Soon they properly reactivated their musical partnership and hatched a plan to do the one thing guaranteed to put them back in the game: make a sequel to Bat Out Of Hell. They hadn’t exactly lost touch, but a series of lawsuits meant that, as Steinman put it, “we were hardly exchanging recipes.” But somehow these two rock’n’roll exoplanets re-entered each others’ orbits over Christmas 1989, when Steinman visited Meat’s house and the pair began playing Bat Out Of Hell together on the piano. Steinman was still making music – with Bonnie Tyler, the Sisters Of Mercy, his all-female group Pandora’s Box and even, for a couple of tracks on Meat Loafs underpowered 1984 album Bad Attitude, his old partner-in-crime – but the fact was they missed each other. The creative furnace which powered Bat Out Of Hell had flamed out soon after follow-up Deadringer, choked by circumstance, ego and bone-headed idiocy.
Meat Loaf in 1992: having fun at the Ixtapa Zihuatane Celebrity Sports Invitational at Westin Ixtapa Resort in Ixtapa, Mexico (Image credit: Ron Galella/Getty Images)
