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Todd Rundgren on Working with Kanye West, Skipping His Rock Hall Induction: “True Halls of Fame Are for Retirees and Dead People”

Todd Rundgren on Working with Kanye West, Skipping His Rock Hall Induction: “True Halls of Fame Are for Retirees and Dead People”

If you live in Maui, like Todd Rundgren does, you do not have to apologize for just chillin’ your way through the pandemic. Rundgren, though, has done anything but that.

The veteran multi-hyphenate — producer of landmark albums for Meat Loaf, Grand Funk Railroad and others, as well as his own robust repertoire — has been characteristically hard at work and, save for being off the road, has not slowed down a great deal during the past 19 months. He even went “on tour” earlier this year with a series of virtual concerts, performed from Chicago and targeted to specific cities.

Rundgren has also released four singles during the past year or so, slated for his next album, Space Force. That includes collaborations with Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo (“Down With the Ship”), Narcy (“Espionage”) and, most recently, with Sparks (“Your Fandango”), whose debut album, when the band was known as Halfnelson, was produced by Rundgren. He’s on the road once again, with tour dates into mid-November. And, after three consecutive nominations, he was elected for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, though he famously won’t be attending the October 30th ceremony in Cleveland.

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Few of his endeavors, however, raised eyebrows as much as Rundgren’s ongoing collaborations with Kanye West. Though he doesn’t appear in any of the credits for the rapper’s chart-topping new album Donda, Rundgren confirms he’s been working on and off with West, though the experience has been a bit frustrating.

“My contributions ranged from taking something that’s kind of fragmentary and raw and trying to give form to it to sometimes just adding background vocals and then just not hearing for weeks what the hell’s going on,” Rundgren tells Consequence. “I’ve had two conversations with him; one of them had no musical contest at all, it was just his life story in a way. I don’t know when it was considered to have started, but at some midpoint they were going to complete it last year, but apparently it went on and the concept would continue to change… The record would be humming along for awhile and then nothing would happen for awhile.

“So I don’t have a handle to grab in that sense. I have no idea where he’s at or what he’s thinking in terms of music — or if he is. There are so many other participants in the record, literally hundreds, so it’s hard to separate things. It’s hard to tell whether he is causing things to happen or just reacting to things. That’s all speculation on my part.”

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Rundgren also has some thoughts on the album’s confirmed controversial collaborators: “A lot of it just seems about, like, stunts — like how did Marilyn Manson wind up on it at the last minute? I have no idea what the thinking is behind that.”

Rundgren adds that “the saga continues in some sense or another” for his work with West, albeit with no defined end point — or purpose. “It isn’t over, and I still can’t tell you definitely what my involvement would turn out to be,” Rundgren says. “Just fumbling in the dark, that’s not for me. I need to have some direction to go in or some aspiration to have, something like that. But just throwing stuff against the wall doesn’t work for me. I really don’t know what’s going to come of all this, if anything does.”

Rundgren has other projects to focus on, of course. His Space Force album is finished and delivered for expected release next year, and its next single collaboration with the Roots is due out later this month. He’s also just kicked off The Individualist, A True Tour, a 29-date trek during which he’s playing a side of his 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star at each show, plus a selection of other career favorites.

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The itinerary puts him in Cincinnati on October 30th, which is of course the night he’ll be inducted into the Rock Hall (he’ll be in Cleveland for two shows the following weekend). Rundgren says “there are any number of reasons” he won’t be there, primary among them his own explicitly stated feelings about the Rock Hall in general, including a belief it’s gone far afield from what he considers “truly rock ‘n’ roll artists” and that “true halls of fame, to me, are for retirees and dead people.”

“I strive not to be a hypocrite,” Rundgren explains, “So if I stated my piece about something then that’s it, kind of. I dug a hole for myself. I don’t really like these red carpet events, where everyone’s struggling for attention and I feel like I want it over with.”

What pleases him about the induction, however, is “the fans are really enjoying it. They’re really what it’s about to me. They’re the ones who wanted it, and I always wanted it to be recognition of them.”

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Rundgren has offered a remote appearance at the ceremony from Cincinnati, but also feels that being on stage, anywhere, is the best way to celebrate the occasion. “If I’ve got a gig for them, that’s got to be my priority,” he says. “I don’t want to spoil [the induction] for anybody else. Other people may take it seriously, so I’m not going to make a campaign out of my attitude. I’m willing to participate but I’m not willing to pretend that it’s somehow different for me. I feel the same way as I always did. I’m loving that the fans are happy — and I’m loving that I’ll never have to go through this again.”

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