Meat Loaf reveals backstage energy lab

Rocker Meat Loaf turns his dressing room into a pharmacy on tour these days - so he can get energised for concerts.

The 60-year-old 'Bat Out Of Hell' singer insists on a ritual of cough drops, vitamins, vocal spray and energy boosters before stepping out on stage.

He said: "If you go into my dressing room there's a little bowl with Ricola cough drops in it and Vocal Zones (lozenges) and the spray is Singer's Secret.

"There's vitamins - two kinds of Bs, a C - and then there are energy plus tablets. I know they help me."

Meat Loaf insists his pre-show dressing room ritual also helps him calm his nerves.

He adds: "At two o'clock in the afternoon before a show I'm so uptight and so nervous and so antsy and so afraid and so paranoid.

"But I'm slow about taking the remedies, which start about 5pm. There's some I take at 5.30 and there's some at 6.15 and some at 6.45... It's a three-hour regimen.

"When they have meet-and-greets before a show, that really throws me off. I'm so locked into this routine."

And that's not the only negative: "You crash hard when it's over. I'm like, `Ya ha!' when I get into drinking five-hour energy drinks. Oh yeah I'm revved up before I go on stage."