TOTO - Official Website - Encyclopedia

BYRON, JEAN MICHEL

Toto's fourth lead-singer and the least succesful. Byron was born and raised in South-Africa and started his musical career in 1983 as a session singer. Growing frustrated with the session scene which was selected by a select few, Byron joined several cover bands to support himself. Besides singing covers, he also wrote songs himself and put some of them on demo-tapes. On of these demo-tapes ended up in the hands of => Bob Colomby who introduced him to Toto. Byron joined Toto for their 'Past to present' album, containing the band's greatest hits and four new songs: "Love Has the Power", "Animal", "Can you hear what I'm saying" and "Out of love". During the 'Past to present'-tour in 1990 Byron and the other members of Toto didn't really went along, and lots of fans complained about Byron being more a dance-singer than a rock-singer. Right after the tour Byron was asked to leave the band.

"To be honest, Byron was drilled by the record company and his ego grew to dangerous proportions, when he played with the band for a while. I think he considered Toto to be a perfect launch-platform for his solo-career. I wish him all the best, but he just didn't form a harmonic part of the band." (Steve Lukather, Backstage, november 1992)

Small detail: on the official => "Toto Live" video of the "Past to Present" tour all the songs on which Byron sung lead were cut. On the credits he was listed as 'backing-vocalist'.
DISCOGRAPHY:
TOTO - PAST TO PRESENT (1990)
JEAN-MICHEL BYRON - BYRON (1991?)

Related Pages

Past to Present
Toto Live