Toto: "We’re Not Just The 'Africa' Band"

It all started with a joke. A Weezer fan begging the cover-loving LA alt-rockers to record a version the ‘80s classic rock hit Africa by Toto, the quest gathering enough critical mass that the band finally acquiesced and put a version up online (only after posting a version of Rosanna – Toto’s other big ‘80s hit – first).

Soon Weezer’s version of Africa went gangbusters, reaching the top of the iTunes sales and alternative airplay charts, and Toto’s massive resurgence was up and running. Their return might have been driven by some semblance of modern irony, but to Toto, it’s no less than completely triumphant. “The last couple of years have been amazing, man!” gushes founding guitarist Steve Lukather. “We got back together in 2010 to help our brother Mike [Porcaro – bass] – who we sadly lost because of his battle with ALS, which sucked – and that was fun so we said, ‘Do you want to do it next year?’ and I blinked and we’re going into 2019, so it’s been nine years back together and it just keeps getting better and better every year."

“And then this Africa thing took off and the memes and videos and the jokes and TV mentions and the Weezer cover – it’s amazing! Our streams have jumped up to 10 or 12 million a month now, and we’re over half a billion streams on all of our catalogue. And young kids are showing up at our shows, so the cross-promotion of Toto and Weezer really worked, which is a win-win for both sides and I’ve never even met these guys!

“It all just happened by accident, so then we thought, ‘Why don’t we do one of their songs for fun?’ and that worked too – they got a big hit record after ten years in a dry spot and our stock went through the roof, so everybody won!”

Toto’s return cover of Weezer’s 2001 single Hash Pipe sounds remarkably vibrant but remains an odd choice given that – aside from the obvious drug connotations – it’s lyrically about a trans prostitute working the streets of Santa Monica. “We kinda did it in our own way just like they did our song in their own way, and now I’ve actually become a Weezer fan,” Lukather continues. “We listened through a heap of their stuff and some things popped out and some were more obvious, and I know what the lyric to Hash Pipe is about – I lived near Santa Monica, I’ve seen this shit."

“But we took a light-hearted approach and I made some crack about the fact that I was smoking hash before those guys were even alive – that was a throwaway line that the press got hold of – which really propelled things. But we loved the groove and we thought musically we could do more with that song than say, Beverly Hills, which is more of a cliché for us as we live there. It was meant out of respect and love and not as a piss-take.”

Which is apt, because Toto purportedly thought Weezer were taking the piss when they heard about the Africa cover. “Well at first we were, like, ‘Wait a minute man, are these guys going to do us or what?’, but when we heard it we actually thought it was really good,” Lukather chuckles. “They did it on a dare or a joke – they’ve done other old songs too – and we just thought it was another cover, we never thought it would blow up and I don’t think they did either. I never would have called this in a million years, it’s just like one of those, ‘What the fuck?’ moments, but in a good way."

“Now we’re pulling big crowds again all over the world and at festivals like we’re doing down in Australia. We get to play in front of a younger audience, and sure they know the Africa song and they know Rosanna and Hold The Line, but there are a few other songs where they’ll go, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that was you guys,’ or, ‘These guys are really good!’, like they’re coming from a different place – we’re not just the Africa band, we’ve got a lot of other shit in our wheelhouse.”