Meat Loaf With John Parr - Rock 'N' Roll Mercenaries (1986)

"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" is a single by Meat Loaf and John Parr, released in 1986. It is from the album Blind Before I ...

"Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" is a single by Meat Loaf and John Parr, released in 1986. It is from the album Blind Before I Stop.

Background

In a 1986 interview with Record Mirror, Meat Loaf said of the song's message, "It's about the music business. It's about people who do it, but they aren't true to themselves. The perfect example is Deep Purple, last year. That's the perfect example of a rock 'n' roll mercenary. 'Let's take the money and run'."

Critical reception

On its release, Lucy O'Brien of New Musical Express considered "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" to be "a run-of-the-mill guitar-befuddled manifestation of the American dream". In a review of its single release in the US, Billboard described the song as a "hard rock indictment".