Less than a week after collapsing during a concert, Meat Loaf returned like a bat out of hell to the stage on Tuesday night (June 21) in Lethbridge, Canada. (See video below.)
Shortly after the June 16 incident in Edmonton, the performer’s publicist, Jeremy Westby, told USA Today that “the singer was suffering from severe dehydration when he collapsed near the end of his show at the Northern Jubilee Auditorium. ‘He extends his heartfelt thanks for everyone’s support and well-wishes and is expecting to make a speedy and full recovery.'”
Related: Meat Loaf collapses; is recovering
Earlier this week, Meat Loaf formally announced his new album collaboration with Jim Steinman, Braver Than We Are.
While Paul Crook produced the album, Steinman acted as creative consultant throughout the recording process working alongside Crook and Meat Loaf sending suggestions, adding verses and contributing opinions on every aspect. All tracks on Braver Than We Are were written by Steinman.
The first single, “Going All The Way,” features another reunion: Meat Loaf is joined by vocalists Ellen Foley and Karla DeVito, decades after their first performances on the smash hit “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” Listen to it here.
Here’s a fan video of Meat Loaf singing “I’d Do Anything For Love,” at this week’s “comeback” performance on June 21, the same number he was singing when he collapsed in Edmonton.
Meat Loaf also performed on Thursday night in Penticton, Canada. He’s got just a handful of dates remaining on his current tour:
June 25 – Victoria, Canada – Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
June 28 – Abbotsford, Canada – Abbotsford Centre
June 30 – Calgary, Canada – Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
July 02 – Moose Jaw, Canada – Mosaic Place
This was not the first time that Meat Loaf has collapsed onstage. He did so in London in 2003 and was then diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. As USA Today also mentions, he “fainted during a concert in July 2011, in Pittsburgh. After several minutes on the ground, Meat Loaf got back up and finished his show.” Meat Loaf attributed that incident to an asthma attack. He is known as a performer who gives his all onstage, and from early on after Bat Out of Hell launched him to stardom in 1977, he has on occasion performed with an oxygen tank beside the stage to keep him going.
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In a career spanning over four decades, Braver Than We Are is Meat Loaf’s fourth album featuring songs exclusively written by Jim Steinman. Their hugely successful collaborations – 1977’s Bat Out of Hell and 1993’s Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell – together have sold a reported 67 million copies.
The album marks the singer’s first since 2011’s Hell in a Handbasket. It’s his first new recording with Steinman since 1995’s Welcome to the Neighbourhood which contained two Steinman compositions.
