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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Sound Check Meat Loaf Hasn't Stopped Being Meat Loaf

Posted by Trent Moorman on Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 11:56 AM

Meat Loaf: Tight with LL Cool J.

Sixty-four-year-old singer and actor Meat Loaf (Michael Lee Aday) is bringing his "Mad, Mad World Tour" east of Tiger Mountain to Snoqualmie Casino. This past fall, Meat released his 12th studio album, Hell in a Handbasket, a somewhat autobiographical operatic rock album featuring Public Enemy's Chuck D, Lil Jon, Trace Adkins, and Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath. People who come to Meat Loaf shows know what to expect: indefatigable, fully dedicated, theatrical Meat giving all of himself to the performance. Meat tends to give too much, having suffered from a history of swollen and destroyed vocal cords. Meat is resilient, though, having sold nearly 120 million albums worldwide, the breakout being 1977's Bat out of Hell. As an actor, Mr. Loaf has been in more than 50 movies, including Wayne's World, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Fight Club, where he played the breasted male, Bob. Meat recently moved from New York to Austin, Texas. Prior to the interview, his publicist said, "Between moving and getting ready to tour, Meat has been overworked."

Should I call you Meat? Or Mr. Loaf?

Do you know anybody named Chuck? Or Stew? Or Frank? They're all meat products. It's not that weird [laughs].

What was it like working with Chuck D and Lil Jon? Did they call you Meat?

For them, it was Meat. We went in the studio with Lil Jon, and he was expecting to be there for 12 or 14 hours. But he didn't know how we work. He was out of there in three hours and was thrilled. Before I met him, I didn't have the appreciation for hiphop and rap, which was my mistake. Now, my iTunes has been taken over by hiphop. I was an LL Cool J fan and I know him; we've been to hockey games and dinner, and we always talked about collaborating on a version of "Mama Said Knock You Out." But Lil Jon really made me appreciate hiphop. I think the rap and hiphop artists have more influence on culture right now than any rock or pop star. U2 used to, but not anymore. People go see their shows, but do they have that influence they used to have? No. Does Springsteen? No. Do the Stones? No. Does Katy Perry? No. Justin Bieber? No. The older acts, we're still playing, but are we relevant? I don't know.