Meat Loaf Is Working on New Music and TV Show: ‘I’m Not Done’
Meat Loaf has a simple message for the world: "I'm not done."
And if the Bat Out of Hell singer has his way, he'll be serving up plenty of new material, music and otherwise, during the coming year. Now living in Nashville and still recovering from four back surgeries in recent years, Meat Loaf tells UCR he has his sights set on some brand new music, specifically a four-song EP that will include "What Part of My Body Hurts the Most?," which longtime collaborator Jim Steinman (who died in April) wrote for Bat Out of Hell: The Musical. The song debuted in February 2017 in Manchester, England, but was put on ice due to the pandemic.
"That was a kind of Broadway-show style and arrangement," Meat Loaf says of the song. "I'll do more of a rock 'n' roll version, more like something we would have put on the albums." Look for a guest appearance on the EP from Shaun "Stoney" Murphy, with whom Meat Loaf recorded an album for Motown's Rare Earth label while both were appearing in a production of Hair in Detroit (she went on to sing in Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band and Little Feat).
Meat Loaf also has a TV game show titled after his 1993 hit "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" that's been signed by ABC in the U.S. and ITV in Great Britain and Australia. He's hoping to go into production soon and roll it out next year.
He's also eyeballing a return to the road during either 2022 or 2023. "I keep leaving messages for the agent - 'Let's do five weeks, 16 shows in America, take a little break, then do 16 shows in Europe, take a break, do another 16 somewhere else,'" he says. He adds that he's "got to be careful due to health considerations" but is confident that he still has the goods to bring to the stage.
"My voice is in incredible shape," he says, pointing to a recent appearance on Mike Huckabee's TBN program as proof. "I can sing Bat Out of Hell no problem, all in the same key, all the high notes."
But don't expect any sort of Bat Out of Hell full-album show for the set's 45th anniversary next year. "I would never do that," Meat Loaf says. "I mean, I'll do the album, but not in order. That's a terrible show order. It's awful. It doesn't work for a show. We did it live like that at the beginning with [Steinman], and it didn't work, so I moved [the songs] around."
As he waits for these plans to become reality, Meat Loaf is also mourning the death of Steinman following a series of health issues. The two remained close, and Meat Loaf last visited Steinman in Connecticut shortly before the pandemic lockdowns began in spring 2020.
"I went to see him several times and would talk to him on the phone and get him to laugh," he says. "He was incredible, intelligent, one of the smartest people I've known. He was a little lazy [Laughs], but I told him that. Jimmy and I were brothers, and any time you hear anything negative about us it's not even close to being true. He got mad, but he didn't get mad at me. He got mad 'cause he wasn't recognized for Bat as much as he wanted. He is [credited] more now than he was then, so that's good."