Credit:Richard KerrisTodd Rundgren was slated to launch his late-spring U.S. tour celebrating his critically acclaimed 1973 album A Wizard, A True Star on May 1 in San Francisco, but the entire trek is being rescheduled because of COVID-19, with new dates to be announced soon.
Rundgren tells Billboard that he’s also looking into the concept of playing remote concerts that would be streamed into homes, as well as possibly devising a virtual tour that would feature separate performances available to people in various cities.
“The show can come to your house instead of you having to leave your house and hang out in a crowd of people, which people may be leery about doing even after [concerts] start happening again,” the 71-year-old musician explains. “You can do it in a way that still makes people feel a little bit local and special. I think that remote touring is a fallback, and nobody has taken it seriously until something like this [pandemic] happens.”
Todd adds that “for the last two years,” he’s been talking about the need to develop virtual touring because of the difficulties climate issues may cause for real tours.
Meanwhile, Rundgren tells Billboard that he’s “pretty far along” with his next album, a collaborative project similar to his last studio effort, 2017’s star-studded White Knight. Among the artists with whom Todd has recorded tracks for the new record are Weezer‘s Rivers Cuomo, Steve Vai, Thomas Dolby, Sparks and Adrian Belew.
Rundgren also is moving forward with his recently announced all-star remake of his 1973 tune “Just One Victory,” which he plans to offer for free to Democratic candidates to use for their campaigns this year. Among the confirmed participants, according to Todd, are Joe Walsh, Daryl Hall, Paul Shaffer and Don Was.
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