"I can't even..." "I couldn't even tell you what the show is." "So we're OK for tonight, and we'll scratch Friday." "Yeah, come on down tonight, but don't shoot the whole thing." "Thank you." "Thank you very, very much." "God bless you." "We love you." "And don't you ever stop rocking!" "Hey." "Oh my God, he's taking a picture." "One, two, three, four." "Hey, hey." "One, two, three, four, hey, hey." "Hi, kids, how are you?" "Come on, let's go in my room." "Hi, Dave." " Hi, kids." " Hi." "Why is it locked?" "Well, the film's about you don't know what it's about." "That's what its about." "You have no clue what this is about." "I'll start with you and if somebody wants to join us." "An interview with Amanda or Pearl or Todd or these people has absolutely no bearing on this." "It was going to be a long couple of weeks for me and my film crew." "Already, Meatloaf cancelled interviews I'd set up with a few of his friends and family members." "And what this is, this is Seize The Night Tour 2007." "No!" "about 1994, not about 1987, not about any of that, its not about that." "It's about here and now." "It's about right this minute." "What are we doing?" "Everybody needs to get up and chat?" "I've got so much to do and we got so little time." "We're in rehearsal before an 18 month world tour." "Where we're playing Madison Square Garden, Wembley Arena." "What are we doing up there, John?" "And we're getting ready to launch a Canadian tour where the eighth show is going to be a DVD shoot." "Hey, Joe, talk to me." "So it's an amazing amount of pressure." "Not many artists, on an eighth show, are going to be comfortable shooting a DVD of a world tour." "You know, I'm a nervous wreck coming here today." "I'm freaking out." "I couldn't sleep." "I'm changing the show this morning as I'm going." "Give me that line." "OK, now do that with chords." " Can you do that with chords?" " Yeah." "Try it again." "Let's try it out." "Meat throws quick things at the band like Gimme Shelter, that's a last minute thing." "There's only so much to do with it." "With Gimme Shelter, nothing is ever a surprise with Meatloaf." "You have to expect the unexpected always." "I work off the seat off my pants.." "I work off the top of my head but I don't think." "Play that line, Paul." " C, C, G, A ﬂat." " Yeah." "OK, who has suggestions?" "OK?" "And end it with the chorus, anyway." "And then do the first chorus up and then bring it down." "Good suggestion." "I just thought of that right before you said it." "What's at stake is my reputation." "My reputation is always at stake no matter when I step on stage, to do the best show you possibly can do." "And if I can't do that then I'm not going." "You're finding out who I am right now." "You know, I'm an A personality who's made a lot of mistakes." "I've been an asshole in my life and I'm trying to improve." "Now, what else you wanna know?" "And his high school coach called him the Loaf." "He had a very tormented childhood because he wasn't only big, he was very big." "And neighbours would say things like" ""You're too fat to play with my children."" "I believe growing up, Meatloaf must have always had some kind of self doubt." "And he looks at the cup half empty but he knows that if he works harder and he puts his talent out there, that the cup'll be full." "It's pretty much a democracy in the band but there has to be a team plain so I guess that would best describe my position." "I'm the Derek Jeter of Meatloaf's world." "That's the key change." "The rules change." "What works on a record doesn't always work live." "Meat and I have been together going on six years." "I did go out for the first few years from start to end, but for me it got pretty old pretty fast." "Things changed, we moved, we got dogs," "I found myself wanting to be at home a lot more." "Even though I'm not on tour and I'm physically not present we do spend a lot of time either I-chatting, being on the telephone with each other." "He will ask for my suggestions at times," "I will make a suggestion if I feel that it will help." "But I leave that, he's so strong at the creative process that I leave that to him." "Not a fan of mini skirts because we're on an elevated stage." "I think I had something to do with that." "The DVD in Australia, check it out." "OK, we've got the first act." "It's black, white, it's dressier." "Less hooker." "More Studio 54." "No, that's bad." " More sports banquet." " This is what we were wondering." "Would you be opposed to us, pretty much from "took