Toto’s Steve Lukather Says Hit Song ‘Africa’ Has Been ‘a Blessing and a Curse’

The 1982 track was the band’s only No. 1 hit — but has been widely criticized for its confusing lyrics

It was a No. 1 hit — and it’s notoriously a little odd. Toto’s Steve Lukather has some mixed feelings about the band’s 1982 song, “Africa.”

Lukather, 67, opened about the creation of the song and its legacy on the April 15 episode of Fail Better with David Duchovny. The musician is the only continuous founding member of Toto, which formed in 1977. Lukather also received acclaim for working widely as a session musician, playing guitar on more than 1,500 records.

“[I] spent the best times of my life being this young session player,” he told Duchovny, 64. “We’d just roll in, and it was always the same bunch of knuckleheads, and we were always getting into trouble. But we took the music very seriously.”

“I’ve lived the dream, man,” the guitarist explained. “Got to be in my own band, which is still going almost fifty years later. And I’ve been a session player at the last era of the great session guy.” Duchovny added, “Then the music survives because the music is good.”

But there’s one song Lukather wasn’t sure that applied to. “For some reason, this ‘Africa’ thing has been a blessing and a curse,” he said. “First off, it’s the least Toto song out of our whole bunch, but that’s the one everybody thinks that’s what we are.”

Lukather said the song — which is heavily produced, using a synthesizer and a piano making the noise of a kalimba — was “the last thing” they cut for the album. “We thought it was a throwaway song,” he said. “We made the whole record without hearing the lyrics. And the last thing we did was put the lead vocal on. Everything else was done.” 

David Paich and Jeff Porcaro wrote the lyrics, which have been widely criticized over the years for confusing metaphors about visiting Africa. Still, he said, the band knew the song was “catchy” and had “potential.”

Lukather said of the lyrics, “People try to think we’re serious about all this,” but that the band laughs at the lyrics. He also said that songwriters have “poetic license” and people shouldn’t get “too anal” about the words (which includes a lyric about seeing Kilimanjaro from the Serengeti, which is impossible). He noted that if you listen to lyrics by The Beatles, they also might not make sense.

Still, he said, when the band finally heard the lyrics, “We started laughing, going, ‘What does this mean, man? We’re from North Hollywood.’ ”

“But it’s become the golden carrot, you know, so you can’t argue with it,” Lukather said. Now, when kids hear it, he hopes it leads them to the rest of Toto’s catalog. “And then they find out these guys are actually a rock band.”

“Africa” was from the band’s 1982 album Toto IV. The album’s first single was “Roseanna,” which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100. It also won the Grammy for record of the year. “Africa” is the band’s only No. 1 hit.