Todd Rundgren

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Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a variety of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Utopia.

He is best known for his sophisticated and often unorthodox music, flamboyant stage sets, and later experiments with interactive entertainment.

Rundgren, a native of Philadelphia, began producing music videos and was an early adopter and promoter of several computer technologies, like using the internet as a source of music distribution in the late 1990s.

He left Nazz to pursue a solo career and immediately won his first top- 40 hit with "We Gotta Get You a Woman" (1970).

"Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Sun" from Something/Anything are two of his best-known songs. (1972), which are on regular radio stations, and "Bang the Drum All Day," 1983, which is included in many sports arenas, advertisements, and movie trailers, are among the 1972-1972-1972" which appear on classic rock radio stations.

Although less well known, "Couldn't I Just Tell You" (1972) was a hit with several artists in the power pop genre.

Rundgren's 1973 album A Wizard, a True Star, has a major influence on younger generations of bedroom musicians.

Music books, personal computers, and Internet music streaming are all included.

He produced the first interactive television show in 1978, invented the first color graphics tablet in 1980, and created the first interactive album, No World Order in 1994.

In addition, he was one of the first acts to be well known as both an artist and producer.

Badfinger's Straight Up (1971), Grand Funk Railroad's We're an American Band (1973), Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell (1977), and XTC's Skylarking (1986).

Early influences and Nazz

Todd Harry Rundgren was born in Philadelphia on June 22, 1948, the son of Ruth (née Fleck; April 29, 1922 – April 6, 2016) and Harry W. Rundgren (1917-1996). His father was of Swedish descent, and his mother was of Austrian and German descent. He grew up in Upper Darby's bordering town and learned how to play guitar with no assistance. Rundgren's childhood fascination with his parents' tiny record collection, which consisted of show tunes and symphonic pieces, and especially by Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas. He became infatuated with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Yardbirds' music, as well as Gamble & Huff, the Philadelphia O'Jays. He formed "Money" with then-best friend and roommate Randy Reed and Reed's younger brother at the age of 17.

Rundgren, who graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1966, moved to Woody's Truck Stop, a blues rock band modeled after Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Rundgren stayed with the band for eight months, and they became Philadelphia's most influential group in the process. Carson Van Osten, a bassist, and drummer Jay Barrett were both left hanging out on the eponymous first album of the rock band Nazz in 1967. Rundgren had lost interest in the blues and wanted to pursue a recording career with original songs in the style of the Beatles and the Who's newer records. As a member of the Nazz, he learned his craft as a singer and vocal arranger, and was determined to equal the Beatles' artistry.

The Nazz were signed by Atlantic Records subsidiary Screen Gems Columbia in 1968, after recording four demo discs (SGC). They were flown to Los Angeles to record their first album at ID Sound Studio. Rundgren had no prior production experience and remembered that Bill Traut, the designer, "just whipped through the mixes in a day or two." So I got it into my head, 'Well, he's gone now, so why don't we just mix it again, more like the way we want it to be?' If we went and just started fiddling about on the board, our programmer wouldn't mind... It was mainly trial and error." He took an experimental approach to the recordings, using features such as varispeed and flanging, and despite having no formal education, scored music charts for string and horn arrangements. Rundgren's engineer James Lowe, who Rundgren was hired for his work with arranger Van Dyke Parks, believed he had been promoted to Nazz's de facto leader, and that a producer's name had been withheld from him.

Nazz's debut single, "Open My Eyes" and "Hello It's Me," were among Nazz's songs penned by Rundgren, earned minor success on July 1968. They've since released three albums: Nazz (October 1968), Nazz Nazz (April 1969), and Nazz III (1971). Laura Nyro, a New York singer-songwriter, and the Thirteenth Confession appeared in March 1968. Rundgren was struck by "all the major seventh chords and variations on augmented and suspended chords," and it had an immediate effect on his songwriting, particularly when he began to compose more on piano.

