Meat Loaf — Guilty Pleasure Tour: Live from Sydney, Australia

Credits:
Artiste: Meat Loaf
Vocals: Patti Russo
Guitars: Paul Crook
Drums: John Miceli
Guitars/Vocals: Randy Flowers
Keyboard/Saxophone/Vocals: David Luther
Bass Guitar/Vocals: Danny Miranda
Piano/Keyboards/Vocals: Justin Avery
Violin/Keyboards/Vocals: Ginny Luke

Tour Manager: Bernie Boyle
Stage Manager: Martin Capriaso
Set Carpenter/Assistent Rigger: Jordan Centola
Stage Monitor Engineer: Tim Coakley
Guitar Technican: John Jensen
Tour Director: Jimmy Johnson
Tour Assistant/Meet & Greet Co-ordinator: Kelly Crone Johnson
Wardrobe: Pam Lewis
Drum Technician: Joe Libretti
Sound Systems Technician: Mark MacArthur
Production Manager: Phay MacMahon
Guitar Technician: Charlie Milton
Head Rigger: Bob Powers
Bass/Keyboard Technician: Gabe Sganga
Lighting Designer and Director: Billy Sheldon
Video: Louie Smith
Front of House Sound Engineer: George Wehrlin
Assistant to Meat Loaf: Kelly World

Management: Tom Consolo and Ken Levitan
Business Management: Gary Haber & Terry Doty for Haber Corporation
Legal Representative: Jess Rosen

Vocal Coach: Eric Vetro

Tour Promotor: Frontier Touring Company; Gerard Schlaghecke — Tour Co-ordinator; Michael Olburg — Production Manager Lighting
Tour Marketing: Michelle Owens for Vector

Sound Company: Scorpio Sound Systems — Boards and Mics; Jands, JPH Audio Pty Ltd — Stacks and Racks
Lighting Company: Phaseshift Productions
Video Company: Big Picture
Additional Backline: Backline Australia

Meat Loaf Clothing/Jewelry: Cressida Lewis, Stylist and Costume Designer for Meat Loaf; Chris Kerr, Bespoke Tailor, Berwick Street, London UK; Jewelry by Roman Paul, Malibu Rock Star Couture Jewelry, Malibu CA

Video Shoot:
Documentary Director: Matthew Clements
Cameras: Global Television
Live Sound: Figure 8
Sound Mixer: Paul Crook
Video Editor: Dan Hazell
Producer: Lyn Beardsall
Video Director: Paul Brown

Thanks to
Sonor, Hohner, Zildjian, Vic Firth, Evans Drumheads, SKB Cases, Earthworks, Engl Amps, Gibraltar Hardware, DigiDesign, ProTools, Frank @ Flynn Signs, DR Strings, Tony Franklin and all at Fender, Michael Tempestra and Yamaha, Mark Katzen Electric Guitars, GFS 180 Pickups, Jim Dunlop Picks and Pedals, Line 6 Wireless Systems, Washburn Acoustic Guitars, Adam @ Floyd Upgrades, Andy & Sarah @ Floyd Rose, TKL Cases, Tone Pros, Radial Engineering, Warmoth Guitar Parts, Tony Piniero and DR Strings, Radial, Planet Waves, Rocky Mountain Slides, Clayton Picks, Lindy Fralin, Hoipshot, EBS, Warmoth, Line 6, Nady, Floyd @ Sonalysts, Jimmy @ Trash & Waudeville

DVD 120 mins — Dolby 5.1 & Dolby Stereo. 40 mins bonus documentary with brand new Meat Loaf interview. • CD 70 mins.

Some people think huge, then there’s…

Meat Loaf certainly requires no introduction, he burst onto the world music stage in 1977 with his landmark release Bat Out Of Hell, which transformed him from a stage actor into a rock ‘n’ roll icon. The album has sold more than 43 million copies worldwide and is the third biggest selling record of all time — 23 × Platinum status — and still sells in excess of 200,000 copies a year.

Folling Bat Out Of Hell came such masterpieces as 1981’s Dead Ringer, 1984’s Bad Attitude, and the Bat Out Of Hell sequels, 199’s Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell and 2006’s Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, not to mention 2010’s Hang Cool Teddy Bear.

The 11 concert sell out tour of Australia and New Zealand was an enourmous success and this DVD/CD deluxe edition celebrates the global phenomenon that is Meat Loaf.

Bonus Documentary: Ever wonder what it takes to get Meat Loaf on the road? This ultimate backstage pass ad access all areas documentary is packed with interviews closest to Meat Loaf and of course from the man himself. Enjoy an exclusive look at the preparation, logistics and effort that goes into a tour of this scale and hear from Meat Loaf as he divulges what drives him and keeps him hungry yo entertain audiences around the world.

Booklet: An 8-page full colour souvenir booklet featuring photographs and anecdotes from Meat Loaf[’s 1998 autobiography To Hell and Back] including his brush with an American president, his early career and the truth behind his name.

How I Got My Name

My mother was an absolute angel. Whatever goodness I have in my heart comes from my mother. She adored me, which I think may have caused problems between her and my father. He was kind of immature in the sense that he wanted to be the focus of her adoration and then I came along.

I never saw my mom lose her temper. She always said Two of us sisters had tempers, two of us didn’t. But I’m not saying which. She was a shrewd psychologist. She’d always say, If you really think you’ve gotta do that… and then she’d tell you what was going to happen should you choose to pursue that particular course of action. And it always happened just the way she said it.

Mom was really kind also really smart. She brought me up not to be prejudiced. That’s the one good thing I remember her managing to drill into me. There are good and bad people and that’s the only difference. Everyone — it doesn’t matter where they come from or what they look like — is the same. Know that.

