On a recent episode of the New & Approved podcast, Toto’s Steve Lukather shared his thoughts on Weezer’s take on ‘Africa.’
“I don’t know about him loving the song, man,” Lukather said during the chat when the host mentioned Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo loving ‘Africa.’ “I don’t think that’s the case at all.”
Lukather thinks the song wasn’t done with a good intention. “I think he did it to take the piss out of it and it blew up in his face. Now he’s gotta play it every night,” he continued.
“I tried to reach out to this guy and be friendly and it just got weird,” he added.
In 2018, a Twitter campaign convinced Weezer to cover ‘Africa.’ In response, Toto decided to have some fun and released their own cover of Weezer’s ‘Hash Pipe.’
Only a month after the release of the cover, the guitarist talked about his first impression of it. “The likelihood of Toto and Weezer in the same breath is strange at first glance. It was a true WTF moment for us; maybe for them, too,” he explained in a chat with Variety. “I think they did on a dare or as a gag. I guess Weezer covers ‘80s songs for a laugh. I am sure they never saw this coming any more than we did.”
Lukather added, “I see it as a win-win for both sides and we all laugh our asses off wishing we could see the so-called ‘hipster press’ writhing in their worst nightmare of collaborations. But the kids don’t care. They like what they like and somehow this ‘Africa’ thing has caught on. Never thought I’d live to see it.”
He also made it clear that Toto was flattered that Weezer wanted to cover one of their songs.
In other news, Toto will start their upcoming tour on February 1 in Glasgow, UK. The tour is scheduled to wrap up on March 2 in Tampere, Finland.
