Todd Rundgren talks touring and his musical process ahead of Friday’s Voodoo Lounge show

Todd Rundgren’s discography overflows with amazing work. As a performer, it includes Nazz and the amazing “Open My Eyes,” solo hits such as “I Saw the Light” and “Hello, It’s Me,” and the stadium-rock staple “Bang the Drum All Day.” Factor in behind-the-boards credits on the Band’s Stage Fright, the New York Dolls’ self-titled debut and XTC’s Skylarking, among numerous others, and the rocker’s résumé is a genre unto itself.

At 69, though, Rundgren is still restless, continuing to seek out new sounds and aim himself in new directions. But that combination of achievement and curiosity haven’t rendered the icon self-serious. In conversation, he’s playful and engaged, opening our phone interview with a cheery “Hello — it’s me.”

The Pitch: Reading a lot about this upcoming tour, it seems like it’s supposed to be very theatrical.

Todd Rundgren: It is supposed to be, yeah. It’s not unusual. When we did the revival of the A Wizard, A True Star album about five to eight years ago — something like that — I did 12 costume changes in one hour. So, it’s not the first time, and this is only, like, three costume changes in the course of two hours. Not that radical.

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How do the costumes tie in with the songs you’re performing? I imagine with only three, they’re a little more universal.

The show is kind of broken up into four phases — or, acts, you would call them, in the theatrical sense. The first act is pretty much the newer material. Not exclusively, but a lot of newer material. Then we do a costume change, and I play guitar for about five songs, so that’s a more sort of loud and aggressive segment. Then I come out and do a lot of more R&B-oriented stuff — funky tunes and stuff like that — and then we do what I guess would be an encore of three songs. So, between those three segments, I get changed into an appropriate personality.

Of all the artists I’ve seen over the years, you’re one of the top ones to really seem as if they enjoy performing up there.

I do, actually. It’s hard work, and the worst thing about touring is the time when you’re offstage, for the most part: the traveling and trying to find decent food and that sort of thing. That’s always a challenge. Stay healthy: That’s a challenge as well. So, once you finally get yourself onstage — that’s the reason why you’re out there. If I didn’t enjoy myself when I was onstage, then the day would be completely miserable. [chuckles]

I believe the last time you came through was a couple of years ago, as part of Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band. You’ve done that a few times over the years. What’s the difference between being part of that ensemble versus touring solo?

Well, I have a lot less responsibility when I’m with Ringo — in many senses, not simply my contribution onstage. All they do is just tell you when to show up in the lobby, you go to the gig, then you got to the next gig, and, essentially, the rest of the time is mine. I mean, often I end up doing press like this, but otherwise, I don’t have to fret about the details of the show. I just show up and play.

When I’m doing my own stuff, I have constant decisions to make. I’ve never out of the loop, in that sense. I’m always in the loop. Ironically enough, the Ringo shows end up being more work for me than my own show, because I don’t control the pacing on a Ringo show. I have to go as fast as he wants. My role, as well as performing the three songs of my own, is to support everybody else, and often it turns out I’m singing background vocals that are at the top of my range, all the way through a song — which I don’t have to do when I’m doing my own stuff.

So, it can be just as strenuous, if not more so, doing a Ringo show than it is to do my show, because I can order the material in a way that allows me to breathe and to recover and to manage my voice. I actually, in the end, enjoy my shows more, although I enjoy performing with Ringo quite a lot.

I would imagine that Toto and Mr. Mister are definitely up there in terms of being past most people’s range.

Well, yeah. Thankfully, Ringo hired one guy whose sole job is to hit the highest notes from those Toto songs. [laughs]

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Given that you tour regularly and still produce records, how do find time to produce new music of your own?

You actually have to sort of carve it out, to say, “I need these two months or whatever to completely focus on making music” and to avoid any other distractions. My most recent record [White Knight] was a little different, because, as opposed to me performing everything on it, the record was highly collaborative and there were people all over the world producing their contributions to the record. That didn’t require me to necessarily have all of that time cleared away, but under normal circumstances, I do a lot of research before I start doing a record. I listen to what’s out, try and incorporate new ideas — because I don’t like to remain static and I don’t like to repeat myself, and so that whole process — it goes on in your head.

It’s possible to do some of that wherever you happen to be, but for me, I like to have a long period of no distractions, so I can get my head into that space. It’s staying home and not going out on the road as part of the process, even though it may look like I’m sitting around doing crossword puzzles or something like that. It’s giving myself the time for my mind to get a little deeper, without the usual daily distractions.

Research seems like an interesting concept. How do you go about it?

It’s the music itself, really. I’ll often ask my kids for suggestions, because they’re naturally a bit more tuned in, in certain ways. It isn’t the most obvious choices — I’m not looking for advice on Taylor Swift or anything. It’s “What are you listening to that I wouldn’t have heard of?” And then I’ll go to YouTube and start listening, and in the process, I’ll get led on a sort of scavenger hunt by hitting the stuff that appears in the sidebar. I might start one place and end up in a completely different place. You just let it take over the process, in a way.

That sense of discovery seems exciting.

It is, to discover something that you haven’t heard before, and how it adds to your overall musical understanding. Not necessarily everything I listen to is useful as part of that process, but it’s useful for me to be reminded of all the different places you can go with music. You tend to sort of think in your own genre, where you’ve got a particular style in mind or something for the record, and focusing on that, you wouldn’t be exposed to things that were unrelated. A part of that process, for me, is the excitement of realizing I haven’t reached the end of my musical understanding. There’s still something to add to it.

Todd Rungren plays the Voodoo Lounge at Harrah’s on Friday, December 15. Details on that show here.