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Steve Porcaro

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Steve Porcaro
Porcaro in 2013
Porcaro in 2013
Background information
Birth nameSteven Maxwell Porcaro
Born (1957-09-02) September 2, 1957 (age 67)
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
GenresPop, rock
OccupationsMusician, songwriter, film composer
InstrumentsKeyboards, vocals
Years active1976–present
Formerly ofToto, The Chris Squire Experiment

Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American songwriter ("Human Nature"), Film/TV composer (FX's "Justified") [1]synth pioneer/keyboardist, [2] [3] and founding member of the Grammy-winning band Toto[4], which he founded with his brother, legendary drummer Jeff Porcaro, and later included their brother Mike Porcaro on bass. He has won three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year for "Rosanna" and Album of the Year for Toto IV, and three nominations.[5]

Throughout the 70s and 80s, the Porcaro brothers were in constant demand as session musicians, appearing on records for such artists as Steely Dan, Don Henley, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Boz Scaggs, Seals and Croft, Warren Zevon, Paul Simon, and Pink Floyd.[6]

Porcaro has appeared as a session musician on recordings by Yes (on Union and Open Your Eyes) and Jefferson Airplane (on their self-titled 1989 reunion album). He was also a member of Chris Squire's short-lived band, The Chris Squire Experiment, in 1992. In 1994, he was a member of the Jay Graydon All Stars, a touring band that performed in Europe and Japan.

Early life

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Porcaro was born in Connecticut. Like his brothers Jeff and Mike Porcaro, Steve started out as a drummer under the tutelage of his father, legendary jazz drummer and educator Joe Porcaro, who played with Frank Sinatra, Stand Getz, Rosemary Clooney, Marvin Gaye and Madonna and went on to create The Percussion Institute of Technology and later the drum department at the Los Angeles Music Academy.

In 1967, his father bought him an organ made by Rheem; a company that specializes in heating and air conditioning. Soon after, he took his father down to a Guitar Center to trade in the keyboard for a Farfisa with a Leslie 147 and preamp, which Porcaro called his "first real rig".[7]

Career

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Porcaro's career as a touring musician began at the age of 17, playing with Gary Wright on the 1976 tour in support of his album, The Dream Weaver. [8] The following year, he joined Boz Scaggs’ “Silk Degrees” tour, along with his brothers Jeff and Mike, as well as future Toto bandmates David Paich, Steve Lukather and Lenny Castro. [9] [10]

Porcaro wrote or co-wrote at least one song on each of Toto's first six albums, except for Isolation.

Porcaro in 1982

Unlike most of his Toto bandmates, he generally did not contribute lead or even backing vocals; he considered himself a weak singer, and sang lead on two of his earlier compositions only because he felt that the vocal styles of his bandmates, with the exception of Joseph Williams, were not appropriate for his songs.[11]

The song "Rosanna" was supposedly inspired by Porcaro's girlfriend at the time, Rosanna Arquette. Arquette and the song's writer, David Paich, denied this,[12][13] then later confirmed it to be true in an interview in Australian Studio 10.[14]

He left Toto in 1987 after the Fahrenheit tour in order to pursue a more full-time songwriting and composing career. However, Porcaro did accompany them on their The Seventh One world tour in 1988. He also continued working with Toto in various supporting capacities, assisting with keyboards, drum looping, synthesizers and arranging/composing on all of their albums following his departure.

Porcaro composed the music for the song "Human Nature" and produced the synthesizer for "The Girl Is Mine" from Michael Jackson's album Thriller, as well as playing synthesizer and keyboard on "Stranger in Moscow" from Jackson's HIStory album. He composed or co-wrote many other songs for Jackson from 1982 to 2009, including "Chicago 1945",[15] "Dream Away",[15] and "For All Time". In 2024 Porcaro sold the rights to all his music to the Jackson estate and publisher Primary Wave.[15]

Steve Porcaro composes music for film and television, including the FX television show Justified, among others.[16]

Porcaro returned to play with Toto at live performances since 2010, when they decided to reform the band and tour in Europe to support Mike Porcaro. They scheduled further concerts in Europe.[17] He performed on the band's 2015 studio album Toto XIV, co-writing and singing lead on "The Little Things" and co-writing/singing lead on the Japan-only bonus cut, "Bend". When the band dissolved in 2019 and regrouped in 2020, Porcaro did not return.[18]

In 2024, Porcaro appeared on HBO Original documentary "Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"'.[19][20]

Someday/Somehow

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Steve released his first ever solo album on June 10, 2016. Someday/Somehow was co-written/produced by Michael Sherwood, former member of the band Lodgic. The album contains 13 songs, one of which reunites Steve with his late brothers Mike and Jeff Porcaro, from recordings made before their deaths.[21][22][23][24][25] Other performing contributions are from Sherwood, Michael McDonald, Jamie Kimmett, Mabvuto Carpenter, Marc Bonilla, Steve Lukather, Lenny Castro, Jimmy Haun, and Shannon Forrest.[26]

Equipment

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Steve Porcaro played a huge variety of synthesizers on Toto albums. While David Paich handled piano duties, it was usually Steve's job to complement the music with creative synth sounds. The synth solo in the Toto song "Rosanna" is a noted example of his approach.[27] He was known to use various Yamaha synthesizers, including the CS-80, GS1, DX1, and DX7, as well as others such as the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Minimoog Model D, Polyfusion Modular, E-mu Emulator, Roland Jupiter-8, Oberheim Xpander, and Dynacord Add-one. He also used various keyboards during live performances with the band such as the Wurlitzer 200A in 1979 and Yamaha CP-70 in 1980, sometimes used for covering the piano parts when David Paich was playing organ or a synthesizer.

