It was a night out on the town in celebration of an era. The good ol' guys showing the kid what they grew up on. Steve Lukather, Michael Landau (James Taylor, session ace), Bob Bradshaw (Music Engineer Supreme) & Trevor Lukather (Luke's Son) were out on the town to see the James Gang featuring Joe Walsh. Luke was geared up to see the show at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, Ca. You could see the excitment in his eyes and hear the anticipation in his voice as he told me about growing up with this Cleveland,Ohio trio led by Walsh, Dale Peters(b) and Jimmy Fox(d). Luke told me "I worshipped these guys. I grew up on them. I think I scared Jimmy Fox! I knew everything about them. I knew every lick to every one of their songs. Bradshaw, Landau and I had to bring Trevor to show him what it's all about".
As usual there were "musos" in the crowd that included Timothy B. Schmit (Eagles), Rudy Sarzo (Dio, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot) & Eric Singer (Kiss, Alice Cooper). I had the chance to talk to Eric the Kiss drummer about Luke. "He is the real deal. He is one of the greatest, if not thee greatest guitar player in the world! I'm a musician. We get it. He is so underated, I don't believe it. The general public just doesn't know who he is. I mean just think about all those great records he played on. The Boz Scaggs stuff. The Alice Cooper record From the inside was really cool. The stuff with the Tubes was great. Hell, he wrote those songs too. Talk to you later. Everything he plays on is the best. The Toto stuff is great but there's just so many other things he played on. He is one of the only people in the world that can go from the Rock stuff, to great Jazz/Fusion, to Pop to hell, ANYTHING! He can probably even play some Latin stuff! Whatever he wants to play he can".
I had the pleasure of listening to Luke and Eric exchancge experiences about Joe and the James Gang. Singer, a Cleveland native, had that same look in his eyes that Luke did when talking about the Cleveland Trio. Trevor sat back and soaked in the whole night. Trevor told me how he was looking forward to playing with his dad at the Wiltern this Saturday in Los Angeles. The James gang put on a great show exciting the crowd with classics like Walk away, Funk #49, The bomber and the Joe Walsh smash Rocky Mountain way. Singer told me how much he enjoyed the show especially the Joe Walsh signature guitar sounds that reminded him of the old days. Luke told me "We were just like little kids out there" (as he pumped his fist into the air several times). " It was a great show".
Stevelukather.com, September 8th 2006
