Former Toto bassist Shem von Schroeck takes a deep breath. "This is the first time I've ever talked about this publicly," he tells Blaze News' Steve Baker. Baker has just asked Schroeck — who toured with Toto from 2017 to its breakup in 2019 — for his perspective on the inner turmoil that led to a final rift between founding guitarist Steve Lukather and keyboardist Steve Porcaro in 2019. 'This is a person who can go from laughing at the funniest, silliest joke to tearing someone's head off.' While Lukather continues to tour under the Toto name, the break with Porcaro severed the last remaining link with the founding Porcaro brothers. Drummer Jeff died in 1992, while bassist Mike succumbed to ALS in 2015. Legal woes The rift had its roots in a 2018 lawsuit filed by Jeff Porcaro's widow, Susan Porcaro-Goings, accusing the band (owned by Lukather and founding keyboardist and vocalist David Paich) of holding back revenue owed to her late husband's estate. Toto lost the suit — and at an October 2019 show in Philadelphia, Lukather announced the end of the band. While the announcement came as a surprise to fans, for Schroeck, the writing was on the wall. "The last year of my time with them, the infighting in the band just got toxic," he says. "I certainly wasn't hired in the band to have an opinion about anything," he continues. "I was there to play bass and sing and show up on time with a smile on my face. But there was just hate and animosity." Father figure Schroeck traces some of that animosity to the departure of Paich, who in some ways held the band together. "The first year [2017] with David Paich in the band, it was golden. Everybody loved everybody," recalls Schroeck. "The band was playing great. It just was a big family on the road." And in his way, Paich was the father figure who inspired everyone to get along, says Schroeck. "When he left, I watched a wheel come off the truck. When that presence was gone, it got a little 'Lord of the Flies.' ... A lot of immaturity for men in their sixties." It got so tense that Schroeck tried to leave the band in March 2019. "It was basically a cry for help." While Schroeck hoped his would-be resignation letter to Lukather would prompt some discussion about how to ease tensions within the band, instead, the response was what amounted to a threat that if he didn't finish out the year, his professional reputation would suffer. Never meet your heroes Schroeck stuck it out. He was a longtime Toto fan, and the gig was a dream come true. And Lukather was always one of his "top three guys who I want to play with someday." Today, Schroeck ruefully acknowledges that the experience had an element of "never meet your heroes" to it. Lukather, he reports, can be volatile. "This is a person who can go from laughing at the funniest, silliest joke to tearing someone's head off." Eventually, Schroeck attracted his ire. While he admits his mistakes, he says the reactions tended to be overblown. "When I would see people's heads get bitten off, every time I would walk away going, the situation wasn't worthy of that type of anger or reaction." A misunderstanding on social media only exacerbated things; Lukather ended up posting a note addressing Schroeck as "by far the worst musician in the band" and claiming "nobody wants to work with you, your career is over." 'Divine inspiration' Schroeck chose not to retaliate in kind. He's quick to remember a different side of his former bandmate. "I have stacks of emails [and] screenshots of text messages of him heaping praise on me; like bring-tears-to-your-eyes kind of stuff," he says. One message in particular stands out. "After a near-disaster on stage, my music director head went off and I kind of got everybody back on track. And I'm going to say this verbatim, because this meant a lot to me at the time. [Lukather] goes, 'I believe there was divine inspiration upstairs from Jeff and Mike. They guided their brother, Steve, to bring you into this band.'" Schroeck marvels at the memory. "From him. Wow. You save stuff like that." Why talk about this now? "It's been five years," says Schroeck. "I've been out of the band longer than I was in it. ... Nothing I'm saying here is meant to disparage. Fans like yourself have been curious." While Schroeck has moved on to composing for film, he doesn't completely rule out working with Lukather again. "Anything's possible. So I'm not going to say never. If it came across my my bow, I'd entertain it." For more Toto talk — as well as highlights from Schroeck's more than 40 years in the music biz — check out his full interview with Steve Baker below.

Glenn Beck was recently invited to Mar-a-Lago to give a history speech in front of Donald Trump at a PragerU event. When he was planning what he would say, Glenn decided his speech would benefit from the addition of two odd props: William Wallace's sword from "Braveheart" and a World War II-era rat with a bomb in its butt. He didn’t, however, consider the implications of bringing these weapons to one of the most secure places in the country. The ordeal ended in a hilarious story that put down Glenn in the history books as a Secret Service legend. “I don't write my speeches, I just kind of go through the vault, and I'm like, I want to tell that story and that story and that story. So I grabbed a bunch of stuff and didn't really put a lot of thought into it until we started approaching Mar-a-Lago,” says Glenn, recounting the story. From multiple security clearances to fleets of Secret Service trucks to “old school buses” surrounding Trump’s airplane, Glenn describes getting into the estate as “a nightmare.” “The security around him now is absolutely incredible,” he tells co-host Stu Burguiere. At one security checkpoint, Secret Service agents asked Glenn if he had any weapons in his vehicle. He said no (the reality that his speech props were in fact weapons having slipped his mind). When he got to another security checkpoint, agents opened the hood and all the doors of the car, brought the dogs out, and started in on their questions. That’s when Glenn realized he had misspoken. When he explained to the agent, who luckily recognized Glenn, that his speech props were technically weapons, he was waved through to the next security checkpoint, where the entire process began again. When an agent asked again if Glenn had any weapons, this time his answer was “well, kind of” before explaining that he was carrying a broadsword from "Braveheart" and a WWII-era bomb. The agents, thankfully, thought the situation was hilarious. “They were taking pictures of everything; they were laughing; they were like, ‘This is now lore,’” laughs Glenn. Regardless of the humorous nature of the situation, they still had a job to do. “They were like, ‘OK, the rat — let’s X-ray the rat.”’ After finding that the rat was full of wires, “The head guy comes over, and he said, ‘We really don't know what to do here,”’ Glenn recounts. Finally, Glenn was told that the agents would keep both the sword and the rat bomb until 30 minutes prior to his scheduled speech, at which time they would have a decision. When it came time for Glenn’s speech, an agent told Glenn that they would need to “remain with the sword and the rat” but that the event was nonetheless “legendary.” To hear Glenn’s much funnier retelling of the event, watch the clip above. Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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