the words" on, instead of wearing the stuff we've been wearing, that's more hard, what if we looked more classy, like dresses" "or pant suits for the first act?" " That starts." " With no music?" "Nothing." "The Meatloaf that I know is a very, very concerned artist" "Meats involved in every aspect of his art and not many artists are." "This one's actually great." " Let's get a red one." " Yeah, OK." "Let's get that beginning down, then we can go home." "One, two, three, four." "You play with them, but you play around with them." "In other words, play with them but fill the hole where..." "Fill the stop." "That was good." " That is good." " It was very good." "How do you feel end of day one rehearsal?" "I have no idea." "It's the end of day one." "You said you were an in the moment guy so right now, this moment?" "I feel nothing." "I feel it's the end of day one." "I'm wondering what's for lunch tomorrow." "I'm here to pet the dog." "This is a very lovely house of Eric Vetro." "I met him about a year ago when he was making Bat Out Of Hell III and I started coming into the studio to work on the album and I've worked with him ever since, it's great." " That was a miracle warm-up." " That was good, wasn't it?" "Why does he come to me after all these years?" "Everyone's voice changes as they get older and try different music." "Now roll your shoulders all the way round to loosen them up." "Drop your arms on the high note." "I warm up his voice before concerts." "I get him in a good, healthy place vocally and mentally to perform." "Meatloaf is always striving to do better." "He's always striving to get better, to sing better, so I think he just wanted some new techniques to use, and to bring his voice to another level." "He doesn't follow good, sensible things I tell him like get enough sleep, don't over-use your voice tonight." "No, that all goes out the window." "You n, but you have to sign that you did it." "He's got a little bit of the bad boy." "He's a little wild at times." "On my God." "He looks very good with this moustache." "He looks very handsome." "Poor Brian Cranston." " I initialled." " Good." "The things that you'll do." "No-one wanted to play the Bat Out Of Hell record so it was really Meatloaf doing what Meatloaf does." "His ability to move the record company, the radio station or move the audience in the club to the point that after a year, stations started to play songs." "He sold out stadiums and worked the country and then the world." "It sold more copies than Sgt. Pepper." "It was one of the biggest rock albums of all time." "He was a huge star." "Paradise By The Dashboard Light is probably the biggest song from Bat Out Of Hell I." "I haven't done a show with Meatloaf where we haven't played it." "I mean, how much more could a guy want?" "It wasn't just a guy singing a song." "It was a guy and a girl having angst and tension." "I get nervous every time before I do that number." "But once I start, I just have fun." "I know if I get caught up in the legacy of Paradise," "I won't be performing to the best of my ability." "I started singing as a toddler, grew up doing musical theatre, then got into the studio aspect, doing jingles, voicing cartoon characters, singing backing vocals for albums." "I haven't had a lot of experience touring, so I'm excited." "Every move in that entire thing is choreographed." "We have it all timed to that narration of the baseball sequence." "Phil Rizzuto, he does the play by play in the middle of the song." "OK, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker here." "Two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the line." "Everything else we make up as we go along, but the make out section's choreographed." "In Paradise, I think Meat goes back to his high school years." "He has this innocence, and this kind cf a goofy comedic, but really likeable character." "But the two of us have kind of found a groove together." "I just have fun." "And Meat's such fun to perform with." "By my calculations, over the past 30 years" "Meatloaf has performed Paradise By The Dashboard Light about 8,900 times." "Most rock stars hate performing their old hits" "and he knows he will always please by performing Paradise just like he did in 1977." "We demand it of him." "So I guess it was inevitable that something had to give, and that the song would soon consume him and those around him" "Good morning." " Hi, how are you guys?" " How are you feeling?" "OK." "I let you get away with murder yesterday." "No more