0:00:09 > 0:00:10Welcome to HARDtalk.
0:00:10 > 0:00:11I'm Stephen Sackur.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14My guest today is a rock'n'roll legend who broke the rules
0:00:15 > 0:00:18of the music business.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20He was never cool, never a pin-up, but his
0:00:20 > 0:00:24songs and his performances have always been much larger-than-life.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28Meat Loaf shot to fame four decades ago with an album, Bat Out
0:00:28 > 0:00:33of Hell, which became one of the biggest sellers of all time.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Since then his career in music and in acting has been a dizzying
0:00:37 > 0:00:41mix of highs and lows.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43How close did he get to self-destruction?
0:00:43 > 0:00:46Meat loaf, welcome to HARDtalk.
0:01:13 > 0:01:14Meat Loaf, welcome to HARDtalk.
0:01:14 > 0:01:15Well, thank you.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18And it's a pleasure to be here.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20It's a pleasure to have you here.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25I want to start by considering the span of your career.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27You've been in the music business, and acting as
0:01:27 > 0:01:32well, for pretty much 50 years.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34Yeah, this coming February - I actually
0:01:34 > 0:01:39know the date, February 17th, which is also my
0:01:39 > 0:01:41assistant's birthday - I will have been in show
0:01:41 > 0:01:48business for a 50 years.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51You call show business and you have been putting on one
0:01:51 > 0:01:53heck of a show.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56And the way you do things, whether it is stage acting
0:01:56 > 0:01:59or performing the music, it is all in.
0:01:59 > 0:02:00I mean, you give it everything.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04I'm just wondering whether you ever reached a point where you thought,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06I've had enough of this, I've given off?
0:02:06 > 0:02:06No.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09And I'll explain to you why.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15Because I'm always learning.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18I'm always studying.
0:02:18 > 0:02:23So I will arrive, let's say at a show,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27four or five hours before the show, because the show before I didn't
0:02:27 > 0:02:31listen to myself sing.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33I'm the only singer I know that doesn't
0:02:33 > 0:02:34listen to himself sing.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37That's a mistake sometimes!
0:02:37 > 0:02:42But I listen to what I did.
0:02:42 > 0:02:48But also, every song on that show is a different character.
0:02:48 > 0:02:54So what happens is, I'm listening back to the song, I'm starting to
0:02:54 > 0:02:59manoeuvre myself into the different characters.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02So you mean, you don't sing as yourself?
0:03:03 > 0:03:04It's a more theatrical thing.
0:03:04 > 0:03:05You're singing parts.
0:03:05 > 0:03:11You see, I consider it theatrical.
0:03:11 > 0:03:18I consider it to be the truth.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21When you go to theatre and you see great actors in a play,
0:03:21 > 0:03:22you almost float.
0:03:22 > 0:03:29It's almost a floating experience, because they're not acting.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33They're telling you the truth in the moment.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37That's what I do in everything that I do.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40You're talking to Meat Loaf.
0:03:40 > 0:03:49But if you were to see me in a show, every song is
0:03:49 > 0:03:49a different character.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51And we don't stop.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53It's like a symphony. It just keeps going.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57You're in character?
0:03:57 > 0:03:58Well, I switch them.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00It's one heck of a performance.
0:04:00 > 0:04:01You are a performer.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06I want to take you back and talk through your career a little bit.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10To be blunt about it, at school you were an overweight kid
0:04:10 > 0:04:21who got teased, who had a tough time.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24Who had tough times at home as well with parents struggled.
0:04:24 > 0:04:25Your mum died young.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28How is it you turned yourself from a small-town kid with
0:04:28 > 0:04:29problems, to this big-time performer?
0:04:29 > 0:04:34I don't look at myself as a big-time performer.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37I don't view myself in that vision.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39I refuse to allow them, in any advertising for
0:04:39 > 0:04:44an album for a concert or anything, to use the words icon, legend, star,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47rock star.
