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Meat Loaf Bounces Back
12/01/2003 1:30 PM, E! Online
Lia Haberman
The show will go on for beefy belter Meat
Loaf.
The Bat Out of Hell rocker, who
underwent heart
surgery last week after collapsing
mid-performance at London's Wembley Arena, has been given a clean bill
of health by British doctors, and he's expected to resume touring in
Dublin on Tuesday.
However, the experience has left
the Texan singer a little shaken.
"I've never really
been nervous about going onstage but I'm a little bit nervous," the Loaf
told reporters in London. "I'm having a few anxiety attacks."
"I just have to talk myself into being a bit calmer when I
take the stage."
While Meat Loaf summed up the
episode as "pretty scary," he said treatment he'd received when first
rushed to the state-run Northwick Park Hospital as "spectacular."
The 52-year-old wiped out onstage November 17 during a
sold out performance. Doctors who treated the singer at Northwick Park
Hospital said he was suffering from exhaustion due to a "prolonged viral
infection."
But subsequent tests showed the
entertainer was suffering from Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a
condition that causes an irregular heartbeat and can lead to dizziness
and fainting.
The singer, real name Marvin Lee Aday,
admitted he had experienced dizzy spells all summer but hadn't consulted
a doctor because, he said, "I just chalked it up to being old."
Meat Loaf underwent a catheter ablation--which involves
removing tissue to restore a normal heartbeat--at the Wellington
Hospital on November 21 and has been on bed rest ever since.
The procedure has a success rate of 95 percent, he said,
adding, "The cardiologist said to me 'You're fine.'"
The musician had hoped to resume his tour Sunday in Manchester but per
doctors' orders for more rest, he pushed off the return date until
Tuesday.
"I've literally been in bed for almost two
and a half weeks now, pretty much not doing a thing, so I'm not in show
shape," said Meat Loaf.
He plans to play Wembley
again in January to make good for fans who caught his truncated show in
November.
Meat Loaf exploded onto the rock scene in
1977 with Bat Out of Hell, which has sold more than 25 million
copies. He won a Grammy for 1993's "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I
Won't Do That)" and has also been a familiar face in movies, including
The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Fight Club.
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