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Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is a synth pioneer/keyboardist, American songwriter, film/television composer, and founding member of the Grammy-winning band Toto, which he founded with his brother, drummer Jeff Porcaro, and later included their brother Mike Porcaro on bass. He has won three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year for "Rosanna" and Album of the Year for Toto IV, and three nominations.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the Porcaro brothers were in constant demand as session musicians, appearing on records for such artists as Steely Dan, Don Henley, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Boz Scaggs, Seals and Croft, Warren Zevon, Paul Simon, and Pink Floyd.
Porcaro has appeared as a session musician on recordings by Yes. He was also a member of Chris Squire's short-lived band, The Chris Squire Experiment, in 1992.
In 1967, his father bought him an organ made by Rheem. Later his father took him to the Guitar Center to trade in the keyboard for a Farfisa with a Leslie 147 and preamp, which Porcaro called his "first real rig".
In 1978, Columbia Records released Toto's self-titled debut. The band would go on to become one of the best-selling bands of the era and achieve successful singles such as "Africa", "Rosanna", and "Hold the Line". Their album Toto IV has been certified quadruple platinum in the United States.
The title of the song "Rosanna" was inspired by Porcaro's then girlfriend, actress Rosanna Arquette. Though she did not directly inspire the song's lyrics, her name fit the song pefectly as described by the song's writer, David Paich, on HBO's Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary.
In 1984, Toto composed music for David Lynch's Dune. In 1987, Porcaro left the band to focus on songwriting and scoring. He composed music and arranged orchestration for such film/TV as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's , Eddie Murphy's Metro, and Jackie Chan's The Medallion. He also developed music for the television series Justified. Porcaro accompanied Toto on their 1988 "The Seventh One" world tour as a touring musician and continued working with them in various capacities, assisting with keyboards, drum loops, synthesizers and arranging/composing on all of Toto's albums following his departure. Porcaro wrote, or co-wrote, on each of Toto's first six albums, except for Isolation.
Porcaro was an early adopter of analog synthesizers, including the Yamaha CS-80, Polyfusion Modular, Minimoog, and later digital synths. He has produced and composed synths and drum loops for artists and producers such as Quincy Jones, Hall & Oates, Chaka Khan, David Foster, Elton John and Don Henley. Porcaro also contributed synth work with Danny Kortchmar on Henley's "Dirty Laundry" and "Boys of Summer".
He wrote the song "Human Nature", which appeared on Michael Jackson Thriller album. The demo of "Human Nature" was sent to Quincy Jones via a cassette tape, which also included a few songs written by Paich. Jones was fielding material from various composers to consider for Thriller and elected to present "Human Nature" to Jackson. Porcaro said that he did not intend for Jones to hear his demo of "Human Nature" and explained that he placed the track on the back of the cassette as he lacked any other tapes to store the song.
From 1982 to 2009, he composed or co-wrote many other songs for Jackson, including "Chicago 1945", "Dream Away", and "For All Time". In 2024, Porcaro sold the rights to all his music to the Michael Jackson estate and publisher Primary Wave.
In the early 2010s, he had surgery to remove a benign brain tumor, which resulted in him becoming deaf in his left ear.
In 2010, Porcaro returned to play with Toto at live performances when they reformed for a tour in Europe to support Mike Porcaro, who was suffering from ALS. Toto99.com He performed on the band's 2015 studio album Toto XIV, co-writing and singing lead on "The Little Things" and co-writing/singing lead on the Japan-only bonus cut, "Bend". When the band dissolved in 2019 and regrouped in 2020, Porcaro did not return.
In 2018, indie rock band Weezer covered Toto's "Africa", which was prompted by a fan campaign. Porcaro joined the band onstage for a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. In 2024, Porcaro appeared on HBO Original documentary Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary.
Steve announced his second solo album, The Very Day, on July 3, 2025. It was released on October 3, 2025. It features many collaborators from his last album.
In later years, he gravitated towards working with software synthesizers. Onstage in the 2010s, he used two Yamaha keyboards (a Montage 8 and a Yamaha Motif XF7) to drive his Apple MainStage-based virtual synth rig, which drew samples from, among others, Logic Pro and Spitfire Audio libraries. He is also a user of Arturia products, and has spoken highly of their synthesizer software, including a demonstration video of the CS-80 V software.
He collaborated with his daughter Heather Porcaro on her debut album, The Heartstring Symphony, released in 2009. Heather was featured in Paper magazine's "Most Beautiful People" issue in 2002.
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