big name lead players over the years. While some artists have been happy about the association, others – for reasons of professional pride – have preferred to keep their relationship with Lukather under wraps.

“I signed a couple of NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] in my time,” says Lukather early on in the discussion. “I can’t really get into all that. It was always great lead guitar players that could solo their ass off but they had a real tough time playing the dumb shit and they’d hire me to go ‘dn-dn-dn-dn-dn’: ‘You play the dumb shit, for time.’”

In keeping with his legal obligations, Lukather gives no hint of the guitarists involved in those sessions, but it’s an interesting insight into the life of a session player, before DAWs made it easier to iron-out a shoddy rhythm hand.

Earlier this year, Lukather reprised his working relationship with Sammy Hagar, jamming on the song Crossroads as part of the vocalist’s Rock N Roll Road Trip series.

A couple of years ago, electric guitar legend Steve Lukather sat down with one-time Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar for a chat as part of the latter's popular Rock & Roll Road Trip show.

Clips from the long-running series have been surfacing on YouTube of late, and last week, AXS TV published the episode with Lukather online.

Aside from sharing a few of his always-incredible session stories (more on that in a minute) during his appearance, the Toto guitar great also picked up his Ernie Ball Music Man Luke III signature guitar to jam on the classic blues, Crossroads, with Hagar and Kenny Aronoff on drums.

You can check out the supergroup-of-sorts' jam on the tune – which features some absolutely sizzling, Clapton-by-way-of-Vaughan-by-way-of-Van Halen lead work from Lukather – below.

About those session stories, though. In just over 10 minutes, Lukather gets through quite a few of them, including a fascinating one about Michael Jackson's smash hit, Beat It.

Due to a studio mishap with analog tape, Lukather says (around the 7:15 mark), he and his Toto bandmate, Jeff Porcaro, were forced to record their parts for Beat It around Jackson's vocal track and Eddie Van Halen's legendary guitar solo, rather than the other way around. 

"Jeff Porcaro and I had to go to Sunset Sound," Lukather says, "and make this record from scratch to that, because they wanted to keep the first generation masters of the lead vocal and Ed's solo.

"So," Lukather continued, "Jeff went out and did a little click track, and put a drum track down – second take, he nailed it. Then, I played the initial guitar riff, then I played bass on it, too."

When asked by Hagar how he's fit into so many situations with "tough" musicians with big personalities, Lukather says simply, "I get along with everybody – I'm Switzerland, man... I just shut the fuck up and play the guitar."

Joe Satriani has announced the lineup for the star-studded 2023 G4 V6.0 Experience, which will take place early next year at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa in Las Vegas.

Satch has enlisted a wealth of electric guitar A-listers, encompassing a huge range of heritage names and more contemporary players.

Chief among them are Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather and Steve Morse, who will be on hand to offer instruction, share their knowledge with attendees, and provide intimate advice in a series of classes and workshops.

Joining them will be players of all styles, including Alex Skolnick, Eric Gales, John 5, Mateus Asato, Cory Wong and Nili Brosh, all of whom will partake in a variety of clinics, jams and intimate breakout sessions.

Satch will also be hosting nightly live performances with his longtime backing band – comprising drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist/vocalist Rai Thistlethwayte – for which he will be joined by his guests.

The four-day event takes place on January 3-7 2023, and will see guest tutors address a range of topics, from songwriting and soloing to gigging, gear and more.

Of the G4’s inception, Satch said, “When I first put together the G3 concerts, it was to create a camaraderie that is often missing in the general day-to-day competition of the music industry.

“From there we came up with the concept of the G4 Experience,” he added. “I didn’t want to do a traditional clinic, just getting up in front of people and giving impersonal lessons to a room full of people – I thought, what can we do that will truly reflect my values as a teacher? 

“With the G4 Experience, we create an interactive community where I’m joined by these other stars that have been making amazing music and pushing the art form of guitar forward for decades. From all stylistic approaches and musical walks of life.”

He continued, “We bring together this eclectic mix to show all the different sides of playing guitar. They’re all brilliant musicians with styles that are all over the map. They all have such different jobs, they’ve made millions of people happy with their playing, and yet they do it so differently.”

According to the website, all backline gear is provided, meaning attendees just need to bring their guitars. They will also have access to accommodation, food, and meet and greet sessions with their guitar heroes.

“The G4 Experience is all about the community,” Satriani went on to say. “I can’t state that enough. Everyone is not only there to enjoy the music, they’re trying to learn everything they can. 

