Meat Loaf back in Connecticut for Mohegan Sun concert

Meat Loaf has always presented a larger-than-life persona to the music world, belting out rockers and ballads with equal explosiveness. that bombastic style helped propel 1977's "Bat out of Hell" into the stratosphere, moving more than 40 million copies and ranking as one of the bestselling albums ever.

Not surprisingly, Meat Loaf's not exactly humble when it comes to discussing his latest album, "Hang cool Teddy Bear," which came out in May.

"It is spectacular," he said in a recent phone interview from Waterford, where he was rehearsing for his tour that hits the Mohegan Sun Arena Monday. "I have heard it 200 times and two nights ago, I came home from rehearsal and wanted to hear it again. It's very unusual that you will listen to your album after you have heard the mastering, but I listen to it over and over and over again.

"The other thing I'm going to tell you — and it's a very rare thing, especially for me — is that there is nothing about this album I would change … not a chord, not a note, not a vocal, not a word, not a song, nothing.

"It's a strong record and I don't give a (damn) what anybody says. I know a good record and that's it."

The singer, born Marvin Aday, even goes so far as to put it up against "Bat out of Hell," which was the first of many successful collaborations with producer-songwriter Jim Steinman.

"Nothing can ever be better than `Bat out of Hell' because of what `Bat out of Hell' has become, but I will put it in the same ballpark," he said. "The songs are different because Steinman is very different. Steinman is very ethereal, very dreamlike. some people don't like that, but a lot of people did.

"This record is very grounded, very Earth-bound, very organic. Lyrically, it's completely different, but just as strong. It's just a different style of lyric."

"Hang cool Teddy Bear" was produced by Rob Cavallo and Meat Loaf credits him with turning the project around after an initial round of recording.

"I went into the studio with 19 songs and three of them made the record," Meat Loaf, 62, said. "Rob said, `Look, these other songs are for a different album than the one we're making.'"

Meat Loaf then got the idea of taking a short story idea from a friend, Hollywood screenwriter Killian Kerwin, and making a concept album. the central theme is of a soldier that lies dying on a battlefield with his life flashing forward before his eyes instead of backward.

"We hashed that story around for about an hour-and-a-half," Meat Loaf recalled of his sessions with Kerwin. "Then I brought in eight songwriters" — including "American Idol" judge Kara DioGuardi, Desmond Child and Jon Bon Jovi — "and last July we put this album together. I didn't tell (the songwriters) what the story was and I'm kind of glad I didn't because it becomes too literal when you do that."

Meat Loaf is especially proud of the track "Peace on Earth," the record's opening song.

"If U2 were to have put out the song `Peace on Earth,' it would have been the second coming," he said. "Everybody would have been raving about it. But Meat Loaf records are easily dismissed. In fact, I can guarantee you that the reviews that have been good on this record, they have heard the record. the reviews that have been bad, they listen to a verse and a chorus and say, `Oh, well, we know where this is going,' and they don't pay any attention to it.

"I'm easily dismissed. they started dismissing Jim Steinman and myself on `Bat out of Hell' and it all sprung from Rolling Stone. if Rolling Stone didn't like you, it was like, `Oh, you must not be any good.' But I'm still here. I've been here for 43 years, so they didn't hurt me that much."

Another thing that gets Meat Loaf's blood boiling is when critics say that it's not possible for him to have a personal connection with the songs because he didn't write them all. he calls it "an idiotic statement."

"It's stupid to say that somebody can't deliver the emotion that's attached to a song because they didn't actually pen the lyric. It's like saying that every actor that has ever played a part they didn't write couldn't possibly deliver. It's like telling Marlon Brando when he was doing `Streetcar Named Desire' or Laurence Olivier when he was doing `Hamlet' that they couldn't possibly deliver because Tennessee Williams wrote `Streetcar Named Desire' and Shakespeare wrote `Hamlet.' "

Meat Loaf is joined on "Hang cool Teddy Bear" by a few guest musicians, such as guitarists Steve Vai and Brian May of Queen, as well as by some actors he's become acquainted with over the years, including Jack Black and Hugh Laurie of "House M.D."

These are friends he's known for years, Meat Loaf stressed, not just guest stars brought in to pump up interest in the project.

"I don't think in terms like that; that's for promotion people," he said. "I never think that way. That's not who I am. these are not guest stars; they're my friends. I've known Jack Black for 15 years. I've known Brian May since 1980. I've known Hugh Laurie since 1985.

"I did some comedy sketches with Hugh Laurie in 1985 in England and he can play piano. When I asked him, I thought it might be fun for him. It wasn't until afterward that everybody was like, `Wow, you got Hugh Laurie.' I was like, `Yeah, so?' "

As excited as he is about his new album, Meat Loaf is almost as thrilled to be back on the road. Health problems derailed his last tour, which he claimed at the time would be his last. the issues that bothered him back then no longer seem to apply.

"I had a cyst on my vocal cord and I didn't know what was wrong," he said. "And the

management that I had then pushed me a

bridge too far.

"But now I have an incredible band. I didn't think my band could actually get better, but it did. People are saying this is one of the best shows we've put together in 20 years.

"If you liked the other shows, this is a better show. This is a special show."

Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville. Monday 7:30 p.m. $42. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.

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Tags: hell, meat loaf, music world, sun, teddy bear

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