MEAT LOAF COLLAPSES AT JUBE
Theatre cleared as show cut short
Theatrical rocker Meat Loaf collapsed on stage in Edmonton Thursday night.
According to fans, Meat Loaf collapsed during his Jubilee Auditorium show shortly after 9:30 p.m.
“He was performing I Would Do Anything For Love, and all of a sudden in the middle of it he collapsed right on stage.
“We weren’t sure at first whether it was part of the act or it was something for real,” said Lindsay Sundmark, who watched as an ambulance pulled away from the Jubilee just after 10 p.m.
Fans were told to clear the theatre after the incident.
“I was scared. I didn’t know what to think,” said Sophia Shandalla, 17, a lifelong fan who went to see the show with her family.
“I didn’t know if it was real. All of the band stopped playing instantly,” said her mother, Lotta Shandalla, visibly shaken.
Britt Brewer said the whole incident “was a little surreal.”
Brewer attended the show with her brother, mother and a coworker.
“It looked at first like he was just being theatrical and lying down on the stage,” she said.
Fans became worried, she said, when he wasn’t moving and bandmates and tour staff crowded around him.
The next thing she knew, “security were telling us to clear the venue.”
Fans gathered outside said the 68-year-old performer, whose real name is Marvin Lee Aday, had put on an energetic performance.
Many didn’t realize his sudden collapse wasn’t part of the show until paramedics rushed the stage.
“I just hope he’s OK. He put his heart 100 per cent into the concert, he put everything into it, I just feel so bad for him,” said Lotta.
That being said, Brewer said there were moments when Meat Loaf seemed “a little bit tired, and at times it was hard to hear him.”
She also said his voice sounded a bit strained.
This comes just days after Meat Loaf was forced to cancel a show in Calgary due to illness.