“There’s a lot of information stored up in this head that I want to give to the fans and I’m very much looking forward to sharing it with everyone who attends.”

To find out more, head over to G4 Experience.

When Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick discovered his band were operating right next door to Toto while preparing for their recent set at Germany’s RockHarz festival, he wasted no time in heading over to have a glance at Steve Lukather’s current guitar rig.

Toto’s crew were prepping gear for the commencement of the European leg of the band’s Dogz of Oz tour, and while Luke himself wasn’t present, his guitar tech Jon Gosnell was on hand to show Skolnick around.

“I had a fun time being shown around the rig of the great Steve Lukather,” Skolnick says in a new Instagram post, in which he can be seen playing the Toto guitarist’s Ernie Ball Music Man signature guitar, the Luke III.

The rig is completed by a pair of Bogner Helios guitar amps, mic’d using a pair of Shure SM57 dynamic microphones, and a fully-stocked pedalboard housing an MXR Phase 95, TC Electronic Flashback delay and a Jam Pedals Wahcko wah pedal – all also featured on Skolnick’s current rig – among other Lukather staples such as a Strymon Lex rotary speaker sim, a TC Electronic SCF Gold, and a Tim Jauernig Bombastortion.

Lukather also stocks a Strymon BlueSky reverb pedal, an MXR Smart Gate, an MXR Uni-Vibe, a pair of DigiTech Hardwire delay/loopers, a Boss FV-500L volume pedal, his signature Rodenberg Gas 789 overdrive pedal, and the Gurus Echosex, which typically Lukather likes to leave on all the time. 

And no 'board would be complete without a guitar tuner. Here, Lukather uses a DigiTech HT-6 polychromatic tuner.

Skolnick mentions that playing Lukather’s rig marked the first time he played Bogner amps, adding that he “approves” of them.

The Testament guitarist includes two videos of him playing the rig: one in which he plays the solo for Toto’s Hold the Line – which he also played in an episode of metal-themed YouTube chat show Two Minutes to Late Night in August last year – and another of him jamming Jeff Beck’s The Pump.

“Luke’s super-responsive tone brought to mind a fine tune by Jeff Beck, from 1980 (a time long before his name was all over the tabloids due to a certain celebrity buddy’s divorce trial and the timing of their recent tour),” Skolnick writes.

“The first time I’d heard it, it was covered live and completely nailed by Stef Burns, shortly before his (1991 – 1995) Alice Cooper stint.”

Skolnick concludes the post: “Thanks to Luke (from afar) and especially tech wizard and fellow guitarist Jon Gosnell for showing me around. [I] had a blast!”

In other Skolnick news, the Testament guitarist joined Steve Stevens, Richard Fortus and others back in April to perform Yes’s Starship Trooper in an epic all-star ensemble for Roadie Relief.

For many, Joe Satriani represents the ultimate voice of instrumental rock guitar. With his new album The Elephants of Mars in record stores and melting brains with its invention and technical audacity, we are provided once more with an example of Satriani pushing the limits of expression with the electric guitar.

It is an album of rare beauty, and typically Satch, with sci-fi references, playfulness, and a humanity to the note choices. To mark the release, we reached out to 20 top players to ask them what makes Satriani so special, so unique. And also, which of his songs is their favourite?

Steve Vai

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe is connected to the inspired melodies in his heart and has the musical ear and a command of the technique to manifest them in an effective and powerful way.” 

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Cryin’. Besides the flawless intonation, complete mastery of phrasing and finger tone, the melody is the voice of God flowing through a human.”  

Joel Hoekstra

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe writes great melodies and songs, not just technical showcases.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Midnight. It’s just a very musical and unique tapping piece.”

Steve Morse

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe combines a great melodic sense with an exciting instinct for sonic flourishes, such as right hand hammering, effortless harmonics, vibrato bar gymnastics and more.” 

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“My favourite track is still Satch Boogie because it has that tempo and feel which I already love, but he does such a fantastic job of making it interesting and ever changing. Putting the middle breakdown part in, even though the radio play executives wouldn’t want it, is icing on the cake.”

Geoff Tyson

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe has such a deep understanding of different music styles and sonic spaces, and his ability to express these elements in catchy, exciting songs makes him a master musician not just a great guitarist.” 

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“From the first JS album, Banana Mango. I remember Joe playing this to me during one of our lessons, and him explaining that every sound on the album is made with an electric guitar. So weird and fantastic!”

