Todd Rundgren: my stories of John Lennon, Ringo Starr, New York Dolls and more

By editorial board on March 16, 2022

Todd Rundgren on his public bust-up with a Beatle, the "freaking circus" of the New York Dolls, and why he doesn't pay much attention to Bon Jovi

Here he shares some of his moments and insights from more than 40 years in music, which include some spiky exchanges with John Lennon, experiences with a drunk and sober Ringo Starr, the weird, formative years of Sparks, the insanity of the New York Dolls and the walk in the park that was his gig with Grand Funk Railroad. (Excerpt from Louder Sound to read the full article click here)

John Lennon
I met John Lennon in a place called the Rainbow in Los Angeles during his carousing days with Harry Nilsson. He was sitting in a booth and someone introduced me to him. I said hi but had no conversation; I wasn’t loaded enough. That was the only face-to-face experience I had with him. But there was this infamous exchange we had through a British music paper [Melody Maker].

Someone interviewed me when I was in England, and I’m not exactly sure how John’s name came up but the context was to do with his credibility as a revolutionary. John’s antics were fairly well-publicised at the time. He was going out every night and getting drunk, and there was one particular incident where he got into an altercation with a waitress and apparently was wearing a Kotex [tampon] on his head and acting somewhat boorish.( Article continues here)

Ringo  Starr was the most approachable of all of the Beatles. I have met each of the band in turn. If you grew up on A Hard Day’s Night and Help! and watched The Beatles’ antics, to actually meet them in person was often a let-down. For instance, Paul McCartney was an unusually dour person and John was totally drunk and inanimate. George I met very briefly when I was producing a Badfinger album.

Years and years later when Ringo started doing his All Star shows, he asked me to join him. By that time he was all cleaned up and very well organised. Ironically he was heading up a group of musicians of whom half were in Alcoholics Anonymous and the other half were completely smashed. I managed to straddle a middle ground; I could drink casually and enjoy it and not get into any shenanigans. But at the time, there was Ringo who was in AA, and Zak, his son, who was the other drummer and definitely not in AA. So there was a whole dynamic going on there.( Article continues here)

 

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