Pop-rock wizard Todd Rundgren: ‘When I met John Lennon, he was a bunch of rags with nothing to say’ | Todd Rundgren

I saw the light so wonderful. How did you write it? Emunmk
I was still learning to write songs and by the time I got to something/anything? [1972, featuring I Saw the Light] I would slip into the formula – verse, chorus, bridge etc., always about the girl or boy who broke your heart. I moved my hand around the keyboard and after 20 minutes that song was finished. That’s partly why I went completely off the grid for my next album, ‘Magician, Real Star’. [1973] – Because I realized I couldn’t keep releasing songs in 20 minutes about that one relationship in high school. The prettiest girl in school suddenly liked me – I think I had long hair, and that was also the reason why her father broke up with me, which really messed me up.

Wikipedia says magician, True Star was “extensively familiar with Rundgren’s hallucinogenic experiments.” Were you actually taking LSD? com. mjhmjh
I didn’t smoke or drink anything until my first album [Runt, in 1970]. In my first band they would smoke weed and rehearsals would turn into a 30-minute laugh session. Then, when I was 21 I lived in it [rhythm section] The Sells brothers and their mother said “I can’t believe you’ve never had a drink before” and got me drunk. Then my best friend who was studying to be a psychiatrist suggested I try psychotropic substances. I trusted him implicitly, so I did. I was occasionally doing drugs all over the studio building. Not when we were playing music – I had to conduct the sessions – but I remember lying on my back high up like a kite trying to connect wires. Through psychoactive substances I discovered that there was more going on in my head than that high school relationship.

In your book Individualist I said that When you are traveling around You wrote a song but didn’t have a tape recorder, so you kept replaying it in your head until you returned to the States. Which song was it? Janet DM
I think it was Lost Horizon. I was in a small hotel room in Kathmandu and a song started playing in my head. The only way I could remember was to visualize the piano keyboard and practice the piano part on the imaginary keyboard, so when I came back I could play it. You never know when a song will hit you. One time I woke up in the middle of the night with the drum beating all day long in my head. It wasn’t a song I would normally write, but I realized that my subconscious doesn’t stop when I go to sleep.

Did Levon Helm really chase you around the studio while the band was doing their thing? stage fright? com. tomcasagranda
Maybe there was an episode. It was my first big project as an engineer and I was a smart kid, call Garth [Hudson] The “old man” thinks he’s too old to stay awake, and doesn’t realize he has narcolepsy. I wasn’t interested in that kind of music and wasn’t aware of the fact that the band was one of the biggest acts in the world. Suddenly they had all the money, drugs, drinks and sycophants, and that affected some of the men. Levon had gotten into opiates, so while he was chasing me around the studio, he spent a lot of time under a pile of curtains, dead to the world. In later years they all became my friends…except Ruby [Robertson]who was kind of arrogant.

When I produced Meatloaf Bats from Hell, I did just that [composer] Jim Steinman means it, or is it a parody of the earnest Bruce Springsteen? roxusrollus
Steinman never admitted how much he liked Springsteen, even though he took me to see him, but in my view that was a parody. Everyone who played for him said the songs were too long and that Meat Loaf was too weird, but I heard that in the context of Springsteen’s leather jackets/50s thing – but not a handsome guy from New Jersey, a big, sweaty guy. Steinman is not known to have a strong sense of humor, so even in the most sincere moments, Steinman deliberately exaggerates it. This album unleashed a force on the world – Brand Overload. After that everything Steinman did was exaggerated.

What was it? Laura Nero Like when you worked together – and why do you think she doesn’t hold up alongside the likes of Joni Mitchell and Carole King? laurasnapes
I met her right after Ellie and the Thirteenth Confession [1968] He was in awe of her. She asked me to be her band leader but I was busy with my own band, Al Naaz. More than a decade later, she built a house with a studio but couldn’t start an album, so she called me in desperation. We worked on each song until she was satisfied, but I felt uncomfortable because she had a friend there offering opinions that meant more than mine. She dropped out, but she finished the record [Mother’s Spiritual, 1984]. Her music was remarkably sophisticated and emotional, and quite individual, but audiences didn’t really want people who sounded completely different from everyone else. Some artists exist to influence other artists, to go where others can’t, and to show how to do it.

for you The DIY style of recording albums seems to have had a major influence on Prince Baby Boyle He spoke of the young and star-struck Prince Rogers Nelson Waiting to meet you backstage at the show. Do you have any recollection of this? The man without fear
I don’t remember anything at all, which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Prince took playing every instrument to another level. I wanted to write beyond what I could play and realized that there were better players out there, while he tailored the songs to suit his abilities as a player. So the drums are simple, definitely not like Stevie Wonder’s drums, who was an insanely funky drummer. I thought some of Prince’s songs were great but some of the lyrics didn’t make sense to me at all. I don’t know what the hell purple rain is. Is it some kind of pollution?

Did you keep the amusing letters written by John Lennon? sent to you? kaipahead
I met him at a party during the period when he was drinking with Harry Nilsson and misbehaving all over Hollywood. He looked like a bundle of rags in the corner, and as a Beatles fan, I was disappointed that he had nothing to say. Later, I did an interview with NME and said something along the lines of you can’t be a revolutionary and preach one thing if you act another way, and that became the headline. John wrote a letter to me ostensibly but as an open letter in the NME. There was a riot. Then one day I got a call and John was like, “I think we’re being used here, so let’s bury the hatchet.” I said, “Okay,” and that was that.

What do you think about XTC Skylarking album, 39 years old After you produced it? Is it difficult to separate yourself from high-stress recording sessions? Angry since 1967
I don’t think so, Andy [Partridge] Ever wanted a product. He has already beaten the likes of Steve Lillywhite and Gus Dudgeon. When I played Skylarking, Gus sent me a letter of condolence. Everything came to a head when we recorded “Earn Enough for Us,” the only song on the entire album where they played together. It was great, but the next day Andy hired Colin [Moulding] Punch in every note of the bass part. I said, “Oh my God, because you did something like XTC…” and Andy flipped out. I told him “I’m just trying to make the best record I can for you guys,” and he said “Then why do I feel like hacking your head off with an axe?” Andy told anyone who would listen that this was the worst record they ever made, but I’ve heard him since admit it was one of their best.

When produced New York DollsFor the first time did you realize Will the record be so divisive – a well-known British TV presenter called them “fake rock”? com. willcantopher
I don’t think that was inaccurate. Most people classify it as punk rock simply because John Lydon cited it as a major influence on the Sex Pistols. Technically, the New York Dolls wanted to be the Rolling Stones: This album cover is taken directly from the song “Did You See Your Mama, Baby, Standing in the Shadows?” era. More cynical rock critics like Lester Bangs loved it because it was the kind of music a rock critic could play – three chords. Although the Muppets were New York celebrities in Max’s Kansas City, they all lived every night on Long Island, some with their mothers.

To say you are prolific would be an understatement. I especially like Liars, State, and White Knight in your more recent catalogue. How do you evaluate these albums in your overall work? Mr. Madeleine
With Liars I was having great success after moving from the traditional record label model to the online model. State’s music was basically my attempt to keep up with techniques that I had pioneered in the 70s but another generation had taken over, like electronics and drums. White Knight was my first serious collaborative record, so I wasn’t constantly sipping my own juices. For my last album, Space, I asked people to give me demos of songs they’d never finished, and we’d finish them together. I’m working on a new record, which I’ll finish after the next tour, but playing live keeps me young. My body loves me to go out there for two and a half hours every night. It’s like working out, or a marathon.