spinning around." "Not that I don't love you, I do." "But you took great advantage of your camera yesterday." "In 1993." "There's not too many songs that have done that over the years." "It was the song that brought back Meatloaf to the popularity he enjoyed in the late seventies, early eighties." "Oh, critics, I can't pay any attention to critics." "And I'll tell you why you can't pay attention to critics." "And then I've done that we have done great shows, and the critics have given us bad reviews, and you can't pay any attention to them, you can't believe them." "I guess to be in this business." "Anybody that..." "That's what I do." "You have this kind of need to be the center of attention." "It comes with the territory." "When I was younger, I don't know If I wanted It or not." "I was very quiet, very shy, didn't talk" "In three years of being at Thomas Jefferson High School, if I spoke 12 words, I'd be actually shocked and surprised." "I can't." "It's too fast." "It's difficult to meet." "You're screaming in If It Ain't Broke." "You're screaming in Blind As A Bat." "You can't go from here to here that quick." "Meat will finish what, the one song in the encores?" "No." "He'll stop." "You try doing what he does for two hours." "See if you wanna continue." "Hi, I'm tired now." "I did voice-over work for somebody today." "Jim Jones started his own church in the mid fifties in Indiana." "And then someone decided to talk to me for two or three hours." "Do you have road rage?" "No, but I call people idiots and morons, people on cell phones." "Then I sang, then I started this show." "I can't remember who it was but if we see him, if we see him," "that makes them happy, they wanna see the audience." "The audience is their mirror." "They're still at that standard." "I believe that's what's at stake here for Meatloaf." "Five days of rehearsals not long enough." "It's not long enough cos I can't put it together." " Last word today." " OK, what's the last word?" " You tell me." " Stress." " See you." " Stress." "Hello, everybody." "Let's see." "I left my house..." " That's not right." " No, it's not right." "But the poor band, they left Palm Springs yesterday at two o'clock, and they're still not here." "They're just getting on a plane in Vancouver right now." "So that's welcome to touring." "He's realistic." "He knows that these things can happen." "The reason we me in on 26th was so he could have a full rest day before the first main show of the tour." "He'll have slept last night, he could have slept late today, he would have a whole day to relax, not worry about anything." "Hello?" "Yeah." "OK." "Bye." "What happened?" "Apparently two of them sot luggage..." "Their luggage has not arrived in Vancouver." " What a nightmare." " You're kidding me." "No, I'm not." "It does take its toll on him a bit." "He does stress a bit, it's obvious." "Oh man, they don't want us to come here." "That's..." "Wow." "Hopefully we'll see the band in an hour." "That's the one." "That's the wrong one." "On stage." "Travel nightmares usually last at the most, 12, 13, 14 hours." "This one lasted a full 48 hours." "It was the worst travel day I have ever had in my entire life." "And that's including the 16, 15 years I've been here with Meat." "It was just so unacceptable at this point in the tour." "The tours just started and already there are huge speed bumps that are slowing us down." "We could have ﬂown to Australia, had a drink, ﬂown back." "It sucked." "Hi, this is brutal." "I feel cold." "I don't like cold." " I'm coming in, all right?" " Oh, no." "Well, today is our first arena show and I'm pretty stoked." "How does the venue look?" "Like every other frigging venue we've ever played at." "He has to rest his voice so fight now he just can't do it." "We just want to film his rituals." "Maybe a little later, but his voice is hurting him already." "I believe Meat guards his privacy, Meat wants his privacy." "Meatloaf spent so much time alone as a child, that sort of conditioned the way he is as an adult." "He was used to being alone, he likes to be alone, he doesn't socialise that much." "His whole social life is thrown into his performance." "I hate rehearsals." "When it gets right is out here." "Tonight's the first night of right." "This is when it starts to be right." "It's exciting when you're out there and you see the people." "Every night before we go on stage we do this thing lied The Kill." "It's where we all get in a big huddle and put our hands together." "'What do