He elaborated:

The remainder of the band's repertoire stuggish, and tensions among all of the band members had risen in the gap between recording their first and second albums as a result of their shared living quarters. Tensions soared during Nazz's second album's recording, with some members bridling at the once unassuming Rundgren's professing full control of the session as the producer. Rundgren and Van Osten had both left the Nazz by the time Nazz Nazz was announced, so the track pick was done without their participation. Nazz III, which featured leftover tracks from the Nazz Nazz sessions, was also released without Rundgren's participation.

Personal life

In 1972, Rundgren began a friendship with model Bebe Buell. Buell had a brief friendship with Steven Tyler, which culminated in an unplanned pregnancy. Buell gave birth to Liv Tyler on July 1, 1977. Todd Rundgren was the biological father, according to Buell, who named the child Liv Rundgren. Rundgren and Buell ended their intimate relationship shortly after Liv's birth, but Rundgren maintained their Liv commitment. Liv discovered that her biological father, Steven Tyler, was born at age 11. "I'd figured out that I wanted a father right away when I was born," Liv Tyler said. She knew that there was a chance that I might not be his son, but..." He paid to bring her into private school, and she visited him many times a year. Tyler has a close relationship with Rundgren as a result of 2012. I'm so grateful to him, because I have so much love for him. When he holds me, it seems like Daddy. He's also extremely loyal and strong." Buell's accepted explanation for claiming Rundgren was Liv's father was that Tyler was too addicted to opioids at the time of Liv's birth.

Rundgren had a long-term friendship with Karen Darvin, with whom he had two sons, Rex (born 1980) and Randy (born 1985). For nine seasons, Rex was a minor league baseball player (infielder). Darvin had worked with Bruce Springsteen in a relationship that began in 1977.

In 1998, Rundgren married Michele Gray. Gray had performed on The Tubes and was on tour with Rundgren as a back-up singer on his album Nearly Human, which culminated in several appearances on the David Letterman Show as one of the World's Most Dangerous Backup Singers. They have a son named Rebop.

According to the book A Wizard, a True Star, he diagnosed himself with attention deficit disorder.

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Solo career

Rundgren, who said he would never return to being a performer, approached Grossman with the prospect of what would be his first solo record, Runt. Rundgren said that his overall preference for any initiative was to "make the record [I] wanted to make and then hope the label would find a way to advertise it," Rundgren said, "I didn't get a real advance for Runt." To cover the studio's expenses, I just asked for a recording budget to pay the studio. ... I had no idea how much money I even had in the bank. "I wish cash was available at the accountants, and they would just give me hundreds or thousands of dollars."

Runt was not initially credited to Rundgren due to his fears of embarking on a full-fledged solo career, instead sporting the moniker "Runt." Laura Nyro's album included a bright sound and songs. It was recorded with 17-year-old bassist Tony Fox Sales and his 14-year-old brother Hunt Sales on drums. When Jim Lowe of Nazz returned to the sessions, he said Rundgren seemed to be "more able to lead a team." It's really advanced stuff, especially for a guy so young." On the Billboard charts, the lead single "We Gotta Get You a Woman" debuted at number 20. He produced Halfnelson, the band's debut album that would be a hit, as he planned a sequel. Ron and Russell Mael later credited Rundgren with sparking Sparks' career.

Rundgren's professional fame soared as a result of his association with Runt, and he began using recreational drugs for the first time in his life. Initially, this was limited to marijuana. "The drug gave him a whole new sense of time, space, and order," which inspired his second album, Runt. Todd Rundgren's Ballad. The majority of the material was piano ballads and still largely based on Nyro's model, but Rundgren's effort to refine his music and choice of subject matter, as well as distinguish himself from his influences. "Be Nice to Me" and "A Long Time, a Long Way To Go" were two singles by Todd Rundgren in June 1971, neither of which mirrored "We Gotta Get You a Woman"'s success. Though initial reports of Ballad were mixed, it was later discovered to be one of the best singer-songwriter albums of the period.

