Bobby Kimball on the “Rosanna”
video (1982)
Bobby Kimball was the original
singer(he doesn’t play any instrument) for Toto. Those familiar with Toto’s hits
“Hold the Line,” “Rosanna,” and “Africa” will recognize Bobby’s high vocals. Bobby
began his career with Toto in 1977. From 1977 to 1984, Bobby recorded four
albums with Toto. Toto’s self-titled album (1978) contained the hits “Hold the
Line” and “Georgy Porgy” and went double platinum. Their second album Hydra (1979) went gold. The third album Hold Back (1981) didn’t do as
well as the previous two albums. However, Toto rebounded with Toto IV (1982), which
earned six Grammy awards and went triple platinum. Toto IV contains Toto’s biggest hits, “Rosanna” and “Africa.” Despite the
success of Toto, the original lineup eventually broke up. Bassist David Hungate left in 1982 and Bobby left in
1984.
After leaving Toto, Bobby joined the Far Corporation in 1984 (created
by German producer Frank Fabian, who was known in later years for creating
Milli Vanilli). Far Corporation had a hit of their cover of the Led Zeppelin
classic “Stairway to Heaven” which made it to #8 in the UK charts and #85 in
the US charts. (Interesting
trivia: Far Corporation is the only band that has had a hit single with
“Stairway to Heaven,” because Led Zeppelin never released it as a single.) Bobby kept himself busy with session and
solo work until he was asked to come back to Toto in 1998.
Bobby played with Toto
for ten years until guitarist Steve Lukather decided to end the band in 2008.
During Bobby’s time with Toto, he recorded three studio albums: Mindfields (1998), Through the Looking
Glass (2002) and Falling in Between (2006). In addition, Toto released two live albums: Livefields (1999) and Falling in
Between Live (2007). Also, during the time Bobby was back with
Toto, he released his first album All
I Ever Needed (1999).
After Toto, from 2010–2016,
Bobby was constantly on the road, either with a new group or solo. Most
recently, in April 2017, he released his second solo album We’re Not in Kansas Anymore.
Not surprisingly, the music is similar to his work with Toto, but what’s more
remarkable is that Bobby has still retained his trademark high vocals and shows
signs of little wear and tear.
In this candid
conversation, we talk about Bobby’s time in Toto and the Far Corporation. In
addition, we talk about his new album We’re Not in Kansas Anymore and his secret on how his vocal chords stay
in shape. One mystery we clear up is if Toto’s song “Rosanna” is really about
the actress Rosanna Arquette. Many people believe that the song is about Arquette,
as Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro had dated Arquette in the past.
I want to thank Billy
James of Glass Onyon PR for setting up the interview, but most of all I want to
thank Bobby.
Jeff Cramer: What got you
into singing?
Bobby Kimball: What got me in singing? When I was just five
years old, I started playing the piano, and my mother taught me a lot of
chords. And this black guy in this little three-thousand-person town (Note: Bobby grew up in Vinton, Louisiana) that
I lived in taught me rhythm. When I played in the piano, I also started singing
because my oldest brother was like a white Ray Charles. He was very, very good
as a singer and piano player, so I thought it was a good idea to sing, so I
did. I was eight years old when I played with my first band.
JC: How did you come across Toto?
BK: In 1974, I moved from Louisiana to Los
Angeles. I was playing with a great band in 1974 (I started that band when I was eight), but
I got a call from a very good friend of mine—Jon Smith. I played in two bands
with him in Louisiana. Jon was from Louisiana in Lafayette, and he was a great
saxophone player.
Anyway,
when the singers left the band Three Dog Night, the bass player, drummer, and
guitar player called Jon to join a new band they were starting. At the first
rehearsal, they’d asked Jon if he knew any singers.
So Jon called me and said, “Would you come and sing with
some guys from Three Dog Night?” I said, “Try and stop me.” Three Dog Night was
my favorite band at the time. So I moved to Los Angeles, we rehearsed, and the
band was called S.S. Fools.
When I got here, we rehearsed for about two months in the
studio. While we were rehearsing, David
Paich and Jeff Porcaro—the two guys who organized the band Toto—loved those
guys from Three Dog Night, and they came to about one-third of our rehearsals. We
rehearsed for about two months.
That was how I met those guys. And we became pretty good
friends. The manager of S.S. Fools was also the manager of Three Dog Night, and
the singers left Three Dog Night because they were losing a lot of money from
the manager. Those guys in S. S. Fools hired the same manager.
JC: The ones that they lost money in?
BK: Yes, exactly, and the same thing started happening. They
were losing money because of that same manager. Fifteen
months later,
I left S.S. Fools. About
three months later, I got a phone call from David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, the
two guys who put Toto together. They asked me to come and sing with the band.
