The School of Greatness - 386 Meat Loaf on Mastering Your Craft and Transforming the Music Industry

Episode Date: September 28, 2016

"I don't feel a song. I become a song." - Meat Loaf If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/386

This is episode number 386 with the legendary singer, Meat Loaf. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to a special edition of the School of Greatness podcast.

What an interview we have today. The legend is in the house, Meatloaf himself. He likes to be called Meat. I am super pumped that I got a chance to house, Meatloaf himself. He likes to be called Meat. I am super pumped that I got a chance to connect with Meatloaf. And the stories he shares are just so incredible. What a performer, what a storyteller, and an incredible talent and human being. So kind, so giving, so loving, a great leader in all sense of the word, and so creative. I really enjoyed this interview, and I hope you do as well and hope you find it

fascinating. Make sure to check out all the show notes at lewishouse.com slash three, eight, six. Watch the full video interview over on YouTube as well. That's YouTube slash Lewis house. And let me know what you think of this. Share it with your friends.

I think they're all going to dig it. So go ahead and tweet it out right now or post it on Facebook, lewishouse.com slash 38. Now, Meatloaf is a multi-platinum musician made famous for his rock opera, Bat Out of Hell, which is currently the fifth highest selling album of all time. Pretty incredible. He's also acted in cult hit films like Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club, one of my favorite movies. And his new album just came out, Braver Than We Are. So make sure to pick up the new album and check it out.

Some of the things we talk about in this interview are how playing sports can have a big role in anyone's career. And actually, Meatloaf says that without sports, he wouldn't be where he is today. He wouldn't even be near as successful as he is today as a musician or an artist. Also, why Meatloaf got into improv acting after he was successful in music, why he never asked the songwriter what the song was about, and his secret to success in becoming a great singer. What advice Meatloaf disagrees with that TV show hosts give to singers? And what it was like to act with Brad Pitt on Fight Club?

We cover this and so much more in this episode. Make sure, again, to share it with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 386. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the legendary Meat Loaf. Welcome, everyone, back to the School of Greatness podcast. We have a legend in the house, Meat Loaf, who's asking to go buy meat. Good to see you, sir. Okay. Good to see you.

I just have to explain one thing to you. Yes. allow people in advertisement of a record or tour anything use the word legend star or superstar okay because i don't think of myself as that i think of myself as the same as we're looking out a window and i'm assuming somewhere down there, there's a guy working on a telephone pole. Yeah. And I'm just like that guy, only I have a different job. You both work hard. Yeah.

Both have a specific talent. That's right. But yours seems to look more people want to listen to your talent than someone else's. I don't know about that. When the phone goes out, they're going to get upset. That's true. A lot of people want to get on that phone. That's true.

When your cell phone goes out and that tower goes down, you want to know why. That's true. That guy's important. Well, for me, you've created some incredible music over the years, and you've been a big part of my life growing up. And your work in movies and Broadway, it's really been inspiring to watch your career. I've done a lot of things. You have. I have been on Broadway.

I've done Shakespeare in the Park. I've done off-Broadway. I wanted to know what stand-up comedy was like. So I did, the first night, I did stand-up comedy out in front of a very famous old comedian named Henny Youngman in the Westport Playhouse. And I went to the guy that owned the club.

He knew who I was. And he said, well, have you ever done stand-up before? And I said, no, but I want to know what it's like.. And he said, well, have you ever done stand-up before? And I said, no, but I want to know what it's like. And so he said, okay, I'll give you four minutes. I said, fine. So I didn't have anything prepared.

I went up strictly improv. And it was the whole was about me meeting Elvis at the Rocky Horror Show. And I had people hysterical. And because I'm a closet comedian. Sure. And so, and Henny Youngman actually walked out of his dressing room and was standing there when I came off. Wow. Now, people who don't know Henny Youngman,

Henny Youngman is famous for saying, take my wife, please. So the next night he said, will you do this again? I said, yeah. He said, I'll give you eight minutes. Is that okay? I had eight.

Listen, I could have gone on for 30 minutes. Really? Improv? Yeah. Wow. Well, Irov? Yeah. Wow. Well, I did a lot of improv. You know, when National Lampoon Show was going, they said to Belushi,

you have to have an understudy who can possibly understudy you. He said, there's only one guy in this town who can understudy me, and that's Meatloaf. And so I went on a couple of times, and I worked with Gildan. I worked with Billy Murray. Wow. And so, I mean, but the king of improv was really Richard Belzer from Law & Order SUV. He was my opening act when we first went out with Bad Out of Hell for about, oh, a good three months.

And he is the king of improv. Really? I've never seen anybody better than Richard Belzer. More impressive than all the guys who do Whose Line Is It Anyways, more than Saturday Night Live guys. Oh, yeah, and I know all those guys. Right. Who's the second most impressive? I don't know one of those guys on Who's My Line, but I can't remember his name.

Wayne or what's – Not Wayne. The tall guy. Tall guy. Tall, bald guy. Used to be on the sitcom. Not the bald guy. Not the bald guy.

