Rock music bassist and keyboard player Kasim Sulton has, in a career of more than 40 years, played in Joan Jett’s Blackhearts, Patty Smyth’s Scandal, the re-formed version of The Cars and Blue Oyster Cult.
He’s played and sung on more than 70 albums by more than two dozen artists, including Meat Loaf’s famed “Bat Out of Hell” album.
Sulton says he couldn’t have done any of that if not for the success, renown and influence he gained playing in the groundbreaking rock band Utopia with Todd Rundgren in the 1970s and ’80s.
So when, more than 30 year after Utopia last toured together, the stars aligned and all of its busy ex-members had the opportunity to reunite for a tour this spring, Sulton jumped at the opportunity.
Utopia, with Rundgren, Sulton and classic lineup drummer John “Willie” Wilcox, are embarking on a 32-date tour that starts April 18 at Penn’s Peak near Jim Thorpe.
In a recent telephone call from Duluth, Minn., on a stop during a tour with former Eagles guitarist Don Felder with Styx and REO, Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton spoke about the band’s history and its coming reunion.
Here’s a transcript of the call:
LEHIGH VALLEY MUSIC: Hey Kasim how are you?
KASIM SULTON: “Hey, John, how are you?”
Just fine thanks. Thanks for taking out time to do this today.
“Well thanks for talking to me. I appreciate it, too.”
What the heck are you doing in Minnesota?
“When I have time off from my solo projects and the work I do with Todd, I work with as many different people as I can.”
Yes, so I’ve read as I’ve prepared for this interview. But let me jump in with the big question: How does the reunion happen? Who comes up with the idea that Utopia’s gonna get back together?
“Uh, well, I don’t know that anybody came up with the actual idea that, you know, that we were gonna get together. I think that on a certain level, we were never really officially disbanded. We just stopped working. There was never an announcement that that’s it, the band’s broken up and we’ll see you all down the road.
“So there was always some talk of, you know, ‘It would be nice if, hey, you know what would be great if. And unfortunately, scheduling-wise we’re all very, very busy people, thankfully, and it just never worked out that we all had the same amount of, the same window of time open for the four of us.
“And as time progressed, people get a little bit older and a little bit less inclined to disrupt their lives. So Todd and I have remained on the road and working in the music industry since I started in the band. Willie works in the periphery of the music business, on his own with company, Scientific Games, and Roger was on the periphery as well, working on electronic arts and Apple.
“And then Roger kind of retired, and so he didn’t have any interest in coming out and playing again because of some arthritis issues and hearing loss. The obvious replacement was Ralph, because Ralph was in the original Utopia.
“But I’m kind of not answering your question and I apologize.”
Yeah. What was the impetus that made this time the right time?
“It was simply a question that there was a window of opportunity that nobody else was busy doing other projects, and it made sense to try, to float the idea that we were gonna do this. I think that management approached some promoters and we got a lot of interest. And that’s why we did it when we did it.”
“So late last year, probably, I guess September, October was when the idea was first floated. There was some due diligence done and it turned out that it was gonna be something that people wanted to see happen. I mean people always wanted to see it happen.”
Right.
“It’s just a question of whether or not it made sense for us in the big picture.”
Yeah, I can tell you, just from the local angle, when I announced that show was coming up, it got a lot of response and I think it has sold well, too. So obviously there still is a strong interest in Utopia.
“Well, I think part of the allure is there’s the simple fact that we haven’t been around.”
Right.
“You know? We’re not like, uh, probably 80 to 90 percent of the bands form the ’70s and ’80s have reformed or have never stopped working. And they go out and they have a nice life playing 80 to 100 shows a year on the road. Sometimes those bands, um, only have two or three original members. Sometimes only one. Sometimes none [Laughs].
“You know? So as we move on in life, we still have some kind of affinity for the music that we grew up with and the bands that played that music and provided the soundtracks of our lives. And Utopia did that for a bunch of people. And we’ve never – we haven’t really made it a real effort to bring that back until now.”