Rundgren was hired to finish Badfinger's third album Straight Up, a venture that George Harrison had abandoned to coordinate the Concert for Bangladesh in London in late 1971. Rundgren was not credited for the first ("Day After Day") and thus did not receive royalties for the single, but the album was a hit and its two singles were very similar, although Rundgren was not credited for the first ("Day After Day" was not included in the lineup and thus did not receive royalties for the single. Rundgren said that the song "didn't sound much like what [Harrison had] done] and that Harrison "may or may not have been anything important, just some by-product of a general Beatle hubris." Rundgren returned to Los Angeles in September for his third solo album, which was originally intended as a single LP.

Much of the newer content was not produced or imagined under the influence of marijuana, as with Ballad. However, Ritalin had by this time been used to make experiments. "My songwriting process had been almost to second-nature," he said. "I was writing songs deliberately, almost without thinking, and [them out] in about 20 minutes, reflexively. Ritalin helped him focus on the process even as he worked up to 12 hours a day to meet the three-week deadline. He brought an eight-track recorder, mixer, and synthesizers into his living room in order to continue recording after leaving the studio. Rundgren performed every part of his career, including bass, drums, and vocals. This way, approximately "an album and a half" was completed. He then decided to turn the album into a double LP and cut the last few tracks with musicians live in the studio.

Something/Anything. The first album titled "Todd Rundgren" was released in February 1972, just after Bearsville had signed a long-term distribution contract with Warner Bros. Records. Many of the songs on the album would be his best-known. Among basic pop songs are jams and studio banter, such as the spoken-word track "Intro" in which he teaches the listener about recording flaws for an egg hunt-style game he describes as "Sounds of the Studio." A smiling Rundgren prompted the reader to "ignore me," according to magazine ads. The album debuted at number 29 on the Billboard 200 and was rated gold in three years. The lead single "I Saw the Light" debuted at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Hello It's Me," the late 1970s revival of "Hello It's Me," debuted at number 5.

Something/Anything, according to music critic Colin Larkin, Something/Nothing? Since being "one of the first 1970s' most iconic launches," the 'British king is regarded as "rightly one of the major 1970s' classic launches." Artists in the power pop genre may have influenced "Couldn't Just Tell You." Rundgren's "masterclass in compression," according to music journalist Paul Lester, who said that the work "staken his pledge to powerpop immortality [and] kept the ball rolling." What Happened in Musician Scott Miller's 2010 book Music: What Happened? The album is described as "probably the best power pop album ever made" on words that are "both anxious and lighthearted at the same time," as well as a guitar solo's "truly amazing dexterity and inflection."

In 2003, Something/Anything?

On Rolling Stone's list of the "50 Greatest Albums of All Time," ranked 173nd.

A Wizard, a True Star, and the spin-off group Utopia saw a dramatic change away from straightforward three-minute pop. Rundgren, who appeared to be branded "the male Carole King" after the success of Something/Anything, became concerned that he was being increasingly branded "the male Carole King." "It wasn't what I was aiming to create as a musical legacy for myself," he said. Now relocated back to New York and testing with a slew of psychedelic drugs, he began to wonder if the book on Something/Anything was published. The main aim, which was largely formulaic and borne of laziness, was to produce a "more eclectic and more experimental" sequel to the album. Frank Zappa, Yes, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra's progressive rock also leaned toward the Mahavishnu Orchestra. When giving a commencement address at Berklee College of Music in 2017, he referred to the work as: "...

Rundgren's hallucinogenic experiences heavily influenced Wizard's sound and structure. It was intended as a "light plan" with all of the tracks segueing seamlessly into each other, beginning with a "chaotic" mood and ending with a medley of his favorite soul songs. "With drugs, I could now abstract my thought processes in a certain way, and I wanted to see if I could put them on paper," he said. A lot of people regarded it as the determinants of a psychedelic journey: it was almost like painting with your head." To accommodate the Wizard sessions, Rundgren and Moogy Klingman established Secret Sound, a licensed recording studio. The studio was built to Rundgren's requirements and was constructed so that he could freely indulge in sound experimentation without worrying about hourly studio costs, but he maintained that the album was "kind of rushed through because the studio wasn't finished." Musical theater, jazz, and funk were among the album's influences.

