US rock veterans Toto have followed up on their promise to deliver a cover of Weezer’s ‘Hash Pipe’, debuting the song at a recent concert.
If you haven’t been following the Weezer and Toto saga, we’ll give you a quick recap to bring you up to speed.
Back in December, a 14-year-old Twitter user started a viral campaign for US alt-rockers Weezer to cover one of the greatest songs from the ’80s, Toto’s ‘Africa’.
“It was just a goofy joke,” explained Mary in an interview with Vice. “It was from Weezer was talking about they were inspired for their new album [Pacific] Daydream, what inspired them. So I jokingly said, “Oh I bet they were inspired by ‘Africa’ by Toto for their new album.”
“It was just an absurd joke. And then I was like, ‘I wonder if I can get them to cover the song.’”
After a bit of fun with the campaign, Weezer dropped a cover of Toto’s ‘Rosanna’, effectively trolling all their fans before finally appeasing their audience and releasing their cover of ‘Africa’.
As it turned out, fans loved it, as did Toto, who recently announced their plans to return the favour and cover Weezer’s 2001 hit ‘Hash Pipe’.
“We listened to ‘Beverly Hills.’ I wanted to maybe even do a real ‘Africa’-type version of that, I was thinking about for a minute,” Steve Porcaro explained in an interview with Los Angeles radio station KROQ.
“But you know what? We wanted to make it different, but we wanted to do something rock ‘n’ roll. I wanted to show everyone what a good rock ‘n’ roll band we can be. I love the band, I love their music. [Singer] Joseph [Williams] and I were listening to different ones trying to figure out which ones he’d like to sing and we settled on ‘Hash Pipe.’”
Now, while kicking off their recent tour in Vancouver, Toto delivered a live version of the track to the rapturous applause from an eager audience.
“We figured since we were smoking hash since before they were born, that’s the one we should do,” Toto guitarist Steve Lukather quipped before jumping into the song. “This is our tribute to Weezer, god bless ’em.”
The best part is that the track is an absolute belter, proving that even Internet memes can deliver us some amazing music. While there’s no word yet on when Toto’s studio version will be arriving, we’ll just have to keep the live version on repeat.
Check out Toto covering Weezer’s ‘Hash Pipe’:
