Mitt blåblommiga flickrum i Jönköping blev lite större när Meat Loaf fyllde det med melodrama från Amerika; olycklig kärlek, hopplösa relationer, motorcyklar och rocknroll.
God the one who still had a hopeless relationship to cry over!
The only thing I had was a red light bulb in the ceiling that made the room cozy but no one to cuddle with in that cozy lighting.
No one to cry over either.
I was just a precocious but unkempt teenager who longed enormously for something and when I heard Meat Loaf's music, that longing was filled with meaning.
And that was enough folks.
Do you understand - that was enough!
Not that everything went well but Meat Loaf gave my dreams shape and meaning.
At this time, all teenage girls were in love with Per Gessle.
I was not in love with Meat Loaf, it would have been to take it too far.
But I was really weak for this bittersweet swelling, this American sentimentality went straight into my heart.
It went straight into the hearts of many others as well, Bat out of hell is one of the world's best-selling albums - 40 million copies.
The music is very far from Gessle's golden times;
Meat Loaf's bombastic excesses were life and death.
It was so exaggerated and millions of kilometers away from prevailing ideals.
It was so far from Jönköping and Halmstad.
It was cruel.
While the vinyl was cranking in the room
came the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show - a horror comedy musical that quickly became cult.
About a mad scientist, Dr. Frank-N Further, trying to create the perfect man.
Meat Loaf crashes into a motorcycle and sings, dances and plays the saxophone.
I saw it on the sports holiday in London in 1984, people were dressed as in the movie, wrote and shouted and you could smoke in the salon.
It was wonderful.
Far later and far away from the girls' room, the editor announced that there was a chance to interview Meat Loaf on a visit to Sweden - but was anyone even interested?
I take it I shouted and lay sleepless a whole night while I filed on ingenious questions.
Tagged as a child on Christmas Eve, I came to work to find out that Meat Loaf had a cold and the interview was canceled.
The disappointment was grotesque but then the gratitude crept in.
Sometimes it's good to not see your Savior become flesh so to speak.
The dream is intact, the enchantment not broken.
When I read the news about Meat Loaf
, it feels - in fact - like when Astrid Lindgren passed away.
VA?
NO!
MÄH!
you shaped my world, you helped me, you carried me, you have always existed, you can not die.
On the other hand, it is surprising that he lived so long;
he looked like ill himself.
Now he is gone, the music is still there.
Puts me in the car and maximizes the volume - Two out of three ain't bad.
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.
Read more about browser support
"I'm completely crazy" - see when Meat Loaf takes over the show in Sunday Open 2003 in the clip.
Photo: SVT archive