In March 1973, a Wizard, a True Star, was introduced. No singles were released from the album at Rundgren's behest, as he wanted the tracks to be understood in the context of the LP. In sharp contrast to Wizard's content, Rundgren's debut coincided with the success of the "Hello It's Me" album, which gave him a reputation as a ballad singer. Although critical reactions to the album were mixed, Wizard became a major influence on musicians in the ensuing decades. Barney Hoskyns, a music journalist, called the album "the greatest album of all time" -- "a dizzying, intoxicating rollercoaster ride of emotions and genre changes [that] appears more modern than any ostensibly cutting-edge electro-pop being made in the 21st century." Sam Sodsky of Pitchfork wrote that Wizard's "fingerprints" were still "evident on bedroom auteurs to this day."

Rundgren's We're an American Band and the New York Dolls' self-titled debut album, which were among the year's most influential LPs. The former album debuted on the US charts at number two, while the latter became a seminal forerunner of punk rock, but Rundgren never claimed to be a "punk producer." Rundgren's "M Frog" Labat, a multimedia display, was also staged by a band later named Utopia Mark I by Tony Sales, Hunting, keyboardist Dave Mason, and synthesizer expert Jean-Yves "M Frog" Labat. After just a few weeks on the road, the tour began in April and was postponed in April.

Once Rundgren had finished with his design work, he began planning for a new version of Utopia, but first to Secret Sound to record the more synthesizer-heavy double album Todd, which was based on his hallucinogenic experiences. This time, he had also developed an obsession with religion and spirituality by reading books by authors such as Madame Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner, and Jiddu Krishnamurti. Todd was originally scheduled for release in December 1973, but was postponed until February next year due to a vinyl shortage exacerbated by the 1973 oil crisis.

Rundgren took note of Kevin Ellman's "fusion jazz sensibility" when composing Todd (bass) and John Siegler (bass). Rundgren, together with Klingman and keyboardist Ralph Shuckett, designed the new Utopia design. On August 25, 1973, the Brecker Brothers and Hall & Oates presented the bill for their first show at Central Park. Utopia appeared on more shows throughout November and December, as well as Some/Anything's own material. Rundgren's solo opening set on piano followed by a pre-recorded track, with Wizard and Prince. Rundgren appeared on "Hello It's Me" on The Midnight Special on December 7, despite dressing in jarringly glam attire to the chagrin of several of his bandmates and Bearsville executive Paul Fishkin, who recalled Rundgren's appearance as "like a fucking drag queen" on the chagrine.

After Rundgren produced Hello People's The Handsome Devils and Hall & Oates' War Babies, Utopia embarked on their first tour between March and April 1974. Todd Rundgren's Utopia, the band's debut album, came as a result of the band's LP (November 1974). Rundgren's first full fledged venture into the progressive rock genre was announced. Several more albums were released between 1975 and 1985 by Utopia. Todd Rundgren's Utopia remained their highest album chart position, despite being rebranded towards a rock-pop sound. Bearsville's Roger Powell said he wishes Utopia had "just gone away," but "Todd's deal asked for a certain number of albums over a certain number of years," so he decided that every other album would be a solo album and the next one a Utopia collection."

"Rock N Roll Pussy," a song directed at former Beatle John Lennon, was included in a Wizardry True Star post. Rundgren and Lennon were embroiled in a minor controversy over remarks Rundgren made in the February edition of Melody Maker magazine. He accused Lennon of striking a waitress at the Troubadour in Hollywood, calling him a "fucking idiot" during the revolution and "acting like an idiot." The magazine published Lennon's reaction, in which he denied the charges and referred to the musician as "Turd Runtgreen": "I never claimed to be a revolutionary." I am allowed to sing about whatever I please.

Right?"

"John and I knew we were being used, and I received a phone call from him one day, and we just said, 'Let's drop this now.'

Initiation (1975) continued experimentation with synthesisers, demonstrating the musical popularity of the avant-garde jazz fusion of contemporary artists, such as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa. Rundgren pushed the medium to its physical limits once more on the original LP issue, with the side-long suite "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" clocking in at over 35 minutes.