JC: Okay.
BK: I told ’em, “No problem. I love the
musicians.” So that’s where I got with it.
Toto 1978 (Bobby far
left)
JC: In the beginning, you’re doing the lead vocals
on the single “Hold the Line”(1978).
BK: David Paich, the keyboard player, wrote
that song. But I sang the lead vocals and most of the background vocals on
that. It was the first single. It’s still very fun to do [To hear “Hold the Line,” click here.]
JC: You played on three more albums after Toto’s
debut album, Toto (1978). Now, particularly, we get to the high
point of Toto IV(1982). I guess one question that many people have:
Was “Rosanna” really about Rosanna Arquette?
BK: Well, actually, I don’t think the song
was written about her, because she kind of came around and she started living
with the second keyboard player, Steve Porcaro, about two weeks after I did the
lead vocal on “Rosanna.”
JC: Oh, then I guess it’s not about her, since
the song “Rosanna” was about a breakup. You know, the chorus, “Not quite a year
since she went away, Rosanna left!”
BK: Yes. She would go on television—the Johnny Carson Show and
several other things. She was an actress. The thing is, when she would say that
the song was written about her, I never denied that.
I didn’t want to do that because she was a nice person. For the
Toto IV tour, we were on the bus for
quite a while, and she was on the bus with Steve Porcaro.
JC: Okay. So, they were together when the song
was written. Interesting.
BK: It was very great to know her. [To hear “Rosanna,” click here.]
JC: Toto
IV (1982) was the biggest album. It went
triple platinum. It even out-sold the debut album, which went double platinum.
Even the band’s second album Hydra (1979) went gold. And yet after all this success (three great selling albums
out of four albums), the original lineup never continued. Why was it the last
for you? Why was the last for David Hungate, the bass player?
Toto winning grammys in
1983 (Bobby 3rd to right)
BK: Well, Hungate left right after we
recorded the Toto IV album. He moved
to Nashville. I think his wife is the one who got him to stop touring. However,
about the middle of the fifth Toto album, Isolation
(1984), I had sung three of the songs and did most of the background
vocals.
I wrote one of the songs with David Paich. Anyhow, there was
a problem and they asked me to leave the band. They hired a good friend of
mine, Fergie Frederiksen, to replace me.
Fergie had played with a band in Louisiana that I had helped
originally put together called the Levee Band. That band first broke up when I
left that band to come to LA, but they got back together about three months
later; they had some new players and Fergie was the new singer.
Toto hired Fergie to sing with Toto for that fifth album, Isolation. He just went into the studio
and copied the vocals on the songs that I’d sung. He was great, and he was a
really nice guy. But he’s dead.
I did several benefit concerts for his family while he was
dying. And that was really, really good because he was there. Before he died,
he was at some of those concerts and it was super nice.
But as for me, I moved to Germany after I left Toto in 1984.
JC: What did you do in Germany?
BK: There was a guy named Frank Farian, one
of the most famous producers over there. He called me about three days after I
left Toto and asked me to come to Germany. I moved to Frankfurt. That was great
for me because my mother’s father was born in Frankfurt.
I wanted to go abroad and concentrate on how great Frankfurt
was. Anyhow, I did a
Self-titled album with
a group called Far Corporation. That was
the first time I met one of the drummers who would later be with Toto for a
long time, Simon Phillips.
Bobby in Far Corporation
(2nd to right)—1985
JC: Yes.
BK: Simon was playing drums on Far
Corporation’s album. It was fantastic to meet him. [Far Corporation’s first single was a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway
to Heaven.” Click here to watch Bobby deliver an impressive Robert
Plant impression. He sings the last quarter of the song starting “As we wind
down the road . . .” starting at 4:47.]
JC: Okay. You eventually came back and played with
Toto. How did that happen?
BK: In 1998, they called me back after they
had hired three other singers. Fergie Frederickson, who replaced me, was only
with the band for a little less than a year. Then they hired Joseph Williams. Joseph
went to school with some of those guys in Toto, and they hired him.
Joseph was with the band for a couple of years, then they fired
him. Then they hired another guy and he was with the band for almost a year.
Then they called me in 1998. So, I needed to come back and sing with the band. I
sang with them for ten years. So, I was with ’em, altogether for eighteen years:
eight years first; ten years second.
JC: What happened at the end of those ten years?
Why did you—?
BK: When I got back with the band, I wrote the
lyrics on eight of the eleven songs on Falling
in Between. [To hear “Falling in
Between” performed live, click here.]
