Planet Loaf
Meat Loaf returns to Las Vegas with a residency at Planet Hollywood
By Tim Wassberg
Everything always comes down to the character and the drama of it. Most of the characters [in the songs] are always frustrated and that is why you see me breathe heavy and really emote and all those things. People say it’s overwrought. You read that. It’s overwrought. Well I got news for you. When you’re frustrated, you’re overwrought.
Playing with the notion of theatricality has always come easily to Meat Loaf. From his beginnings in the 70s with multi-platinum selling albums like “Bat Out Of Hell” to his starring role in “Rocky Horror Picture Show” forward to his resurgence in the 90s with songs like “Anything For Love” as well as roles in films like “Fight Club”, he has established himself with a texture of renaissance. He marks his return to Las Vegas with a residency at Planet Hollywood. Meat Loaf spoke to Casino Player about performance, getting lost in the moment and the inspiration of frustration.
Casino Player: What motivated this search for a new performance, specifically in Vegas?
Meatloaf: If you go to me musically, I was born to play “Bat Out Of Hell”. Other things have been really good but there is no denying it… I was born to play “Bat Out Of Hell”. People go: “Is that an anchor around your neck?” “No! Hell no… go away… don’t ask me that stupid question!” I love it when I’m there. But what I have to go through to get here, I call it “prisoner release”. I go to an apartment. I have all these humidifiers. I don’t go to dinner. I don’t watch other people’s shows, even though I want to. The only time I leave is to go do this show. I get on stage. I have a great time. Then I am back in my cell.
But the thing is, I was born to do this show. It is better than anything I have ever done. It gives me the opportunity to really open my wings and fly—much more than any rock concert I ever did. Much more than any theatrical show I ever did. And I am in complete control of it. I’m a control freak so that’s good. And I don’t actually come off stage every night going, “Boy, I hate that!” (laughing) which is what I do when I do rock concerts. I have that drive in me that every show has to be better than the last one. And I have to change every night. I do. I make changes. They’re subtle. You’d never know, inside the band, what the drummer does on certain things. What the guitar player does. Or where the sax player walks or what the girls do. They’re subliminal changes. The audience shouldn’t notice it but they do. Subconsciously, you always notice these things. It is always about the tension, creating the tension between me and the audience and keeping that there.
CP: Could you talk about the difference between the persona of Meat Loaf and the performer who takes the stage?
ML: I never take the stage. The person you are talking to now never takes the stage. But there is a different persona. I have a persona for doing interviews. (laughing) I do. If you don’t, then you’re wrong. I have a lot of energy so this is closer to the stage persona. Each song is different. Each song has a persona. Every time I talk to the audience is a different persona. Actually my wife says, “You’re going above their heads! You’re not explaining what you’re doing!” And the first time I come out to talk, it’s as a character named Rabbit from Longview, Texas who works at a gas station. But I don’t ever tell the audience that so this time we are going to.
CP: So how did the concept of this show come together?
ML: The producer had an idea to do this like a Storytellers thing. And I took it about 18 steps further away. I gave him a concept. He was sitting next to me with his mouth open after I finished it. It is kind of a cross between Storytellers, vaudeville—I don’t really know what it’s like. There is nothing I’ve seen like it to tell you the truth. If you watch, every song that I sing has a different movement. I’ve always kind of done that. I really studied Brando and that’s what he did. Before he even opened his mouth to say a line, he developed the character traits, the movement…
CP: So it’s more Method is what you’re saying.
ML: Yes. It’s called “being in the moment”. It is what any great actor strives to be on every day. He doesn’t get there every day. You want to be in the moment. That is why I don’t see the audience when I’m singing a song. I’m not relating to them. Before we start, I see them. But when the song starts, they’re gone. I don’t realize it. When I do a rock concert, it’s like that. It’s always been like that. I’ve had girls take off their clothes in front of me. The guys in the band would go “Did you see that girl!” I go “No”. They’re like “Come on! You did!” I’m like “Nope.” It’s like if I do a take in a movie, I rehearse it; I know the camera and the crew’s there. But the minute that director yells action, all those people go. They disappear. It’s the same thing with being on stage. I go so far away that the audience is gone.
CP: So did the acting and music always come intertwined together?
ML: I still don’t know that much about music. Everything always comes down to the character and the drama of it. Most of the characters [in the songs] are always frustrated and that is why you see me breathe heavy and really emote and all those things. People say it’s overwrought. You read that. It’s overwrought. Well I got news for you. When you’re frustrated, you’re overwrought. I go from basic human instinct, basic human emotion. And Jim Steiman [my songwriter] is like Samuel Beckett. He is a master of writing about the human condition.
CP: And all the stories for your songs come from that basis?
ML: They are all frustrated. Look at the guy in “Paradise By The Dashboard Light”. Look at the guy in “All Revved Up”. Look at the guy in “Bat Out Of Hell”. Look at the guy from “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad” or “For Crying Out Loud”. Every one of them. Even in “Every Come Way” there is a bit of frustration. “Took The Words” is not. That is the one song that is not. But if you go to the next album, “Love Her For Both Of Us”, “Dead Ringer”, “Everything Is Permitted”, “Read ‘Em & Weep”, [all of those]…Steiman…he deals with that human condition of frustration better than anyone. Then he will give you the love song: “Lost Boys & Golden Girls”. Then you take another song like “Bad For Good”: frustrating. And then is the song that nobody comprehends but I do: “Braided”. That’s (passionate), that’s FRUSTRATED. Steiman at his height—the most frustrated song of all. “Anything For Love” is frustrating. And I do that on stage. I get to those characters breathing heavy. They’re frustrated and their movements are quick. I’m breathing heavy. I’ve seen people say “If he was in better health, he wouldn’t be breathing heavy”. Yep. But they didn’t notice it right after “Bat Out Of Hell.” When that song was over, I’d come back and do all my antics at the end, and I was not breathing heavy anymore. I was back.
