Meat/Pearl in Sunday Times Magazine

[Mike Piercy]

There is an interview with Meat and Pearl under the "Relative Values" regular feature in the Sunday Times Magazine today. Meat talks about Pearl and......you've guessed it Pearl talks about Meat. Two pages with photos.

Mike

[Heli]

brb i'm off to get my copy! :mrgreen:

[Gez]

Zzzzoommmm..am off too :cheer:

[Gina]

Awesome!! Someone scan it for us in the States please!! LOL Thanks!
Take care..

Love and Rock On..
~Gina 8)

[Eva]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1456744,00.html

***

January 30, 2005

Relative Values: Meat loaf and Pearl Aday
The American singer Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday), 58, is best known for his Bat Out of Hell albums, the first of which sold 4m copies in six weeks in 1977. In the 1980s, despite making several albums, Meat Loaf was declared bankrupt and had multiple lawsuits totalling $85m brought against him. In 1993 he released Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, which proved to be almost as successful as the first. He and his wife, Leslie, live in Los Angeles. They have two daughters: Pearl, 28, and Amanda, 24, who is an actress. Pearl is a backing vocalist in her father's band, and is working on her own material. She also lives in Los Angeles.

MEAT LOAF: We're a very loud family. When we're happy we're loud, and when we argue we're very loud. So if I get mad, you can be sure I'm going to scream like hell and thunder. I remember the time Pearl and I had a huge argument over her smoking cigarettes. Oh, it was huge. And what's worse is that I used to smoke myself, and there's nothing as bad as arguing with a reformed smoker, believe me!

I remember this particular argument because normally when we argued, Pearl would just storm out and slam the door behind her. This time she actually screamed back at me. So I yelled, "How dare you talk to me that way!" and this whole row erupted. But then, in the midst of this row, I suddenly thought to myself: "Wow, she's good at this! She is really good. She is standing up for herself."

In a funny kind of way, her arguing with me was a way of seeing she could stand her ground. To me, it's important that both my girls can stand on their own two feet, because you need to be able to do that in life, no matter who you are.

I tell you, though, I gave Pearl and her sister enough lessons on how to get on. And I told them it was down to two big basic things: hard work and discipline.

I watched my own mother and father go through life and, oh boy, anything they ever got, they had to work their asses off for it. Of course, I gave my girls advice on men. And that boiled down to three words: "Men are rats." Yep, that was it.

I remember when Pearl was at high school, there was this one guy who went by the name Jim Silk. I mean, the name alone is enough to keep you awake at night. Anyway, Silk Boy also drove a black Camaro with dark windows. But more importantly, he had what you'd call a reputation. All my warning bells went off at once. Pearl had this big crush on him, so I said to Leslie: "Look, we need to let her have her way on this, because if we don't she'll go out with him anyway."

I said to Pearl: "You can go out with him, but on three conditions. One, he's got to come to the house to pick you up. Two, we've got to meet him. And three, he's got to bring you home." Pearl agreed.

So that afternoon I'd been to a softball game, and when I got back I sat on the front porch and waited for this smooth Jim Silk to turn up. And in my lap, I just happened to have a baseball bat. Silk pulled up in that godawful black Camaro and walked up to the house. He said: "Hi." And I said: "Hi, Jim, where ya thinking about goin'?" And he said: "To a friend's house." I said: "Okay." And then I said: "Y'know, she's got a curfew. It's normally 11.30pm, but tonight I'm saying midnight." I also added that for every minute she was late, she'd have 10 minutes knocked off their next date. He agreed.

Then I said to him: "Oh, and there's one more thing. I care more about my daughter than anything else in the world. So while she's with you, you are responsible for her. If anything happens to her, I will hunt you down and shoot you like a dog." Well, just guess what time she came home — 10.30pm. We didn't see much of Jim Silk after that.

Once Pearl graduated from high school, she started coming out on the road with me as a backing singer. But I'll never forget the time she told me she was going on the road with Mötley Crue, the heavy-metal band. The girls that tour with them leave nothing to the imagination. So when she told me this, I thought: "Oh Lord, how am I going to deal with this one?" But there was no way I could stop her, so off she went.

During the tour, I went along to see the show one night. When she first appeared, I remember, she had her back to the audience. But I could see that all she was wearing was a cowboy hat, a bikini top and a G-string. I remember feeling very uncomfortable. And then when she turned around I couldn't look — I think my eyes were shut for the rest of the show. Afterwards, I went up to Nikki Sixx, the lead singer of Mötley Crue, and in a real serious, loud voice I said: "Hey, Nikki, I wanna talk to you about what my daughter was wearing — now!" Nikki replied: "I had nothing to do with what your daughter wore." There was silence, then everybody knew I wasn't serious and started laughing. But for a few seconds I scared the hell out of him. I like to know I can still do that if I need to.

