Ellen Foley

She found Paradise with Meat Loaf – and an unlikely Clash collaboration.

Ellen Foley is the unlikely link between Bat Out Of Hell and The Clash. Her appearance as Meat Loaf’s love interest/foil on Paradise By The Dashboard Light opened the doors for a solo career that kicked off with 1979’s Night Out album and took a left-turn with the defiantly arty Spirit Of St Louis, produced by her then-boyfriend Mick Jones and with The Clash as her backing band. For the past 35 years she has worked more in theatre and TV than in rock’n’roll, but her voice remains as strident and soulful as ever.

What was your first paid gig as a singer?

I grew up in St Louis, and I went to college there. I had a boyfriend who was a guitar player, and somehow we ended up doing a singer-guitar thing in a bar/pizzeria. These guys in the crowd weren’t into it – they started throwing knives and forks at us. We played for ten minutes. I think we made two dollars and fifty cents.

Where did you meet Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf?

[Satirical US magazine] National Lampoon created a comedy revue in ’75. In New York it was John Belushi and Gilda Radner and Bill Murray doing it, and we did it on the road. Meat was involved, and Jim was the musical director – him banging on a piano. He was writing the songs for Bat Out Of Hell then – he wrote Paradise around me and Meat. We did the demos, but nobody was interested. It was a pretty long journey before anyone would touch it.

Did you anticipate just how big that album would become?

I didn’t. I’m sure Jim did, but to me, I had never sung on a record before. It was an amazing thing – shock and awe.

Received wisdom says it was tough being a female artist in a male-dominated industry at that time. Was that your experience? There were women in the music industry before me – there was Blondie, there was the Phil Spector stuff I loved. I travelled the world, I had hits in Europe, [the label] spent money on me. It never felt like some big dramatic thing to be a woman.

Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson produced your first solo album, Night Out. What was it like working with them?

As much as I love Ian, he was slightly: “Oh, here’s a chick singer.” He wouldn’t let me in to do the mixes. It was a little bit like a boys’ club. But then I didn’t know my ass from my elbow when it came to mixing, so he was probably right. Ronson wasn’t like that, he was an ethereal character.

It must have been different working with The Clash on your next album.

It was. All of a sudden I was in this punk world. I didn’t exactly fit in. I told them I had to sing these songs in a different key,

and they were, like: “Whaddya mean ‘key’?” They were so anti-American, the Steinman thing was rubbish and shit. I think it was a wrong turn for me.

Mick Jones was rumoured to have written Should I Stay Or Should I Go about your relationship. What did you think when you first heard it?

I don’t think I heard it [back then]. I don’t even know if it’s about me to this day… I sing it as my last encore in my solo set, though. I never say anything, I just sing it.

There was a thirty-year gap between your third solo album, Another Breath and 2013’s About Time. Why so long?

I think I was really soured on the music industry. The record company was turned off by the second album, and the third one they just kind of ignored altogether. I was like: “I’ll just do something else” – TV and theatre and film. I would have done more albums if I felt more connected.

You worked with Jim Steinman again on the Pandora’s Box album in 1989. When was the last time you spoke to him?

The Pandora’s Box album was great. It was all women, which was a blast to do. I’m not sure why nobody paid attention to it. It was crazy. The last time I saw [Jim] was last year in New York. I feel like I’ve never lost touch with him. He always said I sang Heaven Can Wait better than Meat Loaf.