Eric Church paid tribute to Meat Loaf — who inspired the country singer’s Heart & Soul triple album — by covering “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” during his Detroit concert Saturday, one day after news of Meat Loaf’s death at the age of 74.
Billboard reports that, prior to performing his song “Springsteen,” Church delivered a snippet of Meat Loaf’s 1993 comeback single in memory of the singer who influenced Church’s 2021 LP.
Lovely Meat Loaf tribute last night from @ericchurch. pic.twitter.com/7kTVUe2DMY
— Courtney Hoekstra (@cshillz) January 23, 2022
In April 2021, Church spoke to Rolling Stone about how his Heart & Soul songs “Heart of the Night” and “Russian Roulette” were indebted to Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.
“‘Heart of the Night’ is rock opera,” Church said. “There’s a part on ‘Heart of the Night’ where it goes [sings], ‘The still beating heart of the night!’ and the [drums] hit. And [producer Jay Joyce] goes, ‘We can’t do all those hits.” I said, ‘Dude, it’s Meat Loaf, let’s do it.’ It’s overdramatic. It’s over-passionate… It was over the top, but it never felt wrong.”
In which I tell @ericchurch his dramatic new songs sound like Meat Loaf. Watch the full intvu, if ya wanna: https://t.co/yDv0JFWqlX pic.twitter.com/xJWbtAa7f7
— Joseph Hudak (@JosephHudak3) April 15, 2021
Church continued, “I don’t know what people think of that, and I don’t really give a shit. I said we’re going to do it and we’ve got to commit to it. It’s Meat Loaf — there’s no half Loaf. It was fun for me to get into… You don’t have to be so self-conscious that it’s, ‘Well, I can’t sing that because what if people hear it?’ Try it. Sing it. Go falsetto.”
Church is the latest artist to honor the Bat Out of Hell singer following his death Thursday, joining Cher, Brian May, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Meat Loaf’s Fight Club co-star Edward Norton and more.