It's All An Act Says Meat's Girl

"With teen-agers, everything is life or death, everything is jugular."

Karla DeVito sings with rock's heaviest singer and fake loves him on stage. A small town girl became corrupted when she headed for the bright lights of New York. We tracked her down to a train traveling between Manchester and London.

Enough of this wishful thinking. On stage Karla may look like a vixen as she tosses her black hair, but get her alone and she's like the girl next door with a broad smile and bubbling laugh.

"No, the stage show isn't outrageously sexy. We hug and that kind of thing but it's all done very tongue in cheek. We're having fun. The act shouldn't be taken too seriously. In a way we're recapturing the feelings of the fifties and early sixties; that kind of fun you had when you were young.

I came from a very small American town. A lot of what you see in soap operas is a true reflection of that kind of life. It's easy to stay comfortably in that life style and end up with a routine existence."

So Karla headed away and met up with Jim Steinman. She's also done some work in 'Godspell'. She possesses a powerful voice.

"I hope there's going to be an increase in good ballsy female singers," says Karla. "I have nothing against Olivia Newton John but I think that women should be more assertive and growl a little"

Karla's relationship with Meat is purely platonic, she assures me. "He's fun to be with and he has such a stage presence. The combination of his voice and Jim's songs is devastating. I remember one night he had a fever of 103 but he still went on and appropriately passed out during Hot Summer Night - we had to carry on as best we could. I think Meat Loaf has brought back theater into music.

Back in the good old days so many bands would come on and plug in and play, it didn't go anything beyond that. If we do nothing else, we put on a very good show."