The announcement of a fall North American tour for Meat Loaf has led to a rangy discussion about getting older and how health problems have shifted his career goals.
Seems some of his fans hoped for extended dates into the U.K. and Ireland, but Meat Loaf says he’s going to focus on recording and acting, rather than touring, as he approaches 70. Going forward much further, he writes via Facebook, would be the equivalent of highway robbery.
“I would just be another person showing up to steal your money,” he says. “I will not take your hard-earned money and not give you the kind of Meat Loaf show that you have seen for 35 years. I WILL NOT STEAL YOUR MONEY AND THAT’S WHAT IT WOULD BE. So, the people who write [that] I don’t care about my fans really do not know anything. I am working hard just hoping I can physically do the shows we are planning in the U.S. People who write that BS do not know who I am, my discipline and my work ethic.”
Meat Loaf also addressed rumors that vocal problems are to blame for this year’s much-discussed summer cancellations, noting instead that he has been through an on-going series of medical procedures.
“I had major back surgery. Stop with this voice thing,” he writes in a separate Facebook comment. “You want to hear a 26-year-old sing, go see a 26-to-35 year old sing. If I hear another thing as stupid as that, I will come to that person’s house and give them HELL. I AM SICK OF HEARING THAT BS. YES, I AM ANGRY AT THAT COMMENT! We had to cancel because I had to have four more outpatient surgeries on my back, then we had to finish the new record – which is within days of being ready to mix. Do you live under a rock?”
There have been plenty of opportunities, Meat Loaf says, to cash in over the years. But that’s not the relationship he wants to have with his fans. As such, he says these recent health issues have made it clear that the currently scheduled tour should almost certainly be his last.
“There is a very very slim chance we will ever do a show in the U.K. again. The chances are 95 percent against me ever doing another show there,” Meat Loaf writes in yet another Facebook comment. “I have never done anything in my 47-year career for the money. If I did things just for money, I would have done [the] UK Big Brother [television program] for $500,000. No, I am not holding out for more money. I am gearing up for my final tour in the U.S. I have done 61 films, and want concentrate on acting.”