Steve Lukather

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe is one of the finest guitar players ever to pick up the instrument. He is a flawless player. I have had the honour of standing next to him on many occasions. He never makes a mistake or plays something lame. It’s always world class and fun and interesting and his jaw-dropping chops always done with taste.”  

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“This a hard question. I first heard Surfing With The Alien and was floored. I actually met him at NAMM that same day many years ago. We were destined to be friends. Ice 9 and Summer Song and I could go on and on... too much great work there. 

“He always has evolved and experimented and writes such perfect melodies to go with blistering tracks. It’s no wonder he is one of the most loved and respected guitar players of all time and is also a dear friend of mine.”

Oz Noy

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“What makes Joe special is his strong pop sensibility with very strong hooks and grooves. That’s what puts him above most others. I really enjoy his vision of sounds, concept and writing on his records. Also, his tone is unbelievable.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Satch Boogie and Always With Me Always With You (it’s hard to choose between them!). I grew up with those songs, they are the sound track of my teen years, growing up playing guitar. His playing is fantastic but again, he makes good songs!”

Nick Johnston

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“I spent a lot of time listening to Joe’s records growing up. What always stuck out was his focus on melody and harmony. I also loved his prolific output of experimental music whether it was Engines of Creation, Chickenfoot, use of acoustic instruments and vocals, he was and is always trying to expand his universe. 

“I try to follow in his footsteps by letting the artistry come first, and what people expect and think come last. Also, I respect his restraint. Joe can burn, but he often plays phrases and lines that serve the moment, rather than the guitar playing listener.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“My favourite piece of his would change often, but usually it comes back to Friends from The Extremist. Melody, arrangement, guitar tone, performance and production are spot-on. The record as a whole is one I would consider his masterpiece. 

“I think it’s much more difficult than people realise to write a melody in the high octave on a guitar and not only have it work for the song, but have it become iconic and immediately recognisable.”

Brett Garsed

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Besides Joe’s otherworldly musicianship, the thing that’s always set him apart for me is his songwriting. I really like the way he applies a pop-rock format to a challenging instrumental. His songs always have an incredibly strong hook, even when he’s using exotic scales.” 

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“My favourite is actually the first one I ever heard which is Not Of This Earth. I fully expected the song to be in C# Minor as the intro chords had a very dark sound and mood to them but when that E bass kicked in and flipped it around I was an instant fan. Those kinds of twists and turns are what define a great songwriter for me and Joe’s songs are full of them.”

Carl Verheyen

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Included in his command of insane rock guitar technique and modern tricks there is a deep connection with the blues. This is missing from so many of the current crop of shredders.” 

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“I’m a Chickenfoot fan. Joe has such solid time it’s great to hear him with drummer Chad Smith.They can play rock eighth notes all day and I’ll be happy. Check out their live version of Highway Star.”

Marty Friedman

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe is not only a wonderful guitarist, but he has mastered this elusive algorithm: his playing is not only impressive to seasoned professionals, but is exciting and inspiring to people who have never touched a guitar. 

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Always With Me, Always With You. It seems aimed at the kind of audience that likes my emotional ballads, but reaches a wider demographic. Joe knows how to deliver quality guitar work in such a way that it trains them to subliminally understand and crave good guitar playing.”

Paul Gilbert

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe has the biggest notes. I don’t know how he makes them so big. They are wonderful! And they move an audience. I want big notes like that, but mine keep being little. After Joe let me tour with him, my notes got a little bigger. I think I need to hang around Joe more.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Satch Boogie was the first song I heard from Joe, and it was a, ‘Pull the car over and listen’ moment for me. That’s still my favourite. Why? First of all, I like boogies. Second, Joe tells a story with his playing. His parts are well-composed, while keeping the fire that most players can only get by inspired moments of improvisation.”

Alex Sill

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“I think he holds an important place in guitar history. He’s influenced so many of my own influences, along with legions of other players, so he’s had a pretty ubiquitous effect in that way. 

“Joe was at the vanguard of a new generation of virtuoso technicians who not only had the chops, but also brought with them all the understanding of mechanics and theory of music in such a way that gave rock guitar players a beacon as to what being a more well rounded, learned musician can offer. 

“Joe can shred, while always bringing along a strong melodic voice that is influenced by the blues tradition, and supplemented by a unique sense of harmony.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“I’ve always dug the entirety of the Surfing With The Alien album, so my favourite track would probably be amongst those tracks. Satch Boogie, Ice 9; these pieces have all the alien-like technical flair, while also being grounded in catchy, ear worm melodic sensibilities.”