I think he's redheaded. I'm colorblind. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. They're all funny to me. Yeah. They're colorblind. Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. They're all funny to me. Yeah. They're all incredible. Yeah, Wayne's great.

Yeah. That's cool. What got you into music and acting in the first place? Why were you inspired growing up that way? I wanted to get out of study hall as a sophomore in high school. You and me both. That's why I did sports, though. I said, I can't sit in this room.

Oh, my gosh. I have to be quiet. That's the worst. And I'll give you a clue why. We were supposed to open all the casinos or building arenas now. And so I think there was a 9,000-seat or 10,000-seat arena being built on a reservation in Oklahoma. And we were supposed to be the first act to play there. Well, about three days before, they came to me and said, the arena's not finished, and they want to put up a tent.

I said, I don't care. If the people come, that's all I care about. And so the head of the council, they don't call them cheats anymore. The head of the tribal council wanted to meet me. And so he came in and all I did was ask him questions. How do you decide this? Does everybody participate in the profits of the casino how do you decide this you know i just kept asking him everything about i wanted to know how they worked

and he stopped me and he goes do you mind if i give you and your own name for our tribe and i went oh my god i'd be honored. Are you kidding? He goes, okay, and this tribe, from now on, you're known as Never Shuts Up. That's hilarious. And I just cracked up. So I tell the story all the time because I thought it was the funniest thing ever. You thought it would be like Walking Warrior or something cool, right? Eagle, hi. No, I really like it.

I think Never Shuts Up fits me perfect. That's amazing. I think never shuts up fits me perfect. That's amazing. Okay. So what was your first, I guess, moment or experience of either a song or music or a show that you saw that you said, wow, that's really cool. It'd be fun to experience something like that. I know the study hall was.

I never had that. I just have always wanted to try everything. Yeah. So I hosted game shows. Really? For VH1. Wow. For DirecTV.

I've done stand-up comedy more than once. Well, twice there than three other times in different clubs around New York. And I decided, this is too hard. No, there wasn't. I don't remember any one thing. Yeah, you're just curious about all of it. Yeah, I really like being in the drama class in sophomore and I really wanted to learn that craft. In high school.

Yeah. Yeah. And so then I tried out for the musical. My sophomore year, they gave me a small part. Junior year, they gave me a small part. Senior year, I had one of the leads. Wow. And I got voted in my senior year as one of the top 10 actors,

high school actors in Dallas. And so they let us be walk-on soldiers in the opera Carmen, which was playing, which was opening downtown. And we were soldiers, walked on going, Oh, that's all we did but the world of opera is

very interesting do you like opera do you like singing opera well I'm a held in tenor that I had to learn how to sing rock and roll

I had to learn literally teach myself how to sing the songs on battle in the hell and if you were to listen to the new record the first verse of a song called uh going all the way it's just a start and you listen to the verse first verse of bad out of hell it's sung in exactly the same voice it's just i'm 40 years older so the timbre is a little bit different but if you really if people really took the time to listen and not just automatically judge because, oh, and see, if they really took the time, they would go, oh, he's right. That is exactly the same voice.

It's just that the tone is different. And the reason is, is because my natural singing voice is operatic. Yes. And I'm a held in tenor. And in fact, I was doing Shakespeare in the Park in 72 for Joe Papp. And I had an offer from opera patrons. They would pay me $60,000 a year. And you got to figure 1972.

That's great money. $60,000 a year for five years to study with Pavarotti's coach and make my debut at the Met. That's huge, right? That's like the dream, isn't it? Well, it was confusing because the most money they ever made before was $7,500 in a year. So $6,000 is a lot of money. Yeah. But just like everything that I've ever done, whether it be whatever it is, I have to research it.

That's just who I've been. Even as a kid, when I was five years old, before I would buy a toy, like there was different army men, you know, you could buy. Sure, of course. I would research to see who made the best ones. Yeah. And my mom would go, did you find out yet? I went, yeah, I want those. And I would research. I've always been, that's who I've been.

And so I did the research. And unless you were Pavarotti or Placido Domingo or Beverly Sills, I can't remember who the major stars were in opera in 72. But unless you were a major major stars were in opera in 72. But unless you're a major, major star in opera, the conductor controlled everything. He controlled your phrasing. He controlled the tempo. He controlled everything.

And I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you. I'd be in prison for murder. Because I would have killed him. Sure. Because I'm rebellious. Right. And I don't like when anybody tells me how to sing anything. You can't tell me that.

Because I've done so much research on the song and uh on this record it starts with a song called who needs the young and it was written by jim steinman when he was 19 years old and it was the first song we recorded and and then we went and did shows. And I have never, ever, and I've sung a lot of Jim Steinman songs, never asked Jimmy why he's written a song. What is it about? Why don't you ask him? I don't want to know. I'm really not interested. I'm really not interested. It's like when I do a film.

I don't want the writer to come up to me and tell me why he wrote the character. I want to discover the character myself. Because the character, if he tells me why he wrote him, that's going to influence my decisions on who I think the character is. That's so funny. So I've never asked Jimmy. And he knows that every song that I've ever sung of his has been in a character. And it comes from acting.

