Meat Loaf knows “absolutely nothing” about music.
The famous rocker sees himself first and foremost as an actor and it is the dramatic element of performing songs which appeals to him.
The star feels like people often forget he has an impressive and extensive acting career.
“You read all the time, ‘Meat Loaf, rocker-and-actor,’ but that is wrong. It is actor-rocker. I studied at an actor’s studio, I understood method acting, I started studying when I was 13 at a drama class. I did Hair on Broadway and I did Rocky Horror on Broadway, I did two Shakespeare’s in the Park long before Bat out of Hell ever came out. I studied acting my whole life, I still am,” he said on UK TV show Daybreak. “I absolutely know nothing about music. What I know is emotional, I know dramatic and emotion and that is what I am trying to pull out. This new record is seen through my eyes.”
Meat Loaf elaborated further on what inspired his new album Hell in a Handbasket.
The musician wants his songs to connect to raw human emotions and step away from the cynicism of today’s society.
The star was shocked by some of the inhumane jokes and comments that were made about Whitney Houston’s tragic death recently.
“That is one of the things the record is about. I didn’t necessarily read a lot of comments about Amy Winehouse, but Whitney - I first heard Whitney in London in 1984. I went up to meet her and I didn’t expect her to know who I was, but she did and we talked for about 45 minutes. There are only three singers that I have ever thought in life that had this ability to do what is called an overdrive. One is Aretha, one is Whitney and this singer called Adam Lambert, this young kid. I am really jealous of these people,” he said. “But some of the comments they were making about Whitney were just unacceptable and that is what this record is about. It is about stripping away, this is who I am and going back to humanity and compassion.”