In later years, he gravitated towards working with software synthesizers. Onstage in the 2010s, he used two Yamaha keyboards (a Montage 8 and a Yamaha Motif XF7) to drive his Apple MainStage-based virtual synth rig,[28] which drew samples from, among others, Logic's ES2 plug-in and Spitfire Audio libraries.[7] He is also a user of Arturia products, and has spoken highly of their synthesizer software, including a demonstration video of the CS-80 V software.[29]

Personal life

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His first daughter, Heather Janine Porcaro, was born on June 8, 1978. She was the child of Porcaro and his then wife Jeanette Mellin. He was married to model Pam Ross from 1998 to 2008. They had two children, Dominic (b. 1999) and Micki (b. 2003).[30]

He collaborated with his daughter Heather Porcaro on her debut album, The Heartstring Symphony, released in 2009. Heather was featured in Paper magazine's "Most Beautiful People" issue in 2002.[31]

Discography

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With Toto

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Solo Releases

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With Other Artists

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References

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  1. ^ Appelo, Tim (October 3, 2012). "Showrunners 2012: 'Justified's' Graham Yost". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  2. ^ published, Keyboard MagazineContributions from Jerry Kovarsky (May 27, 2022). "Making the synth solo in Toto's Rosanna: "We decided, let's use everything in the studio and just go for it"". MusicRadar. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  3. ^ Jacobs, Samantha (September 21, 2022). "The Untold Truth Of Justified". Looper. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  4. ^ Hogan, Ed. "Biography: Steve Porcaro". AMG. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  5. ^ "Steve Porcaro". GRAMMY.com. November 23, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  6. ^ Sisario, Ben (July 24, 2024). "He Wrote Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature' and Has 2 More in the Vault". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  7. ^ a b Kovarsky, Jerry (July 13, 2015). "TOTO: The Synth Statesmen of Progressive Pop Return". Keyboard. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
  8. ^ "Steve Porcaro and Lexicon products". Lexicon Pro - Legendary Reverb and Effects. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  9. ^ Steve Porcaro. "Steve Porcaro – Official Website of the TOTO Founding Member". Steveporcaromusic.com. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  10. ^ Blabbermouth (July 24, 2024). "TOTO's STEVE PORCARO Sells Publishing Catalog, Artist Royalties To PRIMARY WAVE MUSIC". BLABBERMOUTH.NET. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  11. ^ "Lea", Toto99.com. Retrieved October 27, 2011.
  12. ^ "Toto: The Story Behind Rosanna (2017, with Dutch subtitles) Top 2000". YouTube.[dead YouTube link]
  13. ^ "Steve Porcaro Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  14. ^ Studio 10 (June 28, 2022). Why Toto Almost Didn’t Release ‘Africa’ | Studio 10. Retrieved January 15, 2025 – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ a b c Sisario, Ben (July 24, 2024). "He Wrote Michael Jackson's 'Human Nature' and Has 2 More in the Vault". The New York Times. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
  16. ^ Appelo, Tim (October 3, 2012). "Showrunners 2012: 'Justified's' Graham Yost". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  17. ^ Toto99.com
  18. ^ Greene, Andy (November 20, 2020). "Bless the Rains: Inside Toto's Slow Fall and Surprise Resurrection". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  19. ^ Chiu, David. "'Yacht Rock' Documentary Makes A Case For The Smooth Legacy Of '70s And '80s Soft Rock". Forbes. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  20. ^ "Yacht rock gets celebrated — smoothly, of course — in new documentary". AP News. November 29, 2024. Retrieved June 20, 2025.
  21. ^ "Steve Porcaro, of Toto: Something Else! Interview". Something Else!. May 26, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  22. ^ "Concert Preview: Connecticut's Steve Porcaro Promoting First Solo Record …And Toto, Too!". www.newtownbee.com. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  23. ^ "Steve Porcaro Someday / Somehow – CD Review". VintageRock.com. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  24. ^ O'Neill, Christina (April 8, 2016). "Toto's Steve Porcaro to release first solo album". Classic Rock Magazine. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  25. ^ Wardlaw, Matt (June 21, 2016). "Toto's Steve Porcaro Talks About His New Debut Solo Album: Exclusive Interview". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  26. ^ "Toto's Steve Porcaro to release first solo album – Classic Rock". Teamrock.com. April 8, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  27. ^ "Toto99.com". Toto99.com. April 30, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  28. ^ "Musinq.com". Musinq.com. January 12, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  29. ^ Arturia (May 24, 2022). Steve Porcaro | Meeting CS-80 V. Retrieved April 11, 2025 – via YouTube.
  30. ^ ESME (September 26, 2017). "Pam Ross Porcaro: A Model Solo Mom". ESME. Retrieved September 2, 2024.
  31. ^ "Beautiful People 2002: Heather Porcaro". PAPER. April 1, 2002. Archived from the original on June 6, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2024.
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