Reb Beach

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“I was a session player for Atlantic Records in New York city when I heard that the guy who taught Steve Vai was playing in the Village. I went to see the show not knowing anything except that. I remember being blown away by two things: how precise he was, and how many tricks he knew. He did every trick in the book, and his legato was to die for. It was perfection, and it rocked!”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“My favourite is Lords of Karma. Lydian is my favourite scale but I had never heard a rock song in Lydian! It really stood out live, and I remember the audience went crazy. It’s so unique and cool, and the solo is magical.” 

Dan Patlansky

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe explores the outer boundaries of the guitar with extreme authority and zero limitation. He is one of those players that completely redefined what’s possible on the instrument, and continues to do so.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Slow Down Blues has always been my favourite. It showcases his acoustic playing, songwriting, and electric blues playing. The acoustic intro part is jaw-droppingly beautiful, and he plays the blues like he was born to. Always blows my sock off!”

Andy Timmons

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“What sets Joe apart from everybody is his great songwriting abilities. He, of course, plays with incredible technique and the perfect balance of precision and wild abandon, but he manages to wrap it up together in extremely catchy riffs and melodies. Easily one of my biggest influences.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“For favourite song (impossible!) I’m going to go with Unstoppable Momentum as it has everything! Great melody, clever modulations, unique tones, great sound, and I’m a huge Vinnie Colaiuta fan!”

Mark Lettieri

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“He’s a master of melody. He also has a trademark way of incorporating harmony you might not necessarily hear in pop or rock, while still keeping it accessible. Of course his technique is other-worldly, but it’s all about how he uses that skill to serve the composition, rather than dominate it.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Cool #9 has always been a favourite. I love the organic, jamming nature of it, and it grooves so well that whole album has such a killer vibe. Memories and Time Machine would be up there too; the former has what might be my favourite Satch solo, and the melodies on the latter are super-anthemic.”

Jeff Kollman

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“His music has always been so catchy it didn’t need lyrics. The guitar melody was the vocal. And it was rare to hear an instrumental guitar-driven single on the radio.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“A standout track for me is Hordes of Locusts from the live Dreaming #11 album. I love the raw, live three-piece sound and fat groove that’s going on. It is a bit more harmonically complex as well.”

Eric Johnson

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“Joe is unique because of his consistent, endless virtuosity. He always puts on a good show. He also combines his fiery playing with softer moments very well.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“Always With Me, Always With You because it’s just a beautiful song.”

Mattias IA Eklundh

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“He has a tremendously distinct tone, immediately recognisable, but most of all his sense of melody. So many players can shred in the most insane of ways. Very few can write and deliver the most beautiful of melodies the way Joe can.”

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“I listened to most of the early stuff and those albums have a special place in my heart. However, my all-time favourite album is the self-titled one from 1995 and the track Cool #9. Glynn Johns did a great job producing that one. To the point and extremely laid-back. I love it.”

Gus G

What do you think makes Joe Satriani unique?

“It’s his phrasing, his melodies, his tone. He’s a guitarist that you identify right away with the first note and his compositional skills are a school of their own. Joe makes instrumental music that can appeal to the masses. I can’t name many other players that have achieved that.” 

What is your favourite JS track and why?

“I don’t have just one. I love many tracks of his. Ice #9, The Crush Of Love, War, Flying In A Blue Dream, the list can go on!”

David Lee Roth has addressed the rumors surrounding a recently leaked, hotly discussed Van Halen tribute tour – news of which broke last week when Jason Newsted revealed he had been approached by Joe Satriani and Alex Van Halen to take part in the proposed event.

After the former Metallica bass guitar player announced he had been sounded out by Satriani and Alex Van Halen for some kind of Van Halen tour, Satch later confirmed the validity of the tribute plans by saying he’d been in talks with both Van Halen and David Lee Roth for “about a year”.

Responding to his role in proceedings, Lee Roth has further fanned the flames of speculation surrounding the prospective project, voicing his support for having two musicians for each position and name dropping who he thinks should partner Satch in the electric guitar department.

And, without a prompt, Lee Roth seemingly suggested that Steve Lukather would also be involved in the project, should it ever go ahead.

In a statement issued to the Van Halen News Desk, Lee Roth said, “In my mind… the age of Covid is going to require two of us for every position. [Joe] Satriani and [Steve] Lukather, [Michael] Anthony and [Jason] Newsted, Al[ex Van Halen] or Tommy Lee.”

