When David Paich first announced that he would not be touring with Toto, Steve Lukather contacted the Toto99.com staff and requested that they put a message online claiming that the reason Paich was not touring was because he was getting a sex-change operation.
Given Luke’s particularly twisted sense of humor, most fans did not fall for this trick; the media, however, was not familiar with Luke’s antics and ran with the story. Without once calling the band’s management or contacting the website staff, media outlets around the globe printed news stories about David Paich’s sex change operation.
After allowing the rumor to spread for several days, the website printed a retraction with a brief statement from Luke.
As a result of the fake news story, Toto garnered more media coverage in those three days than they had for a very long time.
Related Pages
Steve Lukather
David Paich
