GB - Where did you get the name "Meatloaf"?
Just a few months shy of the release of "Bat out of Hell 2," I was lucky enough to get to chat with this music legend for a local TV station. This interview was done at Parlee Beach, Shediac, New Brunswick, Canada, during the summer of 1993 where Meat was on the bill with Def Leppard, April Wine and others.
GB - Meat I understand you have a new album coming out soon, "Bat out of Hell 2".
M - I do? Where did you here that? (pauses) Yeah it's great. Bat out of Hell 2.
GB- Why release that now and not sooner?
M - Because it's when it is. New age thinking. That's what's that's called. It's here when it's suppose to be. It's not here before. It's like the world and me and Jim Steinman and you are ready to accept it now. So it's here when it's suppose to be. The only thing I can tell you it's like you know, "fate". Ever hear, "well it was meant to happen, meant to be", so it's what it is. There's no explanation, no answer other than that.
GB - Did you work with Jim Steinman on this album?
M -Yeah, That's why it's called Bat out of Hell 2, marketing tool.
GB- Did Tod Rundgren play on this album also?
M - No, but Tod did the background vocals.
GB - When the original Bat album came out there was some resistance at first from radio complaining the songs were too long. how has radio reacted to the new album?
M - So far they are reacting very well to it. I don't want to talk about it a lot because I'll jinks it or something but it's being well received. Yeah they, the songs, are long but we give them the radio edits and all that junk. The long versions are meant for the album and then people buy the record and they hear the long version and then they call the radio stations and go "play me the long version", cause the long versions are cool.
GB - You have been in a number of movies any plans on resuming you acting career?
M - No this is a once in a lifetime shot here. Bat out of Hell 2. That only comes around once. Now if they call me up and ask me to do Godfather 4. If Francais Ford Coppala calls me up and says "Meat I need you to star in Godfather 4". "The Lead Francais". "Yeah Meat". I might have to think about that on because that would be once in a lifetime shot. But right now there's not many. I've turned down three films in the last month and a half. One was staring Bridget Fonda and Nickolis Cage, one was with Lou Diamond Phillips and other one was with Michael Keaton and Glenn Close directed by Ronnie Howard. They weren't once in a lifetime things. They were all good parts. One was small. I would have had a nice time working on them but this is more important to me.
GB - Where did you get the name "Meatloaf"?
M - Your not going to ask me that and if you did I'd pretend that you didn't because everybody and their mother plus their dog and cat and their goldfish asks me that. I've been asked that question by goldfish when I walk in a house (makes fish noise) and I can translate goldfish very well. So that question does not deserve an answer.
GB - So guess we will never know then!
M - Well yeah you can know. I'll tell you. (stares at camera for a moment) "It's mental telepathy". (laughs)
GB - Any headlining dates in the near future?
M - That's all I ever do. I just came up there to break in some and stuff. This is only our second show. This wasn't really opening. Sort of like special guest in with Def Leppard. I'm a headline band! When I have to cut my show short... like tonight's show was short for me. I'm just getting going and have to stop. We do two and a half hours normally. We do longer shows than most people.
GB - Who is coming out to see the band now. older fans from the bat days or are you attracting more of a younger crowd?
M - Well Bat out of Hell came out in 1992 and sold two and a half million records world wide. Sold a million in the states. Goes gold every year. Was the sixty-eighth biggest selling record in the world. Now the guys who bought this aren't buying it again. My eighteen year old daughter says to me, "Dad I can't go anywhere without you, every place I go every party I go to", so it's regenerating itself. So my demographics are really big. All you have to do is check this crowd out today. They're not 38 years old and they all know the words. They knew the words to all of them. This is not an old record. Yeah, it came out a while ago. As far as an old record, no it's not an old record. It's a current record because of sales.
GB - How does the continued success of it make you feel?
M - That and a dollar and a quarter will get me a Iced Cappuccino.
Interview done at Parlee Beach, Shediac, New Brunswick, Canada, August 22, 1993
Click here to go to a great fan site on Meatloaf
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