So people go, are you an actor or a singer? I go, I'm an actor. acting so people go are you an actor or singer i go i'm an actor and i take acting into every phase of what i do it's like doing stand-up it's improv that's acting um so i decided to take the first song because jimmy wrote it when he was 19. And I didn't ask him why. All I knew is that the kid was really angry. Whoever he could have written about an old man, I don't know. I decided that I would make my character 19 years old and very angry. I know what he was angry at, but I'm not going to tell you. Right.

Because I've always said everybody, if they buy the album, should take a piece of white tape, put it across my name, write your own name on the album because the album is then yours. It becomes your stories. It becomes what you think it is. I don't want to tell you what I sing about. I'm not going to tell you what Jimmy wrote about because I don't know. And the album belongs to the listener.

And it's like mostly this is the first album that we have ever gotten good reviews for. I was in a state of shock. I mean, we got good reviews from Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Q Magazine, Kerrang. I mean, we've never gotten four and five stars. We got five stars from three or four places in Germany. We've never gotten five stars. We've never gotten four stars.

I think the highest we ever got was three from somebody once. But they seem to have gotten it. Yeah, make sure you guys go get this. Braver than we are, but put white out over the name and put your name on it. And also, I've got a doctor's prescription for it.

You do? Yeah, which is if you buy it, a lot of people love it on the first listen. A lot of people hate it on the first listen. My prescription is this. Buy it, listen to it four times in one day. By the fourth time, you'll

get it. There you go. You'll see where the magic is. And the other thing, it's not a musical, folks. Not anything like a musical. And Train of Love, which when you listen to it, you would think, oh, it's a guy singing about a girl. It's not.

It's a 19-year-old trying to find out who he is. He doesn't. He is confused. I think every 19-year-old feels that way probably, right? Well, a lot of, most of them. It's like, what, you know, I'm in a crossroad. Do I go left? Do I go right? Do I go back? Do I go forward? Where I've always, I've been at hundreds of crossroads.

I've never even looked right or left or behind. I just go forward. And that would be my advice to anybody. You come to a crossroad, don't look left, don't look right, don't look backwards. You go forward. I've had people come to me when they're at crossroads and ask me, what do you think?

And I go, do this because it's moving you forward. I like that. Yeah. I'm curious about your sound. You have a very unique sound. Was there a moment where you were like, okay, this is my sound in your 20s, your 30s? Like this meatloaf has arrived. This is the sound.

No. I change sounds constantly. It's like I'm not robin zander i'm not dave grohl i'm not freddie who is the best rock singer ever to live other than male joplin was period yeah but male it's freddie joplin was in a different ball ballpark she was uh like they have the all-star game every year she can she was in the all-star game every day so i have so many different tones and qualities h hushed voices, big voices, little voices. And Jimmy, on this record, and it's one of the things that freaked people out, they were expecting me to come in with this bombastic, you know, loud, high voice. Jimmy said, no, because I went up the octave on a song called Going All The Way Is Just

a Start. And Jimmy goes, no, no. Stay in your low voice. Your low voice is remarkable. And I've had a few critics call it wobbly. Not wobbly, people. It's called vibrato. I grew up in

a musically talented family. My parents were opera majors at Ohio State. My brother is a jazz violinist. He played with Les Paul for 10 years at the Iridium in New York City. He played at his funeral. So I've kind of grown up admiring many genres of music and being able to appreciate it. So you would make a better reviewer than that guy there. Exactly. Sounds like guy there. Exactly.

Sounds like a circus. Exactly. I'm going, come on. If you're going to review music, at least learn about it. I'm curious, who was your most influential person in your life growing up? Well, growing up, it would have probably been Big Daddy Lipscomb from the Baltimore Colts. Okay. Or Ray Nitschke or Fuzzy Thurton for the Packers.

Okay. But I would say Big Daddy Lipscomb who played defensive tackle for the Baltimore Colts. Why was he the most influential? Because when I was a kid, I wanted to play professional football. And because I was so much bigger than everybody else until my junior year in high school. And then everybody caught up. And I was no longer the biggest one. I couldn't push people around like I could before. So I just had to become the meanest guy on the field.

Wow. So I went into acting mode. And I developed this character that played football that was absolutely as mean as you could possibly be. What position were you? Oh, God, the head coach. He played all over the place? Oh, he ran a, he, he thought he was a college coach. He ran a defense based on LSU out of the sixties called the Chinese bandits. Okay. Which was the most ridiculous defense to try to put into a high school. I played middle linebacker,

nose guard, tackle, defensive end. When I went out to defensive end, that outside linebacker would rush. I would cover the flat. Now, I wasn't fast forward, but laterally,

I was as fast as anyone on the team. So I could cover fast as anyone on the team. So I could cover the flat like nobody's business. Anybody come out to the flat, that halfback come out to the flat, forget it. You ain't catching the ball. And if you do, you ain't gaining any yards. There you go. So, I mean, when we were playing in practice, they didn't blow the whistle.