we always do?" "Kill"." "'What do big dogs do? "Kill"." "You gotta get in here." "And I think it's just a little 20-second ritual" "What are we gonna do?" " Kill!" "What do we always do?" " Kill!" "What do we need to do?" " Kill!" "What do big dogs do?" " Kill!" "The background vocalists were awesome and Meatloaf still rocks." " He's like he was 20 years ago." " Exactly." "Feels good." "Meat pulled some stuff tonight which was totally outta left field that nobody expected." "Well, extending certain parts and making other parts a little bit longer and shorter and different." "It makes it impossible to have everybody really tight because you don't know what he's gonna do next." "So we're still rusty, we're getting our sea legs." "Right now I'm so tired I don't know what I'm doing and I hated every minute of it." "I'm really bummed." "I didn't like the show." "It wasn't good for me." "It's gotta be better in Vancouver." "That's all." "No matter what band you're in, what movie you're filming, what play, there's always gonna be nay-sayers, people who have issues with what you're doing." "I later found out that this was not the first time otherwise admiring critics have come down on Meat and Aspen for their staging of Paradise and it was obvious that this would not be the last of it." "Far from it." "What's on tap for tonight?" "God, I don't know." "A game called hockey that I know nothing about." "I'm very tired right now." "I really don't wanna go to the hockey game, I must confess." "I'm not like Elton and those guys that..." "I would love to be." "It's just not in my nature." "They can just real schmoozums, you know." "They just tum up here, do that, go there and there." "But when I'm out at a premier or something," "I never know what to say to anybody." " Can I say hi?" " Hi, what's your name?" " Dwayne." " Dwayne, Meat." "Nice to see you." " Nice to meet you." " Hi, how are you?" "Hi Bill, Meat." "How you doing?" " I'm Dean." " Dean, nice to see you." "I wanna introduce you to Carol." "She won the opportunity to be here." "Oh, OK, hi Carol, how are you?" "No way." "Yeah!" " Oh, how are you?" " Hi Tom." " How are you?" "What's your name?" " John." "When I was a young 'un, my sister was a big fan of Bread the band, and for her birthday I went to buy her an album and I got all confused and I bought her Meatloaf instead of Bread, but she loved it." "She loved it anyway, but I thought that was a pretty good story." "You know, he's getting a lot of press, actually." "Again he's got that novelty factor." "It's Meatloaf who's only one guy." "And he's been around for so long so the press has a story there." "It's good to see them latch onto it." " Fight Club wasn't here, was it?" " No, it wasn't." "Blacktop was here, I did an Outer Limits here, Delta Force." " 'Fired, Meat?" " Yeah." "Go and be quiet for a bit." "For Bat Out Of Hell III." "Meatloaf, you're making your way across Canada for the Bat Out Of Hell III Seize The Night tour." "This is my very first album." " Really?" "Your very first album?" "Well, my first Meat album." " Who's this 1:0?" "Do you have rituals before going on stage?" "So many it's ridiculous." "Would you sign your name to one of your scarves?" "I only have..." "Oh, you have one." "I take all my vitamins precisely 45 minutes before we go on." " Did you get this from me?" " No." "Cos at one time we had a couple but now I literally only have one red scarf." "I have to get on my stretch machine." "I have to warm up." "It's endless." "It takes me forever" "And I start panicking when I run out of time." "Guys, I'm gonna go warm up." "Pleasure to meet you." "Have fun." "Enjoy it." "I hope I have a good show for you." "It's a lot of work before the show." "A lot of work before the show." "I'm freaking out now." "What time is it?" "Quarter to seven." "What do you mean?" "How can the cleaning lady throw out...?" "Seemingly he left them on his desk and she cleaned it." "They're gone." "Where are they staying?" "Where are you staying?" "I throw everything away?" "Hotel?" "Ask George, did it say Meatloaf on the CD?" "What did it say on the CD?" "Did it have a name written on it like Meatloaf or anything?" "Because they're gonna bootleg this." " It just said Victoria, I believe." " They're gonna bootleg this." "Roll your head side to side, think nasal." "He's fine." "He'll be fine." "He's in there doing his thing, it's good." "I'm not ready." " Coolez." " Skol." " What are we gonna do?" " Kill!" " What do big dogs do?" " Kill!" " He's tough on