By Meat Loaf’s own admission, there was a lot he said that just wasn’t true — and that’s what makes a particularly heartfelt moment in a 1999 interview with the New York Post so poignant.
Writer Dan Aquilante had reviewed one of his concerts before, and he hadn’t been kind. Meat had called him up after the review ran, and unloaded on in him a 20-minute, expletive-filled rant. When they spoke again, Aquilante asked if he remembered the rant and the negative review. Meat clarified why he was mad, and it wasn’t about the review. He said that if he didn’t like the show, that was one thing — not everyone likes the same things, after all, and Meat said, “I’ve almost never complained about what writers say.”
He had called, though, for something else: “I said ‘thank you’ to the audience, and you didn’t see it as a real moment.” It wasn’t like most shows, Meat said, where the performers thanked the city, waves, and moved on to the next. For him, it was earnest — and the suggestion that it was anything but was what got him angry enough to track Aquilante down. Meat explained: “There wasn’t a night I didn’t mean it. I thanked the fans every night for over 200 shows of the tour. You … made comments on that, and I called. … I felt you had been jaded, and I had to set you straight.”
