Meat Loaf's back out of hell - and he still rocks

By Adrian Thrills for MailOnline

Updated: 14:51 EST, 1 April 2010


Meat Loaf: Fame drove him bats

Meat Loaf: Fame drove him bats

Meat Loaf is nothing if not a survivor. The American rocker, who made his name more than 30 years ago with Bat Out Of Hell, has overcome obstacles that would have crushed lesser mortals.

Now in his 60s, he has toured in a wheelchair after breaking a leg, survived an on-stage heart attack and recovered from a nervous breakdown brought on by his inability to cope with fame.

So, when everything fell to pieces once more when he was touring in 2007 in support of the last in his trilogy of Bat albums, he refused to be beaten.

'I was so depressed that I wanted to give up music,' he says. 'I'd been doing shows all around Europe, despite a cyst on my vocal cords of which I wasn't even aware.

'In Denmark, I played an open-air festival on a hot summer's day and went down with sunstroke. I was shivering, but went on with the show. When the gig ended, I was so ill they covered me in a silver thermal blanket and rushed me off in an ambulance.'

Matters came to a head when the singer, who was in acute pain, was forced to cut short a concert in Newcastle. The rest of the tour was called off and Meat Loaf returned to California.

'Everything surrounding that third Bat Out Of Hell album was wrong - it was a negative time,' he says. 'But I've always been a fighter. As soon as I felt better, I fired everyone around me and started all over again. It was the best thing I've ever done.'

I'm sitting with Meat Loaf in a Covent Garden club, where the singer - real name Michael Lee Aday - has just hosted a playback of his new album, Hang Cool Teddy Bear. Slimmer than the man mountain who turned Bat Out Of Hell into one of the best- selling records of all time, he is still an imposing sight.

He is also reinvigorated by his new album. Brash, guitar-driven and refreshingly diverse, it was produced by Rob Cavallo (who has worked with Green Day) and features energetic cameos from former Darkness singer Justin Hawkins, Queen guitarist Brian May and Hollywood star Jack Black.

'When you have a record as good as this, it's like drinking from the fountain of youth,' says Meat Loaf. 'I'm 62, but people can't believe my energy.' 

The album's most surprising star turn comes from the actor Hugh Laurie. Once a classical pianist, he came to Meat Loaf's attention when they appeared together in the TV drama House.

'Hugh plays piano really well, but he was nervous,' says Meat Loaf. 'It was strange seeing someone so confident become a quivering mess. But Rob Cavallo took him outside. They had a cigarette and chatted about music and motorbikes. Then Hugh came back in and nailed it.'

Meat Loaf's career has been defined - and at times overshadowed - by Bat Out Of Hell.

OUT TAKE

Meat Loaf was given his nickname as a baby. 'I was bright red, like meat. But it’s not a name I’d wish on anyone.'

An epic, widescreen collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman, the album was ignored when it was released in 1977, but has since sold 43 million copies and spawned two sequels, 1993's Back To Hell and the ill-fated The Monster Is Loose.

But its success had unfortunate consequences for the Dallas-born singer, who worked in musical theatre, appearing in Broadway productions of The Rocky Horror Show and Hair, before hitting the big time.

Unable to deal with fame, he began using cocaine and had a nervous breakdown.

'Fame frightened me,' he says. 'I didn't get into this business to be famous. 'After Bat Out Of Hell, I'd lock myself in my room for days and not go out. Some people thrive on fame. It boosts their confidence. With me, it was the opposite. It crushed my confidence.

'I ended up cutting my hair because I was getting recognised in public all the time. The haircut made me invisible for a while, but I eventually saw a psychologist to get me back on an even keel.'

Marriage gave the singer some much-needed stability. Meat Loaf met his wife Leslie in 1978.

His stepdaughter Pearl and daughter Amanda have followed their father on to the stage: Pearl is a rock singer and Amanda is an actress.

'Getting married helped, though it hasn't stopped me from being crazy,' he says. 'But my daughters have inherited my work ethic. Too many people sit around waiting for things to happen. I stood on my own two feet.'

The singer, whose future as a live performer was thrown into doubt by his 2007 meltdown, plans to promote Hang Cool Teddy Bear the traditional way - back on the road.

'I'm older, so I can't push myself too hard,' he says. 'I'll tour for four weeks, then rest before going back out. It'll cost more, but it's the only way.

'With this record, I'm doing my bit to save real music. Too many singers are famous on the back of one or two songs. We're not producing enough artists - that's killing music.

'Simon Cowell is a smart man and I salute his success, but he's not creating artists. He's creating people who can sing decent cover versions.

'He has the power to reinvent the music business. He could help take it back to the proper music we had in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties.

'Someone needs to save music. It's like saving the whales. I'll do my bit, but we need to work together.'

  • Hang Cool Teddy Bear is out on April 19.

 


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