By Bruce Pilato

Born Michael Lee Aday in Texas, Meat Loaf exploded on international music scene in 1977, with the release of his icon debut thematic album, Bat Out Of Hell, written by friend and colleague, Jim Steinman. Among the albums to define the arena rock genre, it has sold to date over 43 million copies, making it the fifth highest selling album of all time.

He went on to have several more gold and platinum successes with Dead Ringer (1981), Bad Attitude (1984) and the Bat Out Of Hell sequels Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell (1993) and Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006). In 2010, he released Hang Cool Teddy Bear, followed by this year’s Hell In A Hand Basket. He has also starred in several dozen Hollywood films, including the legendary Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Fight Club, where he acted opposite Brad Pitt.

Meat Loaf has released several popular DVD titles prior to The Guilty Pleasure Tour. They include: Bat Out Of Hell – The Original Tour; Bat 3 Live; and Live With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

BP: So, now that you have had time to sit and watch the new Guilty Pleasure DVD and reflect on it, do you like it?

ML: Yes and no. When it comes to a filmed concert, you’re watching yourself do it and you say, ‘Well, that was pretty good,’ and then there will be something that requires a choice, and you say, ‘Aw, why didn’t I do that?’ It is like having an argument with someone. You always think, ‘I should have said that to him!’ Well, the reason you didn’t is because you didn’t know that then. So, every DVD and every show (- because I tape every show and have since 1986,and I listen to every one of them -) I study. I go to the venue five or six hours early on a show day. I do this to listen to the previous night’s show, or do whatever I have to do. When I am on the stage, I don’t think. It is like a golfer; he has 10,000 hours of rehearsal. That is what it’s called. When I walk on stage, I don’t think. Some performers always think while they’re on stage; I don’t. There are nights that I should! But, I don’t. That is not what is interesting me. What is, is what I am projecting and what the focus is and what the audience sees. That is more important. What they feel and how they are looking at it. But to answer the question, yes, I just finished watching this DVD and yes, I like it.

Now that you have been able to reflect on it, how well did it capture the essence of a Meatloaf performance on that tour?

Would I change it if I could? Absolutely, but I really like it because I had a great director, Paul (PR) Brown. I wanted it to look like one I saw a few years ago by Nine Inch Nails. They did a DVD that I absolutely loved. All the DVDs that I had ever shot up to this one had always had that television lighting, where it is just bright all the time. I didn’t want that and we didn’t but any of that up. So, what you have is just the lighting we have on stage, as opposed to that TV lighting. It’s a little darker and I really like that. There are a lot of close-up shots and a lot of our hands, because I asked for that.

Do you expect the viewer at home to get a different experience than those who were in the audience? Can both be just as exciting for the fan?

When we shot the first concert video I did back for Bat Out Of Hell, the cameramen walked in and were positioned in the audience. It was 1977 and videos were done that way. I walked in and said: ‘Why are there 3 cameras sitting in the audience?’ And they said ‘Because that is how we shoot concerts…’ And I said, ‘Well, the object of this is to shoot more than what you would see if you were just in the audience. That is the object….’ So, what a DVD should allow is for the viewer to see what he would normally never see from being in the audience: the hands, the fingers, the facial expressions, the intensities; those kinds of things. That is what we were going for, to make the DVD different than the live show. That is what we were going for with this one. The viewer gets to live in a different world. He gets to stand right next to Randy; he gets to stand underneath Randy while he does his solo. He gets to sit right next to John or Patty, or sit right on the bench with Justin when he plays the piano. He or she gets that! Those are the things that they would never ever get from buying a ticket and sitting in the crowd.

For you, yourself, is there a big difference in performing for a live audience, as opposed to the camera?

No matter what you’re doing- whether you are onstage or doing a scene in a TV show or movie or singing a song, there is different techniques- but it all comes down to one thing- finding the truth in the moment.

How do you rate the Guilty Pleasure Tour compared to previous tours you’ve done?

The tour had been so great all through 2010 and 2011.

The new DVD was shot Down Under. How did you enjoy Sydney both as a tour venue and also as a city?

Sydney is great. I have always loved Australia; it has always been one of my favorite places. I love Melbourne. My two favorite cities happen to be Adelaide and Brisbane, and l like Melbourne. Sydney is like a big city; the harbor is unbelievable. You’ve got the Opera House and things like that. Melbourne is a big city that seems actually very small. And Adelaide, is, well, I almost moved there a few years ago. I have no idea why. I just like the feel. I love the feel of the place. I ended up moving to Austin because it has the same feel as Adelaide, actually. I am happy in Austin.

What is your favorite and also the worst part of touring?

The traveling is the worst part. It is just absurd. When you go from Boston to Philly and some days it takes you 10 hours to get there in a bus. It’s like, ‘Gimme a break!’ But the best is when you walk on stage. I know every night when I walk on stage that when I do come off, I am going to hurt. I know I am going to be in pain because of the commitment I am going to give to the audience and the energy I am going to give. It is going to hurt. But, I ignore that and let it go. It is about the commitment to the audience, it really is. When everything works and those two hours and fifteen minutes to ending, that is unbelievable. It’s the audience reaction.

Are you able to enjoy the art of performing or are you too wrapped up in the execution to ever enjoy the moment you are on stage?