Rundgren, who was born in May 1976, is commemorated in this year as a professional musician. The album featured one side of original songs and one side of covers of influential songs from 1966, including the Yardbirds' "Good Vibrations," and two Lennon-penned Beatles hits. The covers were supposed to be as close to the originals as possible, and Rundgren's original songs were written as a tribute to his 1960s influences. He cited the song "The Verb 'To Love" as the point in which he made the conscious decision to avoid writing superficial love songs and "seek out all other topics to write about." Despite the lack of sales and marketing for Faithful's lead single "Good Vibrations" on American radio, the song "Good Vibrations" received regular airplay.

Rundgren spent two months on an eastern spiritual retreat, visiting Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bali, Thailand, and Hawaii. He also opened Utopia Sound Studio in Lake Hill, New York, just outside of Woodstock, and bought a house and an adjoining building to be taken over as studio housing for artists who used the studio. Rundgren's base remained on Mink Hollow Road for the next six years. He released three albums with Utopia in the run-up to his next solo effort. Disco Jets, the first of a line of instrument disco tracks to be unveiled until 2001. Ra (February 1977) was a concept album based on Egyptian mythology that preceded a lavish tour involving an extravagant stage set with a massive pyramid and Sphynx head.

Oops!

Wrong Planet (September 1977), which was released immediately after the tour, signaled the company's more pop-oriented direction.

Rundgren and their infant daughter Liv Tyler were separated from then-girlfriend Bebe Buell and their infant daughter Liv Tyler by late 1977. Rundgren recalled leaving his home in New York City and sequestering himself at Mink Hollow, "after I found that I didn't want to cohabit any longer with Bebe." Except for the bass, drums, and voices, he intended the songs on his next solo album to be performed on piano with minimal arrangements. In that sense, he said that the songwriting process seemed to be "fairly normal."

In May 1978, Hermit of Mink Hollow was released. It was regarded as his most immediately accessible work since Something/Anything, according to Rundgren's latest ventures after a string of prog records with Utopia, which was heralded as a "return to form" after the string of prog records with Utopia. The LP soared to number 36 in the United States, while single "Can We Still Be Friends" reached number 29. With versions by Robert Palmer, Rod Stewart, Colin Blunstone, and Mandy Moore, Rundgren's most popular song became Rundgren's most popular. Rundgren undertook an American tour, including The Bottom Line in New York and The Roxy in Los Angeles, in order to advertise the work. These shows culminated in the release of two live albums Back to the Bars, which featured a mix of material from his solo career and Utopia, as well as Stevie Nicks' backing band Utopia, Spencer Davis, Daryl Hall, and Stevie Nicks.

In 1980, Utopia released Deface the Music, a Beatles parody album. It featured "Everybody Else Is Wrong," another song that seems to have been aimed at Lennon. Lennon was killed by Mark David Chapman, an ardent Rundgren fan who was angered by Lennon's observance of faith. Chapman was wearing a promotional T-shirt for Hermit of Mink Hollow and had left a copy of Runt when he was apprehended. Todd Rundgren's Ballad in his hotel room. Rundgren was unaware of the links until "way before the fact." When asked about the Melody Maker feud, Chapman said he was unaware of the musicians' appearances in the press until years after they were active.

The album-long concept work Healing was released in 1981. His music video for the song "Time Heals" was one of MTV's first videos to be broadcast, and a video he made for RCA, flanked by Gustav Holst's The Planets, was used as a demonstration for their videodisc players. He began designing one of the first computer graphics applications, dubbed the Utopia Graphics System, in 1981; it ran on an Apple II with Apple's digitizer tablet. He is also the co-developer of the Flowfazer computer screenaver.

On August 13, 1980, Rundgren's Mink Hollow home was burglarized. When the house was ransacked by a group of armed men, he and his mother, who was pregnant at the time, were tied up. According to Rundgren's account, the guy mistakenly thought he had a substantial amount of cocaine. Despite the family's safety, the guys loot a rare Alembic bass guitar, which included a custom-made Alembic bass guitar.

