"Hot Holidays", Meat Loaf says, will feature a number of guests--Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, assorted rock stars and an actor or two.
Meat Loaf debuted in 1971 with the album "Stoney & The Meatloaf" on Motown's Rare Earth label, but really struck it big in 1976-1977 with the multi-million selling "Bat Out Of Hell".
First up in Meat Loaf's new deal with Sony is "Hell In A Handbasket", an album featuring rappers Chuck D and Lil Jon, the latter of whom Meat met on Celebrity Apprentice (wonder if that means Gary Busey's on the Christmas album). Meat says "Handbasket" is about how he feels about the state of the world today and, as such, is his most personal record to date. Meat is also laying down tracks for a third as yet unnamed project. The now 63 year old rock star is recording between concert dates.
When released, these will be Meat Loaf's first officially released holiday tracks, so far as I'm aware; though rumors of an overseas "B" side of "Silent Night" persist, I've never come across it. There are Meat Loaf Christmas bootlegs out there--including "Silent Night"--most notably from radio performances for WPLJ-FM in New York. Meat Loaf greatly credited WPLJ with helping break "Bat Out Of Hell" in the New York market and, for many years, would appear on the station in one form or another around Christmas and New Years.