There's no doubt about it: one of the best drummers worldwide and he was magnificent for TOTO. Compare TOTO live 2013/35th anniversary, I had been in Hamburg and Berlin- unbelievable great!) I asked Simon Phillips in Münster nov2017 if he could imagine to be back one day to join TOTO again- he answered "no, that's a closed job, 21 years is enough, no I do this here" .... It was a great loss for that fabulous Band! What a pity

I dont think he got stafted. If you watch his interviews it got to stage where he and luke were running the band and as he said himself the personnel of the band changed so much it got to stage as he says in his own words it wasnt the band he had joined. He still played on lukes solo album and joe williams