Jeff Porcaro was one of the top studio drummers in pop music during the 1970s and 1980s. While still a teenager he began playing with Sonny and Cher, and during the next two decades he played behind acts ranging from Barbra Streisand to Warren Zevon. Porcaro played with Steely Dan on Pretzel Logic (1974), with Boz Scaggs on Silk Degrees (1976) and with Michael Jackson on Thriller (1982). He co-founded the band Toto, which recorded hits like "Hold the Line" (from Toto, 1978) and "Rosanna" (from Toto IV, 1982). Porcaro's 1992 death from a heart attack has been the subject of controversy: some sources say the attack was caused by an allergic reaction to garden pesticide, while others say Porcaro's heart was weakened by cocaine use.
Two of Porcaro's brothers played with Toto: Steve Porcaro on keyboards, and Mike Porcaro on bass... His father Joe Porcaro also was a drummer... It's true: the hit "Rosanna" was a tribute to Steve Porcaro's girlfriend, actress Rosanna Arquette... Toto is also the name of Judy Garland's dog in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
In addition to being the drummer in the Grammy winning, platinum-selling rock band Toto, Jeff Porcaro was arguably the most highly regarded studio drummer in rock from the mid-'70s to the early '90s. His playing was crisp and precise, propulsive without being showy and throughout his career, the most successful musicians in the popular music business lined up to work with him. It is no exaggeration to say that the sound of mainstream pop/rock drumming in the 1980s was, to a large extent, the sound of Jeff Porcaro.
Porcaro was the eldest of three sons of drummer Joe Porcaro, who had an extensive career working with big bands; his younger brothers, Mike and Steve, both became musicians. He showed an early interest in drumming and began playing seriously at the age of seven. His first teacher was his father, naturally, but he also studied with Bob Zimmitti and Rich Lapore. He joined his first band at 13. In 1968, the Porcaro family moved to Los Angeles, where Joe Porcaro began to work on television shows and to teach. Jeff Porcaro attended Grant High School in Van Nuys, CA, but he dropped out before graduating in order to take a job on the TV series The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. At the end of 1973, he was offered the drum chair in Steely Dan for a four-month tour. Playing with the demanding Steely Dan was considered an extremely prestigious gig and Porcaro later played on the group's albums Pretzel Logic (1974), Katy Lied (1975), and Gaucho (1980). After spending an extended period working with Seals & Crofts, he became a full-time session musician in Los Angeles, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. A short list of his appearances on major albums includes: Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees (1976); Barbra Streisand's Streisand Superman (1977), Songbird (1978), Wet (1979), and Till I Loved You (1989); Warren Zevon's Excitable Boy (1978), The Envoy (1982), and Mr. Bad Example (1991); Rickie Lee Jones' Rickie Lee Jones (1979); Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979); Crosby, Stills & Nash's Daylight Again (1982); Donald Fagen's The Nightfly (1982); Don Henley's I Can't Stand Still (1982) and End of the Innocence (1989); Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) (including co-writing the Top Ten hit "Human Nature") and Dangerous (1991); Randy Newman's Trouble in Paradise (1983) and Land of Dreams (1988); Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down (1983); Paul Simon's Hearts and Bones (1983); Eric Clapton's Behind the Sun (1985); Madonna's Like a Prayer (1989); Dire Straits' On Every Street (1991); and Bonnie Raitt's Luck of the Draw (1991).
In 1977, Porcaro joined with singer Bobby Kimball, guitarist Steve Lukather, keyboard players David Paich and Steve Porcaro, and bass player David Hungate to form Toto, which released its self-titled debut album in the fall of 1978. Featuring the gold, Top Ten hit "Hold the Line," the album went double platinum. Hydra (1979) only went gold and Turn Back (1981) didn't even do that, but Toto IV (1982), propelled by the gold-selling Top Five hit "Rosanna" and also featuring the gold, number one hit "Africa" (co-written by Porcaro) and the Top Ten hit "I Won't Hold You Back," went triple platinum and won the 1982 Grammy for Album of the Year. That, however, was the group's commercial apex. Their next two albums, Isolation (1984) and Fahrenheit (1986) (featuring the number one adult contemporary hit "I'll Be Over You"), each went gold, but 1988's The Seventh One was their last regular album release to reach the American charts. Meanwhile, however, they had become enormously popular in Europe and the Far East and toured there frequently.
In the early '90s, Porcaro continued to be an in-demand session musician. After he drummed on Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch album, Springsteen is rumored to have offered him one million dollars to join his upcoming 1992 tour. If so, Porcaro turned the offer down. He had just completed work on the next Toto album, Kingdom of Desire, and was planning to go on tour with the band to promote it, but he died suddenly at the age of 38. Initial reports suggested that the cause of death was cardiac arrest brought on by his having developed an allergic reaction to pesticides as he sprayed his garden. But a coroner's report, issued a month after his death, found no traces of pesticides; instead, the coroner found traces of cocaine in Porcaro's bloodstream and concluded that he had died of a heart attack brought on by hardening of the arteries caused by prolonged use of cocaine. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an Americansessiondrummer and a founding member of the Grammy Award winning band Toto. Porcaro was one of the most recorded drummers in history.[1] While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he shot to national prominence as the drummer on the Steely Danalbum, Katy Lied.
On October 22, 1983, Porcaro married Susan Norris, a Los Angeles television newscaster. They had three sons, Christopher Joseph (born July 3, 1984), Miles Edwin Crawford (born June 12, 1986), and Nico Hendrix (born December 26, 1991).
Career
Porcaro began playing at the age of seven. Lessons came from his father Joe Porcaro, followed by further studies with Bob Zimmitti and Richie Lepore.
When he was seventeen, Porcaro got his first professional gig playing in Sonny and Cher's touring band. During his 20s, he played on hundreds of albums,[2] including several for Steely Dan. He toured with Boz Scaggs, before co-founding Toto with his brother Steve and childhood friends Steve Lukather and David Paich.
He also played drums on 10cc's ...Meanwhile (1992). On the 1993 10cc Alive album, recorded after his death, the band dedicated "The Night That the Stars Didn't Show" to him.
Death
Porcaro died in a gardening accident on August 5, 1992, at the age of 38. He was spraying insecticide in his garden and inhaled too much of the spray, triggering a heart attack. An autopsy revealed a serious heart condition that had been previously undiagnosed.
Porcaro's funeral, attended by an estimated 1,500 people (friends, family, colleagues, fans), was held on August 10 in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery, where he was buried. The Jeff Porcaro Memorial Fund was established to benefit the music and art departments of Grant High School in Los Angeles where he was a student in the early 1970s. A memorial concert took place at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992 with an all-star line up that included Boz Scaggs, Donald Fagen, Don Henley, Michael McDonald, George Harrison, David Crosby, Eddie Van Halen and the members of Toto. The proceeds of the concert were used to establish an educational trust fund for Porcaro's sons.
