The late Eddie Van Halen is often listed alongside Jimi Hendrix as one of the most groundbreaking guitarists of all time. His impact on Rock music was tremendous, opening up new possibilities for electric guitar playing.
He was one of the few artists who were acclaimed by both fans and fellow musicians. Throughout his career, Eddie spoke about many of his peers and once named a guitarist he described as a “musician’s musician.”
The guitarist that Eddie Van Halen called a musician’s musician
Since Eddie was one of the greatest guitar players to ever exist, his praise should be taken seriously. One of his favorite guitarists was Steve Lukather, a personal friend best known as a sought-after session musician and a member of Toto. To Van Halen, Steve was a “kind of a player’s player, a musician’s musician”. “He’s a studio guy. He started out playing on so many people’s records that he could play any style you wanted. He just amazes me at what a chameleon he can be. (Steve) can throw himself in any situation and shine.”
“It’s almost hard to tell who’s really him. I guess it’s probably all of them, everything he’s ever been exposed to is who he is. He’s kind of a player’s player, a musician’s musician. I’m more of a straightforward rock & roll guitarist, blessed to be in a kick-ass rock band,” Eddie Van Halen told Rolling Stone in 2011.
Eddie not only admired Steve Lukather’s session work but also praised Toto, a band he once said was made up of the best musicians in the world. “I think because you’ve done all that you’re such a complete musician, so to speak. It’s like all I do is Van Halen. You can do anything. I could throw you into anything-a jazz band or whatever kind of band-and you can hold your own.”
Eddie Van Halen continued:
“To me you guys (Toto) as a band are collectively the best musicians on the planet. Seriously, man, I’ve never seen a band play tighter than you guys. You, Paich, the Porcaros – rest in peace, Jeff – are probably the best musicians collectively in any band. You guys won like eight Grammys one year! Why did the press give you such shit? If people only knew you guys were the real shit. Everyone else is faking it,” he told Steve Lukather when they interviewed each other in Guitar FTPM in 1993.
During that same conversation, Van Halen praised Steve’s guitar solo in “Turns To Stone”, a track from the guitarist’s first solo record “Lukather” (1989). “There’s a great solo you did on your first solo record. It was a ballad, a bad-ass song (“Turns to Stone”). (…) That’s one of my favorites.”
The Toto guitar player was one of Van Halen’s best friends over the decades. They were close until the musician sadly passed away in 2020 at the age of 65.
He showed Lukather some of his guitar secrets
Eddie never had a problem talking about his gear and technique. Interestingly, he showed Lukather some secrets not long after they met. With all the incredible things Van Halen did live, other musicians were impressed by how he managed to keep his guitar in tune after playing like that. Lukather didn’t understand at first, but Eddie told him how to do it.
“I remember Steve Lukather from Toto, he’s one of my best friends, and a bunch of other people just freaked out. We played Anaheim Stadium and this first tour I forget who headlined, but I’m using the vibrato bar doing everything that’s on the record live. They’re going, ‘How in the hell is this guy doing that?'”
He continued:
“And Luke comes up to me, ‘I can’t even keep my Les Paul in tune like you do that Stratocaster copy with the Fender tailpiece. How the hell are you doing it?’ And I showed him, ‘It works like this. Gotta line up and the string has to be with the slide, otherwise we’re not gonna go back where it came from,'” he told Forbes in 2009.
Funny enough, some people ask Lukather if he played certain guitar parts on Van Halen’s album. “I did some background vocals (on ‘Top of the World’), that’s all. People are still thinking that I play Eddie’s parts. Yeah, that’s really funny. I mean, come on, of course he doesn’t need me to play anything like that,” he told Tone Talk.
Besides his work with Toto, Steve Lukather also is a longtime member of Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band and collaborated in the studio with many famous artists. Some of them are Michael Jackson, Cher, Alice Cooper, Chicago, Neil Diamond, Elton John, Diana Ross and Joni Mitchell.
In Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”, Steve Lukather recorded the guitar and bass, while Eddie was responsible for the classic guitar solo. A few years later, Lukather recorded the backing vocals for “Top of The World”, from the Van Hagar era of the band, featured on the album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” (1991).