To look at the article please click the following links: page 19, page 20, page 21 and page 22. As these are large files, with kind permission from the MLUKFC, I have re-produced the article below, complete with the accompanying photos. (Please remember that this article was geared towards an audience of Meat Loaf fans readers.)

Kasim Sulton's Have Guitar, Will Travel Tour 2001

What do Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman, Celine Dion, Mick Jagger, Bon Jovi, Todd Rundgren, Hall and Oates, Joan Jett, and Ringo Starr all have in common? It’s a simple enough question for most Meat Loaf fans - Meat’s bass player and Musical Director Kasim Sulton has played with them all! But, for nineteen gigs in February and March of this year, it was just Kasim Sulton and two acoustic guitars alone on stage (other than a couple of friends who joined him occasionally for a few tracks!).

The tour was aptly called his “Have Guitar, Will Travel Tour” as Kasim drove himself the 6,000 plus miles around 13 states in the US to play at an extensive variety of venues! Some were proper music venues, some were bars, some were restaurants and one in Kent, Ohio was decorated exactly like a medieval castle complete with turrets, a minstrels’ gallery and two thrones!

Two of the shows were also broadcast on the Internet which gave Kasim fans around the rest of the world a chance to hear his sets. During the tour, Kasim was also interviewed and played live on a few local radio shows. One of the questions he was asked on almost all the shows was about him playing bass on the album Bat Out Of Hell!

At most gigs Kasim played for about seventy five minutes with a different set each night. He would play a selection of old Utopia tunes, a couple of Beatles tracks and some of Kasim’s own solo songs from his 1982 release “Kasim”, his 1993 release “The Bassment Tapes” and his forthcoming CD “Quid Pro Quo” which is due out in August on Sphere Sound Records. In between songs Kasim also told some great stories about various aspects of his life which made it similar to a StoryTellers show except that Kasim chose the songs! One particular tale that went down well each night was about how he and Tommy Hambridge set out to write a track for Meat Loaf’s Testify album. He would explain that the song they wrote was rejected and how they couldn’t understand why that was the case as it sounded to them like a perfect Meat Loaf track. Kasim would then tell us that he’d play part of it before breaking into a few bars of You Took The Words Right Outta My Mouth! He would then play the actual track, Sometimes Love Is A Dangerous Thing!

At most of the gigs on the East Coast, Kasim was joined on stage for a few tracks by Doug Kennedy of the heavy rock band The Isle Of Q. For many years Doug has been a big fan of Utopia (the group that Kasim was in from 1976 until 1985, alongside Bat Out Of Hell’s producer, Todd Rundgren). Apparently Doug kept asking Kasim if he could join him on stage which he did for two shows last August. As they proved to be a great success playing together, thankfully Kasim asked him to play more shows on this tour.

Kasim was also joined on stage a couple of times by 13 year old Cindy Decotis from Schenectady, New York. During his tour last August, Kasim had made a promotional appearance at The House Of Guitars in Rochester and had been chatting with Amy who told him that she was learning the guitar. Kasim had given her a few tips and told her to keep practicing so when he played some gigs on this tour near her home town, she joined him and Doug on stage for the Utopia song One World which always proved to be a great hit with the crowds. As Joan Jett’s former guitarist Ricky Byrd also opened for Kasim a few times, maybe the tour should have been renamed “Kasim Sulton and Friends - Just Havin’ Fun For The Winter”!

Probably one of the highlights for most people at all the shows was that after each gig, Kasim would always come out into the audience to meet the crowds, to pose for photographs with anyone who wanted one and to sign autographs. Kasim would always ensure that everybody who wanted to spend some time with him was able to, no matter how late it was! At his gig in Chicago, as there was a later show, Kasim had to hold his “meet and greet” at the bar that was attached to the venue and the queue to meet him stretched the whole length of the room! As anyone who has ever met Kasim will testify, he is one of the warmest and most genuine people in the music business so everyone really appreciated the chance to talk to him.

The final gig of the tour was at New York’s famous The Bitter End venue where people like Billy Joel, Joan Baez, Don McLean and Bette Midler have launched their careers. Kasim played to a large crowd (including a few members of his family) and when he left the stage he said that he would be touring again solo in September. However, if the rumours are correct, it appears that anyone who will be attending the Meat Loaf concerts this Summer will have the opportunity to hear Kasim playing solo then too as he has been listed as one of the opening acts as well as playing in The Neverland Express!

Also this year, Kasim will be playing a few gigs as part of Tommy James and The Shondells. His remaining dates are:
Wednesday 1st May - The Benedum Center, Pittsburgh, PA (Televised)
Saturday 18th May - Fleet Boston Pavilion, Boston, MA
Saturday 1st June - Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, IL
Friday 7th June - Landmark Theater, Syracuse, NY
June 15, 2002 - Fiddlers Theatre, Denver, CO
Friday 11th October - The Grand Casino, Gulfport, MS