July 9, 2026
BREAKING: "Total Eclipse" Singer Bonnie Tyler Dead at 75
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RSS Feed We are heartbroken along with the rest of the world to hear the iconic Bonnie Tyler has unexpectedly passed away after getting word that her condition was improving following an emergency intestinal surgery in May. Tyler, who is best known for her Grammy nominated mega hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Footloose” anthem “I Need A Hero” died in a Portugal hospital, her family saying they would give more details surrounding her death shortly. We go over her incredible rise to fame from a pub singer in Wales, who changed her name twice before making it big, to the story behind “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, a song that was supposed to be sung by another major artist at the time, Meatloaf.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, that Folcus. Thursday July nine, we were hopping on right after putting up our morning run as we often do, because we have a breaking news update. Just getting words that singer Bonnie Tyler has passed away at the age of seventy five. Welcome to this breaking news episode, Robes Even. I saw the name and knew immediately and connected her to that one song.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: You know what's crazy is I don't know her, I've never met her, but I feel emotional. She has had such an impact on so many people's lives. She has brought so much joy to people with her music and for many of us at a certain age, but I actually think she has touched just about every generation because who doesn't know total eclipse of the heart, holding out for a hero. But these were the anthems of my childhood and coming up. And still listen to her music when I want to have fun, when I want to when I want to release. She is that powerhouse of a voice that just will take you right back.
00:01:07
Speaker 3: To a place of joy. And that's what I think of when I think of her.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: And Bonnie Tyler had been in the headlines here recently. We'll let you know we got word from her family. They put up a statement on her official social media pages talking about her passing. But she had Robe been in the headlines here recently, first of all for going into the hospital for an emergency surgery, then word that she was in a coma, then word that she came out of the coma. But Robe she had been still in the hospital. We always say, we hear now seventy somethings, albody dies. That is really really young. But the way the family explains it, rope she for the past month or two sounds like she's been going through it in the hospital.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, she ended up dying at the hospital in Portugal, where she has lived for quite some time with her husband. And this was the official family statement that came out just a short while ago. Bonnie's family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpected passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for. We will issue a further statement shortly, but now asked for privacy to deal with this tragedy. And I think that speaks to where we all are right now. Yes we knew she was ill, Yes we knew she had been fighting for her life. It definitely seemed serious. But to hear that she came out of the coma it I think a lot of us who had been following it felt like, Okay, good, she's passed the worst of it, and she's going to come out of this. I mean, she had tours scheduled, she was still active in her singing career and still beloved, obviously by millions around the world. So to hear her family say that it was a sudden or an unexpected passing, that speaks to the shock of it today hearing this news.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: I mean they said originally, I think, give us all the details when she first went into the hospital in May, but they called it an emergency intestinal surgery. So unexpected, so unexpected, obviously right, it was because you just said she still she had a tour plan, she was supposed to be back on the road very soon, so Robes she seemed to be indecent enough help to be out there on the road, still doing her thing. And if you saw her lately, I mean, Robes didn't necessarily see in the recent pictures of her. So anybody you'd be concerned about health wise as a seventy five year old Robes, this is awful, and for whatever reason, Robes, it seems awful or worse or unexpected because the updates look, somebody's in a coma sounds bad. Come out of a coma sounds positive.
00:03:33
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, but they.
00:03:35
Speaker 1: Did stay she was struggling and still stayed in the hospital. But ropes. I guess that last update at least hearing she was out of the coma, I kind of put it in your mind or the back of your mind that oh, okay, she's going to get through this.
00:03:47
Speaker 3: I mean, we had hoped this.
00:03:48
Speaker 2: I mean she has been just such an integral part of my life in so many people's lives. Even Look, you're not a big fan of eighties power ballads, but you also, like everyone knows for music. I don't know who care, who you are, what age you are, you know those songs.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: Oh just stuffing for folks like me who are nowhere. I guess that speaks to the reach. I don't know anything about this music in the eighties, but I know who she is and I know two songs. I know one of them because freaking Kevin Bakon was dancing his ass around to one of them in Footloot yes, I need a hero. That's probably the song I get more hype or energy to Total Eclipse of the Heart as iconic, and it's on every list of greatest songs ever made. You're gonna find that no matter what. But this is the one that I've admitted more times than not. I get annoyed because everybody else loves it so much and I'm around people who start screaming and yelling it in my ear. But it's without question, one of the greatest songs to have happened, one of the most successful songs. And to think it came out in nineteen eighty three, I think it was. And here we are in twenty twenty six. Play that song anywhere, play it anywhere. I was just everybody's going to be into it. That is still a current hit. And don't let there be an eclipse ever.
00:05:06
Speaker 2: Oh yes, we've had two eclipses. And I believe Gma it was twenty seventeen. I believe we had her on a cruise ship singing Total Eclipse of the Heart and you were everybody was for this big eclipse and she, you know what, I loved that she embraced it, that she knew that that song was so iconic, and she had given plenty of interviews saying I never get tired of singing it.