Now I know, as you said, that you have worked frequently with Todd. Um, but what was it like working with the others and as the group Utopia again? Tell me what the feeling behind it was.
“Well, we haven’t actually started working together again.”
Oh, you haven’t rehearsed?
“No, we start … we haven’t even … the only thing that we have done is our stage design. We’ve had a bunch of conference calls about what the stage is gonna look like. We’ve had a bunch of conference calls on what he set list is gonna be. We’ve had some calls about what the band’s look is gonna be. But we have not, so far, we have not played a note together.”
Wow. Well, OK, I got to ask about the stuff you mentioned. Can you say anything about the set list, or can you say anything about the stage set-up?
“The only thing I can really say safely without getting my head in some kind of bear trap that I’m gonna get called on later [Laughs] is that there’s gonna be two sets. It’s a rather long show; it’ll be about two and a half hours with a 20-minute intermission.
“The first set is gonna be, uh, more of the prog-rock stuff that we did, from ‘Ra’ to ‘Oops! Wrong Planet’ to ‘Oblivion’ and some stuff in between. But the first set will be specific in that there’s gonna be material from the first two Todd Rundgren’s Utopia records, which was the more prog-rock stuff and the stuff that Ralph played on and Willie played on.
“And then the second set is gonna be the more poppy Utopia material from ‘Adventures in Utopia,’ ‘Swing to the Right,’ the ‘Network’ album.
“So we wanted to cover as much of the bases as we possibly could from the 13 albums that Utopia did – 12 or 13 records.”
Speaking of that – I’m going to use that as a jump-off point and ask this question: So, um, Utopia is looked at as innovators – even in the extended-song realm to the prog-rock realm, to the use of video technology, all of that. How do you feel about that? I mean, is that a correct characterization of the band?
“Well, I mean, were we innovators? God, I don’t know, that’s a tough call because there were a lot of bands doing that at the time. Zappa was, you know, long-form songs. That’s all he did with Mothers of Invention and on his solo records, too. I mean Zappa did seven-eight minute songs all the time.
“Genesis was another one. So there were a lot of acts out there that did that – what we were doing – and did it just as well as us. Um, it wasn’t the norm in terms of what people were listening to – it was kind of niche, you know? When we were doing that stuff we didn’t enjoy a huge audience. But there were definitely loyal fans.
“And then when I got into the band in 1976, Todd and Roger and Willie were still in that vein of prog rock, but branching out a little bit more into the pop world. And that’s kind of where my influence, and that’s really what I did best. So I’d like to feel that, on some level, I brought that to the band and helped to guide the band more in that direction.
“But as far as your question goes – I mean, we did do one of the … we had a video studio, Todd’s video studio up in Bearville. And that allowed us to experiment with video films and stuff to go along with our concerts at the live shows. That helped a lot, but Todd has always been kind of ahead of the curve I terms of video and its relationship to the music that was being done at the time.”
I don’t want to dwell too much on this, but I did want to point out that Utopia played with, obviously, some of the top bands of all time. Um, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. Looking back on those experiences, what does it feel like now to know the band did all of that?
“Um, I mean, one of the first shows – I think I joined the band in April of 1976. It was right around April 15. I remember because I remember I wasn’t making any money at the time so I didn’t have to do taxes. And by that summer, which was only another three months away, we were playing at Nebworth in front of 300,000 people with Led Zep.
“And I was – you know, I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and I cut my teeth learning John Paul Jones’ bass parts. Um, so I was a kid in a candy store, you know?
“I think it’s very interesting ’cause when you’re in the midst of it, it’s really hard to gauge any kind of perspective, ’cause you’re doing it.”
Right.
“It’s not until afterwards – and probably years, years later – that I looked back on it and I said, ‘Geez, that was … You know, I played on the same stage as the original Led Zeppelin – it was one of John Bonham’s last shows – and how lucky am I? How blessed have I been in my life, you know? To be able to say that I did that. To say that, at 20 years old, play in front of 300,000 people with Led Zeppelin [Laughs]. That’s pretty cool.”
