Aussie rock star living his teenage Meat Loaf dreams

Perth Now

3 days ago

Music has helped Adam Thompson navigate life's high and lows since his world was turned upside down with the death of his mother to cancer when he was 13.
Almost 50 years later, the Chocolate Starfish frontman and his bandmates are rocking audiences around Australia on their Bat Out Of Hell tribute to the 1977 Meat Loaf album that got him through his darkest days.
In many ways, Thompson says, he's been preparing for the Bat Out Of Hell shows since the album soundtracked his grief and hope as a teen.
"I remember jumping off the corner of the couch pretending it was a stage when I played the album and practising, practising," he tells AAP.
"It's the dynamics and the complexity - the operatic and the theatrical part of it definitely appealed to me."
Composed by the late Jim Steinman, with gloriously melodramatic vocals by Meat Loaf, Bat Out Of Hell remains the highest-selling album in Australian music history (1.7 million copies), trumping John Farnham's Whispering Jack.
"The year it came out, I was just turned 14 and mum died that year from cancer and I'm just in the throes of puberty and trying to work out what it's all about," Thompson says.
"The songs gave me promise, gave me a voice - even if it was just to express it to myself in my bedroom. I could get it out."
Heavily influenced by teenage angst, the magnum opus was loaded with hits - from You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth to Two Out of Three Ain't Bad, Bat Out of Hell and Paradise by the Dashboard Light.
"I dreamt about singing those songs," Thompson says. "I dreamt about meeting Meat Loaf and literally years later, I was backstage with him for his 50th birthday.
"He drew everyone into a big circle and sang Happy Birthday. And he's got his arm around me and I've got my arm around him.
"You can't orchestrate that unless you're a 14-year-old boy putting it out to the universe all those years ago that a moment like that should happen."
Formed in 1992 and renowned for singalong singles Mountain, All Over Me and a cover of You're So Vain, Chocolate Starfish have been rocking a new confidence since Thompson opened up about the mental health challenges he faced after his mum passed.
"I love the vulnerability of being on stage now, being truly vulnerable," he says.
"The audience loves being part of a wow factor show but the narrative in between the stories and links are very real and they come with years of experience.
"If I look at a song like For Crying Out Loud (from Bat Out Of Hell) - it is some of the most beautiful poetry.
"They're words I just adore singing because they're very from the heart and that's how I try and live my life."
Thompson says opening up has strengthened the shared empathy forged across 30 years between band and fans. Crowds are already on their side when they take the stage these days. No need to win them over.
"They're not standing back, looking and waiting," he says.
"They can feel it because your struggles are their struggles and they can feel the moments just as powerfully."
The band will take a night off from the Bat Out Of Hell tour - which visits Sydney, Thirroul, Bendigo, Brisbane, Cairns and Adelaide before ending in Perth on August 30 - for a return performance at the Mundi Mundi Bash near Broken Hill.
Thompson says regional Australia and Chocolate Starfish are dear old friends.
"If you think about the year we came out, that was also the birth of grunge, so it was cool to be introverted," he says.
"It was cool to wear flannels and not communicate, whereas I'm a larger-than-life, theatrical guy who was showing outwards, not inwards, and the band and the songs were like that too.
"The regional areas embraced us. When we revisit some of these areas now, it is like a homecoming."
And who knows - maybe home to a few flamboyant teenagers jumping off couches, dreaming big as they sing along to some great Australian songwriting.