That's the thing, though: It doesn't matter how much you've done or who you've played with. Do you have the passion?

Our music is harder to play than it sounds. It's the small details you don't realize are there until you try and re-do it.

My band did the Teenage Fair battle of the bands - problem was we were 11 years old! They gave us a prize for youngest band ever.

People like our stuff, some people hate it, but that's like anything, right? Some people love donuts, some people are allergic to 'em.

There is no one like Toto in history in that we were both successful as session musicians and also had a band that sold so many million records.

Especially early on, I had no idea what I was going to be asked to do when I walked into a studio. I was doing 26 sessions a week - all day, all night.

I ain't the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I've dedicated my life to music since I was 7 and my dad bought me a guitar and the 'Meet the Beatles' album.

When the Beatles were on 'Ed Sullivan,' life went from black and white to color like in 'The Wizard of Oz' - and the irony I'm in the band Toto is not lost on me.

I don't believe that heavy strings make it all that much bigger-sounding. If anything, it can mess up your fingers, and you can get tendonitis, which is not cool.

We've become an underground thing for kids, because we never got the love our peers got back in the day. Kids are loving discovering us, and I'm happy to be that band.

A great solo does not make a great piece. Rather, a great solo in a great song - that's what makes a 10 out of 10. It's the combination of emotional feel and inventive ideas.

If it wasn't for Boz, my life would've changed. Meeting the Porcaro brothers and getting that Boz Scaggs gig were two life-changing events for me. It all fell into place after that.

I think, as you get older, you reflect at the silliness of your youth and the stupidity of some of the decisions that were made, and the ego and whatnot, or whatever played into it.

There's so many players that I love and admire. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Mike Landau, Robben Ford, Lee Ritenour, Jay Graydon, John Scofield, Warren Haynes - the list goes on and on.

I thought that you had to work, work, work and try to be the best musician you could, and that's the only way you could make it. Then it turns out, halfway through the scene, they change the rules on you!

I got caught up in 35 years of Saturday nights. Every night was like party night to me. As a young man, you can do that; it's OK to be an idiot. But I woke up one day, and I realized that 35 years had gone by.

I was doing our first album when I was 19. It came out as a hit, and I blinked - then 37 years went by. There's a lot of stuff that happened in there, but once the snowball started going down the hill, I took the ride.

A lot of festivals on a worldwide basis that I am seeing, they're trying to multi-genre it. Like, they put a wild card band on, like, us old guys that happen to have a record that has stayed in pop culture for as long as it has.

In sixth grade I had a band called The Blueberry Waterfall. I had borrowed a guy's Fender Jaguar and Boss Tone Fuzz, which you plugged straight into a Blackface Twin. It was a little power trio - we were actually pretty good for our age.

Music was everything. Now it is just not as important as it used to be. When I was growing up, where everyone was trying to outdo each other by being more outrageous and sounding more different, now there is a homogeneous sameness to it all.

I can't sight-read classical etudes - I would have to see it and learn it. But yeah, I can read. It is a wonderful tool. It's like speaking another language. Anyone that says reading music can hurt your playing is either stupid, lazy, or ignorant.

I did grow up with Michael Landau, my brother since we were 12 years old. That was competition but in the best way. He is such a monster, always was, and we had a blast growing up playing in bands and early recording and are still the best of pals.

What happens is people go, 'I want to play the guitar,' and the first thing they do is hit Google: 'How can I play this?' and the next thing you know, you've learned all these tricks, but you've never learned how to play rhythm guitar with a groove.

When I was starting my journey as a young guitar player, I was listening to The Beatles, the Stones, and all the British invasion bands, Top 40, Motown, and all the great music of the '60s. Then the alien ship landed, and life changed again forever... Jimi Hendrix.

Vocally and stylistically, we'd have different kinds of songs come on the radio, and people didn't realize it was the same band. A lot of the time, a casual fan would come see us and go, 'I didn't know that you guys did that song. I didn't know that was you!' That was us!

I just think that there is something that keeps us together, to keep doing what we're doing. I can't really put my finger on it other than each record is like a little snapshot of my life at that particular moment, the way I play, the way I sound, the way I wrote, the way I sing, I can hear it.

I have tried every amp, distortion box, gadget etc. that has ever been made since 1967 to present and nothing has sounded like the Tonebone. It has become an incredible asset to my sound and I recommend this to anyone who is looking for that NATURAL warm sound with sustain for days and days! Buy this now!

When a new record came out, the world would stop that day, and we would sit in somebody's house - whoever had the best stereo system - and sit in the middle of the two speakers and listen and discuss and listen again and go over the album notes and get out the guitar and start playing it and discuss and play some more.

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