Rob Lowe reveals he recorded music with Toto while high on cocaine

At a key turning point in his ’80s stardom, Rob Lowe set his sights beyond the silver screen — into the choppy waters of yacht rock.

While discussing the genre with Bill Simmons, executive producer of HBO’s Yacht Rock: A Documentary, the St. Elmo’s Fire actor revealed that he attempted to pivot from one corner of the entertainment industry to another. 

“There was a minute in the ’80s where I was definitely doing too much Bolivian marching powder and just being a f—ing lunatic,” Lowe recalled in a new episode of his podcast, Literally. “Coming at the time in a young actor’s career where they’re too old to play the roles they’ve been playing, but they’re too young to play the roles that will last you the rest of your life, which are really the great ones.”

Lowe’s inability to secure good parts led him down a surprising path. “You can kind of feel it, and I love music so much,” he said, “that I got it into my head that maybe I should think more about music. And I cut a demo with Toto.”

That’s not to say that Lowe was aiming to join the band behind “Africa.” The members of Toto were some of the most prolific session musicians of the 1970s and ’80s, contributing instrumentals, songwriting, and production in the studio for massive artists like Michael Jackson, Cher, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Elton John, Olivia Newton-John, Lionel Richie, and Aretha Franklin. It’s likely, then, that Lowe called on them to produce and support recordings that would theoretically be released under his own name, rather than the group’s.

Sadly, Lowe’s studio escapades never saw the light of day, and he has largely avoided music-related projects throughout his career, save for a few exceptions. They include his childhood gig singing in the theater troupe Peanut Butter and Jelly in Dayton, Ohio; an appearance in the 1984 Go-Go’s video for “Turn to You”; and his unfortunate “Proud Mary” duet with Snow White at the reviled 1989 Oscars.

“Who weren’t you involved with in L.A. in the 80s?” Simmons asked.

“Probably nobody, because I also took having fun very seriously,” Lowe said.

Elsewhere in the podcast, Lowe recalled how his unwillingness to drive to Warren Beatty’s house ultimately cost him a romantic partner. After detailing how he lived in Point Dume, Malibu, for much of the 1980s (which Simmons described as “a long-ass drive from Hollywood”), the actor explained, “That’s why, you know, Warren Beatty was able to get my girlfriend to cheat on me with him — because I refused to come to Warren Beatty’s pool party movie nights, because I was out in Malibu and the drive was too far.”

Lowe said his girlfriend opted to attend the party without him. “So my girlfriend went and, you know, you can do the math,” he said.

Stunned, Simmons asked, “How many girls did he talk into maybe stepping aside from who they’re with for one night?”

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Lowe responded with a salacious claim: “All of them. All of them. If you got a heartbeat in Los Angeles and were at all interesting or pretty, Warren was on it. He used to be a king.”

Yacht Rock: A Documentary is streaming now on Max. Listen to the full episode of Literally above.