I kept hitting. Of course. Oh, I got yelled at. I had to run laps. I go, well, blow your whistle if you want me to stop. I know. Otherwise, the play's still on. Yeah.

Play to the whistle. That's what they teach you. Yeah. Yeah, of course. When you blow the whistle, I stop. Until you blow the whistle. I'm not stopping. And they would sometimes run first team offense against first team defense. And I remember one time hitting a starting quarterback. I mean, I nailed him.

Oh, I got, oh, I think I had to run about 10 miles for that one. Oh, my gosh. That's funny. Do you think sports played a big role in your career? Oh, I know it did. I know it did in the discipline. Because when you play sports, you have to be very disciplined. Yes.

And when you're an actor, you should be very disciplined. And I was in the car. I just left Rich Eisen. And I was explaining I went to dinner with an actor named Charles Sterning. And he said, if you want to really freak a cast out go into a table reading of the of the movie without the script oh that is and if they ask you do you want a script you go no i don't need one that is that is scary so they read the whole script. And you don't know everybody's lines, but you know when your scene's coming. So when they start that scene, you're ready.

But you sit there, and he says, I got news for you. Every actor is going to freak out. And so when it comes time to do your scene, whatever actor you're working with is going to come to the set and he's going to know his lines. Yeah, he is. And they know you're dead serious. So that comes back to discipline.

And it wasn't until Charles Durning told me that, and he told me that in like 97, maybe. So. Did you do that in a reading one time or? Oh, he did in every reading. Did you do this ever? Oh, I've done it in every reading I've ever done since he told me that. You show up and then you're the only one without the script and everyone else has a script. Yeah. But they're coming prepared to set is what you're saying. Oh, when they come to set, they know.

That's nobody. It's so intimidating. Oh yeah. Like this person just memorized everything. That's the point. Yeah. I haven't memorized everything, but I memorized.

Your parts. And I know what the other guy's going to say. That's impressive. That's a skill right there. So that's discipline. Yeah. You learn that from football and other sports. Yeah.

And the other thing that drives me crazy on the set is when you're doing a scene with a character. And I was doing a scene in a movie called Hole in One. And I'm doing it with a guy you see a lot on TV. He does a lot of guest starring roles. Not big roles, but, you know, pretty good roles. And we're going to do this scene. And he goes, well, my characters wouldn't say this. And I said, hang on for a second.

Before you got here, did you read the script? And he goes, yeah. I said, okay, in the script, does your character say that? And he goes, yeah. I said, so let's analyze this for a second. My character says this, and it's written in the script. I'm going to say this. If you change that, what your character says,

you're going to look like an idiot. And he goes, oh, okay. Have you ever changed anything or gone ad lib or improv-ish? Well, only if I'm in a movie where there is improv going on. They say, go ahead. You can extend the line. Yeah, if you're doing that kind of thing, if you're doing a movie with Will Ferrell

or some of those guys, and back when Chris Folley was alive or Belushi or any of that, yeah, there's a lot of improv. There's more improv in a comedy than there is in a drama. Right. But Richard Belzer being the best improv guy,

if you were watching Lawn Hard SUV, I knew every time he threw in an improv. Really? Because it just didn't feel right? No, it felt perfect. Okay. But you could sense from the other actor. Oh, wait.

It just like twisted him. But Belzer was very smart. He usually waited if he had the last line in the scene so that the other actor wasn't forced the other actor into doing something that wasn't. Would be thrown off and say, well, what am I supposed to say? Because that's called forcing. Yes, gotcha. And you don't ever force anything in a film. Do you feel like without your sports experience that you would have been as disciplined or

as successful in your career as a musician? Not a prayer. Really? Not a prayer. I'm so glad you say that because I feel like as an athlete, I played professional football and I played basketball and decathlon. And I feel like that's what's catapulted me into my entrepreneurial career and everything else. Yeah.

You were playing pro football. I played arena football in Alabama. Oh, cool. Have you ever seen arena football? Yeah, yeah. It's a whole other game. It's intense. Oh, it's really intense.

I broke my wrist in the first season diving into a wall. Yeah, you got a wall to the hockey rink. Exactly. But the coaching that I would have throughout my entire childhood as an athlete, I felt really instilled the principles

of how to be successful or how to achieve any vision in any part of life. Well, I'll give you a real surprise. Sure. Sophomore in high school, I was in drama class. Yeah. I got hit in the head with a shot put at 62 feet. Wow.

The guy who hit me was that year the state champ. And he was a sophomore as well. He was state champ three years in a row. I don't know what happened to him because he never said he was sorry. So I just

ignored him. That's a heavy ball in the head. That's a 12-pound shot. 60 feet coming down. Oh, I've got a dent in my skull. Oh, my gosh. From the shot. Oh, my gosh.

Holy cow. Wow. That's crazy. But it didn't knock me out. Huh. And they could hear it on the junior high baseball field, which was about 300 yards away. Wow. Said it sounded like somebody broke a bat.