0:04:47 > 0:04:54I am - to me I'm just another person, and I have a job.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56But I want to get this point about confidence
0:04:56 > 0:04:58and being an extrovert.
0:04:58 > 0:05:11If you're a kid who is finding life pretty tough aged ten, 12, how do
0:05:11 > 0:05:1512, how do you get the confidence to become the performer that
0:05:15 > 0:05:16you were by the age of 20?
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Well, there are so many people in life that have
0:05:19 > 0:05:23tough times in their lives. An alcoholic father...
0:05:23 > 0:05:24Which you did.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26..who tried to kill me with a butcher knife.
0:05:26 > 0:05:35A mother who died of cancer. And that almost destroyed me.
0:05:35 > 0:05:40I mean, it took me ten years to get over that.
0:05:40 > 0:05:42But I can't blame...
0:05:42 > 0:05:52Like on my father's side, you get too many people in the world
0:05:52 > 0:05:55that act up and do things and they go, "Well,
0:05:55 > 0:05:56my father did this..."
0:05:56 > 0:05:59I don't live that way. I love my father.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01I have forgiven my father. God bless him.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03You know? And my mother.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06And I'm going to cry.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08Because I don't do that.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10No sense of blame in you?
0:06:10 > 0:06:12No, you can't.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14You just took responsibility for your own life.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17I take responsibility for my life and my life only.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19So let's get to that...
0:06:19 > 0:06:23You were raised in Texas, but went to New York and you
0:06:23 > 0:06:27made it into Hair, and I think in Los Angeles you got a part in the
0:06:27 > 0:06:31musical. Within a pretty short time
0:06:31 > 0:06:35you were in the rock 'n' roll business as well.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Yeah, I don't know how I got there!
0:06:38 > 0:06:40What would you define as your biggest break?
0:06:40 > 0:06:53Well, there are two of them.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55One was getting involved with Joseph Papp at
0:06:55 > 0:06:59the Public Theatre.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03He had the nerve, and I'll give him credit, to put me
0:07:03 > 0:07:05into two Shakespeares in the Park.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09And I had never read Shakespeare.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11I have now. I made a point.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13When I was on tour I read every Shakespeare
0:07:13 > 0:07:14play on days off.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17And the other is Lou Adler from the Rocky Horror Show.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Which did bring you quite a lot of fame.
0:07:20 > 0:07:20Yeah.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23I thought you were going to say something else.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25I thought you might say your biggest turning point was meeting
0:07:26 > 0:07:27Jim Steinman.
0:07:27 > 0:07:33Well, that's an obvious one.
0:07:33 > 0:07:34I mean, to me that is obvious.
0:07:34 > 0:07:40But I met Steinman at Joe papp.
0:07:40 > 0:07:41I auditioned for Steinman.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43For people who don't know the Meat Loaf story so
0:07:43 > 0:07:46well, Jim Steinman is your collaborator, the guy who's written
0:07:46 > 0:07:50songs with you going back.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54He's been one of my best friends for 46 years.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57I love him dearly.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01And I'm going to put in a little plug real quick for him.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05He's got a musical that he has dreamt of for over 50 years, and it
0:08:05 > 0:08:08is finally being done.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11And it's opening in Manchester in February.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15And the West End in April.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18And that is the musical of the album that
0:08:18 > 0:08:19defines you to a certain extent.
0:08:19 > 0:08:26Bat Out of Hell.
0:08:26 > 0:08:26Yeah.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30I keep seeing things about his play, and it just keeps talking about me.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32And I'm going, "No, stop talking about me,
0:08:32 > 0:08:33talk about Jim!"
0:08:33 > 0:08:36I'm going to talk to you about Jim quite a lot,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39because your life and his have been intertwined, and not always in a
0:08:39 > 0:08:40good way.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43But before we get to that, let us watch a clip,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45to remind everybody of the sound of Meat Loaf
0:08:45 > 0:08:47and Bat Out of Hell.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Take a look at this.