Pearl, like her dad, can be downright stubborn and headstrong. But, leaving that aside, she's got a huge generosity of spirit and the biggest of hearts. And as much as I preach to her about how tough the music business is, I would hate her to lose those wonderful qualities. She was named after Janis Joplin, whose nickname was Pearl. But as a name it couldn't be more fitting. She really is a pearl, a complete treasure to me.

PEARL: When Dad's album Bat Out of Hell came out, I was only a small kid, six or seven. At the time, we were living in an apartment in New York. Of course, he was huge, and because he was so busy, I wouldn't always get to see him. To make up for it he'd always put time aside to spend just with me. One of the things we would do is to go to Central Park, which had swings and a carousel. But we'd always get a swarm of fans around us and Dad would end up talking to them and giving them his autograph. I'd get really fed up with that, because to me it was my time with him, not theirs. Apparently, I'd come marching in the door and grumble to Mum that all I could hear was "Meat Loaf, Meat Loaf, Meat Loaf, Meat Loaf."

To be honest, though, by the time I was 9 or 10, there was certainly another side to his rock'n'roll image. We'd moved to Connecticut, which was where my parents first lived when they got married. Dad is mad about sport, particularly baseball, and not only did he become the coach for our town's youth softball team, he also coached the freshman girls' team at my high school. The girls hadn't won a game in the league for 10 years, but Dad turned their fortunes around in a year, and they won the champions' cup. It was amazing. They loved him and called him Coach Meat. They even bought him a jacket with his name emblazoned on the back.

Despite his image, he was quite strict with us growing up, and he's big on respect — respect your mother, respect your father, respect your elders. You certainly couldn't do something like walk away when he was talking to you, or roll your eyes at him. Oh God, no — life would not be worth living. It was the same when it came to boys. He didn't mince his words — ever. The thing is, I wasn't really the rebellious type at all, but even so he was always keeping an eye on what we were doing, who we were seeing. And I always knew when Dad didn't like someone, because if they were round at the house, he'd go all quiet and you'd see all this tension building up in his face.

When I was about 16, I was dating this boy Dad didn't like at all. One night I had planned to go to a party with him and when I heard his car pulling up outside, I ran down to let him in. But then Mum said he was chatting with Dad on the porch, so I waited inside until they'd finished. At the time, my curfew was 11.30pm, but on this night Dad said I could stay out until 12. I thought: "Great! Dad must like him." So we went out, and I tell you, this boy looked at his watch the whole time. In fact, he even drove me home early. That's when it occurred to me that Dad must have said something to him. So before I got out of the car, I said: "What exactly did Dad say to you earlier?" He answered: "Oh, nothing." But I insisted he tell the truth, and eventually he said: "Your dad said that if anything happened to you, he would hunt me down and shoot me like the dog I am." I was mortified. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment.

You can appreciate that sort of thing when you're older. And Dad was right about that boy. I might not always let on that I'm listening to the advice Dad dishes out to me, but underneath I take it all in. Nothing he says to me falls on deaf ears. I respect him far too much. At the end of the day, I know he's thinking about me. I know he's got my best interests at heart.

[Gina]

Thanks Eva!! Too bad they don't have the photos in the online article! Great interview!!! Thanks again :)

Rock On..
~Gina 8)

[SuperLoafMan]

Yeah thanks alot too. it is too bad about the Pics. am gonna go get the paper

thanks SLM

[needmoremeat]

New photos????? 8O

[SuperLoafMan]

Has anyone seen the Photos yet??

havnt had chance to get out, :(

[RSG]

sorry i don't. wow that was a nice issue, and a sweet one!

and superloaf man, where did you find that awesome pic in your signature 8O

[Winston]

Thats a really old interview, chances are the photos are old too

[AndrewG]

Thats a really old interview, chances are the photos are old too

That does not surprise me. The way the newspaper describes the family seems kind of out of date since I believe Meat has now divorced Leslie and seeing someone else.
I would think the interview is from the pre "best of" uk tour around late 1998/early 1999, which is bloody 6 years!
Frightening how time flies....

[Pixie]

Thanks Eva! Yeah, it's out of date, but who cares, he got into one of the main papers! :D

[wizardofodd]

yeah i agree

[Tim]

Even if the interview is old, think it is good that ML is in the publicity again.

[JanT]

I know it's an old old old old thread but I read the article and it's brilliant.:D

[Eddie's Teddy]

Well, I'd never seen that interview before so I found it an interesting read. :up:

[Devil's Son]

Thanks for the article, I heard some parts before in an interview - it is nice and I think the world need mor fathers like him, but that leads to somewhere else :)