.

"Jimmy said to go ahead. He's working with Andrew Lloyd Webber on some old Hayley Mills movie called Whistle Down The Wind (turning it into a musical). But he'll be back for The Final At Bat." Whenever.

The way Meat Loaf sees it, Meat Loaf is a functioning multiple personality that dissociates to deal with strong emotions.

Aday, not Meat Loaf, has recalled running away from home at 15 in the clothes he was wearing, the day his alcoholic father attacked him with a butcher knife, the day after the funeral for his mother (cancer). He has said that a dozen concussions kept him out of a career in football.

He blamed a mental block for his inability to write. "I know what I want to say. I know the emotion. I'll direct the scene. But I don't want to write it. I write bad postcards."

He said crisis is not where he has lived his life "but that's the most fun to play.

"We can learn from every moment, but I go for those moments in your life where you go, This can't be happening. This is not real! I like these emotional peaks. And they really make for a great live performance."

'I AM A TRUE ALTERNATIVE'

He also says: "Ace Ventura II - I'll cry when the raccoon falls. I cried when I read about it in the paper. I'm much more sensitive than I appear to be."

At 44, he seems well, even trim at 247 pounds, if not quite back to his 10-year-old weight of 200.

As himself, he is a happily married family-first guy with two daughters, 20 and 14.

But his role allows him to say, "I never fit in. I am a true alternative." And "I love being the outcast. That's my role in life."

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