Steve Lukather - The Gospel According to Luke

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

ISBN: 978-1-64293-077-1

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-078-8

The Gospel According to Luke

2018 by Steve Lukather

All Rights Reserved

Cover Photograph by Lawrence DiMarzio

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

Contents

To Tina, Trev, Lily and Bodhi the true loves of my life

(forgive your old man for his crazy antics)

To know Steve Lukather is to love him madly. Just ask anyone who knows him. He wears his heart on his guitar strap, and his sense of inspired risqu humor is stunning and legendary. If youre on the other end of an email that he sent, you better be prepared to laugh out loud. Hes one of my favorite people to be with.

I moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and was totally nave and new to the scene. Luke was already well known in the studio scene as the go-to guy for all things guitar. During that period I was turned onto a cassette tape of a band that was jamming at The Baked Potato. Listening to the guitar player was one of the most powerful learning experiences Ive had as a player.

The long and relaxed solos started tastefully and melodic and the tone was just fat and delicious. Every improvised note I heard was like a perfectly added ingredient in your favorite cake. The solo was long and grew with speed and intensity until reaching a climax that left you in a tizzy.

This is when I realized how musically nave I really was. Every song on that tape had an inspired solo and it wasnt until later that I found out that it was Luke just jamming with some friends.

Ill never forget how he was telling stories in those solos and just building and building them. When I finally started to work on my record Passion and Warfare , I wanted to emulate this incredible players guitar solo road map to the stars and I wrote a song called For the Love of God and when building the song, one of my primary objectives was to go on and on and build and build until the solo reached a climax, just like Steve Lukather.

Well, it seemed to have worked for me, not only on that song, but as a blueprint in my psyche for what a fulfilling guitar solo really is. I started consuming as much Lukather music as I could and it was all so delicious. To this day Steve is still a deep lover of the guitar and is one of the rare ones that is still an excited student and constantly looking to up his own game.

Steve Luke has been a huge positive influence on myself and many others, and continues to be. Im just lucky enough to call him my friend.

And little did I know that someday we would tour together and even win a Grammy together.

Steve, you are exceptional and we are grateful. Love you madly my brother, and thanks.

Steve Vai

Los Angeles

I was shocked to get asked to do a book. I mean who the fuck am I? I am not a superstar, poseur, pretty-boy musician. A few years back, the Grammy Museum asked me to do a Q&A about my career. I had 300 people stuffed into the place, pissing themselves in the aisles, laughing at my stories. My agent said, You MUST write a book. My publishers sought me out; I never searched for a deal.

I said no at first, remembering some of the wild, insane things I have said and done. I thought this was a bad idea. Then I thought, No, wait... I dont have to get ugly. I can tell my story in my words. And yes, I left some stuff out. I am terribly sorry I cant name-check every person I have ever worked with, or done crazy stuff with, and some of it I just dont remember.

Oh yeah, I swear a lot too. If you are offended by that, stop reading now. See, I wanted this book to sound like I am telling it, so I didnt edit the way I speak. I come from a long line of angry men who shout and swear. There was my grandfather, Lee, my dads dad, and my dad, an ex-marine. Dad went into showbiz behind the camera just like Grandfather Lee, an assistant director/production manager. They yelled at people all day and my dad was never at a loss for words when pissed off at me or my sister. I believe my oldest son Trev has thankfully broken the chain. He is calm, cool, collected and quiet and does not outwardly let shit and/or haters bother him. I mean, people who hate me will go after him on the internet, but he takes it real cool. He says, Fuck it, Dad, those people are losers and would do anything for your job. He has a point. I am proud of him, as I am of all four of my kids. They are the real, true, pure loves in my life.

First off, it was hard enough to make all of this fit into a 300-plus-page book sixty years of life and a crazy life at that. Many people have also asked me, How did you make this record? and, Who came up with what parts?, so its not a book about where I put my dick or what I put up my nose: such a tired old clich anyway. Yeah, yeah, everyone did it... Next! In other words, this is not a manual on excess, nor is it OK that I did some of the insane things that are in the book.

Life is more interesting anyway. I DO throw myself under the bus a few times and got permission from the guilty attendees at some of my less-than-fine moments. And kids, trust me when I tell you: do NOT try ANY of this. Or else!

I tell my story not to brag, not to glamorize the OVER-use of booze or drugs. I stopped all that nonsense many, many years ago. I tell the stories in the book that are just TOO good not to. People wont believe some of it, but I swear its all true. There may be a nice girl who is married now with four kids with a husband who knows nothing about a one-night stand a hundred years ago, and I shall let you live in peace. Other people I do name. I called and read them what I wrote and said to them: Is it cool for me to use this, cause if its not I wont put it in the book. They said, You gotta tell THAT story, and here we are.

See, I want to have friends at the end of all this and I could write a really salacious book, name names and fuck people over, but thats just a mean thing to do. People have written things about me and I was like, WTF, man... That was private, or whatever. But we live in a world now where privacy does not exist. I thought I might as well tell MY side of the story, try to be as honest as I can and show who I am.

Some things I allude to. Use your imagination. Thats why books are better than movies, because YOU can see or dream up a scenario that may be better than what I experienced. A lot of stuff just didnt fit. I had to edit. Writing this book did dig up a LOT of old memories and I cried a lot as well as laughed my ass off. Doing this book made me miss a LOT of people, some of who died while I was writing it. Some of my best friends...

I turned sixty writing this book. Ive spent forty-one years of my life making real records and touring. Corporate rock? WTF does that mean? Anyone who ever signed a record deal is corporate rock, and those indie labels are still labels. If you sold ONE record, YOU sold out. Sorry. The idea was to be a successful musician and pay for your life by doing so. I did that and Im an asshole because of it? Yet I still got hired to play on a lot of hit records. I dont get it.