0:08:50 > 0:08:58# Like a bat out of hell
0:08:58 > 0:09:01# I'll be gone when the morning comes
0:09:01 > 0:09:05# But when the night is over, like a bat out of hell
0:09:05 > 0:09:06# I'll be gone, gone, gone.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10# Like a bat out of hell I'll be gone when the morning comes
0:09:10 > 0:09:13# When the day is done and the sun goes down
0:09:13 > 0:09:16# And the moon is shining through...#
0:09:16 > 0:09:20Now I have to say, personally I never tire of listening to that
0:09:20 > 0:09:23because I was a teenage schoolboy when that came out.
0:09:23 > 0:09:28And I remember the whole school listening to that album.
0:09:28 > 0:09:35Well, that meant you were later on, because when that
0:09:35 > 0:09:42album came out in October of 1977, everybody hated it.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44We were turned down by everybody, every record
0:09:44 > 0:09:47company, four times.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50And if it wasn't for a Little Steven of the E
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Street Band, who plays with Bruce, that record would have never come
0:09:53 > 0:09:59out.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03There was a gentleman who used to be head of A at Epic, who
0:10:03 > 0:10:11started his own label, and Little Steven said
0:10:11 > 0:10:15to him that at the beginning was the best 20 seconds in rock
0:10:15 > 0:10:15'n' roll history.
0:10:15 > 0:10:20And so, Steve Popovich believed everything Little Steven told him.
0:10:20 > 0:10:29And Steve Popovich eventually signed you, and the record became a massive
0:10:29 > 0:10:31a massive worldwide hit.
0:10:31 > 0:10:31He said this.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34He said, "I was reluctant for so long because Meat
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Loaf was too fat, too ugly, his hair was too long
0:10:37 > 0:10:41and his voice was too operatic."
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Why did people get it so wrong?
0:10:43 > 0:10:49It seems so superficial.
0:10:49 > 0:10:50Well, they're not wrong.
0:10:50 > 0:10:51I weighed about 310 pounds!
0:10:51 > 0:10:52I wasn't ugly.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54I disagree with him on that.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59And I am - my voice is naturally operatic.
0:11:00 > 0:11:07I'm a heldentenor.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09When I did my first Shakespeare with Joe Papp, Shakespeare
0:11:09 > 0:11:13had written a song.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15Of course we didn't have the music because we did
0:11:15 > 0:11:24not know what music he wrote, so they hired David Shire
0:11:24 > 0:11:25to write the music.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28When I sang it one night, I had opera patrons come backstage and
0:11:28 > 0:11:32offer me $60,000 a year for five years, $300,000, to study and make
0:11:32 > 0:11:42my debut at the Met.
0:11:42 > 0:11:53There are very few heldentenors in the world.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55You could have been America's Pavarotti?
0:11:55 > 0:11:56Well, I could have been!
0:11:56 > 0:11:58The problem was, it was very tempting, but like
0:11:58 > 0:12:05everything I've ever done, I had to research it.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08And I found out unless you're Pavarotti, unless you're
0:12:08 > 0:12:16Placido Domingo, the conductor is in control of everything.
0:12:16 > 0:12:29And I am too much of a rebel, to rebellious to
0:12:29 > 0:12:33-- And I am too much of a rebel, too rebellious to let some conductor
0:12:33 > 0:12:35tell me how to do something.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37And I would have wound up in prison for life.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39I would have murdered him.
0:12:39 > 0:12:40Let's talk about rebellion.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43And your innate desire to get close to the edge of life.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46After Bat Out of Hell came out, it was a
0:12:46 > 0:12:49slow burn maybe at the beginning, but it sold in the end big-time,
0:12:49 > 0:12:50over 40 million records.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53It is in the top five bestselling records of
0:12:53 > 0:13:04all time.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07By '78, you are a massive star because of the album
0:13:07 > 0:13:10and you are touring the world, and you lose it.
