Todd Rundgren reflects on what made David Bowie such a genius — and why he lost interest

Todd Rundgren was spending a lot of time in England just as David Bowie's star was on the verge of going supernova.

"'Changes' was rocketing up the charts while I was there,'" he says.

So Rundgren grabbed a copy of the single's parent album, "Hunky Dory," and was immediately taken with the range of the material.

"Most artists tend to just kind of work in one corner of the music world but he was still in, I guess, an experimental or exploratory phase in his career," he says.

"And there was a quality to the songwriting that was very sort of unusual to him. It didn't seem like he was imitating anybody else. And that impressed me. So I started paying close attention to what he was doing."

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Fifty years later, Rundgren is headed to Phoenix on a tribute tour called Celebrating David Bowie, which also features celebrated Bowie sideman Adrian Belew on lead guitar.

The Celebrity Theatre concert on Sunday, Nov. 13, will feature Rundgren singing several of what he refers to as "the early classics," including "Space Oddity," "Life on Mars?" and "Changes."

The key to taking part in tours like this, Rundgren says with a laugh, is "you get in there early and grab the songs you want."

He's also doing a few songs he doesn't like nearly as much.

"Like, I sing 'Young Americans,'" Rundgren says. "And I do it like he does. Like Anthony Newley."

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Bowie was hugely indebted to Newley, a musical theater star who scored a dozen U.K. pop hits in his prime, from 1959 to 1962.

"David Bowie was unfortunately blighted by the influence of Anthony Newley," Rundgren says.

"For some reason, he thought that was how you were supposed to sing R&B. Especially when he got to 'Young Americans' and things like that. To me, it just sounded like Anthony Newley trying to be an R&B singer."

Rundgren wasn't necessarily keen on Bowie's "plastic soul" phase, when he played more to the dance floor on hits as huge as "Golden Years" and "Fame," his first chart-topping entry on the Hot 100.

"He became more of a stylist," Rundgren says. "And I lost interest."

Rundgren also felt that Bowie was a better songwriter in the beginning.

"It's probably because he just started to branch out into so many areas like acting and fashion and things like that," he says.

"And the songs became thinner and thinner in a way. You compare the elaborate changes in a song like 'Life on Mars?' — an example of brilliant songwriting — with a song like 'Golden Years,' which essentially is two chords over and over again."

Despite his preference for the earlier material, he says, "That doesn't mean that I don't make a serious attempt to represent the music in a way that I think people want to hear it. You won't have any trouble recognizing any of the songs."

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Rundgren never felt as tied to glam as David Bowie

Although they were in many ways contemporaries, Rundgren says he never felt as tied to a specific scene as Bowie was to glam.

"My interests were particularly musical," he says.

He did go through what one might safely call a glitter phase in the mid-70s with feathers on his face, heavy makeup and outrageous costumes.

"That was really more the product of a guy I hired to design costumes and do makeup for me," Rundgren says.

"He was probably driven by what David Bowie did, in terms of hair, makeup, spacey costumes, giant psychedelic chaps, all kinds of things that are fun to look at and add a different aspect to a live show. I didn't pursue it that much personally, but I didn't have to because I had someone doing it for me."

Rundgren was still growing into his role as a frontman at the time, having launched his career in 1968 with the Nazz, whose psychedelic self-titled debut had included an early version of his biggest hit, "Hello It's Me."

"I was never a natural performer," Rundgren says. "When I was in the Nazz, I modeled myself after Pete Townshend. I didn't want to be a lead singer. I just wanted to play guitar and flail around in the background.

"And I wrote the songs because we needed songs. You couldn't get a record deal if all you did was cover songs."

That group lasted maybe 18 months, by Rundgren's count.

"And when it was done, I didn't want to be a performer. I just wanted to make records."

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'I accidentally had a hit'

In 1969, he took a job with Albert Grossman, engineering and producing other people's music.

His first album, "Runt," was "a vanity project," Rundgren says. "I said, 'I've been still writing songs, even though I'm not performing. And I want to make a record.'"

