At the time, he was buoyed about the success of the single “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” worldwide.
“The single’s No. 1 for the third week in a row in Australia, and it’s only the fourth single in history in Australia to ever go on the charts at No. 1,” Meat Loaf said excitedly (after informing me “The worst thing for a singer is to talk; it’s absolutely the worst thing we can do!”).
“I’d Do Anything for Love” would reach No. 1 in 28 countries. It became the best-selling single of the year in the UK and got him his only Grammy in 1994 for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.
The original 12-minute track was cut to a little over five minutes for the single version; though there were other radio versions that were six and seven minutes long. In nearly every configuration, the track became one of the longest hit songs in history.
Still, its excess was opposite the revolution in rock occurring at the time in punk and new wave music.
“Anything that’s hip, I didn’t know about it,” he said. “Like when I was a kid, I had a Hula Hoop, and when everybody else got a Hula Hoop, I didn’t want to play it any more. That’s how it goes. If it’s hip, I don’t want it any more.”
Though he performed at a Bill Clinton pre-inauguration ball in 1997, Meat Loaf would align with Republicans, donating to John McCain and Rick Santorum, campaigning with Mitt Romney, and becoming chummy with Donald Trump while a test contestant on his “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2011.
He was rankled by COVID restrictions which cut back his touring and reportedly called those insisting on wearing masks on airplanes as “power mad.” Although at least one outlet reported the singer died Thursday as a result of COVID, no official cause of death was given.
Meat Loaf never saw “Bat Out of Hell” and its sequels as the epitome of rock bombast, as critics might have. Instead, he saw it as a way to speak for people.
“People go up to me and say, `You know that story “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad?” Well that’s the story of my life.’ “ he told me. “And the key word here is my.
“You hold up `Bat Out of Hell’ and it’s like looking into a mirror. It’s your image that you see. It’s not my image you see. You’re only taking from yourself.”