ShortList.com has an amusing new interview with Meat Loaf with all kinds of fun, personal anecdotes. Here's a rundown of all the highlights:

Meat Loaf Wants You to Refer to Him as "Meat": Quote, "[Call me] Meat. I've been called that since I was a baby. It's not a stage name.

"Then...when I was about 13...I stepped on a coach's foot and he screamed, 'Get off my foot, you hunk of meatloaf!' And that was it." (Meat was born Marvin Lee Aday. In 1984, he legally changed his first name to Michael.) (???)

Meat Loaf Experimented with Drugs Back in the Day...But He Isn't Into Alcohol: Quote, "I never was Steve Tyler or Ozzy [Osbourne]. I tried drugs, but I don't really drink.

"I get horrific stage fright, so I have a shot of tequila to calm my nerves, but that's three hours before I go on. I despise the taste of beer. I don't like vodka, [I] don't like Scotch. Champagne makes me want to gag. I've never been that clichéd rocker.

"I don't have many wild stories from the '70s or '80s. The '60s, though, were crazy. I did acid and hung around everybody like [JIMI] Hendrix, [ROGER] Daltrey, [JANIS] Joplin, and THE [GRATEFUL] Dead."

Meat Loaf Sees Dead People: Quote, "I believe there's something when you die because there are ghosts. I've seen them, I've been around them. Some are just energy left behind, and some are intelligent.

"I've had conversations with them using a K2 meter, which lets them answer 'yes' or 'no.' I chased one across the room once.

"When we were making 'Bat Out of Hell', I saw a blonde girl in a white dress. I went downstairs and told the guys, 'There's a groupie up on the balcony,' and they go, 'How would she get up there?' Everybody went up and no one was there."

Of course it COULD'VE been a spooked groupie who NEEDED some Meat. Elsewhere in the interview, Meat says, quote, "Groupies cursed at me because I wouldn't take them home. I'd go, 'I can't do it' and they'd go, 'Well [blank] you then.'"

Nothing Can Kill Meat Loaf: Meat has had a lot of near-death experiences. He says, quote, "I rolled into a river in a car. Got hit in the head by a shot put. I was on a commercial airliner landing in DC when the wing hit the runway. That was great...

"I've had 18 concussions. I think I had a 19th, but I didn't go to the doctor, so it's not official."

The News Frustrates Meat Loaf: Quote, "I listen to the news all day...

"I go back and forth between channels, and just shake my head going, 'These people are whack!' NBC is all skewed to liberals, CBS is kind of split, MSNBC is real left-wing and Fox News is real right-wing."

Computer Games Entertain Meat Loaf: Quote, "At night, I sit at my computer and play strategy games. I don't remember the names...one is about knights and one is about gladiators.

Meat Loaf Was Almost in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest": Quote, "I was originally cast in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' as Billy Bibbit, but there was a writer's strike and I ended up doing 'The Rocky Horror Show' instead."

(I assume Meat Loaf is talking about the movie version of "Rocky Horror", which was called "The Rocky Horror PICTURE Show". Although he was also in the original stage version, which was just called "The Rocky Horror Show".)

(Both movies came out in 1975. In "Rocky Horror", Meat played Eddie, the former delivery boy. In "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Brad Dourif ended up playing Billy Bibbit.)

(Brad was also the voice of Chucky in the "Child's Play" movies and he played Saruman's henchman Gríma Wormtongue in the "Lord of the Rings" movies.)

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