Interview: Kasim Sulton Talks About Hitting the Road

For over 3 decades Kasim Sulton has been at the forefront of rock music not only as a touring musician with Todd Rundgren & Utopia but also as musical director and bassist for the rock artist Meat Loaf. Hailing from Staten Island, New York, he began his illustrious career playing with local bands and by the mid-70 was playing piano for Cherry Vanilla. Soon hereafter Kasim was introduced to Rundgren whom at the time was producing Meat Loaf's record breaking debut album "Bat Out Of Hell." The first installment of the "Bat," trilogy has become one of the best selling records of all time. Throughout the remainder of the 70's and into the 80's Kasim continued to perform with Utopia releasing a handful of albums with the group. Releasing his first solo album in 1982, titled "Kasim," he continued to record with such notable musicians as Patty Smyth, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, The Tom Robinson Band, Jim Steinman, Celine Dion, among others. Kasim is credited as playing on over 100 albums. His studio work and touring schedule continues to this day. With three solo cd's to his credit, and his own touring band, it is evident this one rock musician who doesn't stay in one place for very long. His is currently playing a select number of show with Todd Rundgren on the West Coast and as you'll read will be re-joining Meat Loaf in October for the European leg of the "Three Bats Tour." Kasim is extremely down to earth, loves to talk music, and is genuinely one of the good guys in rock 'n' roll.

This night I was fortunate enough to meet and talk to the man himself on Meat Loaf's current sold out "Three Bats Tour," when they made their stop on an extremely hot and humid August night in South Florida.

TM: First of all, thank you Kasim for taking the time to do this interview. Great Meat Loaf show tonight. How hot was it up on that stage?

KS: Pretty warm. I don't know how Floridians make it through the summer months. Of course, it's not a bad thing to play a show where you wind up sweating away a third of your body weight. I find it a lot more fun than visiting a gym.