Grossman gave him a recording budget, and Rundgren banged out "Runt," which included the hit single "We Gotta Get You a Woman," with Hunt and Tony Sales, two brothers who went on to play in Tin Machine with Bowie.

Then he dutifully went back to producing other people's music.

"And I accidentally had a hit off that first record," Rundgren says.

"That was encouragement enough to make another record. And another. And eventually I realized I would have to learn how to be a performer. Obviously, David Bowie, from the time he was in high school, had the intent of being a pop star. And I never did."

He also didn't have the vocal stamina to front a band.

"When I had to go out and do my first performances, I was miserable through most of them," he says.

"I couldn't sing for 20 minutes straight. I'd lose my voice. And that's when sets were only 30 minutes."

Rundgren laughs.

"I'd be singing just waiting for a guitar solo to come up," he says.

"But eventually, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to learn to sing. I found singers I wanted to learn from or emulate. And eventually, things got easier. Now, one of the most enjoyable things in life for me is singing."

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'I didn't want to sound like a white kid'

The singers Rundgren did his best to emulate were mostly R&B guys — Stevie Wonder,  Marvin Gaye, Eddie Levert of the O'Jays.

"That was the kind of music I grew up with," Rundgren says.

"I didn't want to sound like a white kid. That was part of the problem in the beginning. That's all I sounded like, was a weak nasal white kid. I wanted to have the vocal power and range of expression of an R&B singer."

Studying those records, trying to learn how they managed to sound the way they did, was all part of his musical journey.

Rundgren also came up with some vocal exercises.

"In one instance, that just consisted of driving around L.A. screaming at the top of my lungs to build up the stamina," he recalls. "I wanted to be able to scream like James Brown."

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How David Bowie compares to the Beatles

The last time Rundgren came through Phoenix, he was part of a musical tribute to the Beatles.

"For the most part, all you need is guitars to do the Beatles," Rundgren says. "They're basically a guitar band with occasional other instruments injected into the arrangements.

"David Bowie had a penchant for lots of weird sounds. So you almost couldn't do a David Bowie show without relying on synthesizers."

Recruiting a saxophone player was also of vital importance.

"There's a lot of saxophone throughout, especially in the later years," Rundgren says, noting that Bowie himself played saxophone.

"So when it came to solos, Spiders from Mars aside, he preferred to have a sax solo as opposed to a guitar solo."

When it comes to guitar solos, having Belew on hand to work his magic elevates their tribute to another level. It's also a real treat for Rundgren.

"This is probably one of the few contexts in which Adrian can do what Adrian does and yet we're still doing pop music," he says

"This isn't King Crimson or one of the more conceptual things he does. His playing is  unique. You wouldn't hear it on anyone else's pop records."

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When Rundgren met Bowie

Rundgren and Bowie crossed paths more than once. They met at Max's Kansas City, just briefly, after Bowie played Radio City Music Hall on the Spiders from Mars Tour.

Years later, Bowie came to check out a video studio Rundgren had opened in upstate New York.

"The irony is that just about the time I left upstate New York for the West Coast, he moved to upstate New York, about two miles from where I'd lived," Rundgren says.

"And he lived there until he died. So it was just a weird kind of ships in the night thing. I guess if there had been more overlap, we might have communicated more."

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Why Rundgren skipped his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction

It's been a year since Rundgren took his rightful place, alongside Bowie and the Beatles, in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He skipped his induction ceremony for a gig that night in Cincinnati and hasn't bothered checking out what happened in his absence.

"I never watched the show before that, and I haven't watched the show since then," he says.

The Hall of Fame "never made any sense to me," he says.

"And just getting inducted doesn't make it make more sense automatically. There are still artists I know personally who should be there and never get consideration. That's enough for me to not necessarily feel any special pride or satisfaction."

Still, he's happy for his fans.

"The fans wanted the recognition for me because it's recognition for them, you know?  That they weren't, like, nuts all these years for following me and listening to everything that I did."

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Celebrating David Bowie

When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13. 

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: $40-$100.

Details: 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com. 

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Todd Rundgren talks as Celebrating David Bowie Tour heads to Phoenix