In The Studio marks the 35th anniversary of Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell” with an exclusive interview as passionate, bombastic, and hysterically funny as the album itself.
“Bat” has a unique place in rock history. Upon its release in the fall of 1977, the album combined the dramatic storytelling of Broadway with the high energy of rock, with the relatively new musical hybrid turning heads and standing out from anything else in mainstream rock at the time.
Meat Loaf was perhaps the only choice to take on the music of theatrical songwriter Jim Steinman. With his hulking physique and voice to boot, Meat Loaf was a force of nature with a budding off-Broadway career and the Rocky Horror Picture Show movie to his credit, but Meat was unable to get a record deal.
“We got turned down by everybody, you know, four times, by every label I can think of,” Meat Loaf tells In The Studio host Redbeard. “Clive Davis (president of Columbia Records at the time) said to me, ‘Do you guys listen to Rock’n’Roll?’, he said, ‘You’re like the Ethel Merman of Rock’n’Roll’.”
Today, “Bat Out Of Hell” has sold in excess of 40 million records worldwide, supported by such classic songs as “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad”, “You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth” and the eight-minute epic “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.”
Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell” on In The Studio is available to stream here.
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