What's going on my fellow rock n' rollers. Don't forget to hit the bell notification
icon to be notified every time i put out a new video on my channel. Jeff Porcaro, Toto’s
drummer would die unexpectedly. His death wasn’t just a tragedy, but the circumstances
around it were suspicious. Let’s explore the story of the his life and death.
Initial news report stated that on August 5, 1992 Porcaro, who was 38 died while doing
yard work at his home in Hidden Hills California. He was spraying two bottles of pesticide in
his bug ridden yard and shortly afterwards he was laying on his couch complaining to
his wife that he couldn’t move some of his limbs. An ambulance arrived taking the drummer
to the hospital where he died shortly afterwards. The New York Times published a piece on August
7th, 1992 citing a Los Angeles coroner spokesperson claiming that Porcaro died of a heart attack
that was due to an allergic reaction to inhaling pesticide spray.
Porcaro left behind a wife and three young boys as well his band Toto, who he co-founded
with keyboardist and vocalist David Paich two decades prior. His band was now left with
the difficult task of mourning and finding a replacement drummer. It took the band years
to recover from the devastating news. Following his passing Paich and guitarist
Steve Lukather initially agreed to disband the group feeling that they could no longer
move on without their leader, but Lukather would tell Team Rock in 2016“Jeff
was our figurehead,” “We were torn apart.”, but It would be Porcaro’s family who urged
the band to carry on and that they did. The band soon enlisted Los Angeles based drummer
Simon Phillips to replace Jeff Porcaro as they knew that hewas a fan of Phillips and
Lukather previously worked with Phillips on a previous tour with Santana and Jeff Beck
in Japan in 1986. And Jeff Porcaro had a pretty storied career
becoming a professional musician at just the age of 17 dropping out of high school to tour
with Sonny and Cher. Following his stint with the duo he played with a wide range of artists
including steely dan, boz scaggs, pink floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney,
Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Fogerty to name a few. His collaborations with some of the
biggest names in rock happened while he was behind the kit for Toto. And Porcaro was one
of the most recorded drummers in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands
of sessions and chances are you've probably heard him on the radio without even knowing
it. Paich would reveal that himself and Jeff began
as he put it "the co-leaders of Toto," a band that also included Jeff’s brother keyboardist
Steve Porcaro and – bassist Mike Porcaro, as well. And the trio were the hcildren of
famous jazz drummer, so it was no surprise they are artistic.
The group’s breakthrough album happened with 1982’s Toto IV which featured two of
the most popular rock n’ roll songs in history including Rosanna and Africa. And Rosanna
is often highlighted as one of Jeff’s breakthrough drum performances as it was heavily influenced
by the Led Zeppelin song “fool in the rain”. It was no surprise why he became one of the
most sought after studio musicians around this time.
And Paich would tell Modern Drummer in 1992 "He wasn’t just a drummer; he was an all-around
musician,". "I’ve played with a whole lot of drummers, and he’s the best I’ve ever
played with. We never had to talk much. Everything was just understood. Our communication was
non-verbal. It was mainly just eye contact between him and me. He was the brother I never
had ” he'd say And Steve Lukather would echo those sentiments
tell Smashing interviews in 2015 "He was like the brother I never had."
And weeks after the official news came out of Porcaro’s death the Los Angeles coroner
released their official report.. The cause of death had been changed. The coroner revealed
that small trace amounts of cocaine were found in the drummer’s body and his cause of death
was changed to a hardening of the arteries due to prolonged drug use. An autopsy that
was done claimed that Porcaro had a serious heart problem that hadn’t been previously
diagnosed and no trace amounts of the pesticide were found in his body. The news of his drug
use angered his bandmates who were upset at the media for disrespecting his death with
guitarist steve lukather revealing to classic rock “It was irresponsible journalism. They
found one one hundredth of a microgram of coke in Jeff’s blood. That’s like two
crystals on an fing matchstick That ain’t gonna give someone a heart attack believe
me.The rest of us were doing a hundred times more than that and we all lived to tell the
tale. And Lukather for his part claimed the drummer died due to his undiagnosed heart
condition and the fact that the drummer was a life long smoker, despite the fact no reference
was made to this in the coroner’s report. And those who were close to parcaro would
come out and claim that the drummer hadn’t abused substances for years. His wife also
took it upon herself to clear her husband’s name as you can see in this entertainment
tonight segment from late 1992
Toto and as the beat behind dozens of other stars everybody heard Jeff Porcaro's music.When
he died earlier this year at the age of 38 that was enough of a shock for his widow.
When it was linked with drugs and not only grieving but trying to salvage the family's
good name. Here's today's inside story. The medical experts have told me that no one can
get hardening of the arteries from using cocaine. I did not know Jeff used cocaine if he did,
I was totally unaware of it. I don't think anyone could function the way he did and be
a drug user. Kiss, thanks bud! This collection of home movies depicts the man suzane remembers
a devoted family man she met a decade ago during a tv interview. She worked as a los
angeles reporter and it was her first time talking to the band members of Toto. he chose
to spend a lot of time with the kids, sometimes not going to work or turning down work because
he would rather stay home and hang out with the children if they had a day off from school
if it was a weekend and I...he turned down tours with Dire Straits and Madonna and very
good friend Bruce Springsteen because it was too long of a time to be away from the family.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching, let me know in the comments
section is Jeff Porcaro one of your favourite drummers and who are some of your favourite
drummers and are you guys a fan of Toto and do you want to see more videos from them on
my channel. Let me know in the comments section below. And thanks for watching guys. See ya
later.