No way. And so the coaches came and said, are you okay? I went, yeah, I'm fine. They said, can you walk? I said, sure. I get up. They let go of me, and I fall face forward. Because what it had done, hit me on the right side.

It had paralyzed my right arm and my right leg. No, left, left side. It had paralyzed the left side. And I fell on a wooden stake that marked 60 feet with my nose. And when they picked me back up again, the blood didn't come out of my nose. It ran down in my stomach. Oh, my gosh. So when we're going in the ambulance on the way, I throw up all this blood.

And the ambulance guy freaking out. I've never seen my mother freak out. My mother was always calm. It's like in a crisis, in a major crisis, I'm always, I go really calm. And, uh,

I've been in planes where landing gears didn't come down. Everybody's freaking out, calling their ex-wives, telling everybody this. I'm going, stop it.

It's not, it's the front landing gear best most is going to happen to you you're gonna break your arm your leg no big deal you're not dying right i always go up to the because usually in private planes yes i go up to the pilot i go wow you know what you're doing here and they go yeah i said okay tell me they go okay i'm just said, okay, tell me. And they go, okay. I'm just going to make sure. Because I was in a plane. One woman was a pilot.

She was freaking out. The co-pilot was going through the handbook like this. I'm going, what are you doing? I said, have you tried to crank it down? And he went, oh, right. I'm going, oh, my God. It's like that guy who wrote it's a circus song. Sure.

You're doing your research, essentially. Yeah, I know about planes. You're asking questions. You're researching. Yeah, so I go, so we're both trying to crank it down, and we're going by the tower, and we're asking them, and the pilot's asking them, is it down? And they said, we can see it, but it's not down. So we're coming from Amsterdam. We have to circle the airport about two hours.

And about 50 feet before we hit the ground, it popped down. Whoa. Oh, I was ready. Sure. I had the pilot ready. Keep that nose up as long as you can. Yes. And these guys at this airport outside of London had foamed the runway, put up a net to catch us.

You're fine. I said, we're fine. Bump on the head or something. Yeah. Bump your head, get a cut, no big deal. Right. I'm not dying, dude. Don't worry about it. What makes you so calm in all these situations?

Don't know. But whenever there's a major crisis, I just suddenly become like still water. And I can, okay, just relax. You're okay. Okay. It's like on stage if something, you know, if the PA goes out, if something starts to happen, I just go really calm. And I go up and deal with the audience. And I'm really loud.

Right. So I can yell at them. I can yell. Sure. Even if it's an arena, they can hear me. Right. And so I can yell at them. I can yell. Sure. Even if it's an arena, they can hear me. Right, right, right. And if they can't,

I'll go find something to make a megaphone out of. Wow. And... So you just have that instinct that you just got it handled, you got it under control. Amazing.

Yeah. Do you feel like one of your parents maybe instilled that into you or what was... It was probably my mother. Yeah, yeah. She was that way? Yeah. I don't remember my mother very well she died when she was young when i was young yeah uh my they both died when they were 50 they my mother was older than my father but they both

died at 54 how old were you when your father passed? 21. Okay. Wow, that's interesting. And it was four years before that, so I was 17, I guess, when my mother died. Wow. I don't remember. It's like I can't. I mean, I can remember her, but I can't see her.

I can't ever see her doing anything. But you have photos or? Oh, yeah. I got a lot of photos. You just can't remember the memory of her doing something. Yeah. The only thing I remember is the last time I saw her, we had a huge argument. Oh, man.

Do you regret that or? Yeah. Wouldn't you? What would you say to her if you had another moment to? I wouldn't say anything. She forgave me. Oh, she did. Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, I mean, I know that. That's cool. I know she would have, that's who she was. Of course. All parents probably do, right? Yeah. Whenever we're crazy kids, right? Yeah.

Wow. What was the biggest lesson you learned from your dad? I think it's how to act because he was an alcoholic and he used to be like Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses and disappear for days upon time. And between Fort Worth and Dallas,

when I was growing up, along the Trinity River, which runs, this Fort Arlington was there. There was nothing there. It was like wilderness between Dallas and Fort Worth. Sure. Except for all this line of redneck bars. And that's where my dad would be. And so my mother would go looking

for him. And when I got to be 12 or 13, well, in the fifth grade, I weighed 185 pounds. In the seventh grade, I weighed 240, which is, I weigh less today than I did in the seventh grade. And there's not too many people can say that.

This morning I weighed five pounds less than I did in the seventh grade. That's a big seventh grader. Oh, man. I scored 77 points. They had a play, a button hook play, where I became the offensive end. They backed off the end. I went in about five-step button hook play, where I became the offensive end. They backed off the end. I went in about five-step button hook. I had great hands.

Sure. And they threw me the ball, and I would just run. And these little kids would jump on me, try to tackle me. Wow. Even if they tried to tackle me low, I wouldn't fall down. Amazing. And I scored 77 points. And it was an elementary record in Dallas.