Now, it’s unclear whether Lukather was merely a speculative suggestion from Lee Roth or another hint of  who else was in the running for whatever was being planned. It’s the first time Lukather’s name has cropped up, so it's possible Lee Roth was simply tapping a potential suitor for the role.

Whatever the case, it's possible we may never find out if Lukather was actually involved, with Newsted originally reporting to Palm Beach Post that plans for a Van Halen tour have “fizzled”.

Satriani also seemingly confirmed that the project had been shelved, though left the door partially open by saying, “If it ever does happen, it would be a great honor and a terrifying challenge.”

In a recent interview with Rock of Nations with Dave Kinchen, Satch offered telling insight into the behind-closed-doors discussions, revealing he’d been involved with Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth in planning a “true tribute to Eddie [Van Halen] and the Van Halen legacy”.

"For me, it was a terrifying prospect of doing something like that,” Satch added, “but I realized that it was something that would be a real labor of love for me. I was just so honored to take on the challenge. 

“All I can really say about it is that if it does happen, I know we'll make it the greatest thing ever for the fans and we'll all celebrate together not only the great Eddie Van Halen but the legacy that that band created, the amazing amount of music and the goodwill and good vibes they created as a band.”

As for Lee Roth, any potential Van Halen tribute tour would ultimately bring the band’s former vocalist out of retirement, after he announced back in October last year that he was retiring from music.

In January, Lee Roth went on to cancel his entire Las Vegas residency – comprising seven shows that were set to be his last-ever live performances – citing “unforeseen circumstances relating to Covid”.

Johnny Winter, one of the all-time giants of blues guitar, passed away back in 2014.

Now, his brother, Edgar Winter, has assembled a jaw-dropping all-star cast to pay tribute to his brother's musical legacy in the form of a tribute album, Brother Johnny.

Featuring 17 tracks hand-picked by Edgar and producer Ross Hogarth – including two new Edgar Winter originals – the album is set for an April 15 release via Quarto Valley Records. 

About that all-star cast, though. For Brother Johnny, Edgar Winter recruited a simply astonishing guest list that includes Joe Bonamassa, Doyle Bramhall II, Ringo Starr, Derek Trucks, Robben Ford, Billy Gibbons, David Grissom, Joe Walsh, Phil X, Taylor Hawkins, Warren Haynes, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, Keb' Mo', John McFee, Doug Rappoport, Bobby Rush, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Waddy Wachtel.

The album's first single – a cover of Chuck Berry's rock 'n' roll standard, Johnny B. Goode, featuring some red-hot electric guitar work from David Grissom and vocals from Winter and Joe Walsh – can be heard below. 

Edgar chose Johnny B. Goode due to its significance in his and Johnny's story. As children (Johnny was 14 or 15, according to Edgar) the Winters won their first talent contest in Beaumont, Texas with a cover of the Berry classic. The prize? A chance to make their own record, an opportunity that led to the recording of the duo's first single, the Johnny-penned School Day Blues.

Edgar was first approached about making a tribute album for his brother almost immediately following Johnny's passing on July 16, 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.

“Many people immediately started trying to convince me to do a Johnny Winter tribute album," he said. "But I was totally devastated, and the timing just didn't feel right to me. It wasn’t until after I completed the Rock ‘N’ Blues Fest, a tour we were meant to do together with our respective bands, that the idea of a tribute record started to take form.”

“I had naturally expected the whole thing to be cancelled," Edgar continued. "But much to my surprise, the promoters begged me to go on with the tour as planned, asking me to headline. The first night, after playing Frankenstein, I closed the show with Johnny B. Goode, Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo, and Jumpin' Jack Flash, dedicating the end of the set to Johnny.

“I had anticipated the tour to be very emotional, perhaps sad, and possibly difficult, but playing those songs turned out to be a great source of strength and comfort to me. Everyone on the tour was so kind and supportive, getting up to jam, and it became a kind of tradition. 

"There was such an overwhelming outpouring of love and respect for Johnny, I began to realize it was not just business people sensing an opportunity here; it was Johnny's true, loyal, and devoted fans and our fellow musicians, many of whom are on this record, who wanted to see this happen as well.

“After the tour, and over the following years as talk of a tribute album continued, my wife Monique, whose intuition I trust more than my own, said, 'I think you have to make this album, both for Johnny, for yourself, and for the world. You owe that acknowledgement to your older brother. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t be where you are today. There’s no need to worry about it. If it’s meant to happen, it will.'" 

For more info on the album, head on over to Edgar Winter's website.

