Ohio Okays $100,000 Check for Meat Loaf: Melissa Etheridge Gets More Than Man Behind Bat Out of Hell

Meat Loaf Gets $100,000 for Ohio Show

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Rocker Meat Loaf's $100,000 check is in the mail for his 19-song concert at last summer's Ohio State Fair. Officials approved the payment Monday during a State Controlling Board session in Columbus.  Not a bad night's work for a 64-year-old whose biggest album came more than three decades ago.  In all, 13 entertainment contracts were settled.  The highest paid musician was Melissa Etheridge, who got $125,000 for an August show at the Celeste Center during the fair. The Bellwether has the list of payments approved for entertainers and concert promotion and it reveals just how much some major acts make while on the road these days.  Maybe there are some surprises?  In all, the state paid $997,594 on entertainment.  It plans to spend about $1.2 million in 2012.
 Here's what the Controlling Board voted to pay the various acts:

1.  Ke$ha / Semi Precious Weapons - $205,000.
2.  Avant / Chrisette Michele/ Tank - $43,000.
3.  Meat Loaf - $100,000.
4.  Seether / 10 Years - $82,500.
5.  David Crowder Band -- $30,000.
6.  Glenn Miller Orchestra - $7,000.
7.   Loretta Lynn / Oak Ridge Boys - $75,000.
8.   Big Time Rush / New Hollow - $108,500.
9.  Trace Adkins / Brantley Gilbert - $105,000.
10.  The O'Jays -- $58,000.
11.  Ohio State University Buckeye Sportsfest -- $5,000.
12.  Melissa Etheridge -- $125,000.
13.  Concert Promotion -- $53,594.

Rockers made more than the rappers and country acts.  And the Glenn Miller Orchestra looks to be one of the more enduring groups around.   Band leader Miller disappeared during December 1944 while leading the Army Air Force Band during World War II. He was supposed to play for soldiers in Paris, but the plane vanished over the English Channel with its passengers and crew. Nothing has ever been found.  Meat Loaf made it through the Ohio Fair setlist, but later last summer he fainted during shows in Pittsburgh and New Jersey.  No word on whether he'll be back in Ohio in 2012.