Todd Rundgren: The Return Of A Woodstock Musical Wizard

Woodstock’s stature as the home of rock royalty can be traced back to Bob Dylan’s move to the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in 1965. His relocation from the Big Apple was inspired by his manager Albert Grossman, a man who loved real estate as well as music. In time, Grossman would create the legendary Bearsville Center, which included a theater, recording and video studios, as well as two of the town’s most beloved eateries. Many of the stars in Grossman’s enviable management stable, including The Band, Richie Havens and Paul Butterfield, would soon follow and put down roots in this quaint and convivial community of creatives.

But another of Grossman’s clients may have generated an even greater cache of commercially successful music during his time there – Todd Rundgren.

Rundgren is one of rock music’s great “triple threats.”  First, he’s the acclaimed songwriter/performer behind super hits like “Hello, It’s Me” and “Bang The Drum All Day”, which he recorded both as a solo artist and with his proto-power pop group The Nazz, and another solo top 40 hit, “I Saw The Light.”  He also founded the prog rock/fusion ensemble group Utopia, which recorded the top 40 hit, “Set Me Free.”  Next, he was one of the first rock artists to explore video production and a tech pioneer who pushed the boundaries of what a solo artist could do with the technology of the time.

However, Rundgren’s most notable impact may have been as the producer of some of rock’s most critically acclaimed and best-selling albums. These include The Band’s Stage Fright, The Patti Smith Group’s Wave, Hall & Oates’ War Babies, Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, XTC’s Skylarking and Grand Funk’s We’re An American Band, to name a few. The bulk of these classics and many of Todd’s own renowned solo albums, including Something/Anything? and Hermit Of Mink Hollow, were recorded at Woodstock’s Bearsville Records.

On October 22 and 23, Todd will bring his ME/WE Tour to the Bearsville Theater. On the 23rd, his contributions to Woodstock’s musical legacy will be celebrated with the presentation of a key to the Town of Woodstock and a historic landmark plaque recognizing his work at Utopia Video, currently the Bearsville Center’s Utopia Sound Studios.

“It’s a homecoming of sorts, but I do get back here periodically,” says Rundgren. “Whenever I do gigs in the area, I return to hang out with friends. I’ve also come back for rehearsals at what used to be my video studio. So even though I now live in Hawaii, I’ve never entirely left.”

Todd Rundgren: ME/WE
Tuesday, Oct 22 + Wednesday Oct 23 
8:00 pm at Bearsville Theater – (SOLD OUT)

Like Dylan, Rundgren was lured to town by his manager, Albert Grossman. The ambitious impresario sought to install his “wunderkind music producer” as the driving force behind a recording studio he planned to build near his home.

“Before Albert built the studio, I came up here to work with The Band on their album, Stage Fright,” he continues. “Albert bought a mobile recording truck and put it in a prop tent behind the theater, and we recorded most of the album there. We did a few more things in New York City, then moved on to Studio B at Bearsville Studios, which was still under construction. We did some mixing and re-mixing, which was the first time music was produced at Bearsville Studios.”

“With all the musicians moving in, Albert decided the town could use a world-class studio, so he constructed the building at the end of Ricks Road and built a road down to the houses at Turtle Creek, where we could house musicians while they recorded. He eventually replaced the small console from the mobile truck with a big state-of-the-art one in Studio B and then built the larger Studio A. We could’ve done orchestras there, and it served as my original video studio.”

Woodstock would continue to be Rundgren’s primary residence for a decade, but he would keep his home and studio much longer.

“I moved here around 1975 and lived here full-time through 1985 when I moved to San Francisco,” adds Rundgren. “I held on to my home and studio on Mink Hollow Road and would return to hang out and work until I sold it when I moved to Hawaii in the mid-90s.”

One of the most successful projects Todd produced at Bearsville Studios was Meatloaf’s 1977 album Bat Out of Hell. With over 43 million units sold, this 14x Platinum disc is the sixth best-selling album ever.

“I was underwriting the cost of the recording because Meatloaf had fired – or was fired by – his record label at the time,” quips Rundgren. “We did all the basic tracks live in Studio B, then did vocal overdubs at my studio in Mink Hollow.”

“As for Studio A,” Todd continues, “my greatest memory was when the Rolling Stones came to town to use it for rehearsals for their Steel Wheels Tour in 1990. It was amazing how little they got done.  They would wander in one by one, and then, maybe at 3 am, they’d play a couple of songs and call it a day!”