I don't know if it still is. Congrats. Congrats just about that. That was years ago. I mean, you know, that was like 50 years ago. So somebody's probably passed it by now. But so when I became 12 and 13, I would tell my mother to wait in the car i would go in and i would walk into these bars and i knew every one of them had a gun every guy in there had

a gun because that was texas right yeah. Oh, in the high school parking lot. There were guys with pickup trucks with shotguns in racks in their back window. Right. So guns were everywhere. They are now. I live in Austin. Love Austin. They just got a permit, though, to carry on campus at the University of Texas.

No way. Yeah. And it's because of all the, like, Virginia Tech and that kind of thing. And they might run into a few problems, but it's to deter people like the guy at Virginia Tech from coming into the University of Texas doing that because he's going, wait a second. Everyone's got a gun. These guys are carrying. I'm not going to do that. And you can carry in your car.

Crazy. And because everybody else does, I have one in my car. Sure, sure. I have a little five car. Sure, sure. I have a little five-shot.38. Right. Because I'm not going to let some guy pull a gun on me. Sure.

If he doesn't pull a gun on me, I'm going to pull a gun on them. You want to play? Let's play, son. You don't know who the hell you're dealing with here. Yeah, yeah. I'm a mean mother. I'll get into the acting thing. Right.

You scare someone quick. So when I would go in there in those bars, it would all get quiet. And they would look at me, and I'd look back at them like, you lay a finger on me, you're dead. And so I think that's when I learned how to act. Amazing.

And so that's why I like bad guys in movies so much. Yeah. What's been your favorite character so far at a movie? Well, it's a movie written by Arthur Miller, and he was actually on the set and freaked me out. And it was with Bill Mason and Laura Dern. It's called Focus. When did this come out? Oh, God, I don't know.

2000, maybe. It was at the Toronto Film Festival. Gotcha. And so Arthur Miller, I'm sitting at Video Village is where they have for people who don't know where the director would sit with his little TV monitors

and watch what the camera sees and it's there's lines on it to show him what the actual film will turn out to be so he can judge if he likes the scene, not from watching it live, from watching it on the TV monitor.

So they call it Video Village. So it's probably 8 o'clock in the morning, I'm sitting in my little chair in Video Village, and a guy comes to sit next to me, and I didn't pay any attention. And eventually I looked over and I went, oh, my God, it's Arthur Miller. So I pick my chair up and I move it down the block and hide behind a tree. And the first AD goes, what happened to Meatloaf?

I know he was here. And I go, I'm here. And so I've got a scene that really is shooting for two days with Bill Macy. And I go to Bill and I go, do you know Arthur Miller's on the set? And he goes, yeah. And I go, I'm freaked. And Bill goes, me. See, I didn't do very well handling that one. But he goes, he goes, calm down. We know what we're doing. You know what you're doing. You've already shot a lot of this character. You got it. Don't worry about it. And okay. So I immediately calmed down. And we shot it.

And at lunch, Bill and I all were set together at lunch. And Arthur Miller passed by me, put his hand on my shoulder, leaned over and said, I really like what you're doing with my character. I almost fell into the spaghetti when he said, I really like what you do with my character. Because I know he didn't have that in mind for his character when he wrote him. Yeah. Wow. I know that.

But I would have never asked him what he had in mind. Sure. Because I want him to be what I want him to be, not what Arthur Miller had in mind. I mean, I'm going to get close. Arthur Miller characters are very complicated, especially one like I was playing, who appears not stupid, but not really very smart, not real smart.

But all of Arthur Miller's characters are really very intelligent. They just don't know they are. So you have to play both sides. You have to play the guy who's not very smart, yet he's still intelligent, very intelligent. So you have to combine that. It's really complicated. I can imagine. It's very complicated to work those two together. That's why you're one of the best.

Well, I don't know about that. You do a great job. I'm pretty good at what I do. You do a great job, yeah. Brando is my... Brando, Hackman, Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Hal Holbrook, Jack Lemmon, a few modern day, the Irish guy, oh, man, Colin Farrell, Denzel Washington. They're really, I'm going to include Brad Pitt because Brad Pitt is one of the most underrated actors out there. Yeah.

We fight a lot with him. Yeah. You've got to remember how long it took for Robert Redford or Clint Eastwood. Yes. They had to get older to receive the recognition they should have gotten when they were younger. to receive the recognition they should have gotten when they were younger. So Brad Pitt hadn't gotten his recognition, but he will. He will.

Yeah. As a really good actor. What was that like working with him? Oh, Brad Pitt is as down to earth as any human being. You just, trust me, you wouldn't want to be brad pitt why oh it it's a job walking down on the street it's a full-time job yeah yeah it's a full-time gig i mean it's hard enough for me to go to the grocery store i i can't even imagine brad pitt trying to go to the grocery store right i mean, I go to the grocery store, everybody wants to talk to me. So I talk to them.

So I try to avoid the grocery store as much as I can. If I've got my mind set, okay, I'm ready to go to the grocery store, I know there's a possibility. Some days I go in and nobody talks to me. Other days I go in and everybody wants to talk to me. So you have to have your mindset when you go out. I'm going out. People may want to talk to me.

