He's always been ahead of the game, has the artist currently known as TR-I. TR-I? That's Todd Rundgren Interactive: a pure pop genius who's available to you now on subscription via the Internet. Twenty- five years ago - well before The Artist Presently Known As Squiggle did likewise - Todd Rundgren was pushing recording technology to its furthermost possibilities by crafting solo albums which truly were solo; which utilised the instrumental skills of Todd Rundgren alone.
Five of those dazzling early albums, first released between 1970 and 1974, have been freshly re-issued by Castle, along with a Best Of collection, the self-deprecatingly titled Go Ahead, Ignore Me. The latter documents Todd's entire career with the Bearsville label, presenting choice selections from the 18 albums he recorded over 12 years until 1982.
Best known in Britain for the hit single I Saw The Light, Todd has long ploughed a pioneering multi-disciplinary multimedia furrow in his native USA. He's notched firsts in the fields of video production and computer graphics, as well as live pay-per-view performances via satellite TV and microwave radio broadcast.
Continuing his keen association with the infotainment industry's cutting edge, Todd's current work can be downloaded in audio and video form via www.tr-i.com for an annual payment of $70. For $34 more you can access Todd's still-in-progress autobiography, too.
In its pages Todd will doubtless regale you with revelations about his past production of mega-hit albums for acts as diverse as Meatloaf, Hall and Oates, and Cheap Trick. He's also produced ground-breaking work by Patti Smith, XTC, and The Band. More recently, Todd scored the movie Dumb And Dumber.
Todd's long and distinguished career led one critic to hallow his name for being blessed with "the harmonic insight of Brian Wilson, the guitar virtuosity of Jimi Hendrix, and the compositional daring of Frank Zappa". None of these qualities had prepared Todd for what he had been enduring throughout last week when I phoned him, however.
Speaking from his lavishly-upholstered cell ... sorry, his majestically-appointed room at the Trump Taj Mahal Hotel in the gambling capital which is Atlantic City, New Jersey, Todd Rundgren was confronting the same hideous dilemma which Elvis may have faced during his many years in Las Vegas: "It's no fun living in a casino for longer than a day."
So why was Todd Rundgren living - only temporarily forsaking his Hawaii home, it must be stressed - in just such a den of bored iniquity?
Because it was the venue for intensive rehearsals for the first date of a two-month US tour by the Ringo Starr All-Star Band, in whose ranks Todd currently finds himself, replacing Peter Frampton on lead axe.
"I first played with Ringo years ago during his previous life as a wild man of rock, but since then I've mostly been unable to be in the regular band he formed around 1991," said Todd, confirming that he intends to return to live action himself later in the year.
"The Internet recently somewhat revitalised my recording life, and as it's underwritten by my fans, I now feel an obligation to perform all year round. We set the site up six months ago to see whether it worked, and so far we've got 1000 subscribers.
"I think we can triple that by the end of the year if we get a little more aggressive. Those subscribers are the core fans, the devoted ones. They've taken the place of a record label. Their fees enable me to make music."
Todd is positive about having severed his links with mainstream labels, his two-decade-long association with Warner Brothers having concluded eight years ago. "I figured that I'd attained the standard dynamic for an artist who's been around for as long as I have. The major labels will release your records in a perfunctory manner and then promote them in a lacklustre manner. All the heat is for young bands and young audiences, anyone under 35.
"Hence, as I didn't want to go through the years feeling sullen and under-appreciated, I decided to go independent. My last album, With A Twist, came out 18 months back on a label called Angel, largely because they gave me proper tour support. It was a kind of hi-fi bossa nova lounge version of some of my old stuff ... but I intended it to be closer to Astrud Gilberto than Beck - it wasn't meant to be a joke, it was real lush bossa nova."
Does he tire of primarily being portrayed in the media as a ground-breaking technophile - which he is - rather than an inventive musician? Which he is, too.
"Personally, I don't see the difference between having an in-bred fascination with music and an in-bred fascination with technology - but I can tell you what the difference is: I always get asked questions about my involvement in technology rather than my music.
"Music is somehow seen to be natural and organic. But, in fact, you need the same effort, ability, and discipline to develop an uncommon skill in music as in technology. I don't see either tendency as being that dissimilar."
Go Ahead, Ignore Me is an album title which indicates a healthy irreverence for the self - but one which might lead rockbiz folk to think that Todd Rundgren is less than serious about what he does, thus leading them to dismiss his work too readily.
"Many of the best musicians have a sense of humour about what they do. I also believe that the process of making music has a mystical quality that should make you feel humble, so musicians should have humility. In fact, hubris is what makes your music unlistenable."
So what are the chief lessons learned from the highs and lows of his career? "I've never seen life as highs and lows. There are lessons to be gleaned from everything, mainly that change is life's one immutable. So don't get used to the good things because they won't last . . . and don't get hung up on the bad things for the same reason.
"This might sound cryptic, but my children have been one of the touchstones in my personal evolution. Making sure they're set up in life is one of the most important things to me, which isn't something I'd always have said. It's quite a challenge.
"I've an 18-year-old; two 13-year-olds, one recently adopted, and one seven-year-old. All boys."
Heck, sir, if you favour them as well as you've treated us, your sonic family, over the years, they'll turn out dandy.