Rock and Roll legend Todd Rundgren, who is best known for hit songs like “Hello It’s Me,” “I Saw The Light,” “Can We Still Be Friends,” and “Love Is The Answer,” will make a tour stop in State College Sunday, May 27, at 7 p.m. at The State Theatre.
Rundgren hails from Upper Darby, a Philadelphia suburb. Inspired by groups like The Beatles, he started playing in bands in high school. After graduation, while still in his late teens, Rundgren started the band The Nazz. They gained some regional success and recorded the original version of Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me.”
In 1969, he left the band to pursue a solo career. Starting with 1970’s “Runt,” he released a succession of albums throughout the 1970s generating much radio airplay. The name of his 1973 album, “A Wizard, A True Star,” soon became a moniker of the man himself. As a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, computer software developer, video music pioneer and record producer, Rundgren soon became known in the industry as a Rock “Wunderkind.”
Never one to get too settled in any one style, in 1974, Rundgren started the progressive rock band Utopia, much to the surprise of many fans and others in the industry. By 1977, Utopia became a four-piece band with Rundgren sharing the lead vocals and songwriting with the other members.
In addition to his solo and group work, Rundgren also became a well-known record producer working with artists such as Grand Funk Railroad, Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, Meatloaf, Hall and Oates and XTC.
In the late 70s, Rundgren had already begun experimenting with the emerging genre of music video. In 1981, the video for his song “Time Heals” became the second ever video played on MTV, immediately following “Video Killed The Radio Star.”
Rundgren now resides in Kilauea, Hawaii where he spoke by phone this week about the upcoming show in State College, his summer tour with a Beatle and his future plans.
CCG: It’s great to have you playing here in State College. I read on a message board that the last time you played State College was on Utopia’s “Deface The Music” tour (1980). Do you remember the last time you played here?
TR: It’s been quite awhile as far as I can remember. I couldn’t give you an exact date but it’s been at least that long I think.
CCG: Maybe you played at Rec Hall?
TR: I think we did. And as I recall we had a bomb threat that night. A fraternity was having a party and thought that we were competing with them. So, in order to get people to their kegger, somebody phoned in a bomb threat (laughs).
CCG: You’ve had different themes with some of your past tours. I read a review of a previous show on this tour that mentioned you referring to it as “a collection of songs that you would play if you took requests.” What can we expect with the show here in State College?
TR: It’s what we call the “Performing Arts Center” show. A Performing Arts Center usually has season ticket holders and what that means is that some percentage of the audience may have come to the show because they have a season ticket and not because they are your biggest fan.
So, some segment will be there out of curiosity, I guess and you have play a somewhat broader range of material instead of focusing, as I often do, on one or two most recent records. And, of course, we have to do include what some people euphemistically refer to as my “hits.” (laughs) Of which, there are probably two or three. We play some of the more familiar material so that those people who may not be up on whatever’s been happening in recent years will find some entertainment, I think.
CCG: One of your original Utopia bandmates, Moogy Klingman, lost his battle with cancer in November of last year. You did a Utopia reunion in January of 2011 in New York City as a benefit for Moogy. Is that what inspired the reunion tour that happened last November?
TR: We hadn’t really planned to do a tour the first time. We were all sort of pleasantly surprised to the two shows we did in New York. And that was sort of the basis for thinking about doing a tour. At first, I wasn’t really keen on the idea because nature didn’t give us enough time to rehearse.
I had two flights in a row snowed out so I couldn’t get from California to New York for rehearsals. As it turned out, we had like one hurried, three- or four-hour rehearsal the night before we played the benefit. I didn’t really want to go out and cobble something together half-heartedly and not commit enough rehearsal so that we could play at least in a manner that somewhat approached how we played back in the day.
So, it took us that long to find a window where we could accomplish those things. By the time we did find that window in November, Moogy had become ill to the point that he couldn’t travel anymore. So, while we had originally planned to have the entire original membership, sans Roger Powell who has retired from touring, unfortunately Moogy’s health deteriorated and he died before we got to the end of the tour. But, he was sort of the catalyst for the band getting back together. I don’t know that the band would have performed just because somebody got it into their head.
CCG: In June, you’ll be a part of Ringo Starr’s All Star Band again for the first time in about 15 years. Since you cite The Beatles as a major influence on you and your career, what is it like for you to be alongside a Beatle when you tour with Ringo?
TR: I’ve always said, “If a Beatle calls, you must answer” (laughs) because of the debt that so many of us owe (to them). A lot of us would not be in the music business, were it not for the formula that the Beatles perfected — this self-contained unit that wrote their own stuff and played all their own instruments.
Prior to that things were more focused on the lead singer and everyone else was kind of in the back up band and more or less replaceable. That whole formula caused thousands upon thousands of young teenage boys to imagine being in a band. Fortunately for me, I had some aptitude at music and managed to stay in the business.
Me and probably everyone else standing on the stage with Ringo are realizing, “Hey, I’d be a used car salesman right now were it not for the success of the Beatles.” (laughs) Ringo doesn’t treat you any differently because you’re not a Beatle. He treats everyone with a great deal of respect and good humor. He’s alot of fun to be around. He’s always cracking jokes. It’s really a band for the brief period that we’ll be touring. We all travel together. It’s a real band.