My mother wrote a text book about communism that was extremely controversial at the time — this was the fifties, right in the middle of the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings. She didn’t go along with all the negative propaganda about communism; she just gave you the pure facts of what happened. It caused such a ruckus that they didn’t use it at first, but eventually it was adopted as the standard text in the Dallas public school system.

My dad is the one who called me Meat Loaf. I’ve told a lot of other stories about how I got the name, about how football coaches and other kids called me that. How I made a bet with some kid in high school that I would let my head get run over by a Volkswagen and after I’d done it this kid said, Ya know, you’re as dumb as a hunk of meat loaf. Or there’s the one about the coach who said, Get off my football team you big hunk of meat loaf. All that actually did happen, but they didn’t come up with the name. Leave it to my dad to do that. He called me Meat Loaf almost from the time my mother brought me home.

Love Field

KENNEDY WAS COMING! This was really a big deal in Dallas and so they allowed the kids to miss school — you just had to bring a not from your parents and the you were dismissed. I was fourteen at the time.

So Billy Slocum and another football player named Jimmy McCorder and I decided to drive out to Love Field to see Kennedy arrive. Jimmy’s father worked there and we figured he might be able to get us close to the president. We managed to be there when Kennedy’s plane landed, but we couldn’t even get close to the fences. People everywhere. Then Jimmy said, You know my dad thinks they’re gonna bring him outa this side gate, so we said, Okay, let’s go.

We drove over to this particular gate. There were a couple of Dallas policemen there and maybe another ten people. And lo and behold, that’s the gate Kennedy came through. Right before he got to the gate we were standing around joking and Billy asked one of the cops, What would you do if I had a gun? and the cop just laughed and said, I wouldn’t do anything — long as I didn’t see it. They were all laughing. And another cop said, Well, yep, you know what? If someone was going to shoot him, they certainly wouldn’t do it here in Dallas.

As Kennedy came through the gate, they actually stopped the car. I couldn’t believe it. Billy went over with a couple of other people and shook his hand. I was very shy. I just stood and watched. And then he drove on through. Now we’re all wiredand we decided to go down to Market Hall, which was on the route.

Since it was going to be a while before Kennedy got there, we decided to have lunch at this barbecue place. We started to go down the stairs and saw they were blocked off — the place was being renovated. We went back up the stairs and saw a receptionist there. She had a little transistor radio and we went in the door and she said, The president’s been shot.

Jimmy put the little earplug from her transistor in his ear. Jesus, she’s right, he was shouting. They’re saying the President’s been shot.

You wanna meet a Beach Boy

I’m driving around on Sunset one day and I pick up this guy hitchhiking.

Where are you heading? I ask.

I’m only going up the hill, he says. I’m staying at the Beach Boys’ house. You wanna meet a Beach Boy? He’s really into name dropping.

There’s some other people up there too. Neil Young — you wanna meet Neil Young?

So I gave the guy a ride up the hill. When we got up to the house, there were a bunch of musicians there, but nobody I’d ever heard of. And there was no Beach Boy there although it was actually Dennis Wilson’s house. A 12 bedroom log cabin with a swimming pool in the shape of California.

I hung around for a while and the hitchhiker said he’d tell me my fortune, although I didn’t really need to hear it because the world was going to end really shortly. I wondered if I’d have time to get my singing career of the ground first.

He told me I’d been a cat in a former life and that I’d never have any money.

Gee thanks, I said.

Then he told me that Kirilian photography is proof that they had color TV in Atlantis.

Absolute proof! He paused. Do you think the false prophet Richard Nixon can end the war in Vietnam?

Uh, no?

I am Abraxas, baby, the son of Darkness and I will lay waste all the J.C. Penneys from Rhode Island to Pasadena.

Absolutely, I said, backing out of the room. A few years later I saw his picture in the paper. His name was Charles Manson. I never did get to meet a Beach Boy.

I was John Belushi’s Double

Bat Out Of Hell was germinating a long time. Jim and I had been working together since ‘72 and by the end of ‘74 we started to get serious. In 1975 Jim sat down and wrote “You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth” and then he wrote “Bat.” At that time I decided that I wasn’t going to do any more theater! I was just going to work with Jim and we were going to persue or music. Of course, as soon as I wasn’t going to do theater anymore, I ended up in another show.

The National Lampoon Show was opening on Broadway and they needed an understudy for John Belushi. When John was asked, Who can understudy you? he said, Meat Loaf.

I’d met Chevy Chase and John Belushi back in 1972 when they were doing Lemmings down at the Village Gate. Belushi and I had since become friends. He was a wonderful maniac.

I was at a movie one night and John saw me sitting several rows in front of him. He could easily have gotten up and walked down the aisle. But noooo! He crawled. The movie theater was full, but he crawled on his stomach down the aisle and grabbed a hold of the bottom of my leg. Scared me half to death.

They offered me five hundred dollars a week to understudy Belushi. I said, Okay, if I don’t have to come down to the theater.

You don’t have to, they said, because John will never miss a show and he didn’t.

Eventually they asked me to take the show out on the road. I said the only way I’d do it was if they’d take Jim Steinman as the piano player. They agreed. Jim and I were busy working on the album and we really needed the money. Because of the Musician’s Union, he ended up making more money than I did.

Ellen Foley was singing in the Lampoon show, so that’s hwo we met her. Let’s do that duet in ‘Paradise’ with Ellen, I said. It was when we were out on the road doing the Lampoon show that things really started moving ahead. In the afternoons Jimmy and I and sometimes Ellen Foley would work on the songs. And gradually out of the songs came the fantastic characters of Bat Out of Hell.