0:13:10 > 0:13:11I hated being a star.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13That is why I lost it.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17I lost it partly because I knew what Jim and I had.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23Because we had played little supper clubs in New York, 25, 200 people,
0:13:23 > 0:13:24and people would go crazy.
0:13:24 > 0:13:34I mean, not just applaud politely - I mean, crazy.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38But what I'm getting at isn't so much the reaction of the fans,
0:13:38 > 0:13:40which was fantastic, I'm talking about your reaction.
0:13:40 > 0:13:47There was drugs, there was booze, there was bad behaviour.
0:13:47 > 0:13:48No.
0:13:48 > 0:13:48No, there wasn't.
0:13:48 > 0:13:49There wasn't.
0:13:49 > 0:13:56You called herself a monster at one point.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59You talked about throwing mic stands not just at your bandmates,
0:13:59 > 0:14:00but also at the audience.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03No, that was a character.
0:14:03 > 0:14:16In Paradise at the end, I threw a mic stand -
0:14:16 > 0:14:23the guy at the end of Paradise was a monster.
0:14:23 > 0:14:24I threw mic stand towards Carla.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28I threw a mic stand towards Carla, but I never hit her.
0:14:28 > 0:14:29I wasn't going to end like that.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33If I had wanted to hit her, I would have hit her.
0:14:33 > 0:14:34You see, that's media.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36I've always been very disciplined, because I started off...
0:14:36 > 0:14:38But what about the cocaine?
0:14:38 > 0:14:39Oh, that was minor.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Really?
0:14:42 > 0:14:45Bob Gillick, who was playing with you in the band,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48said, "The problem with Meat Loaf was the road near the end
0:14:48 > 0:14:49was killing him.
0:14:49 > 0:14:50It did.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52But it wasn't because of cocaine.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56It was because I was so bound and determined to make this record
0:14:56 > 0:14:59happen, that we would do five or six shows a week.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01So I was working nonstop to make this record happen.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04And you also pushed yourself beyond your physical limits.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07There are famous pictures of you lying backstage after a show
0:15:07 > 0:15:12with an oxygen mask.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Well, I had asthma.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19I know.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22But Jim Steinman said, after the 78 tour, "He had
0:15:22 > 0:15:25lost his voice, he was pretty much losing his mind."
0:15:25 > 0:15:26I had a nervous breakdown.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30I was at a psychologist for about ten months,
0:15:30 > 0:15:33five days a week.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35Why?
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Was there is self-destructive element within you?
0:15:38 > 0:15:40No.
0:15:40 > 0:15:41The whole thing with the psychologist was,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45I said to the psychologist - he said, "Why are you here?"
0:15:45 > 0:15:48I said, "Because people are calling me a star and I can't
0:15:48 > 0:15:54deal with that."
0:15:54 > 0:15:56That is very interesting.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Again it seems to me we cannot discuss your career,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03and we will go through it if we have time, but we cannot discuss it
0:16:03 > 0:16:05without coming back to the relationship with Jim
0:16:05 > 0:16:11Steinman.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14He was writing the songs, certainly on Bat Out of Hell.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18You did some more collaboration with him, but often times after that
0:16:18 > 0:16:20you did your own albums as well.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22But the truth is, if one looks at it, your albums
0:16:22 > 0:16:24without Jim Steinman were never as successful,
0:16:24 > 0:16:28and most folks would say, never as good as the work you've
0:16:28 > 0:16:33done with Jim Steinman.
0:16:33 > 0:16:34Yeah, they probably would.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38But believe me, I wouldn't have put it out if I hadn't have loved it.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42I mean, I did a duet with Roger Daltrey on Bad Attitude.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44But Jimmy is one of the greatest writers in history.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47I mean, he is in the category of Richard Wagner.