himself." " He's really hard on himself." "What are you hearing that no-one else is hearing?" "I bid you a fond farewell." "What?" "What are you hearing that no-one else..." "No, not there again." "No." "I'm really mad." "When he faints after a show, he's given so much, but at the same time, you're talking about somebody who is a method actor." "He has to put himself into a place where he's going to be exhausted if he's going to give everything" "Hows my hair?" "Your hairs great." "Hairs gotta always look good." "I'm a sex god, you know." " What are we gonna do?" " Kill!" " What do we need to do?" " Kill!" "I guess every tour has a turning point, and this one did too." "The city was Calgary, where over the next few days" "I would watch a couple of pesky, ongoing issues come to dominate Meat's life." "OK, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker here." "Look at him go, this boy can really ﬂy." "He's not letting up at all, he's gonna try for second." "Here comes the throw and what a throw." "He's gonna slide in head first, here he comes." "He's out." "No, wait." "Second base." "This kid really makes things happen out there." "I'm taking the pants off." " So what happened?" " Meat's not feeling too good." "Something about his sinuses." "He's concerned about his performance." "He may be working double time tonight to get out the same performance as last night." "Great show." "Just need to get some rest, recuperate." "I've got a doctor." "If I wasn't feeling well, I'd want to get a doctor out as well." "He seems to be OK, and that's about the only details I can give you cos it's medical and it's confidential, but I'll certainly be available if you need some help later on." "Today later on, tonight or tomorrow." " What is your name?" " Lindsay." " Hi Lindsay, Paul." " Paul." "Pleased to met you." "Now, what is it?" "I know exactly what's gonna happen now." "No more Mr Subtle." "Like I've ever been accused of being subtle." "Now I'm gonna hit 'em over the head with a glittered rake." "All right, I gotta finish packing." "OK, bye" "I've been awake since eight o'clock working on the show." "Even the Guardian in the UK, who gave us four out of four stars for the show and another paper that gave us five out of five stars, they were always talking about the thing about me and Aspen." "And the reason is because she's so small." "She's small." "I think a huge reason is because I look like I'm 12 years old making out with my grandpa, and every reviewer can't get past it, and even after a great show, they devote half their review to talking about Paradise" "and how he's like a creepy old man, and they miss the whole point of the rest of the show." "Guys, we're on stage." "It's frigging fantasy." "This isn't reality." "I've always given people a lot of credit for being smart." "I'm about to stop that." "I'm about to stop giving people credit for having intelligence." "Because if the newspaper journalist, if they can't..." "They give you a good review, then ll you a child molester." "What's wrong with these people?" "My age or our age difference, the outfits we wear, our hairstyles, things that just don't really matter because to most people who come to these concerts, that's not what it's all about." "Michael Douglas, you know, is married to Gwyneth Paltrow." "Michael Douglas, 60, Gwyneth Paltrow's 19 or something." "I got a ll earlier this morning from Meatloaf." "To alert the band that he's changing everything in Paradise." "He's changing the whole look of Paradise." "Into so far out that nobody n possibly relate to it as reality." "We're going so far into the seventies that you..." "It's a big costume party." "He wants us to look like KC and the Sunshine Band." "So he's sent everyone in the band out on a mission for seventies clothes." "Afro wigs, velvet pants, suede vests, fringe, bell bottoms." "And I'm coming out, looking exactly like I did in 1977." "Long hair, frilly tuxedo shirt red scarf, tuxedo jacket." "I'm coming out 1977." "Paradise." "Was there a bad review or something lest night?" "I don't think there was a bad review." "I just think.." " Only the one about..." " I read one that said..." "It said they shouldn't have had those two skinny shanks singing." " Where was that from?" " From Vancouver." "They called you skinny shanks?" "Yeah." "Gen you believe that?" "Oh yeah, this is the Herald." ""Even sceptics found themselves humming along."" ""Sniff." "How could you not?" "'" "I believe Meatloaf res about critics, and he shouldn't." "When