© 2018 Lynn Goldsmith; Cleopatra BooksLast week, Todd Rundgren published an autobiography titled The Individualist: Digressions, Dreams & Dissertations, which tells his life story from childhood to his 50th birthday. The book is made up of one-page chapters, each one three paragraphs long.
Explaining how the chapters are structured, Rundgren tells ABC Radio, “The first paragraph is an event as factually as I can possibly remember it. Then there’s a paragraph that’s my subjective reaction — either what I was thinking at the time or what I’m thinking about when I remember the event. And then some sort of conclusion — you know, why [I bothered] to include that event in the book.”
Todd says he thinks arranging the book in this way “makes it easy to read.”
He notes, “You can pretty much open it anywhere and read a page and you’ll get the whole sort of episode. And I think that almost conforms with the way that people consume their media nowadays…they do it in kind of discrete doses.”
In the book, Rundgren doesn’t shy away from sharing juicy details of his personal life and his dealings with other musicians. For example, he discusses his volatile relationship with Bebe Buell, who became pregnant with Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler‘s child — Liv — while with Todd, then told Rundgren that he was the father.
“I’m sort of used to being revelatory in some ways when I write music,” Rundgren tells ABC Radio, “so I didn’t feel especially self-conscious baring my emotions.”
As previously reported, Rundgren will support The Individualist with a 2019 trek that’s being billed as the first hybrid concert/book tour. The North American leg of the trek will feature two-night stands in 10 major cities, and Todd also will do signing events and media interviews at each stop.
Here are the dates:
4/10 — Atlanta, GA, Buckhead Theatre
4/11 — Atlanta, GA, Buckhead Theatre
4/13 — Washington, D.C., State Theatre
4/14 — Washington, D.C., State Theatre
4/16 — New York, NY, Town Hall
4/17 — New York, NY, Town Hall
4/19 — Boston, MA, Berklee Performance Center
4/20 — Boston, MA, Berklee Performance Center
4/23 — Chicago, IL, Athenaeum Theatre
4/24 — Chicago, IL, Athenaeum Theatre
4/27 — Toronto, ON, Canada, Danforth Music Hall
4/28 — Toronto, ON, Canada, Danforth Music Hall
5/1 — Philadelphia, PA, Fillmore
5/2 — Philadelphia, PA, Fillmore
5/5 — Cleveland, OH, Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square
5/6 — Cleveland, OH, Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square
5/9 — Los Angeles, CA, The Wiltern
5/10 — Los Angeles, CA, The Wiltern
5/12 — San Francisco, CA, Palace of Fine Arts
5/13 — San Francisco, CA, Palace of Fine Arts
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