At Utopia Video at Bearsville, Rundgren produced some of the first music videos ever shown on MTV, including “Time Heals”, the eighth video to be played when MTV launched on August 1, 1981.  Also produced at Bearsville were Utopia’s “Rock Love,” “Cry Baby” and the autobiographical documentary The Ever-Popular Tortured Artist Effect for Britain’s Channel 4 Television Corporation.

“I was going to build my own video studio up at Mink Hollow, but Albert talked me into working with him on designing and building the one at Bearsville in 1985,” continues Rundgren. “It was a time of great experimentation, and this was the ideal canvas for it. It was a great representation of Albert’s compulsion to build things. At that time, he was as much into real estate as music. He would invest the money from foreign deals into buying or expanding a piece of real estate rather than in an album promo!”

So why did Todd leave Woodstock when he had all these resources to make his art?

“I hated the winters,” he adds. “Keeping the house warm and going through weeks of below-zero temperatures was tough. I enjoyed it when the weather was nice, but, over time, those winters became a deal breaker.”

Is there anything Todd misses about the time he lived in Woodstock?

“When I first arrived here, there were some great music venues,” he continues. “When Albert brought me up here to work with The Band, there was Sled Hill, Café Espresso, Deanie’s and a few more. There were many places to play where local musicians and those visiting to record at Bearsville would socialize and jam. Then everybody discovered Woodstock and wanted to live here, but they didn’t want the noise. It seems like the only thing that’s survived from my time here, that’s stayed the same, is Byrdcliffe.”

Is there anything new in Woodstock that appeals to Rundgren?

“One thing we didn’t have then was the Mudd Club and Early Terrible,” adds Rundgren. “It’s charming, like an adventure land for hobbits in the middle of town.”

So, how does Rundgren feel about getting a key to this city?

“I think I got a few before, in Cleveland and maybe Milwaukee,” he continues. “But that was just a symbolic thing – you’re in town, on tour, and they give it to you. This means a lot more to me because I lived and worked here for a long time. I have a lot of history with the musicians here and was a part of creating some significant work.  And Utopia Sound Studios wouldn’t have been here if I hadn’t helped build its forerunner, Utopia Video, with Albert.”

Rundgren’s ME/WE Tour is his first as a leader in a long while. It is a 50+ show tour that began in May 2024 and will conclude a few days after his two nights at the Bearsville Theater.

“It was time for me to do a tour for my fans,” says Rundgren. “I have been out opening for Daryl Hall and participating in Bowie and Beatles Tributes, but I haven’t done a real production of my work for my fans in quite a while.”

He continues: “I had expected to have a new record done by now, but it’s not ready. So, this is a deep dive into my discography. There are some favorites and obscurities, and the audiences seem to love the mix.”

The events in Woodstock and the ME/WE Tour are serving to further the impact of Rundgren’s Spirit of Harmony Foundation, a national nonprofit advocating for music education in schools. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Spirit of Harmony has partnered with the national nonprofit Hungry for Music to conduct a musical instrument drive. They are encouraging people to donate used musical instruments that will be refurbished and distributed to children in the Hudson Valley area and around the country. Instruments may be dropped off at the Woodstock Town Hall (47 Comeau Drive) or The Woodstock Studios (100 Tinker Street) during regular business hours from October 1- 23.

“Music programs are the first thing to get cut in school budgets,” says Rundgren. “Science has demonstrated that a couple of years of musical training will help improve academic performance and make a student more likely to graduate. Instruments are the most common need expressed by music programs, so we are out there addressing it with the help of our fans all across the country.”

“As for our foundation, we’re not about raising money for the foundation itself, just for our grassroots programs,” adds Rundgren.“We think of ourselves as the “eHarmony of music”. If a program needs instruments or a place to give lessons, we work to connect them with the necessary resources.”

Another of Todd’s significant initiatives is GlobalNation™, the reincarnation of Todd’s Creators Community PatroNet, which launched in 2001 to offer artists like himself a direct revenue stream from supporters of their art.  It’s an initiative that pre-dates Patreon by a decade.

And speaking of supporting artists, does Todd have any advice for aspiring musicians?

“My advice for a creator of any stripe is ‘don’t quit your day job,’” says Rundgren. “Being a musician or an artist is a capricious thing, and you will probably need a supplemental income to survive. That’s especially true for the music business, which can be a feast one year and famine the next.”

Click here for tickets to Rundgren’s upcoming ME/WE show at the Bearsville Theater.

Tuesday, Oct 22 + Wednesday Oct 23
8pm at Bearsville Theater | SOLD OUT SHOWS

Photos Courtesy of Todd Rundgren @the_todd_rundgren + Adam Ishaeik @adamishaeik + Estelle Massry

Contributing writer Sal Cataldi is a musician, writer and former publicist living in Saugerties NY.