Meat Loaf talks Vegas show and how he got his name

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Meat Loaf on grind of touring, pressure to play hits

Ashley Dvorkin sits down with legendary rocker

The music of Grammy-winning rock star Meat Loaf has always been theatrical. The characters he creates in songs like “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” come to life with every powerful chord of his performances. So naturally, his music is well-suited for the Las Vegas stage, and that’s exactly where fans can find him performing the hits starting Feb. 13 as Meat heads back for a second run of “RockTellz & CockTails” at Planet Hollywood. He spoke with FOX411 about the show.

FOX411: Tell us about the show. 
Meat Loaf: I have a wonderful show. I always want to be the best. If you don't take the stage thinking that you are then you shouldn't go up there… but I do have and this is not bragging - the best band in the entire world… I get to do everything I've ever wanted to do and things that I've done before and I even get a good 10 or 12 minutes of standup in there.

FOX411: Your fans let you know their favorites?
Meat Loaf: Oh boy do they ever, but it's impossible to do everything they want because everybody wants a different song.  And they don’t realize how long my… “Bat out of Hell” is 10 minutes long. “Anything for Love” the original version is 12 minutes long.  We’ve edited it. It's only seven and a half now. It's easy if you do three-and-a-half-minute pop songs, but I don't do three-and-a-half-minute pop songs."

FOX411: You are doing 24 dates, so what does that mean to you as an artist to be able to stay put? You mentioned you are retiring from touring.
Meat Loaf: Touring is a nightmare. Unless you are lucky enough to be Springsteen, Bon Jovi, or U2, or The Stones where you've got your own plane… because when I fly I have to fly commercial so on days off I don't speak...  Most of them understand, and others will go yeah right you’re just like the rest of them… The most important thing is the audience I'm going to. Because they've spent $50, and I try to keep my tickets down as much as I can, $50 of their hard earned money on a show that they are expecting the best I can give them.  If I go around talking and going to bars and getting drunk and staying out, I'm not going to be the best.

FOX411: Ever get tired of playing the hits?
Meat Loaf: I’ve done “Bat out of Hell” and “Paradise” in every show since 1977.  Because every night that I do it, it's like the first time I’ve done it.…  The one song that I really have a mental block against and I get so wound up when I have to sing it is, “Anything for Love”… When you've got a hit that was a hit in like 30 countries, and was No. 1 in the UK for like 11 weeks and here for 6 weeks, it's like the pressure to fulfill that song is like immense."

FOX411: What would you say is one of the key's to longevity because you've been doing this for so long?
Meat Loaf: Do your work, and stay away from everything else.

FOX411: More acting, more new music?
Meat Loaf: After this year… it's really hard to do when you're doing the shows so we're going to do that…  and we've got a record, we are in the process of making a record.

FOX411: What’s the story behind the name Meat Loaf?
Meat Loaf: My Dad started calling me that before I was a year old, because apparently when I was young I was bright... a lot of babies are born red, they’ve got this extra thing going on... but I stayed red longer than normal, usually you put them under some lamps and they’re not red anymore, but I stayed longer so he thought I looked like Meat.  So he'd call me that. My mother didn't like it. He would call me that, so all the kids on the block would call me that, and then when all the kids on the block would call me that when we went to school they started using my real name but the teachers eventually went with Meat. Then the Loaf came about in Junior High School when I stepped on a coach’s foot. I told that story and people didn’t like it.  So I made up stories. I made up stories because I thought it wasn't relevant. I didn’t think that my name was relevant to the music.