HELLO, IT'S TREE!

Incredibly, Todd Rundgren's debut album, Runt, celebrates its 55th anniversary this year. Less arborist than individualist, he tells RC about his journey from ace producer to true star, being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and whether his job is about to be usurped by AI. Son of 1984: Felix Rowe.

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Todd Rundgren is many things to many people: soft-rock balladeer, power pop pioneer, prog polymath and multi-million-selling record producer.

Throughout his career, he has delighted in defying expectations - whether his own, his audience's or his critics’. One collaborator, Jim Steinman, dubbed him a genius; another, XTC's Andy Partridge, threatened to split his head in half with an axe.

His presence has been felt on countless rock milestones. He produced the debuts of three very different American iconoclasts: Sparks, proto-punks New York Dolls, and the inimitable Meat Loaf. More disconcertingly, after John Lennon was shockingly gunned down in 1980, his killer, a Todd obsessive, was, when arrested, wearing a T-shirt adorned with Rundgren's face.

We catch up over Zoom, from his open-air home in Kauai. With UK dates and several anniversaries looming, there's much ground to cover, plus a chance to set a few records straight, besides his thoughts on his contemporaries who have since checked in for the great gig in the sky.

Todd plays Stroud, Birmingham and London this month (October), on his Mel We tour. How's his relationship with the UK these days?

"Well, it's been a while since I played in Great Britain under my own marquee," says Rundgren. "I was there a year and a half ago with Daryl Hall. So, I was not sure what my relationship with the British audience was until we actually put the gig on sale. I guess there's something still intact there, because it's almost sold out... We're going to find out for sure and cultivate whatever there is."

With a vast back catalogue, how does he choose a set list?

"In my mind, I put the set together to present a narrative." He traces that impulse to a jolt following his third album, 1972's