Ringo Starr has become the latest music artist to join online learning platform MasterClass.

Teaching Drumming and Creative Collaboration, the Beatles legend's new 10-part course takes students through a host of lessons detailing the essentials of a drum kit, playing in bands, how to approach songwriting, how to connect with an audience and more.

The course – which clocks in at almost two hours in total – will offer fans “unprecedented insight and access into Ringo's life and career”, adding that “members will leave this class inspired to explore creative collaboration and equipped to start their drumming journey and forge a personal relationship with music.”

But perhaps most intriguingly, the course rounds off with an all-star jam session featuring Toto's Steve Lukather and Eagles' Joe Walsh, two former members of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band. The jam also features keyboardist Jim Cox, bass guitar legend Nathan East, and drummers Gregg Bissonette and Jim Keltner.

“Ringo is an international icon,” says David Rogier, founder and CEO of MasterClass. “As a member of the bestselling band of all time, he candidly shares a behind-the-scenes look into the trajectory of his life as a musician, teaching members how to forge a personal relationship with music and instrumentation.”

“If I can give any piece of advice, it’s to love what you’re doing,” adds Starr. “In my class, I will not only teach members how to get started with drums but share how to bring creativity into anything they are passionate about and inspire them to work at something they love.”

Ringo Starr's course is available now on MasterClass. An annual membership to the platform is $180, and gives you unlimited access to over 150 other experts' courses with topics ranging from cooking to acting to sport. And for a limited time, MasterClass is offering two memberships for the price of one. For more information, head to MasterClass.

The Beatles drummer is just the latest music artist to add his name to MasterClass's increasingly large portfolio of teachers. Earlier this month, thrash legends Metallica partnered with the platform to teach being in a band.

Ernie Ball has unveiled a quartet of new models – a trio of electric guitars and a bass guitar – which will join up with the brand’s ever-expanding collection of Ball Family Reserve instruments.

The September expansion pack of Ernie Ball’s Ball Family Reserve collection sees the arrival of newly finished Luke III and Albert Lee models, as well as a natural ash-bodied StingRay and a spalted maple-topped JP15.

Once again, the brand seems to have pulled out all the stops to update its limited-edition collection, which, for those who are unfamiliar with the range, offers up high-spec guitars previously reserved for family and artists as “a celebration of our heritage in instrument craftsmanship.”

Cast your eyes below to peruse the awesome foursome of Ernie Ball’s freshest Family Reserve lineup.

Luke II in Grapes Of Wrath

Limited to only 85 pieces worldwide, the freshly finished Luke III flashes a mesmeric Grapes of Wrath colorway, which makes use of translucent green and purple hues. It also features an okoume body, a roasted maple neck, an ebony fretboard and simulated Atlante abalone inlays.

Each piece – which also features two humbuckers, stainless steel frets and pearloid Schaller locking tuners –  comes with a tremolo cover autographed by Steve Lukather.

StingRay Special 5 HH Slugger

The only bass of the bunch arrives in the form of the StingRay 5 Special Slugger – a natural-finished five-string that features a lightweight ash body, an oil-and-wax-finished figured roasted maple neck and black fretboard position markers.

Dual alnico humbucking pickups also make the cut, and are controlled by a three-band EQ – accommodated by ornate striped ebony wooden control knobs – and a five-way switch. Finishing touches include an absent pickguard and cloverleaf tuners. Only 50 pieces are available.

Spalted maple-topped JP15 Piledriver

Ernie Ball Music Man’s penultimate offering is a JP15 Piledriver, which is kitted out with a luxurious, highly figured spalted maple top. The top is paired with a roasted maple neck and fretboard, which in turn features alongside 24 stainless steel frets, custom JP15 inlays and black hardware.

Each guitar in the 60-piece run also features a tremolo cover signed by John Petrucci.

Albert Lee HH in Cherry Punch

Last but not least is a new-look, Cherry Punch-finished Albert Lee model. Highlights include a double-humbucker configuration – unlike the HSS iteration of the previous Ball Family Reserve collection drop – and a lightweight okoume body.

Elsewhere, the guitar is appointed with a roasted maple neck with birdseye maple fingerboard, 22 stainless steel frets, a natural headstock and white block inlays, as well as a Tune-O-Matic stop tail bridge and Schaller locking tuners.

The sparkly, yellow-and-cherry-red Albert Lee will be limited to only 75 pieces worldwide, and each guitar comes adorned with a signed tremolo back plate.

To find out more, visit Ernie Ball Music Man.