Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Hello it's me: Todd Rundgren

“My idols are players like Tony Bennett and B.B. King."

Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Video:

"Hello It's Me"

Tod Rundgren performs his hit single on <em>The Midnight Special</em>

Tod Rundgren performs his hit single on The Midnight Special

The news comes before dawn about the passing of B.B. King, making it next to impossible to keep focused on the actual subject of this week’s column. An internet search turns up random scraps of layers of influence, however ancillary, that the great man had on Todd Rundgren’s career. “My idols,” he once told a reporter, “are players like Tony Bennett and B.B. King. They still have an audience and they can do it forever, and to me that’s what being a musician truly is — somebody that does it for their entire life pretty much on their own terms.”

Rundgren admits to playing in a blues band after high school and right up to his first band, the Nazz. He knew the venerable bluesman Robert Johnson’s music inside and out to the extent that later in life, he would record Todd Rundgren’s Johnson, an album of Johnson covers. But he says that it wasn’t really Johnson who influenced him. “I was listening to the guitar players who were listening to him,” Rundgren told another interviewer. Along with the usual names of white blues guitarists from the UK, he noted a little B.B. King love as well.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Past Event

Todd Rundgren

  • Tuesday, June 2, 2015, 8 p.m.
  • Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach
  • 21+

“Hello, it’s me.” Rundgren will likely be remembered for those words more than any other moment in his long career. They are lifted from one of the hit singles released during his Nazz days but also included on 1972’s gold-certified Something/Anything, a double-disc set that he claimed was crafted with the aid of copious amounts of weed and on which he played the instruments and did the singing on most of the tracks. Rolling Stone magazine called it one of their 500 greatest albums of all time. To this day Rundgren defies accurate description as an artist, but at the age of 67, he still sells out venues. How’s that for having a life on one’s own terms?

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Video:

"Hello It's Me"

Tod Rundgren performs his hit single on <em>The Midnight Special</em>

Tod Rundgren performs his hit single on The Midnight Special

The news comes before dawn about the passing of B.B. King, making it next to impossible to keep focused on the actual subject of this week’s column. An internet search turns up random scraps of layers of influence, however ancillary, that the great man had on Todd Rundgren’s career. “My idols,” he once told a reporter, “are players like Tony Bennett and B.B. King. They still have an audience and they can do it forever, and to me that’s what being a musician truly is — somebody that does it for their entire life pretty much on their own terms.”

Rundgren admits to playing in a blues band after high school and right up to his first band, the Nazz. He knew the venerable bluesman Robert Johnson’s music inside and out to the extent that later in life, he would record Todd Rundgren’s Johnson, an album of Johnson covers. But he says that it wasn’t really Johnson who influenced him. “I was listening to the guitar players who were listening to him,” Rundgren told another interviewer. Along with the usual names of white blues guitarists from the UK, he noted a little B.B. King love as well.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Past Event

Todd Rundgren

  • Tuesday, June 2, 2015, 8 p.m.
  • Belly Up Tavern, 143 S. Cedros Avenue, Solana Beach
  • 21+

“Hello, it’s me.” Rundgren will likely be remembered for those words more than any other moment in his long career. They are lifted from one of the hit singles released during his Nazz days but also included on 1972’s gold-certified Something/Anything, a double-disc set that he claimed was crafted with the aid of copious amounts of weed and on which he played the instruments and did the singing on most of the tracks. Rolling Stone magazine called it one of their 500 greatest albums of all time. To this day Rundgren defies accurate description as an artist, but at the age of 67, he still sells out venues. How’s that for having a life on one’s own terms?

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

2024’s Best Bitcoin & Crypto Casinos – Play BTC Casino Games Online

Best Bitcoin Casinos (2024): Top 10 Crypto Casino Sites for BIG Payouts
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.