Meat Loaf back on stage

Photo: All rights reserved.

Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf sang in public for the first time in more than two years on Tuesday, when he joined the cast of his musical Bat Out of Hell onstage in New York.

The rock veteran, 71, sung his 1977 hit You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) with the cast during their encore at the New York City Center on Tuesday.

"OK, you guys have been wanting to do this long ago, so we're going to do it now," shouted Meat Loaf in footage posted on YouTube after grabbing a microphone from castmember Andrew Polec. "Give me a little, 'You took the words right out of my mouth!'"

The cast then took turns to sing each verse, with Meat Loaf joining in for the chorus.

The rock star, real name Michael Lee Aday, last sung at Bat Out of Hell's launch in Toronto, Canada in May 2017, and has been plagued by back and vocal problems that have kept him off stage. The star also reportedly broke a collarbone in a nasty stage fall during a Q&A event in Texas last year.

He has denied that he is no longer able to sing, however, branding those saying who made the comment "morons".

"Morons!" he told Rolling Stone. "I'm going, 'Before you make a comment, learn something about music. Learn something about tone.' People saying, 'You can't sing anymore.' I mean, OK, I can't get up to the B's anymore, but I can still hit the high C's, and A is a really strong note, too."