0:16:47 > 0:16:55He is in that category.
0:16:55 > 0:17:01He is an old soul.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03Forgive me for playing the pop psychologist,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06but here is a theory.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09You struggled with the stardom and all of the focus on you,
0:17:09 > 0:17:14because from the very beginning Meat Loaf,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18the name, had been you, and the music seemed to be you,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21when in fact Jim Steinman was an absolutely crucial
0:17:21 > 0:17:26collaborator and he didn't get the credit.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29So that made the spotlight on you all the greater,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33and at the same time Jim Steinman has been very frank and said,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36you know, "I wanted more recognition because I was there,
0:17:36 > 0:17:37but my name was never attached."
0:17:37 > 0:17:38Absolutely.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40You guys fell out over that.
0:17:40 > 0:17:41No, we didn't.
0:17:41 > 0:17:42We never had an argument.
0:17:42 > 0:17:43We didn't really fall out.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45You sued each other.
0:17:45 > 0:17:45He sued you.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47No.
0:17:47 > 0:17:48That's...
0:17:48 > 0:17:51You see, that's what happens when record companies and managers
0:17:51 > 0:17:54start to sue each other - they don't sue each other,
0:17:54 > 0:17:56they have to put our names to it.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01And then they say, "Don't talk to each other."
0:18:01 > 0:18:04But Jim Steinman, I mean, he must have been aware
0:18:04 > 0:18:07that the legal suit his lawyers lodged against you, bankrupted
0:18:07 > 0:18:10you for a while.
0:18:10 > 0:18:11You had to declare bankruptcy.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15Year, but not because I couldn't pay the MasterCard or I couldn't
0:18:15 > 0:18:17pay my groceries or do any of that.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20It became because we were in Chapter 11 which allows you to be...
0:18:20 > 0:18:23To protect your assets while you're trying to...
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Yeah.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28And it wasn't because...
0:18:28 > 0:18:31You get all the stories of all these rock stars spending their money
0:18:31 > 0:18:32and all this.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34Well, I never did that.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37Many of them snort it away or drink it away.
0:18:37 > 0:18:38I don't...
0:18:38 > 0:18:40I don't like alcohol.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42I throw up at the smell of champagne.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44The only thing that I ever touch is tequila.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48And I don't sit home and drink tequila.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51I never drink tequila at home.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54I don't drink anything at home.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57I don't even drink soda pop.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00I suppose what's interesting, because, you know, your partnership
0:19:00 > 0:19:08with Steinman is one of the great creative partnerships in music.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12It didn't work for a while, and then you came back in 93 to make
0:19:13 > 0:19:17the follow-up to Bat Out of Hell.
0:19:17 > 0:19:23Two.
0:19:23 > 0:19:24Which we started in 87.
0:19:24 > 0:19:25That's right.
0:19:25 > 0:19:26That sold really well.
0:19:26 > 0:19:27Did fantastic.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Then you tried to do Bat Out of Hell 3 without him and that
0:19:31 > 0:19:31didn't really work.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33Well, you see, that was a problem.
0:19:33 > 0:19:34That was managers fighting.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37And when Jimmy and I got together to do this record...
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Which brings us to the present day, because now you've got a new record
0:19:41 > 0:19:44out, which is some old songs and some new songs, another
0:19:44 > 0:19:46collaboration between you and Steinman.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Well, I told him things that had happened about Bat Out of Hell 3.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51There was so much he didn't know.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53So you are totally reconciled with him now?
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Jim and I have never had an argument.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Let us come, in that spirit, Jim and you working together,
0:20:00 > 0:20:09and listen to one of the tracks on the new album.
0:20:09 > 0:20:26# We always seem so much braver than we ever are #.
0:20:26 > 0:20:27That is you looking rather imperious.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32Again, too much make-up!
