Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer.
15 Facts About Jeff Porcaro
2.
Jeff Porcaro is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions.
3.
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was born on April 1,1954, in Hartford, Connecticut, the eldest son of Los Angeles session percussionist Joe Porcaro and his wife, Eileen.
4.
Jeff Porcaro's younger brother Mike was a successful bassist and was a member of the band Toto.
5.
On October 22,1983, Porcaro married Susan Norris, a Los Angeles television broadcaster at KABC-TV.
6.
Lessons came from his father Joe Jeff Porcaro, followed by further studies with Bob Zimmitti and Richie Lepore.
7.
Jeff Porcaro later called Jim Keltner and Jim Gordon his idols at that time.
8.
Jeff Porcaro toured with Boz Scaggs before co-founding Toto with his brother Steve and childhood friends Steve Lukather and David Paich.
9.
Jeff Porcaro is renowned among drummers for the drum pattern he used on the Grammy Award-winning Toto song "Rosanna", from the album Toto IV.
10.
Jeff Porcaro describes this groove in detail on a Star Licks video he created shortly after "Rosanna" became popular.
11.
Jeff Porcaro contributed drums to four tracks on Michael Jackson's Thriller and played on the Dangerous album hit "Heal the World".
12.
Richard Marx dedicated the song "One Man" to him and said Jeff Porcaro was the best drummer he had ever worked with.
13.
Jeff Porcaro died at Humana Hospital-West Hills on the evening of August 5,1992, at the age of 38 after falling ill while spraying insecticide in the yard of his Hidden Hills home.
14.
Bandmate Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro's wife stated they believed that Jeff Porcaro had been suffering from a long-standing heart condition, and a smoking habit, both of which contributed to his death.
15.
The Jeff Porcaro Memorial Fund was established to benefit the music and art departments of Grant High School in Los Angeles, California, where he was a student in the early 1970s.