Toto guitarist Steve Lukather thinks the lyrics to the band’s greatest observe, Africa, are “foolish”.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Lukather admits he by no means thought Africa, which was launched over 4 many years in the past, can be a single.

“To this date, I smirk once I hear the phrases,” he says, “All of us cracked up on the lyrics. These of us that didn’t write them had been going, ‘What?’”

He continues, “You assume it’s simply foolish lyrics, like, this’ll by no means be a single but it surely’s a cool observe. Sure, none of it is sensible, it’s not geographically excellent or something however you’re taking poetic license. It rhymes, okay?”

Toto’s co-founder and keyboardist David Paich was the one behind the lyrics, which he as soon as defined are a “romanticised” model of his love of the continent, moderately than a stereotypical romance.

“After I sat down and performed the refrain, the best way you hear it simply got here out,” Paich says, “It’s totally different, and I wasn’t certain what it meant on the time. Then I labored backwards and constructed a narrative that felt applicable.”

Not solely would Africa go on to be probably the most streamed observe within the final three many years of the twentieth century, it additionally has achieved diamond standing for bodily and digital gross sales of greater than 10 million.

Lukather additionally explains how he negotiated higher-than-average royalty charges for the band with Spotify, which means these streaming numbers are paying Toto greater than they need to be.

“I can’t inform you [how I did that],” he says, “As a result of if I did, somebody would kill me.” What he does provide is a proof to how pertinent the timing of his negotiations had been. “You’re not purported to make as a lot as we do from this shit. However I received in after they didn’t know what that they had. It was model new, so I received one over on them there. But it surely was a good deal. We made them a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} and it was our flip to make it again.”