TOTO’S JOSEPH WILLIAMS THE

Tour Goes On

BY RANDY PATTERSON, BOOMEROCITY.COM

IN CONCERT • THOMPSON-BOLING ARENA • FEBRUARY 17

PEOPLE WHO listened to the radio and watched MTV back in the funfilled late ’ 70s and early ’ 80s will know that two bands were consistently played on both media: Journey and Toto. Each band has sold more than 40 million albums and still enjoys an amazingly loyal fan base.

That fan base has been overjoyed to learn that the two bands are touring together this year as a carryover of last year’s tour. East Tennesseans are especially thrilled because the tour is stopping at Thompson-Boling Arena on the 17th of this month. To see either band in concert is truly a musical treat and experience. They never fail to deliver all the fan favorites, and both band’s shows are high-energy.

It can easily be argued that Toto is one of the most under appreciated and underrated band in the history of rock and roll. According to their website, “As individuals, the band members’ performances can be heard on an astonishing 5,000 albums that together amass a sales history of a HALF A BILLION albums. Amongst these recordings, NARAS applauded the collected works with 225 Grammy nominations. Band members were South Park characters, while Family Guy did an entire episode around one of their hits, and most recently, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell scored their honeymoon video to ‘Africa.’”

Throughout the years, Toto’s band lineup has evolved. During the pandemic, Toto lead singer Joseph Williams and bandmate/guitarist Steve Lukather, along with band founder David Paich, have assembled the current lineup consisting of Warren Ham (Kansas, Ringo Starr) on sax, Xavier Taplin (Prince, Queen Latifah) and Steve Maggiora (Marc Broussard, Daniel Powter) on keyboards, John Pierce (Lou Rawls, Cab Calloway, Gladys Knight) on bass, and Sput Searight (God’s Property, Ghost-Note, Snarky Puppy) on drums/ percussion. They join Williams and Lukather in making up what can arguably be said is the tightest Toto configuration in many years. The lineup was introduced to fans during a livestream concert in late 2020 and were all warmly received.

Joseph Williams chatted with Boomerocity about the ongoing tour - they replaced an ailing Billy Idol for Journey’s entire Freedom tour. The two bands also now have a “family connection” after Steve Lukather’s son, Trevor, married Journey’s Jonathan Cain’s daughter, Madison, in early December of last year. We started with Joseph sharing how he felt that the tour was fun and successful and how audience reception to the new lineup has been great.

Joseph shared: “I’ve heard nothing but great things. But you know, having said that, I’m not one that goes looking for reviews and looking for comments and stuff. Because, I don’t know, I just thought that the negative ones don’t do me any good, and as long as I feel about good about what I’m doing out there and what we’re doing, and the audiences seem to respond, that’s really the main thing.

“Having said that, I definitely saw a few reviews, and they were all really positive about the band - that it was very high energy for the group. So far, I’m pleased with the reaction. Yeah. I think it’s a good group of guys, really.”

The Journey/Toto 2023 tour launches on February 4th in Allentown, Pennsylvania, stops in Knoxville on the 17th, and concludes in Palm Springs, California, on April 25th - 38 cities in all with 13 Toto-only shows sprinkled in between. I asked Joseph if he anticipated additional dates or tour extensions this year.

“Well, toward the end of the year, we might do something, but there’s nothing that I know of that’s on the books,” he said. “But the first part of the year - the first two months in the States, and then we’re going back to Japan after not being there for five or six years or something. So, we’re gonna go play Japan and perhaps a couple of other markets and cities in southeast Asia, I’m not quite sure. But that will pretty much be it. It’s a little more of a lean year for us.”

Toto fans should not wait about acquiring tickets for the Knoxville show. At the time of this writing, there were still some tickets left for the show, but they were selling fast. It promises to be an amazing night of music. You can access available tickets for purchase by visiting TotoOfficial.com, where you can also find the latest updates on the band.

You can watch and hear this interview in its entirety on Boomerocity.com, as well as on YouTube and on most podcast platforms at Boomerocity The Fan Experience.

Randy’s first interview was at the tender age of 13 with none other than Col. Tom Parker. Thirty-six years later, he founded the webzine, Boomerocity.com, and has conducted more than 400 interviews with some of the most interesting people in music.