ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla — Rock group Toto is coming to the ancient city. The band, known for their hits like ‘Africa,’ ‘Rosanna,’ and ‘Hold the Line,’ will be performing at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on March 2. I got the chance to talk with singer Joseph Williams ahead of their upcoming show to talk about touring now versus when he first started, the resurgence of the song ‘Africa,’ and growing up around music with composer and conductor John Williams and actress and singer Barbara Ruick as parents.

“It was surprising at first,” says Williams on the 2018 resurgence of the song ‘Africa’ following a cover by the band Weezer. “We were trying to figure out, ‘Wow, this crowd is skewing a lot younger than we were used to.’ Of course, we were thrilled about that. Listen, we’ll take it where we can get it. We feel so lucky to have had a song like Africa be performed in so many different ways and in different places and stuff, to sort of keep it alive and keep new generations interested in it. It’s one of those weird, you know, earworm kinds of songs that just gets in there and stays and has ended up being one of the more popular songs of all time. So we’re really fortunate to be able to go out there and play it.”

“Music was really my first language,” says Williams, reflecting on his childhood. “I don’t remember a time that my father wasn’t in the other room plinking away at the piano and writing notes down on a piece of paper for this or that. [...] I always gravitated a little bit toward what my mother did, because she was a performer on stage, and that really lit me up. I thought it was just the greatest thing in the world, and that was something I wanted to try.

You can hear more about what it’s like to write music for movies and tv compared to writing for Toto, and what it was like to join the band in the ‘80s in the full interview.

Tickets to see Toto at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre are on sale now.

You can listen to more interviews in the Chase Chats section at WOKV.com.

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