Rock icon Todd Rundgren recently sat down for an intimate interview on the AXS TV show, “Mixtape.”
“If you’re really a musician, you’re constantly struggling with where am I going?” the 71-year-old musician said.
Rundgren shared that he pauses to question whether or not the work that he is doing continues to thrill him at every step of the way.
“If not, why am I doing it, or how can I change things so I still get that thrill out of doing it?” he continued.
The vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and member of the ’70s Rock band Utopia has been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the second year in a row this year.
Rundgren noted that he refrains from comparing himself with others, saying, “I thought, ‘I have to do something nobody else can do or would do, or else what’s the point?”
“What’s the point of constantly trying to pursue and figure out what it is that the audience wants to hear instead of doing what you want to do?” he added.
As per the tradition of the show, he also shared a personally curated mixtape of songs that have shaped his life and career, including several tracks from Blues artists Buddy Guy & Junior Wells’ self-titled album and also songs by his contemporaries Christopher Cross, The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz, Badfinger’s Joey Molland and ex-Chicago singer Jason Scheff, with whom he has embarked on the “It Was Fifty Years Ago Today” tour in tribute to The Beatles’ White Album.
The complete playlist:
“Overture Candide” – Leonard Bernstein, Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by John Williams
“Stranger on the Shore” – Acker Bilk
“Walk, Don’t Run” – The Ventures
“The Locomotion” – Little Eva
“The Wah Watusi” – The Orlons
“The Train a-Rollin'” – The Yardbirds
“Snatch It Back and Hold It” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Ships on the Ocean” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Hound Dog” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“In the Wee Hours” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Hey Lawdy Mama” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Hoodoo Man Blues” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Early in the Morning” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“We’re Ready” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“You Don’t Love Me Baby” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Chitlin con Carne” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Yonder Wall” – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Hoodoo Man Blues” (alternate version) – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“Chitlin con Carne” (alternate version) – Junior Wells and Buddy Guy
“The Rubberband Man” – The Spinners
“Listen to the Clock on the Wall” – The O’Jays
“Don’t Wonder Why” – Stevie Wonder
“Main Titles (Overture)” – Louis and Bebe Barron
“That’s Right, You’re Wrong” – Woody’s Truck Stop (featuring Todd Rundgren)
“Born in Chicago” – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
“Crossroads” (Live) – Cream
“My Generation” – The Who
“Forget All About It” – Nazz
“Hello It’s Me” – Todd Rundgren
“Send in the Clowns” – Judy Collins
“Good Vibrations” – Todd Rundgren
“Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” – Todd Rundgren
“Day After Day” – Badfinger
“Bat Out of Hell” – Meat Loaf
“Piece of My Heart” – Janis Joplin
“One Night Stand” – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
“Hair” – Original Broadway Cast of Hair
“Can We Still Be Friends?” – Todd Rundgren
“Tin Foil Hat” – Todd Rundgren with Donald Fagen
“Deaf Ears” – Todd Rundgren with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
“Ride Like the Wind” – Christopher Cross
“Baby Blue” – Badfinger
“What Kind of Man Would I Be?” – Chicago
“I’m a Believer” – The Monkees
“Come” – Todd Rundgren
Source: RTT Music News
