Rock-tober 04, 2015

Andrea's previous career as a sign language interpreter sometimes landed her in close proximity to some pretty famous company. Neil Armstrong and Condi Rice. Colin Powell and Norman Schwartzkopf. Even Cindy Crawford and William Shatner. Not even geek cred? How about Linus Pauling? Watson and Crick? Yeah. I had to look up those last two. She was even present at one of Clinton's inaugural balls kicking off his second term. During this, she was on stage when he arrived.

Politics aside, she was not impressed by his frat boy image and was far from being a fan. Now Clinton was on stage, and he went down the line shaking hands with all those present. When he got to Andrea, she physically pulled back, withheld her hand, and imperceptibly crinkled her nose at the man. When she told me this story years later, my only thought was, "Holy $*&@;#! My fiancée (at the time) was throwing shade on POTUS!"

There wasn't any drama after that. Throughout the course of the evening A-list entertainers also took the stage. At this particular event, Meat Loaf was the headliner.

Anyone who embraces the name Meat Loaf had better own his space and be bigger than life or you're just asking for an atomic wedgie. Meat Loaf, a.k.a. Marvin Lee Aday, is just that. He's a rare performer who's just as comfortable rocking out with  a mic in his hand as he is delivering lines in front of a camera. Look him up on IMDB and you'll see he has more credits than many "actors".

On the night of the inaugural ball, Bat Out of Hell: Back Into Hell was not his most recent album, but singles from it were still making air time. Its biggest hit by far was "I'd Do Anything for Love, But I Won't Do That". A lot of critics didn't like this song. "The title's unwieldy" and "It's too long for radio play" were common complaints along with "What the heck is 'that' that he keeps yammering about for the song's entire 12 minutes?"

Well, the critics were wrong. The album itself went platinum, the song reached number 1 around the world, and also earned Meat Loaf a Grammy along the way. Not bad for someone sporting the same moniker of a much derided entree. So...you may be wondering, "Does Meat Loaf actually like meat loaf?" Nope. Dude's a vegetarian...