That's what it is. Yeah. What is it about him that continues to make him evolve? Why do you think he's able to evolve from just the model guy back in the day who's actually become a great actor and still i think it's discipline and i think it's that he studies his craft yeah i mean you have to can believe me uh jack lemon still studies his craft eastwood definitely studies. I really dislike actors who were very good when they were young, but they've stopped trying to learn. I won't name them

because I'm not going to go that far, but I know who they are and they know who they are. One of them has come out of it and I was really glad to see it. But really extraordinary when they were young. Yeah, yeah. Brando was always extraordinary.

Sure, sure. A few questions left for you. I want to respect your time. Okay. What are you most grateful for in your life recently? Oh, this record? Yeah. Bar none.

And why is this so meaningful for you? Because I think this is the best record I've ever done. And Jim Steinman, if you go on Meatloaf Facebook, and it kept moving, and I kept pinning it to the top. And it kept moving, and I kept pinning it to the top. So finally, they realized that I wanted it pinned at the top. So it's permanently pinned. He calls it one of the 10 best records ever made. Now, I'm not going to go that far, but he can say that. Sure.

But I really think it's the best record I've ever made. Because some people were expecting, like I said, bad or bad too. They go, oh, well, this is terrible. And like I said, my doctor's prescription. Four times. Let's do it four times. In one day. Yeah. Well, you can do two days.

That's okay. Okay. But some people get it on the first listen. Yeah, sure. But they're expecting meatloaf to, you know, come in like a freight train. Right, right. And I don't. I'm going all the way.

It's just stuck. I'm in my low voice. But it's the same voice as Bad Out of Hell. Sure, sure. Just the timbre's different because I'm 40 years older. Yeah, yeah. Exact same voice. If we had Bad Out of Hell, if I could compare them and show you,

you'd hear it. It's just as plain as you know a fried egg when you see one. Sure. I love it. Something to be grateful for. What is something you've accomplished so much? You've got one of the biggest albums of all time.

I pay no attention to anything in the past. Nothing. Not even the four-star review from Q Magazine. Sure, sure. That's gone. What's happening now is I'm talking to you.

Yeah. And you're talking to Meatloaf. This is Meat loving character, but the object of acting or being in character is always about the truth of the moment. And I don't feel a song. I become the song. I know two or three people like that.

I know actors like that. But musicians, I can name three. I can name four, Joplin being one. But the others are guitar players. Brian May doesn't play guitar. He is the guitar. Scott Ian from Anthrax doesn't play the guitar. He is the guitar. Scott Ian from Anthrax doesn't play the guitar. He is the guitar. But the number one is Jeff Beck. And Jeff Beck, Clapton's not far behind him, but

Jeff Beck, you ever see Jeff Beck go, I saw him at the Les Paul, at Les Paul's Club, sitting this close to him. It was like he was the guitar. Amazing. He didn't play it. He was it. And so that's when I do a record and people have said, oh, you can't possibly feel the music

unless you've written it. And I always go, yeah, tell that to Marlon Brando about Streetcar Named Desire or on the waterfront. Or go tell that to Hoffman when he did Death of a Salesman or, you know, The Crucible. Any actor that's ever done The Crucible. Any of the great writers, Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare, Arthur Miller.

I mean, going down the line, I can't. There's so many great writers that and written so many great plays. But when I finish a song, it doesn't feel like Jim Steinman wrote it. Right. It feels like I wrote it. Because you become it. I am the song. I become that person. i become that song and that's the thing

that i disagree with on television when they give them the advice you've got to feel the song if i was ever a mentor on one of those shows i would tell the contestant, he's right, you must feel the song. But the first thing is, you have to become the song. You have to take it internally and become that moment of the song. And you don't control the stage, you control the room. Don't control the stage. You control the room. You own it. You own every space.

It's like my advice to an actor, a young actor who's going to auditions. It is your time. It is your moment. It is your room. And don't let anybody control you. I love it. Got me the chills. Yeah, you don't.

You could coach me all day. You don't. You don't let that, you know, casting agent. You don't even let the director control you on your first reading. If after the first reading, the director says, are you able to do it this way? You go, of course, just give me a second. And I will always like then rethink it and reanalyze it and be able to turn around and give him exactly what he wants. Wow.

I mean, I've always said, if you want me to be an Irish milkmaid, I can be one. Oh, really? Yeah. Let's see. No, I'm just kidding. It'd take me a little while to get there. Sure, sure, sure. And then I'd have to give the Irish accent down.

Right, right. And we need a cow. Well, we don't really need a cow. We just pretend there's a cow. Exactly. This is a question I ask all my guests at the end. It's called the three truths question. Everything is the truth.

