Eddie Van Halen on the band “light years” ahead of their time
Most guitarists can only hope to take the instrument to areas akin to where Eddie Van Halen did. Although he may not have been looking to become an inventor whenever he strapped on a guitar, Eddie was responsible for getting the most out of his instrument at every opportunity, using both hands to tap the fretboard of the guitar and sending shockwaves through the rest of the rock scene. For all his groundbreaking licks, Eddie could still be influenced by other guitarists, and he considered Toto one of the pioneers of what could be done in a studio environment.
Compared to what Eddie did with Van Halen, Toto consisted mainly of seasoned pros from the studio scene. Although every one of them could play convincingly, guitarist Steve Lukathur had no problem switching between different styles of music, working with everyone from Lionel Richie to Steely Dan during his time as a studio musician.
As Eddie began to venture into different sessions across California, one of the first times he collaborated with the band was as a sideman for ‘The King of Pop’. After Michael Jackson began studio sessions for what would become Thriller, Toto was hired as his session musician, which led to Eddie getting the call to perform the guitar solo on the track ‘Beat It’.
After the sessions, Eddie and Lukathur would become fast friends, with the Toto guitarist lending a few vocal parts to the song ‘Top of the World’ to Van Halen’s 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Whereas Eddie was already thinking about guitar in a new way when Sammy Hagar was at the helm, his session friends would blow him away with the album Kingdom of Desire.
While the album wouldn’t have the standout singles of the band’s previous efforts like ‘Africa’ or ‘Rosanna’, the sessions were any studio connoisseur’s dream lineup. Outside of the usual suspects like Lukathur and drummer Jeff Pocaro, there was a star-studded cast of musicians brought in to add their textures to the album, from session legend Jim Keltner playing percussion to longtime Tom Petty drummer Stan Lynch playing on a handful of tracks.
When talking to Lukathur after the fact, Eddie would tell him how he felt the Toto guitarist was taking rock and roll into a different area, telling Guitar FTPM, “It’s a brilliant record. I think if (radio plays) it people will like it. For five years, you haven’t had a record out here. The music you’re making, to me, is light years beyond the shit you hear on the radio. (…) If people only knew you guys were the real shit”.
Although Eddie may have been proud of his friend’s ingenuity in the studio, he would also take a few more risks when approaching his band’s album. Across the record Balance, Eddie would be using his guitar in a new way, toying with different sounds in the studio and trying to strike the perfect balance between the band’s piano-led tunes and the various tapping runs that he would make from time to time.
For all of the great publicity Van Halen would get for the rest of their studio output, Lukathur would still be one of Eddie’s closest friends and mentors, occasionally coming together for various jam sessions while never putting anything down on tape. Even though Eddie has been known as one of the few massive proponents of rock guitar playing, he knew that he could improve even when listening to Lukathur squeeze emotion out of his guitar.