It is amazing.
“And then the following weekend was when we played with The Rolling Stones. But go ahead, I digress.”
[Laughs] Yeah, two weekends in a row, pretty neat.
“Yeah.”
Um, I read that you guys are going to be putting out a seven-disc retrospective, and I was wondering how much input you had into it, or what your input was.
“Um, well, actually my input was only that I just agreed to the whole project. There are a couple of records that we don’t own the license for. The ‘Network’ album we don’t own, and I think ‘Oblivion’ we don’t own. So they are not included in the box set, unfortunately. But the rest of our work is.
“And yeah, it’s great. I just gave my blessing to the project like Roger, Willie and Todd did as well.”
Are you guys open at all to the possibility of new music?
“Of course. You know, there’s not enough time to do that this time ’round because we just have a two-week rehearsal window before we play the first show. And we haven’t done it in a while. So I think that If this goes well and smoothly and everybody plays nice and gets along and it turns out to be a feel-good thing that we’ll probably talk about doing it again. And if we do it again, there might be some new music, who knows?”
That’d be great. I did want to touch a little bit on your solo and other projects. Am I correct that you put out three or four solo albums?
“Four. The newest [2017] is a live record called ‘Live Bootleg.’ But the newest record with all-original material was 2014’s ‘3.’”
And tell me about … at what point do you decide to put out new music? Tell me what leads to new solo music from you?
“Well, I’ve always loved writing songs. I like creating music – I like working in my little recording studio that I have in my house. And I’m always – I’m constantly writing new material.
“When I get an abundance of new songs, or new ideas that I’m working on, then I start telling myself, ‘You know, it might be nice to put another record together, do a record. It’s a really kind of daunting task, ’cause normally I do everything myself. I play all the instruments, I sing all the backgrounds, I sing all the leads.
“And it can be frustrating at time because it just takes a lot of work, but this is what I do, and I love creating. And the fans that I have – there are people who are fans of Kasim Sulton solo material – are the best people in the world, and I do it as much for them as I do it for myself.”
You’ve had a pretty varied career outside of, or away from Todd. Just off the top of my head, you did the Meat Loaf stuff, which was with Todd, but you also recently played with Blue Oyster Cult for an extended period, yes?
“Uh, I was with Blue Oyster Cult for about five and a half years, maybe a little longer.”
Wow. So in all those diverse things that you’ve done with all those name acts, what did you find the most satisfying, or what do you look on as the best things you’ve done?
“Uh, well, you know, I think that a lot of the success that I’ve had personally in my career as a journeyman musician, as a performing musician, as a recording artist, singer/songwriter, bass player, rhythm guitar player – whatever the hell the label you want to put on me, um, a lot of the success that I’ve had is directly related to the work that I did with Utopia.
“And if it wasn’t for the fact that so many people in the music industry, so many musicians, completely enjoyed and got something and were influenced in some way shape or form by Utopia, I don’t know that my career would be the same, would look the same, as it does now.
“I think the reason that I’m able to do the wide range of work that I have been able to do in my career is a direct result from the level of musicianship that I learned and was a part of from Utopia. So I’m going to have to say that it’s all because of the work that I did with Utopia that I’ve enjoyed such a wide and varied career.”
That seems like a great place to end the interview.
“Penn’s Peak is the first show that we’re playing, so it’s going to be a very special one. And it will – we’re working really hard in our own separate little ways to make this a very, very exciting show both sonically and visually. And everybody’s really, really excited about it.”
UTOPIA, 7 p.m. April 18, Penn’s Peak, 325 Maury Road, Penn Forest Township (near Jim Thorpe). Tickets: $45, VIP packages with meet-and-greets $246, $346. Other areas sold out but available on resale markets. Info: www.pennspeak.com, 866-605-PEAK
Twitter @johnjmoser
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