Go ahead. Okay, yes. Well, this is a question about if you had, say it's many years from now and it's the last day for you on Earth. And all your movies, your albums, your work that you put out there, for whatever reason, it's been erased. So people don't have the content you put out there. Or you have a piece of paper and a pen to write down three things you know to be true about your entire experience in life. All the acting, the music, the relationships, the touring, everything you've ever learned. It wouldn't be a mountain without that. be your what would be your three truths the thing that you would share to the world that would be kind of the lessons that you would give back

about my wife my grandson and my daughters okay yeah about my wife deborah my grandson rebel who by then could be one of the most famous musicians on the face of the earth. Wow. He's like a child prodigy. I can't, I mean, it flabbergasts me. And about my daughters, Pearl and Amanda, and how talented they are, and how they should continue to follow their paths and their truths and their dreams. Sure.

And there is a line. People always go, why do you think the Rocky Horror Show has lived so long? I said, there's a line in the Rocky Horror Show that people may not know consciously, but subconsciously they hear it. And the line is, don't dream it, be it. That's a good truth right there. I like that. Well, before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment for your incredible humility, your incredible talent, your incredible drive, your work ethic, and your ability to inspire and lift so many people up on all the work that you do.

It's so inspiring. I try to – I try – I think the whole world should do this. People forget about manners. I introduce myself to everybody. I don't care if they know who I am or not. Hi, I'm me. What's your name? You know, I will always say thank you.

Even to Frances, who's been working with me for eight years. She does something for me, I say thank you. Whatever it is, I say thank you. Because it means a lot to me. Say thank you. you're welcome, be kind. I get on a plane, I ask the flight attendants, how's your day? Well, it's been pretty good. Well, I hope it gets better,

and I hope that everybody treats you with the respect you deserve. And they go, well, and I do that everywhere I go. Yeah. Because I think that's important that all people deserve the respect and the gratitude for being who they are and what they do. Absolutely, yeah. And I will always try to help because I was homeless in my life. So I know what that's like. Sure.

my life. So I know what that's like. I've had a lot of experiences in my life, so I can relate to almost every one. My band, when I was on Motown, was all African American. And we went through the South. And they literally, the racism I saw, they were the ones holding me back. I was ready to attack. And they were going, Meek, it's okay. We go through this all the time. I go, I don't really care. This guy is not going to treat you that way. Meek, come on.

Come on, let's go. Let's go. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. I mean, I went into the kitchen in the Holiday Inn and got water and bread and butter and everybody brought it to the table. Got everybody's order.

Took it into the kitchen myself. Handed it to the chef. And I said, you want me to come back and get it? No, we'll bring it. Wow. And I mean, my mother taught me that my my grandfather was that way my mother taught me that yeah and that and oh i would get so angry when i was in high school at that because I grew up in Texas so you know there's a bit

of racism it's gotten better and in fact one night we were going home and we were right by Love Field and we were in Lovers Lane and a group of African Americans came and started hitting my car with baseball bats

and the windshield and I got out of the car. And my friend's going, don't get out of the car. I said, yeah, I'm getting out of the car. And I was very calm and they all of a sudden just stopped. I'm getting out of the car. And I was very calm. And they all of a sudden just stopped. And I said, I understand why you're doing this. But you need to learn respect because I have respect for you.

Even though you've just done what you did to my car. My car is nothing but a piece of metal. It doesn't mean anything compared to you. You are worth so much more than this piece of metal. And they just kind of looked at me and walked away. My friend thought they were going to just kill me. And I said, no. And it was like one of those moments. I got out perfectly calm and just didn't yell at them, talked to them in this kind of voice. And they all kind of stopped. And I talked to them. That's what I said. And I think I was like possessed by my grandfather.

Because that is the kind of words my grandfather would have used. Sure, sure. Amazing. Well, I appreciate the example you've been setting for many years for how to treat people and how to- Well, I mean, I think the world is is is upside down at the moment and we really need more love in the world absolutely and we need more respect for each other absolutely for everyone yeah yeah i agree well i want to ask one final question okay make sure everyone go pick up braver than we are meatlo, the legend who doesn't like to be called a legend. Yeah, I don't like to be called a legend. Get this. It's on iTunes.

Buy it on your website. You've got to listen to it to understand it. Four times, people. Four times. Don't disregard it on your first listen because it's better than you think it is. I like it. I like it. Final

question. What's your definition of greatness? People that respect other people. There you go. Meat. Thanks for coming on. You're welcome. I appreciate it. Thank you.

I hope you guys enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed connecting with Meatloaf, also known as Meat. Make sure to share it out with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 386. Check out the full show notes. Pick up his new album, Braver Than We Are, and send some love to him over on social media. This was a lot of fun, and it's because of you guys that allows me to connect with inspiring,

influential leaders and rock stars like Meatloaf because of the movement of greatness that we're creating together. You guys continue to listen. You continue to share. And that allows us to bring on incredible guests because of the platform that we're building together. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for listening every single week, for sharing, for letting me know how to make this better and who to bring on. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you haven't left a review yet on iTunes, make sure to do that over at itunes.com

slash school of greatness. If this is your first time here, please subscribe to the podcast because we do this every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We bring you a shot of inspiration, motivation, and greatness every single time you turn on this podcast. So I love you guys very much.

I appreciate you. Big thank you to Meatloaf for coming on. Such a pleasure and an incredible experience. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music