The latest wave-tinged The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect (1982) featured a glimpse of the Small Faces' "Tin Soldier" (see below). An album single, "Bang The Drum All Day," was a minor chart hit. It later became more popular and was adopted as an unofficial theme by several major sports franchises, including the Green Bay Packers. On Friday afternoons, Disc Jockey Geno Michellini of KLOS in Los Angeles used "Bang The Drum All Day" as an unofficial kick-off to the weekend. In a Carnival Cruise television commercial campaign, "Bang The Drum All Day" was also included. It is now one of Rundgren's most popular songs. Rundgren's tenure with Bearsville Records came to an end.

Rundgren also signed to Warner Bros. Records, who released his next album, A Cappella (1985), which was released using Rundgren's multi-tracked voice and with arrangements made entirely from programed vocal samples. In 1986, Rundgren appeared on four episodes of the famous children's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse.

Nearly Human (1989) and 2nd Wind (1991) were both recorded live, the former in the studio, the latter in a theater before a live audience was forced to sit. Every song on these albums was recorded as a complete single take with no later overdubbing. Both albums represented, in part, a return to his Philly soul roots. Several excerpts from Rundgren's musical Up Against It, which was based on the screenplay, were also included in the 2nd Wind, which was also available on DVD. Joe Orton, a British playwright, had initially intended for the Beatles for their never-made sequel to Help!

Rundgren was one of the first users of the NewTek Video Toaster and made several videos with it. As a demo reel for the Toaster, the first, "Change Myself" from 2nd Wind, was widely distributed. Later, he founded a company that produced 3D animation using the Toaster; this company's first demo, "Theology" (a glimpse at sacred architecture in the years featuring music by former Utopia bandmate Roger Powell), became a widely distributed item among Toaster enthusiasts.

Rundgren's debut from touring came after a long absence from touring (one of whom, Michele Gray, Rundgren, married) on the road with Nearly Human—2nd Wind band, which featured brass and a trio of backup singers. He appeared in 1992 with Ringo Starr's second All-Starr band.

The Rundgren/Powell/Sulton/Wilcox line was revived, as the Rundgren/Powell/Wilcox series was revived, and Redux '92: Live in Japan was released on Rhino Records.

Rundgren released two albums under the pseudonym TR-i ("Todd Rundgren interactive") in the mid 1990s. Hundreds of seconds of music snippets of music were included in the first of these, 1993's No World Order, and could be combined in a variety of ways to please the listener. No World Order, the Philips CD-i platform, included interactive controls for speed, tone, and other parameters, as well as pre-programmed mixes by Rundgren himself, Don Was, and Jerry Harrison. The disc was also available for PC and Macintosh as well as in two versions on standard audio CD, the continuous mix CD No. Order, and the more song-oriented No World Order Lite. Rundgren's performance was quite a departure from Rundgren's previous work, with a dance/techno feel and a lot of rapping by Rundgren. The Individualist (1995), a sequel to the No. 2nd edition, had interactive video content that could be seen or played in one case; it was a simple video game with no audio program included; it was more rock-oriented than No World Order.

Rundgren returned to recording under his own name for With a Twist... (1997), an album of bossa-nova covers of his older stuff. PatroNet's PatroNet work, which attracted more than a year, was announced in 2000 as One Long Year. Rundgren released Liars, a concept album about "paucity of truth" that features a blend of his older and newer sounds, released in 2004.

Rundgren, longtime producer Eric Gardner, and Apple digital music executive Kelli Richards, joined PatroNet, a subscription service that provided fans (patrons) with access to his works-in-progress and new unreleased tracks in exchange for a subscription fee, ripping out record labels as the Internet gained widespread adoption. The songs from Rundgren's first PatroNet run were later released on the album One Long Year. Rundgren has severed his ties with major record labels and now delivers new music direct to subscribers via his website, although he also continues to record and sell CDs through independent labels. "However, the PatroNet.com website contains the following information as of July 2022: "PatroNet is under a major software upgrade and is not accepting new members at this time."

