Diane
08 Aug 2008, 23:01
Found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/aug/08/popandrock
Meat Loaf rock singer: father of Pearl Aday rock singer
When I was growing up in the 1960s rock music was seen as an undesirable field for one's children to go into. When I was asked to play a gig with a rock band my mother said: "There is no way you're going 90 miles to play a gig with THEM!" My mother and father had passed away by the time I started having the crazy adventures, but my mother would have greatly disapproved of me using the F-word on stage. My grandfather would have had a stroke.
It was different for Pearl. She has a song about sleeping in a guitar case, which was pretty much how it was - she was always around. When she was a kid she'd sit in her bedroom, mimicking singers, but she wouldn't come out of the bedroom and sing. She wanted to walk straight on a stage with me but she didn't understand that it's not that simple. You have to work and get good first. Finally she got it, and when she was old enough I put her on the road with us. She was fine doing backing but very timid doing anything solo. Gradually she got louder and decided she was going to do her own band, which brought her out of her shell.
She is named after an album by Janis Joplin, who was my biggest influence - not vocally, but how she attacked the stage - so it's uncanny that she sounds a bit like Janis. When you're on stage, it's emotion. You're not going through the motions. It's like [Laurence] Olivier - as an actor, it always felt like his life depended on every scene. Pearl has grasped that - if you're really angry before a performance, you can use it in the performance.
On stage, people can drop their shoulders and turn around and walk away, and I've instilled in her never to do that because it breaks the tension with the audience, and she's learned from me to play to the back, not the front row. But it's obvious the apple fell close to the tree. She's got it. The difference between me and her is I sang loud and I wanted everyone to know it. She had to overcome her shyness, but now she sings incredibly loud!
Even though she's a woman in a very tough, male-dominated industry, the only time I was concerned was when she went on the road with Mötley Crüe. I went to a gig and she was wearing a little G-string. It was hard to watch. I went up to [bassist] Nikki Sixx and said "I wanna talk to you NOW!" and scared the hell out of him. But it was a joke.
I've warned her about lifestyle, but she's a grown woman. In the 1970s I'd have two beers before going on stage, but I'd get so angsty I'd have a beta blocker or something to just back me off a hair. But I've never really drunk. Pearl was in that Hollywood scene, but now she'll say: "I'm going to bed to rest my voice." She's engaged to guitarist Scott Ian who plays in her band, Pearl, and also in Anthrax. It took me a while to approve, but I have a lot of respect for Scott now because he really loves her. I tease him that I'm going to sneak into his room and shave his beard off.
Pearl knows that the only way she's gonna get better now is to keep doing it. She's always going to be known as Meat Loaf's daughter like [songwriter-producer] Jim Steinman's name is always mentioned alongside mine, but she'll get over that and stand on her own, because she's really good.
Meat Loaf rock singer: father of Pearl Aday rock singer
When I was growing up in the 1960s rock music was seen as an undesirable field for one's children to go into. When I was asked to play a gig with a rock band my mother said: "There is no way you're going 90 miles to play a gig with THEM!" My mother and father had passed away by the time I started having the crazy adventures, but my mother would have greatly disapproved of me using the F-word on stage. My grandfather would have had a stroke.
It was different for Pearl. She has a song about sleeping in a guitar case, which was pretty much how it was - she was always around. When she was a kid she'd sit in her bedroom, mimicking singers, but she wouldn't come out of the bedroom and sing. She wanted to walk straight on a stage with me but she didn't understand that it's not that simple. You have to work and get good first. Finally she got it, and when she was old enough I put her on the road with us. She was fine doing backing but very timid doing anything solo. Gradually she got louder and decided she was going to do her own band, which brought her out of her shell.
She is named after an album by Janis Joplin, who was my biggest influence - not vocally, but how she attacked the stage - so it's uncanny that she sounds a bit like Janis. When you're on stage, it's emotion. You're not going through the motions. It's like [Laurence] Olivier - as an actor, it always felt like his life depended on every scene. Pearl has grasped that - if you're really angry before a performance, you can use it in the performance.
On stage, people can drop their shoulders and turn around and walk away, and I've instilled in her never to do that because it breaks the tension with the audience, and she's learned from me to play to the back, not the front row. But it's obvious the apple fell close to the tree. She's got it. The difference between me and her is I sang loud and I wanted everyone to know it. She had to overcome her shyness, but now she sings incredibly loud!
Even though she's a woman in a very tough, male-dominated industry, the only time I was concerned was when she went on the road with Mötley Crüe. I went to a gig and she was wearing a little G-string. It was hard to watch. I went up to [bassist] Nikki Sixx and said "I wanna talk to you NOW!" and scared the hell out of him. But it was a joke.
I've warned her about lifestyle, but she's a grown woman. In the 1970s I'd have two beers before going on stage, but I'd get so angsty I'd have a beta blocker or something to just back me off a hair. But I've never really drunk. Pearl was in that Hollywood scene, but now she'll say: "I'm going to bed to rest my voice." She's engaged to guitarist Scott Ian who plays in her band, Pearl, and also in Anthrax. It took me a while to approve, but I have a lot of respect for Scott now because he really loves her. I tease him that I'm going to sneak into his room and shave his beard off.
Pearl knows that the only way she's gonna get better now is to keep doing it. She's always going to be known as Meat Loaf's daughter like [songwriter-producer] Jim Steinman's name is always mentioned alongside mine, but she'll get over that and stand on her own, because she's really good.