Featuring Steve Morse & Steve Lukather
Guitar Center
Roseville, Detroit, MI
May 27th 2009.
By Alun Williams
Photos by Tim Mann
Tonight Steve Morse & Steve Lukather, along with
Sterling Ball on bass (Co-creator of the
Music Man guitar & son of the late Ernie Ball) & Dave Ferraro on
drums, provided a little, “lunch break” – As Sterling described
it – entertainment!
As part of the 25th Anniversary
celebrations, Sterling Ball talked the 2 Steve’s into a little
promo work, specifically because they both play Music Man
guitars, but as he also told us, he’s so close to them both
through being Godfather to both Steve’s sets of kids!
The evening started with the 4 of the guys
getting up on a little platform & taking various questions from
the somewhat small group in attendance tonight. Many things were
asked covering how they started in music, who were the early
influences, first Luke who mention English acts like the Beatles
… Cue a snippet of the the guys jamming Please, Please Me & then
I Wanna Hold You Hand.
Luke added how he had been fortunate enough to
have worked with both Paul McCartney & George Harrison, some
other Beatles snippets were included too.
Steve Morse shared that The Rolling Stones were
probably his first big influence as they then jammed a
snatch of Brown Sugar (Can I say that?!) then Honky Tonk Women,
referencing Ry Cooder’s input there too … Hmmm …
There were plenty of laughs as jokes were cracked
across the board by all the guys, not least when the Guitar
Center phone kept ringing on the overhead paging system there …
Luke shared that in fact his first gig was at
someone’s birthday party when he was just nine years old, while
Steve Morse just said he was young …, but first started jamming
with his brother, who played drums.
He shared that both Clapton & BB King were both
early influences, then they gave us a full jam of Crossroads.
Sterling then posed questions to them both about
family members playing or inspiring them & Luke mentioned about
his son Trevor, who seriously jams & his daughter Tina who also
sings …
Steve Morse explained that his Mum used to play
piano & that was a big influence, but his Dad was really against
the music thing … Luke was stunned & said, “Really ..?”
Sterling then posed the question of what brought
them both to Music Man & they were both just so impressed by the
whole set up of the organization, especially Steve Morse about
how well they did everything in the construction of the guitars
& how it really was a family run business, how when they do the
NAMM gigs, that the whole family is there in support of the
whole business.
Sterling explained how it was his & Dudley Gimpel's
dream for the guitar & it was Keith Richards who was first
interested & before they knew it, a Japanese company came
through with an order for 10,000 guitars!
He laughed saying it was a nice thought, but
since they were only putting out about 11 or 12 guitars a day,
that was just never going to happen. So much care & attention is
put into creating these guitars & that’s what makes them so
special & really unique.
He told us how it was actually Luke who figured
out Eddie V.Halen’s pick up’s, as Eddie really didn’t really
know quite what he wanted!
The 25th Anniversary edition of the
Music Man guitar was sweet, Luke picked it up & jammed it & it
rocked!
He’s saying, “Just listen to that man & that
sound is without any distortion pedal! It’s got it’s own depth &
sound!”
He then gave us a snippet of a song he wrote
years back for some friends, She’s A Beauty, along with some
Talk To Ya Later ….
Steve Morse was sharing that his first real album
recording was the first Dixie Dregs album, but he was also in a
band called the Prophets who did something … Then he ‘fessed up
to the Soundalike old 8 Track tape albums that were basically
close covers of originals, when he was only about 13 / 14 years
old!
They then jammed again, with Sterling saying,
“How about some Motown then?” They started jamming My Girl,
which then built up & up & first Steve Morse jammed big time as
it got more intense & rocking, before Luke gave it his all &
then they brought the sound right back down again …
They then said their thanks to everyone,
including
Guitar Center & closed things with a big bluesy, jazz rock jam.
Awesome! They then just mingled with folks, one
on one, signed stuff & posed for photo’s with us all.
A great night for sure, but no Toto jammed, no
Purple, but they did answer many, many questions on both bands
too …
I asked Steve Morse after the show about Purple’s
next album & he seemed a little awkward & answered, “Well who
knows?! We’ve got loads of dates lined up to play, plus all of
our own side projects …”
Interesting, hopefully he’s not planning on
bailing …
I think everyone loved the night.
