Toto guitarist Steve Lukather has spoken about how he was turned onto cocaine. Lukather was speaking with The Daily Telegraph in advance of Toto's UK tour, which began on Saturday at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.
“It was unbelievable how [cocaine] overtook the city,” Lukather tells The Telegraph. “I didn’t even realise what was going on. I didn’t realise why there were five guys in the bathroom stall. I didn’t understand. I’d walk into the bathroom to take a leak and there’s all these guys in the stall. ‘Hey, what the fuck are you guys doing in there?’ ‘Nothing man, nothing kid.’
"And then one night, two in the morning, I’m going, ‘I’ve got a 10am [session], how am I fucking going to get through this?’ And some guy goes, ‘Come here man, have some of this’. And I go, ‘Oh man, it’s drug shit’… but they sold me the whole lot. They sold us all the lies: it’s not addictive, it’s better than coffee, it’s no problem.
"And all my heroes were doing it so I said, ‘Okay’. And it started out fine… but it got bad because it just turned into this weird dark thing. It became cloak-and-dagger shit... It was the addiction thing that people lied to us about."
Toto frontman Bobby Kimball was fired by the band in 1984 during the recording of Isolation, the follow-up to 1982's enormously successful Toto IV album, reportedly because he'd attempted to sell drugs to an undercover police officer. Others maintain that Kimball was let go because his cocaine use was negatively impacting his studio work.
"The bottom line was Bobby couldn’t sing," keyboardist Steve Porcaro told Classic Rock in 2015. "I stayed up all night. We all did. The next day my throat would be like ribbons. But I didn’t have to sing. Bobby had to, and he just wasn’t delivering."
Elsewhere in the interview, Lukather remembers his first impressions of punk fashion, reveals why he's stopped dying his hair, and looks back on the continued, generation-straddling success of Africa.
The next show on Toto's Dogs Of Oz tour takes place at Manchester's AO Arena on February 4. Full dates below.
Toto: Dogs Of Oz Tour 2025
Feb 04: Manchester AO Arena, UK
Feb 05: London Wembley Arena, UK
Feb 07: Brussels Forest National, Belgium
Feb 08: Arnhem GelreDome, Netherlands
Feb 10: Esch Alzette Rockhal, Luxembourg
Feb 11: Lille Zénith, France
Feb 12: Paris Zénithm, France
Feb 14: Lyon-Décines LDLC Arena, France
Feb 15: Geneva Geneva Arena, Switzerland
Feb 16: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland
Feb 18: Stuttgart Porsche Arena, Germany
Feb 19: Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Halle, Germany
Feb 21: Horsens Forum Horsens, Denmark
Feb 22: Copenhage Royal Arena, Denmark
Feb 25: Oslo Spektrum, Norway
Feb 26: Gothenburg Scandinavium, Sweden
Feb 28: Helsinki Espoo Metro Arena, Finland
Mar 02: Tampere Nokia Arena, Finland
Apr 16: Melbourne John Cain Arena, Australia
Apr 18: Byron Bay Bluesfest, Australia
Apr 19: Sydney ICC Theatre, Australia
Apr 23: Auckland Spark Arena, New Zealand
Apr 24: Wellington TSB Arena, New Zealand
Apr 26: Christchurch Wolfbrook Arena, New Zealand
Jul 18: West Palm Beach iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, FL
Jul 19: Tampa MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre, FL
Jul 21: Birmingham Coca-Cola Amphitheater, AL
Jul 22: Alpharetta Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, GA
Jul 24: Burgettstown The Pavilion at Star Lake, PA
Jul 25: Holmdel PNC Bank Arts Center, NJ
Jul 26: Boston Leader Bank Pavilion, MA
Jul 28: Gilford BankNH Pavilion, NH
Jul 30: Bridgeport Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater, CT
Aug 01: Atlantic City Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena, NJ
Aug 03: Cincinnati Riverbend Music Center, OH
Aug 05: St. Louis Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, MO
Aug 06: Noblesville Ruoff Music Center, IN
Aug 08: Cuyahoga Falls Blossom Music Center, OH
Aug 09: Tinley Park Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre, IL
Aug 11: Clarkston Pine Knob Music Theatre, MI
Aug 13: Bristow Jiffy Lube Live, VA
Aug 14: Charlotte PNC Music Pavilion, NC
Aug 15: Nashville Ascend Amphitheater, TN
Aug 17: Oklahoma City The Zoo Amphitheatre, OK
Aug 18: Irving The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, TX
Aug 21: Phoenix Arizona Financial Theatre, AZ
Aug 23: Las Vegas Fontainebleau, NV
Aug 24: Inglewood Kia Forum, CA
Aug 25: Concord Toyota Pavilion at Concord, CA
Aug 27: Salt Lake City Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre, UT
Aug 29: Puyallup Washington State Fair, WA
Aug 30: Ridgefield Cascades Amphitheater, WA
