Meat Loaf unable to sing due to chronic back problem
Meat Loaf says that an ongoing agonising back problem is the reason he hasn’t performed live in a year.
In a poignant new interview with Rolling Stone, the septuagenarian singer – real name Michael Lee Aday – revealed that his back problem is so serious he can’t get into bed or put on his socks and shoes without help from his wife Deborah.
Also unable to move around his home without the aid of a walker, Meat Loaf says that because of his ill health he’s unable to perform: "Because it hurts my back, I haven't been able to sing in a year. You use everything to sing, and I just cannot do it."
Despite his dire situation, Meat Loaf is refusing to give up without a fight: “From how I grew up, that's where I learned to be tough and to never stop. I mean, I'm tough as nails.
“Once I was hit in the head with a pool cue and just turned to the guy and said, 'You just made a big mistake.' Got hit in the head with a whiskey bottle. Had my head slammed into a locker. I've had 18 concussions. And nothing, nothing has ever put me down. Yeah, man – I never go down."
However, he conceded: “My back is driving me crazy. But then I'm probably a little crazy anyway, because of all the concussions.”
Meat Loaf collapsed on stage at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Canada in June 2016 after back pain shot through him “like a sword.”
Speaking at the Q Awards in November 2016, he explained he was in pain following a back operation. “I’m just ready to sit down because four weeks ago I had spinal fusion,” he said at the time. “There was a cyst which was pinching nerves so I had emergency back surgery.”
Elsewhere in his Rolling Stone interview, Meat Loaf also ruled out going to the US premiere of the Bat Out of Hell musical saying there’s “not a prayer” of him turning up.
"I don't have any business going out to where all the bars and bands are,” he added. "They'd look at me and say, 'Who's the old guy? What's that old guy doing here?' No, man, I don't belong in those places."
He also hinted that his songwriter and producer Jim Steinman may also be in bad health, saying: “He doesn't want me talking about his health, but I'm worried about him.”
Meat Loaf’s last UK show took place at Newbury Racecourse in August 2013.