Toto 2006 (Bobby,
sitting, far left)
We were
on a two-and-a-half-year tour. Mike Porcaro, was our second bass player when
David Hungate left. He also was (original Toto drummer) Jeff Porcaro’s brother.
Mike Porcaro, halfway through the Falling
in Between tour, walked into our dressing room and told us that we were
going to have to get a substitute bass player, ’cause he couldn’t hardly stand
up any more. He couldn’t hold his bass.
He had Gehrig’s disease, ALS. Not long after that—a couple
weeks after—David Paich, the main keyboard player, told us we had to get a
substitute keyboardist because his sister—his only living relative—needed a
double-lung transplant, and he had to come back to LA and get it for her. He
couldn’t do it while he was on the road.
JC: Okay.
BK: In 2008, at the end of that tour, Steve
Lukather decided he wanted to end. By that point, the only original members in the
band were me and Steve Lukather.
We had a substitute drummer, Simon Phillips because Jeff Porcaro
died. We had a substitute bass player and a substitute keyboard player. In
2008, when we finished the tour, Steve Lukather decided that he wanted to form
a solo band. There were only two original members on that stage.
So, Steve quit the band, and the band kind of fell apart. I
started touring all over the world. I played with musicians that I met while I
was touring all over the world with Toto.
When an agent would call me or email me about doing a tour
or concerts, I would contact some of the best musicians I had ever met while I
was touring with Toto. I would contact the musicians and tell them, “Put a band
together. Here’s the set list.” And they would, and they were always great.
I’ve been out of the band since 2008, but it hasn’t been a problem for me.
JC: I know what you mean
about great musicians, ’cause I certainly heard a lot on your recent solo
album. Why don’t we talk about your latest album, We’re Not in Kansas Anymore
[2017]?
Cover for We’re Not in Kansas Anymore (2017)
BK: My solo album . . . I really, really
love it.
JC: How did you get started on that?
BK: John Zaika is the guy who wrote the
tracks. He got the tracks recorded and everything, and I was on the road most
of the time. He was in Dallas for a while recording with a friend of his, so he
went out to LA, and when I got back home, he asked me to come and do the
vocals. I changed a lot of the lyrics. On the other solo album I did, All I Ever Needed (1999), I wrote all of the lyrics, the melody, and
John wrote the music. John’s absolutely brilliant and a great friend of mine.
JC: Well, John captures the classic Toto sound
in those album tracks.
BK: Yeah, he did some brilliant stuff. [Laughs] Well, those songs were super
fun. [Click here to hear some official video clips of Bobby singing from his latest
album.]
JC: Mm-hmm. One thing I was mentioning before:
your vocals . . . you’re still hitting all the high notes. How did you keep
your vocals in great shape? I’ve watched other vocalists go through wear and
tear, but you’ve managed to keep yours in great shape. How do you do it?
BK: Well, I sing a lot. About three years
ago, I was having a little bit of a problem with my voice. I am a part-owner of
a hearing aid company in this town, Rhina, in Germany. The doctor—the eye, ear,
nose, and throat doctor—is super, super doctor.
He checked my ears and my voice and everything, and we drove
about thirty minutes to this town called Münster to a hospital. There is a
specialist vocal doctor there. Well, I sat on this little thing and he sat
right across from me, and there was a machine to the right.
There was a little device that was connected to the machine;
it was about the size of a fountain pen. He told me, “Open your mouth as wide
as you can. Stick your tongue out as far as you can.”
He put that device around my left vocal cord, moved it up
and down, and he put it on my right vocal cord, moved it up and down. When he
took it out of my mouth, he said, “Sing a high note.” Oh man. I said [makes high-pitched noise].
JC: [Laughs] The hair on my neck just stood up
from hearing you, Bobby!
BK: That doctor was fantastic. If I ever
have any more problems, I will go back to him.
JC: Do you have any plans to tour behind your
new album?
BK: Oh yes, actually. This guy from Belgium
has booked me a ton of concerts, and I will also be doing some – four or five of
the songs – from We’re Not in Kansas
Anymore and All I Ever Needed, the
first solo CD I did with John. I’m gonna do some of those songs because I
absolutely love ’em, and I wrote the album.
The
Belgium guy booked me a ton of tours, and I’m gonna be on the road with an
orchestra and this fantastic conductor who is a friend of mine. It is going to
be absolutely super fun.
JC: Since you’ve been a veteran at it for many
years and you’re still hitting the high notes, what would be your recommendation
for anyone who wants to go out and sing?
BK: [Laughs]
If they want to sing, and they can sing, I would say they absolutely should
do it because it is so fun and so fantastic.
Bobby Kimball singing
(exact year not known)