I see 12,000 people and they loved it and they don't care that it's at times campy." "My favourite line in any review is kind of a mixed review." ""The entire night was the most surreal night I've ever had."" "I thought that was absolutely dead on." "You can't get a better quote than that one." "I don't wanna look like a clown." "Guys would wear this, though, in the seventies, definitely." "Hey. everybody." "come see how good I look" " Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" " YMCA!" "Somebody probably died in this shirt." "I wouldn't be picking that to wear." "Nah, it's not speaking to me." "It's great stuff but it's not over the top enough for me." "No-one seems to be able to find anything that's stage-worthy." "But at least we've made a valiant effort, but it doesn't look good." "People think it's 1,000% glamour all the time." "Well, it is." "Can't you tell?" "How glamorous is this at the moment?" "I mean, how glamorous is this?" "My bag here with my wheat thins in?" "This is pure glamour." "I've always been a fan of Meat." "The Meatloaf I know is a really down-to-earth, regular person who has really no connection to his stage persona, as one might think" "Great family man, very loyal to his friends, little bit neurotic." " Hi Dennis, how you doing, baby?" " Hows it going?" "I'll tell you what's going on." "I'm feeling fine right now." "Every time I go to sing, I start spinning." "He's an angster." "He likes to angst about things." "He enjoys angsting." "Something's going on inside my ears." "I'm having vertigo." "Sinus drip, start sweating." "I'm just spinning." "I'm not talking." "This is killing me." " I've never seen Meat live." " I'm old and it sucks now." "Yeah, yeah, I'm sure." "We're all old." "We're doing 100 shows this year." " Wow." " And I think we're on eight." "So Dennis, if you have the urge, we rehearse." "I'm not gonna be one of those guys who goes "Dennis Quaid's out there and I think he should come up here and sing a song with us, yeeha!"" " That's what he does in every bar." " Give it up, people!" "It's not something we can rehearse." "We just have to do it." " OK." " This is to the music." " We just have to do it." " This isn't creepier this way?" "That we're making out for, like, three minutes?" "You don't have to, like, lip lock." "Yeah, we just start and do this." "Right, OK." "But they're gonna still find this creepy." "Well, people are watching the video, that's the idea." "We're hoping they're watching the video." "OK, OK, this'll work That's a good idea." "We'll start center, and then we'll go like this." " An actual... a real... a normal?" " No, we won't." " But I act like I want to?" " Yeah, then the video comes on." "Oh." "Then we take a couple of steps like this and angle ourselves." "I think it'll be less creepy than us making out the whole time." "Yeah." "Billy said, "I want you to do what they're doing"." "I'm watching it going, "I don't know if that's going to work"." "I don't know if that fixes the problem." " OK." " We're going up on stage, Bill." "I think people don't understand that it's stage." "It's a play." "You know, people have to get over this age thing." "I think it's critic speak." "I think at this point, Meatloaf unfortunately is frustrated." "We'll do it at rehearsal when I get the band up for sound check." "She makes me feel all right." "Building, building, building." "And her name is Jean." "That's all E, D, E, D, then at the end..." "So we have the leather vest, the two pimp outfits, the headband on John," "So the chorus is E to D?" "Well, no, that's the body of the song." "It's E, D, A really, the way I play it." "That's the chorus." "That, you know, that middle part." "That's just D. "She come up to my house."" "Oh, OK, yeah." "Er, Gloria." "With Dennis Quaid." "He's gonna play your Gibson and knock the shit out of it." "That's the only Gloria we know." "Apparently we're doing another one." " Winnipeg." " What are we gonna do?" " What do we always do?" " Kill!" " What do big dogs do?" " Kill!" "OK, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker here." "Two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the line." "It is only one night and one night only!" "I will cherish the next moment." "I mean I will cherish the next moment." "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Dennis Quaid." "Meatloaf has brought the springtime back to Winnipeg" "That was really..." "That was really an honour." "Thanks, Dennis." "Well, it was really an honour with you, buddy." "Good