On most nights, I could not tell you what the audience is actually doing. I have no clue. It’s because I am so engrossed in the performance and what I am doing. My focus is on them, but not on their reaction. The only time I know what they’re doing is when I meant to, like when I stop on a song like ‘You Took The Words Right Out Of Mouth,’ and I listen for them to sing. Then, I know. Are they reacting to a song? I don’t know; I have no idea. I know like at the beginning of ‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light’ they start yelling, or when we start ‘Bat Out of Hell,’ I hear them then. The perfect example is the many times I have come off stage and someone from the band will say, ‘Did you see that girl that raised her top and had no bra on??’ And I go, ‘No, didn’t see her.’ I had no idea. I teach everyone in my band to never play to the people in the front row. You play to the back of the house. I don’t care if you have a 100 people or you have a million people; you play to the back of the house. I have played in front of about 600,000 and it was tough playing to the back of that house! It went on forever. How do I do this? It was in the 80s during the Donnington Festival in England. But, anyway, you always play to the back of the house. I am all about focus. It is just like a magic act to me. It’s about making the audience look somewhere they are not suppose to look; and then, making them look where they are suppose to look. Like making the pigeon appear!

Which songs do you enjoy the most in concert?

‘Bat Out of Hell.’ I love doing ‘Bat.’ I love doing ‘Living On The Outside.’ But, ‘Bat’ is probably my favorite song to perform. I like ‘Los Angeloser.’ But ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ is such an epic, epic piece. I use ’the image method’ in my performance. The images that come through on ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ are unbelievable. When I say: ‘I am dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun…,’ I am in that pit. I am in it! I am nowhere else but in that pit, torn and twisted. I am right there. I live every word of every song. ‘Living On The Outside,’ same thing.

What is the most demanding song to sing in your live show? I would think it would be ‘Paradise By The Dashboard Light.’ Is it?

‘Paradise’ is an easy song to sing, Most of ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ isn’t that tough. The hardest song of the night that I perform is ‘I Would Do Anything For Love.’ If I didn’t have to do that, I would be so happy- I hate performing that song!

You didn’t perform Dead Ringer on this DVD, a fan favorite – any reason why?

We just weren’t doing it then. I flip things around all the time. That was really the end of the Hang Cool Teddy Bear tour and then, Hell In A Hand Basket got released so we added ‘Standing In The Storm,’ I wish would could have put ‘The Giving Tree’ on the DVD but we did not have enough time to put it on. It was a combination of those two tours; one ending, the other beginning. We are still playing a lot of what was on the DVD. We have been doing different things. We go back out on Monday and ‘2 out of 3’ will go back in the show. I took it out for about 20 shows, but I will put it back in. I have to play around with things. I know people always want to hear it, but it doesn’t always work that way. I have to stay excited. If I am not stimulated by the show itself, how can the audience be? I hear sometimes that people were upset that people didn’t hear ‘2 out of 3 Ain’t Bad’ and I say, ‘Yes, but we did ‘Paradise,’ ‘Hot Patootie,’ ‘You Took The Words,’ ‘I Would Do Anything For Love.’ We do a lot of stuff they know.

In the new DVD, we see a lot of your female co-vocalist, Patti Russo. She remains a big part of the live show….

You’ve got 2 people with big voices ~ Patty and me. When I sing, I take a lot of space. I have always had duets with females on every record. That has been my thing forever. That was my whole thing. That is where the video for ‘Anything for Love’ came from. It was beauty in the beast. That was the character I played.

How did you meet Patti Russo and what’s it like to perform with her?

She was 22 or 23 when she started with me, and next year it will be 20 years that she has been with me (and I am 20 years older than her!). She came and audition and we all went, ‘Well, that is the girl…’, and she thought she had blown the audition. So, we watched her as she left out of the window and it was in New York City, and a city bus went by her a little too close, and she kicked it! When she kicked the side of a city bus, I laughed and said, ‘This is definitely the one we want!’ She was crossing the street and the bus driver almost ran her over and she reacted with a ‘Screw You!’ and kicked the bus. I thought that was great. But, she was already hired, but she was really hired at that point!

Your history of vocal problems has been well documented. What are you doing now to keep your voice healthy?

I do my warm ups; I warm up with my piano player in my dressing room. I go on stage, I do the show. After the show, I walk off and I do not talk. I am quiet in my room. I go back there and I stay completely by myself. I don’t answer the phone; I don’t talk. I do a warm down. When the show is over, the first thing I do is a warm down tape. Warm down is a key an absolute key. You have to warm down, if you don’t you can never really de-stress your vocal chords. I am disciplined beyond your wildest imagination.

Is your acting career still as important as your music career?

I started as an actor. I did Hair on Broadway; I did 2 Shakespeare In The Park plays. I did 5 Broadway shows ~ most of them bad. I worked with Lee Strasburg. He kept wanting me to come to the Actor’s Studio and I kept saying, ‘Dude, I have not got time ~ I am working all of the time.’ Most of the time in NYC I would be rehearsing a play during the day and doing a play at night. I did wind up doing a one-act play with Strasburg directing. Now, looking back it was amazing. But at that time I had no clue who Lee Strasburg was. Hey, I’m from Texas. When I got to New York City I said, ‘I’m going down to the the-ate-tor.’ But I studied the craft. I studied method acting, I studied Meisner, and I still study. I audit classes. I go to acting coaches. I ask my agent- send me scripts. I know I am going to go over and see somebody. I know I am not going to read for them but I want to work on the scene, anyway. And I constantly analyze.

I think it is safe to say your live show is even more energetic than when you started in the late 1970s. Do you agree?

I only know one way. That is, you either walk out on stage and give 110%, or you don’t. Those people that bought those tickets are more important than I am. They are the most important people in the world. They bought that ticket. They could have bought it four months ago. Some of them have kids and need to get babysitters. It may have been a big night out for them. Our girlfriend or wife or fiancé bought new clothes. They had to pay an arm and a leg to park. The venue wants their second born to buy a beer. I am well aware of all of these things. What matters is what is going on in that audience and making sure they are getting what they paid for. The older you get, the harder it gets. When I hit that stage, I don’t matter. What happens to me doesn’t matter. If I drop dead on that stage that’s fine.

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