Steve Lukather on the Hold Cocaine Had on L.A. in the ‘80s
Rick James once taught us that, “Cocaine is a hell of a drug.” In case you didn’t believe the late singer-songwriter, Toto’s Steve Lukather offered some insights into just how prevalent the substance was in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
In a new interview with The Telegraph, Lukather said the drug “overtook the city.” He mentioned how he’d go to use a public restroom, noticed five guys together in the same stall, and didn’t understand at the time what was happening.
Lukather said he was introduced to the drug by “some guy” who told him cocaine wasn’t addictive and “better than coffee.”
“And all my heroes were doing it so I said, ‘Okay,’” said Lukather. “And it started out fine… but it got bad because it just turned into this weird dark thing. It became cloak-and-dagger sh-t… It was the addiction thing that people lied to us about.”
Interestingly enough, this isn’t even the first cocaine story related to Toto in 2025. Last month, actor Rob Lowe said in conversation with Bill Simmons on his podcast Literally With Rob Lowe that he recorded a demo with Toto back in the ’80s, when the actor was still using cocaine.
Lowe explained, “There was a minute in the 80s where I was definitely doing too much Bolivian marching powder and just being a f—ing lunatic, and [it was] also coming at the time in a young actor’s career where they’re too old to play the roles they’ve been playing, but they’re too young to play the roles that will last you the rest of your life, which are really the great ones … I love music so much, as evidenced by this talk and all of that, that I got it into my head that maybe I should think more about music and I cut a demo with Toto.”
Shortly after this story went viral, Toto spokesperson Steve Karas told Ultimate Classic Rock, “Toto as a band never did a session with Rob Lowe. The reporting is not accurate.”
Karas added that while Lowe did hang out at the studio with band members David Paich and Steve Porcaro one afternoon, nothing came from it. The visit was just casual, and no music was ever recorded. Making matters clearer, Lukather said he only met Lowe once, and that was in Japan back in 1985.