to spend time with you." "You got to direct me for once." "Yeah, right." " That was an incredible show." " Thank you, Dennis." "It wasn't one of my favourite, but thank you." "Well, how many times are they your favourite?" "All I need is this box of wheat thins and I'm OK." "With most wigs you get a nasty front line." "This breaks it up." "OK, and it's not too thick." "No, you don't want it too thick and we can part that anywhere you like." "OK we're gonna make him look like he is on the dashboard light, OK?" "This is not gonna look anything like the finished product." " There, what about the length?" " It needs to be longer." "That's thin." "Oh yeah, that's thin." "OK, good." "Now I gotta figure out how I did that." "I did it like that." "There you go." "There you go." "That's it." " Nice." "You're back" " Sorta." " It looks good." " How do you feel?" "It's really funny." "You see, if I just now play with it, it looks like my hair." "It looks exactly right." "That's good news." "Good news." "It looks exactly right." "This isn't a normal show." "Today we're setting up for a DVD." "It's a really intensive day." "We just need to make sure it's perfect." "It's going to DVD for ever and ever so it's gotta be on the money." " How you feeling?" " Good." " We're gonna really do good today." " Yes, we are." " I'm not doing it for him either." " I know." "I'm serious." "I knocked on your door to tell you that." "I wasn't there." "I was in the gym." "You were, but I'm just telling you that." " You know I'm there for you?" " Yeah." " You know I love you." " Yeah." " Do you love me?" " Mm-hm." "OK, so now take a deep breath and hiss." "Keep your mouth relaxed and your jaw relaxed." "And throw that gum out, mister." "No." "Don't..." "Oh, my God!" "Gesture freely with your arms." "I think it's sounding good." "I'm really happy." " You just got shocked." " No." " Is it your back?" " Yeah." "It's probably because you're tense." "Back spasms." "Oh." " Maybe you should take something." " What?" "Maybe you should take something." "Slow and breathe." "I'm positive, the shows gonna be great, we're bringing in positive energy." "We don't want any negativity." "Everything's gonna be just great." " This is really silly." " This is unbelievable." "I look like the guy who played me in the movie." "London, Ontario!" " What are we gonna do?" " Kill!" " What do we need to do?" " Kill!" " What do big dogs do?" " Kill!" "It's the Old Meat." "It's the Old Meatloaf." "OK, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker here." "Two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the line." "There's the wind up, and there it is." "Look at 'em go." "This boy can really ﬂy." "He's not letting up at all, he's gonna try for second." "The ball has bottled out in center." "Here comes the throw and what a throw." "He's gonna slide in head first, here he comes." "This kid really makes things happen out there." "He steps up to the plate." "Here's the pitch and he's going." "Here's the throw." "It's in the dirt." "Taking a pretty big lean out there." "Here's the throw." "Holy cow, I think he's gonna make it." "We're thrilled with how it went." "I think we had a big breakthrough." "I've gotten several comments already saying I looked older, which is good." "And I was less naked, which is good, so I'm happy." "I think the audience gave us one of the best responses so far." "I hope it took the edge off the creepiness." "I hope so." "Maybe the wig combined with the pimp necklaces," "I don't know, maybe magically made it not creepy." "OK, go ahead." "To follow our story line, this was the premier of Paradise." "Were you happy?" "Did it hit your vision of what you wanted?" "Did it hit my Paradise, hit my vision?" "I don't know if it hit my vision, but it hit a vision." "But trust me, it was a vision." "I think Meat thrives on taking big risks creatively." "I think he gets off on that." "Fuck you." "I think Meatloaf has endured because he expresses the energy, joy and exuberance, the overﬂowing-ness of life." "He's an eternal character like Falstaff or Cyrano, and that's why he's survived." "We want this person and there he is." "And until he wins, he doesn't stop." "And at the very, very end, when he looks all around the arena and he walks or runs back and forth on that stage, he's surveying whether or not he won." "Right on, Meat." "Over and over, I was told by those who know him," "Don't worry, he's been doing this for years."" "I tried." "Some liquid." "I tried." "It was great."