0:20:32 > 0:20:35I suppose what I'm interested in is, we talked about how you gave
0:20:35 > 0:20:39everything to the music from the very beginning.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41I gave everything to everything.
0:20:41 > 0:20:42Do you still...
0:20:42 > 0:20:44Your voice has mellowed.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49Rolling Stone said there is a much gentler vibe to the new album,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Braver Than We Are.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55Have you dialled back or not?
0:20:55 > 0:20:57That was a conscious...
0:20:57 > 0:20:58Yes.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Jimmy and I both discussed this.
0:21:00 > 0:21:09We did not want to recreate Bat Out of Hell or Bat Out of Hell 2.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12I said, how about Who Needs the Young?
0:21:12 > 0:21:17And that is the first song that Jimmy ever wrote as a songwriter.
0:21:17 > 0:21:23And he was 19 years old.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26It's interesting, because it's all about ageing in the voice
0:21:26 > 0:21:29of a man who is considering what it means to get older.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31Yeah, but I sang it as a 19-year-old.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Let's get to that, what it means to get older.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39We all have to consider it.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41Well, getting old is not for wussies.
0:21:41 > 0:21:42That's what I say.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45I get you.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48Over the years, coming back to the physicality
0:21:48 > 0:21:50of your performances, you have fallen off stages,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53you have done your knee in, and back in 1978, you collapsed
0:21:53 > 0:21:59onstage, you have had heart conditions, asthma...
0:21:59 > 0:22:01I have had 18 concussions.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04I've fallen three storeys off a balcony.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08I've been in planes where landing gears didn't come down.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12I'm a cat with 49 lives.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15And you've got a bad back, which is restricting your
0:22:15 > 0:22:16movement right now.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18Yeah, which I can't work with, it's driving me crazy.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21You've got a plan to tour Europe.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24You said you weren't going to tour so much any more,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28but you've got a plan to tour Europe with the new album.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31How can you do it having battered your body to the degree
0:22:31 > 0:22:32to which you have?
0:22:32 > 0:22:35Well, I get my back fixed, and when I do...
0:22:35 > 0:22:36I had knee replacement that never healed.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40So I have three months of therapy.
0:22:40 > 0:22:41I'm ready to go for that.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Do you really want to tour, with all of the pressures that
0:22:45 > 0:22:45come with that?
0:22:45 > 0:22:49I don't want to travel and I don't want to pack.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51But I want to do the shows.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54That means you've got to travel and you've got to pack!
0:22:54 > 0:22:56I don't want to do those two.
0:22:56 > 0:22:58So two out of three ain't bad!
0:22:58 > 0:23:00I think I've heard that before.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Now look, I don't want to end on a morbid note, but I think
0:23:05 > 0:23:07it is rather wonderful thing, because you are committed
0:23:07 > 0:23:09to continuing performing, you said, "I actually don't mind
0:23:09 > 0:23:12if I die onstage."
0:23:12 > 0:23:15I don't.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20I either want to die in my sleep or die onstage.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22Is it true that you've told your bandmates -
0:23:22 > 0:23:28because you do have the asthma and you do have a history -
0:23:28 > 0:23:32have you told your bandmates that if you keel over and actually die
0:23:32 > 0:23:33onstage, they have to continue playing?
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Yeah.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38They're going to play When the Saints Go Marching In.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41And then they're all going to get up, and if it's in America,
0:23:41 > 0:23:49the audience will sing the song Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52Which I just found out was written in 1907.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55And you want this to happen even though your dead body
0:23:55 > 0:23:57is being carried off the stage?
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Well, I want it to stay there unless it's too morbid.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02If it's too morbid, take it off!
0:24:02 > 0:24:07All I can say is, God willing that is not going to happen.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09No, probably not.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12Probably not.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Meat Loaf, it's been a pleasure to have you on HARDtalk.
0:24:15 > 0:24:16Thank you.
0:24:16 > 0:24:16Thank you.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20Thank you very much.