The sad news has come through that the world has lost another great person. Mike Porcaro, bass player with Toto, has died aged 59 after a long fight with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Porcaro was struck down at the age of 52, when he found numbness in his fingers when playing the bass guitar. The shattering diagnosis was announced soon after and he took sick leave from the band, never to return. He was an incredible player who also appeared with Joe Walsh, Seals and Crofts and Boz Scaggs.
How terrible is his death to the family because they have now lost a second son. Jeff Porcaro died in 1992, one of the great drummers in the history of rock music with a CV to end all CVs. I saw him in 1974 when he toured with Steely Dan and up until his passing, he appeared with a stellar line of stars. He played many great drum licks but my favourite has to be the ‘Rosanna Half Shuffle’ that runs through the Toto hit single ‘Rosanna’. On a fascinating You Tube video, Porcaro openly admits he stolen it from a combination of John Bonham and Bernard Purdie.
Toto continues to tour and there remains a Porcaro, brother Steve, to maintain the presence of an incredible musical family and I look forward to seeing them again this May at Hammersmith.
The passing of this incredible musician brings me great sadness, albeit tempered with the knowledge that he is no longer imprisoned by a body that gradually gave up on him. What an awful,cruel disease and let us all hope that the money raised last year for ALS research can one day bring a cure.
