Why did ghosts love appearing before Meat Loaf?
America’s favourite dish, Meat Loaf, barnstormed into the mainstream music scene like a bat out of hell, cutting an unlikely presence and forever proving a refreshing addition to our dismal daily lives. His style was so operatic that he eventually segued into movies and lifted the tone of Fight Club, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and more with his inherent brand of mild, straight-faced surrealism.
When the star tragically passed away at the age of 74 back in 2022, the tributes that poured in were best summed up by one-time collaborator Cher, who wrote: “One of rock music’s all-time great characters… A wondrously talented, flamboyant, funny, outrageous and rebellious chameleon.” The only thing she missed from this glowing list of facets that made up a beloved star was ‘inadvertent medium’.
The star lived an unusual life; he once proposed to his wife with a salmon, got in an argument with Prince Andrew and almost pushed him into a moat, inexplicably fell in love with Hartlepool FC and considered moving to the area, picked up a hitchhiking Charles Manson, and frequently met with the undead. All of this, he happily admitted to as though they were ‘just one of those moments’.
But with Halloween approaching, we wonder what made the rocker so haunted? “I’ve seen them,” Meat Loaf confidently opined in an interview with Shortlist in 2021. “I’ve been around them. Some are just energy left behind, and some are intelligent. I chased one across the room once.” While he didn’t quite explain exactly why he scampered after that particular ghoul, he did say that his brushes with the undead were very common.
“When we were making ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ I saw a blonde girl in a white dress,” he explained. “I went downstairs and told the guys, ‘There’s a groupie up on the balcony’.” But by the time the crew got there, the girl/spectre had vanished with no possible exits other than to disappear into the ether; thus, his belief in ghosts was borne from his most iconic moment, and it remained thereafter. The video itself is befittingly berserk, so perhaps that atmosphere played a part.
In his last TV appearance, the star appeared on Ghost Hunters. He perused around the aptly named The Haunted House on the Hill – surely the perfect spot for spectres – in Jonesborough, Tennessee, for the UK show. At one point, Meat Loaf exclaims, “Somebody’s touching me. Somebody’s touching my shoulder.“ And yet, no earthly being is visible. This prompted him to describe the experience as “very weird“.
However, the singer is not alone. A study in 2015 found that 18% of Americans have seen ghosts. While sceptics might cite a rational explanation for this, can they really explain why such a credible source as Meat Loaf would be positively besieged by them continually? Maybe he had what believers call ‘the gift’. He’s not the only eminent musician to have this either; Bob Dylan once encountered an undead dog, too.
