“He turned out to be the nicest, funniest guy I'd ever hung out with": Steve Lukather on meeting his hero, George Harrison

They say you should never meet your heroes. But Steve Lukather has been talking about the time he met one of his – George Harrison. And the ex Beatle didn’t disappoint. Far from it.

In an interview with Guitar World, the Toto guitarist recalls crossing paths with the Harrison in 1992, just before he was due to commemorate bandmate Jeff Porcaro. "I had met George a few days before we were doing a tribute to Jeff Porcaro after he tragically passed. I said, 'Hey, man, I just wanted to say hi and thank you for my career.' He turned out to be the nicest, funniest guy I'd ever hung out with."

The two guitarists got chatting and Lukather, being the polite fella that he is, tentatively asked Harrison if he’d like to come along to the Porcaro show. “(I said) ‘I’ll leave a couple of tickets for you,’ never in a million years thinking he’d take them,” says Lukather. “Sure enough, the last thing we were going to do was A Little Help From My Friends, which was the Joe Cocker version, ironically!

“So, we’re all sitting in the dressing room getting the vocal parts down, and somebody goes, ‘There’s somebody here to see you.’ I said, ‘Dude, right now? Really!?’ They go, ‘No, I think you want to see them – this guy’s from Liverpool…’ I went, ‘No fucking way.’”

“The door opens up, and George is standing there. There were a lot of famous people in the room, but when a Beatle walks in, it’s got a different vibe, man.”

Too right there were other famous people there. Sharing a stage with Lukather that night was another guitar icon: one Eddie Van Halen, as well as Don Henley and David Crosby.

Lukather said he’ll never forget the night – he handed Harrison his old ‘59 Les Paul and the Quiet One joined Van Halen and Lukather on stage.

“I gave him my Les Paul (to use), which, just by him holding it, increased its value by, like, a million dollars,” recalls Lukather. “I know this because I got my guitar appraised, because there are pictures of me and George, and George is playing that guitar.”

That Les Paul may have been blessed by a Beatle, but Lukather says he has no intentions in parting company with it. "I'm never gonna sell that," he insisted. "My son Trev, a great guitar player, will get it.”