{"id":416068,"date":"2025-11-30T23:41:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/416068\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T23:41:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T23:41:20","slug":"bandmate-says-iconic-frontman-can-no-longer-sing-because-of-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/416068\/","title":{"rendered":"Bandmate says iconic frontman can no longer sing because of dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toto founding member Steve Lukather has addressed decades of speculation about tensions with the band\u2019s original lead singer Bobby Kimball, revealing the 78-year-old vocalist can no longer perform because of dementia, Parade<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

Lukather spoke candidly on the Rockonteurs podcast<\/a> about the rumors that have persisted since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know\u2026 there was all this bulls\u2014 in the early \u201990s about how we were mortal enemies and all this crap,\u201d he said. \u201cI love Bobby Kimball. He\u2019s one of the greatest singers I\u2019ve ever been around. When the voice was on, he was untouchable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guitarist shared that Kimball\u2019s health has deteriorated.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I love Bobby, we\u2019ve been in touch, but he\u2019s starting to lose touch with who he is now because of, you know, dementia,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimball\u2019s official website<\/a> confirms he has frontotemporal dementia and is unable to perform.<\/p>\n

Kimball sang lead vocals on Toto\u2019s Grammy-winning hits during the band\u2019s classic era in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including \u201cRosanna,\u201d \u201cHold the Line,\u201d and \u201cAfrica.\u201d Founding member Steve Porcaro told Classic Rock<\/a> that Kimball was fired in 1984 because drug use affected his performance.<\/p>\n

The vocalist rejoined the band for a decade starting in the late 1990s but was not part of a 2010 reunion or the current lineup, which features Joseph Williams on vocals, Parade noted. Toto is touring South America and has U.S. dates scheduled for early 2026.<\/p>\n

Lukather previously addressed the feud rumors in a 2021 interview with 100 Percent Rock<\/a> magazine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy\u2019s got dementia, and I\u2019m trying to hang on with them, and we made our peace a long time ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe press just keeps it alive… I never hated Bobby Kimball. I hated some of the stupid things he did. And I said some really nasty s\u2014 I wish I didn\u2019t say because I was angry. And that perpetuated this media-driven feud that we supposedly had that like never really existed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the original article on cleveland.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toto founding member Steve Lukather has addressed decades of speculation about tensions with the band\u2019s original lead singer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":416069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[195063,185,632,171,101655,195064,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-416068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-bobby-kimball","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-dementia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-frontotemporal-dementia","13":"tag-steve-lukather","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115641298971923277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}