Michael James Kale (born August 11, 1943) is a Canadian rock musician, best known as the original bassist for the rock band The Guess Who.[1] He was also a member of the band Scrubbaloe Caine. In 1987, he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame as a member of The Guess Who.[2]
Career
Michael James "Jim" Kale was born in Winnipeg. He described his father, who died in 1967 while the Guess Who were on tour in the UK, as abusive and an alcoholic.[3] Kale joined the local Winnipeg band Chad Allan and the Reflections in 1962; that band later spun off into The Guess Who.[4] Kale was the band's bassist during its most successful period up to 1972, appearing on several hit singles and albums and co-writing the band's best-known song, "American Woman", which reached no. 1 in Canada and the United States.[5][6][7]
Meanwhile, The Guess Who had broken up in 1975, and in 1977 the CBC invited former members to participate in a reunion concert. Group leaders Bachman and Burton Cummings were not interested, but Kale asked group leaders Bachman and Burton Cummings for permission to use the Guess Who name for the concert.[12][13][14] Taking this initial permission beyond what Bachman and Cummings had granted, he instead formed the first of many new line-ups of The Guess Who to record and tour the nostalgia circuit under the name, nostalgia lineups that Bachman and Cummings have frequently criticized.[12][15]
Kale led shifting nostalgia-oriented line-ups of The Guess Who regularly until 2016, and released several new albums under that name which received little notice. He was sometimes joined by original Guess Who drummer Garry Peterson. Kale also participated in a reunion tour of the classic Guess Who line-up with Peterson, Cummings, and Bachman in 1983,[16] and performed with them again at the closing ceremonies of the Pan-American Games in 1999.[17] After a break from 2000 to 2004, when a Cummings/Bachman reunion line-up toured extensively,[18] Kale revived his nostalgia tour version of The Guess Who and continued touring with shifting line-ups until his retirement in 2016. He was replaced by Rudy Sarzo, although Kale retained the rights to the band name, leasing it to various musicians performing as "The Guess Who" (sometimes including Garry Peterson).[citation needed]
Both Cummings and Bachman were highly critical of Kale/Peterson's version of the Guess Who, calling it "the fake Guess Who", or "Kale's Klones" and calling the band's concerts "fake bullshit shows."[19] Kale himself referred to his own potential iteration of the group as "a band of trained monkeys."[20]
Early in 2023, Bachman and Cummings sent multiple cease-and-desist letters to the Peterson-led nostalgia band, accusing them of misleading the public.[21] In October 2023, after having received no response to the letters, Bachman and Cummings launched a "false advertising" lawsuit against Kale and Peterson, claiming that the band has used the Guess Who name, photos of Bachman and Cummings, and original recordings, "to give the false impression that Plaintiffs are performing as part of the cover band."[21] Bachman and Cummings sought $20 million in damages.[21] A hearing pertaining to the lawsuit and Kale and Peterson's counterclaims was scheduled for January 2024.[22] In April 2024, a federal judge denied Kale and Peterson's motion to dismiss the Bachman and Cummings suit.[23]
In April 2024, Cummings arranged to have legal permission pulled for any public performance of any Guess Who material Cummings had written or co-written. This legal gambit left both the performer and the owner of the performance venue liable for damages if any Cummings-authored Guess Who songs were performed for an audience. Following this action, the cover band was unable to perform most of the group's biggest hits, including "These Eyes", "American Woman", "No Time", and "Share The Land", and many others. The group's concerts were immediately cancelled and the website for the Kale/Peterson-licensed Guess Who band was shut down in July 2024.[23][24] In September 2024, Bachman and Cummings announced that they had gained control of the Guess Who name in an out-of-court settlement.[20]
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