Steve Lukather, the guitarist for the band Toto, recently shared his thoughts on Weezer’s cover of their hit song “Africa.” In an interview with Matt Pinfield on KLOS, Lukather questioned the intentions behind the cover. “I don’t know about him loving the song, man,” Lukather said, referring to Weezer’s frontman Rivers Cuomo. “I think he did it to take the p*** out of it, and it blew up in his face.
Now, he’s got to play it every night.”
Lukather also mentioned that he tried to reach out to Cuomo after the cover’s success, but the interaction left him feeling uneasy. “I tried to reach out to the guy and be friendly,” he said. “It just got weird.
I don’t want to get into it, but peace and love. [It] was good for them, good for us, God bless.”
The story behind Weezer’s “Africa” cover is an unusual one.
Steve Lukather questions Weezer’s intentions
It began with a social media campaign by a dedicated fan who repeatedly tweeted at the band, urging them to cover the song. Weezer eventually gave in and released their version in 2018. The cover became an instant hit, featuring a music video with “Weird Al” Yankovic and earning Weezer their first Billboard Hot 100 entry in nearly a decade.
Toto even responded by covering Weezer’s song “Hash Pipe.”
However, Cuomo’s own comments about the cover suggest that he may not have been entirely thrilled with its success. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said, “One thing I wasn’t prepared for was the pain of success. And by that, I mean the pain of having a huge success with a song I didn’t write.
That really has thrown me. It’s taken me a while to regain my faith.”
Lukather’s recent remarks shed new light on the aftermath of the “Africa” cover and the strained relationship between the two bands. While the cover brought success to both Weezer and Toto, it seems that not everyone involved was left with positive feelings about the experience.
