Todd Rundgren Quotes

In the Seventies and Eighties we all had our fun, and now and then we went really too far. But, ultimately, it required a certain amount of clear thinking, a lot of hard work and good make-up to be accepted as a freak.

The first things I did when I got out of school in '65 was to buy a pair of Levis and pierce my ears.

Growing up in Seattle, I was always that kid who didn't subscribe to what everyone else was wearing.

And all the zig-zags and lines in my hair? I used to do that myself. I just thought it was cool that you could actually do that with your hair.

Music was a way of rebelling against the whole rah-rah high school thing.

I grew up in the Bible Belt and I made my own clothes and dyed my hair purple. Nobody ever knew what to do with me.

Everybody was starting to grow long hair and wear pink suits and purple glasses and stuff and then, I suppose, some people thought we were crazy, but we weren't really crazy because we're all still here!

I started growing my hair in December '89. I was seventeen. I signed my record deal and said I ain't combing my hair no more. I don't have too.

They are called 'Emos' now, and before that they were 'Goths.' They didn't have a name for it when I was one, but I was that black-wearing teenager and yes, I wore a little eyeliner.

I had begun to abandon bourgeois style of dress. The modern hippies are no pioneers at marking themselves out by unusual apparel …

I will always consider myself a punk because of those experiences in high school. It will always be a part of me.

I had no boundaries at home, so I had nothing to push against. I only rebelled with clothing when I was 14. I would wear purple Doc Martens and had purple streaks in my hair, dirty jeans, and baggy tops. Very Britpop. Anything that wasn't girly or feminine. My mother hated it.

My friends and me, we're the type that don't care. We're not into fashion. That's, like, millennial spirit.

I turned to punk because I didn't fit in anywhere else.

We want people to know they shouldn't feel like social pariahs just because they want to dress differently or listen to rock n' roll.

It's like our little thing: you can take the girl out of the punk, but you can't take the punk out of the girl.

The fact that we represented freedom, you know. We talked about that in the songs and I think that the parents, like all parents, they want their kids to be in line and not go crazy or do anything too weird (laughs). And for some reason, I think, people identified The Doors as representing just being able to do whatever you wanted to do.

Rock 'n' roll is sexuality personified. It is attitude. It is all the things that your parents told you not to do. It's the freedom to express yourself. It's being alive. It expresses the times. It's a magazine, a newspaper that tells the truth. If you listen to rap today, it's all about the truth. And that's what we all want. Just give me a little truth.

When I was 16, I wanted to look like Lord Byron. It's not really a haircut so much as a hair-not-cut, but I've never changed it. It's a bit Byron, a bit Don Juan DeMarco and other things that I aspire to be.

I can show up at a Goldman Sachs conference wearing a Judas Priest T-shirt - and I have - while everyone else is wearing the same dress.

To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'.

To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It's freedom.

In my parents' generation, rebellion was pop culture. It's not anymore.

You can grow up without having to conform, stop going to shows, stop having a record collection, start being politically iffy.

Songs don't have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I've done is about alienation... about where you fit in society.