As Toto prepares for the opening night of its 2013 tour on Thursday, May 30, 2013 in Brussels, guitarist Steve Lukather finds himself answering the inevitable questions about the origins of the band’s name. His answer might surprise you.
Not only has he heard, and come to terms with, the idea that there is a well-known lavatory brand with the same moniker — he actually has one: “I’m a proud owner of a Toto toilet,” Lukather tells Radio Berlin in the attached video. “It’s the best toilet you can get!”
Lukather, who has been with the band since its high school days, admits that he wasn’t a fan of calling the group “Toto” — at least early on. He preferred the original group name, “Still Life.”
[SOMETHING ELSE! INTERVIEW: David Paich offers a preview of the forthcoming 2013 Toto tour, and takes us inside a few favorite moments from his lengthy history of hitmaking.]
“The truth of it is, I always thought it was a shitty name, anyway,” Lukather offers. Pun intended?
“I kept going, ‘why do you want to change the name?’ But (fellow band co-founders) Jeff Porcaro and David Paich were adamant about this,” Lukather says. “Sure enough, as soon as the first album came out, friends of ours were in Japan, sending us pictures of the toilet and stuff like that — and the dog, of course, from ‘The Wizard of Oz.'”
Toto, of course, got the last laugh, having sold some 35 million albums that featured ubiquitous hit singles like “Hold the Line,” “Rosanna,” “Africa” and “99,” among others.
“Now, you know, it is what it is,” Lukather adds. “I laugh at it all. We’re part of pop culture. ‘Family Guy’ did a thing; I was a ‘South Park’ character. We’re on all of the cartoon shows, we’re on game shows. People sing our songs all over the world. Now, not only can I laugh at myself, I get the joke. But there are worse names, especially these days. I’ve heard some really silly names.”
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