Rundgren produced the score for the film A Face to a Name, directed by Douglas Sloan, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Several photos of missing New Yorkers were depicted on Bellevue Hospital's 'wall of prayers' after the attacks. In 2002, the film appeared at a special screening at the Woodstock Film Festival.

Despite bassist Benjamin Orr's death and lack of concern on behalf of former lead singer Ric Ocasek in late 2005, the Boston-based band The Cars were planning to re-form. Rundgren appeared with Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes in rehearsals for a possible new Cars lineup, according to rumors. Initial rumors pointed to the New Cars being fleshed out with Clem Burke of Blondie and Art Alexakis of Everclear. The group eventually completed their lineup with former Rundgren bassist Kasim Sulton and studio drummer Prairie Prince of The Tubes, who had appeared on XTC's Rundgren-produced Skylarking and has performed and performed with Rundgren.

The current lineup appeared on a few private shows for business executives, appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and made other television appearances before beginning a 2006 summer tour with the reformed Blondie. Rundgren referred to the initiative as "a chance for me to pay my bills, perform to a larger audience, work with musicians I know and love, and have some fun for a year." "Not Tonight," the New Cars' first single, "Not Tonight," was released on March 20, 2006. The New Cars: It's Alive, a live album/greatest hits collection, was released in June 2006. The collection features classic Cars songs (and two Rundgren hits) as well as three new studio tracks ("Not Tonight") and "More").

Todd Rundgren's Johnson, a series of Robert Johnson covers, was published in April 2011. On another 2011 release, titled (re)Production), he appears on a new album of covers, including Grand Funk Railroad's "Walk Like a Man" and XTC's "Dear God."

Rundgren also published White Knight, a series of collaborations with Trent Reznor, Robyn, Daryl Hall, Joe Walsh, and Donald Fagen.

The Individualist: Dreams, Cleopatra Press's Self-Penned Book, published in December 2018, Cleopatra Press' The Individualist: Digressions, Aspirations, and Dissertations. There are 181 chapters in the book, each one page long, with each one containing three paragraphs. "I knew that I had to do this or someone else would do it," he said. I'm getting to the point where I may not be able to do it myself and then someone else will do it, and I wouldn't be happy with the result." Rundgren's 50th birthday in 1998, the same year he began writing the book, came to an end. "My life has been a lot more boring since then," he said. I'm not making as much money as I used to, and the following are some of the reasons why those projects aren't as popular as they do. He stopped by the Library of Congress on October 21, 2019, and signed a braille copy that was created for him by a supporter and National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled patron who is blind.

Rundgren appeared in late 2019 with Micky Dolenz, Jason Scheff, Christopher Cross, and Joey Molland of Badfinger as part of the Beatles' White Album's "It Was Fifty Years Ago Today" tribute to the Beatles' White Album.

Rundgren co-produced "Down With The Ship" by Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo in 2020, a Weezer frontman who released the single "Down With The Ship" on their website. He released his English translation of "Flappie," which was released by Dutch comedian Youp van 't Hek in 1978. Sparks reunited with Sparks 50 years after releasing a single "Your Fandango" in April.

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Awards and honors

• 1984: Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Video – “Videosyncracy”[1]
• 1995: Berkeley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Popular Culture Society at UC Berkeley.
• 2017: Honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music, where he delivered the commencement address, and an honorary doctorate from DePauw University.
• 2018: Nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's class of 2019. Since becoming eligible in 1995, he has often been asked about his absence from the Hall of Fame. A 2018 poll conducted by the institution, which is not factored in the final vote, placed Rundgren as the third-most deserving nominee on the ballot. In 2016, Rundgren told an interviewer: "It doesn't have the same cachet as a Nobel Peace Prize or some historical foundation. If I told you about how they actually determine who gets into the Hall of Fame, you'd think that I was bullshitting you, because I've been told what's involved. ... It's just as corrupt as anything else, and that's why I don't care."
• 2021: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.