Bat Out Of Hell IIIPatti Russo decided at the last minute to leave the band and won’t be touring with Meat Loaf anymore. She’s been replaced, it seems, by someone about half Meat Loaf’s age by the name of Aspen Miller.

Here’s the complete track listing for BAT OUT OF HELL III, due out on Halloween. Jim Steinman fans will notice a couple of familiar tunes: from DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES comes “Seize The Night.” From Pandora’s Box comes “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be” — one of my favorite tracks from that album. I’ll be curious to hear how they’re reworked for the album. My favorite song title is “If It Ain’t Broke Break It,” but I don’t know who wrote that one. Steinman’s “Bad For Good” originally appeared on his own album that he sang himself. And, of course, the first single is the song that Celine Dion originally took to the Top 10 in the mid-to-late-90s, “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” although Pandora’s Box did it first in 1989. We’ll see if the general public is at all interested in what they’ll see as Meat Loaf covering a Celine Dion song. What an odd combo.

Did Meat Loaf originally want Scarlett Johansson to sing with him on the lead single? Somehow, I doubt it. . .

The full album track listing, of course, can also be seen on the Amazon.com page where you can pre-order the album.

Meat Loaf is laughing off any worries about his recent health problems.

Meat Loaf hired a vocal coach to help him get rid of the extra vibratto he’s acquired in his voice over the years. I like that idea.

According to this report, the lawsuit between Steinman and Meat Loaf has been settled. Details were not made public. There are still seven Steinman songs on the new album, so I guess it’s all good.

There are slightly more details at this link, which includes this nice bit of good news:

[Meat Loaf] said Steinman and Child will co-produce another musical project involving himself, but declined to give details. He said it wouldn’t be a fourth instalment of Bat Out of Hell.

Steinman has a blog. He talks about BAT3, his love for the Yankees, and something about a BAT OUT OF HELL Musical project. Is that what the last item is referencing? He also talks a lot about the failed Batman musical project, and where those songs wound up.

Steinman also has a new group called Dream Engine in the works. You can hear song samples on the typically-bloated and slow-to-load MySpace page for the project. Or just go to the Wikipedia page for the group to learn more.