2016 Preview: Meat Loaf

There will be more Meat Loaf in 2016 – a new album called Braver Than We Are, which will be the Texas singer’s first collaboration with Bat Out Of Hell partner Jim Steinman since Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster is Loose in 2006.

Some of the material has been around for a while, Loaf reveals, but says Steinman “has rewritten a lot of new pieces for them.

“It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard,” he continues. “It’s like Bat Out Of Hell was in seventy-seven – nothing that’s out there now can compare to it. I’m not saying it’s better, I’m just saying it’s a world unto itself. There is no other artist even close to it.”

Loaf, who has also working with Paul Crook on the project, says Braver Than We Are has a concept, but it’s not necessarily narrative. “It’s thematic in the same way Bat Out Of Hell was,” he explains. “You just have to understand the theme. I never tell anybody what the songs are about. Once it gets into people’s hands it no longer belongs to me, it belongs to them in that way.”

Gary Graff

Gary Graff is an award-winning veteran music journalist based in metro Detroit, writing regularly for Billboard, Ultimate Classic Rock, Media News Group, Music Connection, United Stations Radio Networks and others. Graff’s work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Classic Rock, Revolver, the San Francisco Chronicle, AARP magazine, the Detroit Jewish News, The Forward and others. Graff has co-written and edited books about Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. A professional voter for the Grammy Awards and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Graff co-founded the Detroit Music Awards in 1989 and continues as the organisation’s chief producer.