"He put his reputation on the line for me more than once. I owe a large part of my career to him. I'll never forget the time we were recording Pages . He seemed so happy for me, almost proud. He let me use his drums to record with. in fact, he insisted that I use them for the record. When I got bumped from the record, he was livid. And he recorded some of the record too. And in my heart of hearts, I couldn't be happier that he did, and proud that it was him - one of my all-time biggest heroes - because I learned so much from him, I was so thrilled to be around him. His presence alone spawned excitement and hope for us, because he was the cat; he was in it deep, and he had it all. People listened to him, and he set the standard and kept it. His stuff didn't get old. He is timeless. Sometimes you get people who, well, they document things and that's it. Like you don't update or modernize or modify the Mona Lisa. You just don't.

"We had so much fun when I guested briefly on Los Lobotomys. Double-drumming with Jeff was one of the high points of my career and my life. I finally got a firsthand glimpse at what it must feel like for musicians to play with him. It was like floating on a cloud. I know that sounds cliche' but it was an unbelievable feeling.

STEVE LUKATHER

"If it wasn't for Jeff, I would have no career. Iwas in a band in high school with Steve Porcaro, and through him I met Jeff, and he just took a liking to me. Jeff was the guy who told Boz I should be hired. He was the guy who got me on my first dates. He was the guy who talked Paich into having me in the band. I owe my whole career to him.

"One thing about Jeff is that you always knew where you stood with him. If he was angry with you or disagreed with you, it was right to your face. He would also be the first person to give you a hug and kiss and tell you how much he loved you. There was never any vacillation or bullshit about him. We had words - usually when I would be doing something stupid. He'd bust my chops if I was being an asshole, like you are when you're young. There were a couple of times we'd disagree on a musical thing, but not very often. We were the guys who used to sit up in the double-decker bus on the road, listening to Hendrix. I spent a lot of quality time with Jeff. I may as well have been his flesh and blood. He was my best friend.

"He spent so much quality time with his kids, too. He would spend hours making models with the kids. He'd get up early and stay up late with little Nico and let Susan sleep. He'd write lyrics and hang out with Nico. He spent so much more time with those kids than a normal parent would in a whole lifetime.

"We co-wrote this whole new album as a band, so as a writer, there's so much of Jeff in it. It's not just David and me writing the songs. There's some real stretching on it. It's some of Jeff's best work on record, I think. We were all really proud of it.

"We were so excited about the new album. The tour was all sold-out in Europe. The family has asked us to do it, so we're going to do it, and Simon Phillips is going to play. Susan wanted us to do it, and Joe Porcao took us all aside and said, 'Jeff would have wanted you to.' It's not like we put together a tour after the fact; everything was already sold-out Hopefully it will help the family. We're giving him his share as if he were there. At first I thought it was in bad taste. I couldn't imagine playing with somebody else. But I thought, "If I passed away, God forbid, I'd want them to grab somebody and follow through with what I started."

"Jeff was Toto's spiritual leader, He was the final word. 'What do you think, Jeff?' We wouldn't necessarily always agree on everything, but most of the time we did. He would just always know. He'd say, 'There's just something not right about the groove. Why don't you rebalance this here and do this?' and all of a sudden, what sucked five minutes ago was now happening. He just had that ability to polish a turd.

"There were slot of guys who played faster or with more chops, but there is no living soul alive who played a groove like that. When you think of drums, a lot of people think of technique, but really drums are a rhythm instrument, and the basis of all music is the rhythm. And the basis of all grooves is the drums. I could play just straight 8th notes, and he could play something and it would make me sound Godlike. It's all finesse. It's that little extra something. You either have it or you don't. He was touched by God when he was born."