CLEVELAND, Ohio - So how's Todd Rundgren's quarantine going? Well ... he's in Kauai.
"When it comes to places that you could be stuck in, I definitely lucked out," he says by phone from his tropical paradise. But Rundgren has been doing far more than sipping Mai Tais and pruning palm leaves. He has, in fact, been hard at work - recording an album, coordinating a new, all-star version of his 1973 anthem "Just One Victory" for use by Democratic party candidates' campaigns, expanding his memoir "The Individualist."
He's also been creating a virtual television series, "The Todd's Honest Truth," that debuts at 9 p.m. Monday, June 22 (his 72nd birthday) and will start airing bi-weekly on Friday, July 3. ($15 per show, via onlocationlive.com.) Describing it as "a variety show," Rundgren plans to incorporate oratory, music and lifestyle - including a cooking segment - to present an intimate portrait of his world.
In addition to opening a new creative avenue, Rundgren also hopes "The Todd's Honest Truth" will tide fans over until he's able to return to the road for shows celebrating 1973's "A Wizard, A True Star," including Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 30-31, make-up dates at the MGM Center Stage.
So how are things in your corner of quarantine?
Rundgren: Oh, quiet. (laughs) It hasn't been much of a lifestyle change for me. When I'm at home I barely ever leave the house - maybe go to the beach with the dog, get the groceries, about the only things you can do now. That's about it. I don't get this much time at home, normally, so I'm kind of savoring it.
You are putting together a TV show, though. How did that come about?
Rundgren: Well, the idea started out as just a podcast of me spieling about stuff. … and it would be, like, sort of big topics - not politics, but things like money and time and other sort of larger concepts. Then we started talking to people at Future Beat, who do our merch, normally, and they're off the road, too. The idea suddenly expanded from just a radio show and me talking about one subject for God knows how long into more of a variety of shows with a number of things.
So what can we expect?
Rundgren: It’ll be live but with a lot of content that’s pre-recorded. It won’t be the typical sort of me sitting in front of my bookcase and playing a bunch of acoustic numbers. There’ll be a lot of videos about different things. I’m doing a little thing in the kitchen showing some of the ways that I approach dealing with food. I’ll be doing little demonstrations of stuff I use to actually make the show. I’m gonna root around in my closet and pull out various old costumes and clothes that might have a story about them and talk about those. There’ll be some video excerpts about things like the giant party we had when I first moved into the house 12 years ago.
It'll be a busy hour, then.
Rundgren: I hope so. I scoped out some of the shows people are doing and I found them to be often kind of slack and low-energy, like you're playing for yourself. I wanted to do something that looks a little bit slicker, that's more taut, not a lot of hemming and hawing and dead air and that sort of stuff. It'll have a real sort of produced video look to it as opposed to me just pointing an iPhone at something.
What role will music play?
Rundgren: There'll be little bits of music. There's music throughout the whole thing; There'll be an underbed of music for almost everything that's going on. But I'm not presenting it as a substitute for the live show. My live shows are just too complicated and choreographed and stuff for me to try and substitute just me at home.
Might guests be part of the show in the future?
Rundgren: Certainly - if I can round 'em up. We're still in quarantine out here. If anybody comes to the island they've got to be indoors in one place for 14 days. And they say things won't really start to open up 'til the end of July, so there's not a lot of traffic. But there's a few folks here on the island that would be interesting to have as guests if I can talk them out of their houses. Rick Rubin's actually stuck on the island here, and I bet he would have some interesting tales - and he kind of owes me 'cause I did his podcast. So, yeah, I'd love to have some guests on the show if I can find someone of interest who's willing to get out here.
You made some news recently with the remake of "Just One Victory" for Democratic candidates this year. Explain what's up with that.
Rundgren: Everyone is frustrated and trying to figure out a way to do something to ideally affect the outcome of the general election. I've been enduring the same three years that everybody else has, and just the opportunity to do something besides complain kind of appeals. There's a lot of noise out there, so I wanted to figure out a way to participate without simply making more noise. Simply having an opinion, which of course I do - not enough. We want to turn that opinion into something that's encouraging a lot of people to become involved. The song itself is about hopefulness and unity and stuff like that. It isn't talking about the politics of our time; it's just about encouraging people to not lose their will between now and the ballot box, to really keep that fire lit under everyone.
Some of the names involved have been made public - Daryl Hall, Joe Walsh, Paul Shaffer and Don Was. Any updates?
Rundgren: It kind of went moribund when everybody had to stay home. Unless somebody has a home studio, they can't make their contribution. So we've backed off pressuring anybody to deliver anything for the time being, but as we get closer to the (Democratic National) Convention, or whatever substitutes for the convention, we want to get it wrapped up so that they have it for the rest of the campaign.
You're working on a new album, another collaborative project like "White Night" in 2017. What's the status on that?
Rundgren: Pretty far along, actually, although when (the pandemic) happened it took a lot of the pressure off. Suddenly anything that seemed an important deadline was gone. I've got a lot of folks on it already - Rivers (Cuomo) from Weezer, Steve Vai, Thomas Dolby, Sparks, Adrian Belew. I've only got a few more kind of collaborations I've got to get going, and then I'll have a whole record - like anybody buys full records anymore. (laughs) I think those who are nostalgic for the good old days may buy a long-form, but a lot of people nowadays, they don't commit to listening to an entire record. They just are looking for songs and playlists and that kind of thing, but I still like making a full album.
You're putting out another version of your memoir with more material?
Rundgren: I've added about another dozen chapters to the memoir ... all from the same time period, the first 50 years of my life. It was supposed to be in sync with the tour that was supposed to start May 1st so we could sell it at the merch table. I don't know when they will re-publish it; the tour has been rescheduled for January, so we'll likely do what we intended to do in May in January - it'll just be in the dead of winter.
Anxious to get back out there?
Rundgren: We didn't formally postpone until sometime in March, but I was already preparing materials for the show. So I was ready to do it. Matter of fact, I was ready to do it virtually - we'd go to one venue and essentially narrowcast it to everyone who had bought a ticket on that specific night. So we'd do 28 different gigs, one for each night of the tour, so it will still feel a little bit local and special. The show can come to your house instead of you having to leave your house and hang out in a crowd of people - which people may be leery about doing even after (concerts) start happening again. I've been squalling about this for the last two years, but there's inertia in everything in this business. It's still tied to the brick and mortar venues. But this is the new normal; it may not and probably won't be the last time that we have a biological catastrophe like this one, so this could be a formula we can use or any artist can use to get through times like this.
Veteran pop-music writer Gary Graff can be reached at ryraffdetroit@gmail.com.
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