The Grit and Grind of Steve Lukather

Fail Better with David Duchovny

Grace Cohen-Chen

Society & Culture

4.6 • 534 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As a founding member of the band Toto, Steve Lukather is well aware of the song you probably know him for. But Steve, known to most as “Luke”, has plenty of other claims to fame. Luke is a seriously talented guitarist and writer with more than a dozen albums to his name from Toto alone, not to mention an almost infinite number of credits and Grammys from his session work with stars like Paul McCartney and Quincy Jones. It all started with the enthusiasm that Luke’s parents expressed for a musical career, guiding him toward frequent lessons, hard work, and the practice of showing up to a studio every day and putting in the hours. Being a working man is what led him to where he is — and, as any young player would dream, it’s also what got him the ultimate compliment from Jimmy Page. Follow me on Instagram at @davidduchovny. Stay up to date with Lemonada on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's morning in New York.
0:02.8	Oh, God.
0:06.2	Hey, everybody.
0:07.3	I'm Mandy Patinkin.
0:08.7	And I'm Catherine Grady.
0:09.8	And we have a new podcast.
0:11.7	It's called Don't Listen to Us.
0:14.1	Many of you've asked for our advice.
0:16.1	Tell me, what is wrong with you people?
0:19.2	Don't listen to us.
0:20.3	Our Take It or Leave a Advice show every Wednesday, out now.
0:24.7	A Lemonada Media Original.
0:36.4	I'm David Dukovny, and this is Fail Better, a show where failure, not success, shapes who we are.
0:43.2	Steve Lukather is a guitarist, vocalist, the founding member of the band Toto.
0:47.6	Steve, or Luke, as he tends to be called, is a long-standing fixture in the music world.
0:52.6	In addition to playing and writing for Toto,
0:54.6	he's offered his talents to countless recording sessions over the years from a very young age,
0:59.7	like for Michael Jackson, Stevie Nixon, Stevey Nixon, Cher. He's also released a number of solo albums.
1:05.4	When you listen to this episode, Luke will likely be on tour somewhere in the world,
1:09.7	even though he just broke his ankle,
1:11.1	so he'll be sidelined for a little bit, but nothing can stop him.
1:14.0	When we sat down together to record this conversation,
	...

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