00:05:30
Speaker 3: And I appreciate that because you know, look, I get it.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: Some people get annoyed that they have to always sing that one song that they're only known for that. And look, she had well more than just that one song, but that was the iconic song attached to her. And I love that she never ever was annoyed by singing it, grew tired of singing it. She expressed how much she loved that song. She recognized what that song meant for her and what it means to everyone else.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: I guess sometimes we make the assumption about those songs and certain artists who look Michael Jackson had hit after hit after hit. Some people make one iconic hit and then the rest of their career is just okay. And yes, she had another hit, I Need a Hero one from Footloose. She had one other, the Heartache Song, which was her first hit. She had a long career, multiple albums. I think about Rachel Platten, what is the song the one iconic oh, fight song, fight song? Yes, And we asked her about that, and do you ever get tired of that? Everybody's just waiting on that one. She said that that song pay for my mortgage. No, she expressed, like every time I belt it out, it is a retelling and an emotional experience. You never get tired of it. I think that about this song. How many times? It's the only song. If I say, Bonnie Tyler, how many what's the percentage? The only song you can come up with is the one yes, And that's fine, and that's awesome. But you think that would wear on somebody. No, this lady embraced and sang that thing with that raspy ass voice as many times as anybody would invite her to sing it. Now I'm thinking, man, she should have been invited to the National Mall. She should have been singing that song for the anniversary. Like they're just it's just we lost somebody who was unifying in a song. Her genre wasn't necessarily for everybody. It wasn't that diverse, you could even argue, but that song touched everybody. And that's what music does. It brings folks together. Thank you, Bonnie Tyler for that song, which will never go away.
00:07:31
Speaker 2: No, and we've been actually already playing that song, and I need a hero at nauseum as soon as the word came out, and it did flood you with emotion. And I do love what you pointed out that Rachel plattin in that fight song. It's about what you feel when you hear the music, and when artists understand that and get that and lean into it, it's a beautiful relationship with the audience.
00:07:53
Speaker 3: And it never went away.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: She always had folks who, Yes, I dare anyone not to run on the dance floor at a wedding when that song comes on, or you.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: Know, maybe not.
00:08:04
Speaker 2: You know me, You couldn't hold wild horses, couldn't hold me back. You hear the beginning of that song, and I would say, at least every girl runs to the dance totally clips.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: Yes, how do you dance to that song?
00:08:16
Speaker 2: Oh? You just would turn around. Everyone turns around you. You like you sway with your girlfriends. Oh, I have danced to that song, believe me.
00:08:23
Speaker 1: How do you dance with your man to that song?
00:08:25
Speaker 3: I don't know if you necessarily dance.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna try it after this, after this recording. But as much as we know that song, as much as we love that song, as many years as that song has been around. You know what I learned something today about Bonnie Tyler, which is Bonnie Tyler was not her birth name. It wasn't even her second name. All right, we continue here on, Amy and TJ. I wanted to hop on and give this quick update, just getting word after we posted our already our morning run newscasts. It's right before this on the feed. But we hoped right back on because we got word that Bonnie Tyler passed away at the age of seventy five. And Rosie, you learned so much about folks, and I learned that Bonnie Tyler was not her name, not even close to it. I did not know this at all.
00:09:15
Speaker 3: I didn't know this.
00:09:16
Speaker 2: That her name was Gainner Hopkins. Yes, she was born in Wales, and when you hear about her humble beginnings, it actually makes you fall even more in love with what she was able to accomplish and what she gave to the world.
00:09:28
Speaker 3: But she was born in.
00:09:29
Speaker 2: Wales, daughter of a coal miner, born in a home that didn't even have indoor plumbing.
00:09:34
Speaker 3: She had an outside toilet.
00:09:36
Speaker 2: These were her beginnings and she built her life in this area, singing at pubs and had dreams of becoming, you know, the young girl from the small town who makes it big, and she did exactly that. She was discovered in one of those Welsh parts.
00:09:54
Speaker 1: Awesome.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: I love these stories.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: I think about that. We you and I just came from a lot of pubs in Europe, and to think you could be sitting in and we saw a bunch of performers, To think that could turn into something else's it's fascinating. She made it. But bro she went from Gayner Hopkins. That's how she was born. She started performing. She didn't want to use that name. There was some other Welsh singer named Mary Hopkins and she didn't want I guess that person was a big enough deal that she didn't want any affiliation. So she changed her name and was performing in the pubs as Scharene Davies.
00:10:28
Speaker 2: That's so wild, And every time I hear Gayner Hopkins, I was thinking of Gloria Gaynor, the other singer who actually is in a similar genre. I would think that could even have been confusing. So Sharen Davies and then ended up somehow with Bonnie.
00:10:41
Speaker 1: Bonnie Tyler the whatever the the I think whatever record label she was working with it was something back and forth about what she should be called. They landed on Bonnie Tyler. But it's not her name, not her name a name.
00:10:54
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: And then we also learned you found this out.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: I didn't know this about Total Eclips of the Heart, but it makes so much sense.
00:11:02
Speaker 1: This is okay. No one, I bet no one listening knows this story. I certainly did not. Total Eclips of the Heart was not her song, and in fact, the guy who wrote it did not write it for her. In fact, he wrote it for somebody else who was kind of a big deal at the time.
00:11:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody else who I absolutely love too.
00:11:25
Speaker 3: Loved the music, loved the style.
00:11:26
Speaker 2: So the fact that the song was written by the same guy who had been producing meat Loafs Bat out of Hell.
00:11:32
Speaker 3: So yeah, the song was written.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: And meant for and intended for meat.
00:11:36
Speaker 3: Loaf to sing.
00:11:37
Speaker 2: The song absolutely sounds like a meat Loaf song. It totally makes sense now.
00:11:43
Speaker 1: All right, So if that makes sense, does it make sense as well that he said he wrote it for a musical about the og vampire Nosparatu.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: It totally makes sense. But I didn't know that either.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: Yes, this song was written totally clips of the heart that You're go and raise it. I was written for a vampire musical.
00:12:01
Speaker 3: That I get it.
00:12:02
Speaker 1: I get it.
00:12:04
Speaker 3: It's opera rock.
00:12:05
Speaker 2: It's like this this genre that I love and Meet Loaf nailed it. But I never even equivocated Bonnie Tyler with that genre or anything. But now that you say it, now that I've learned it, it reads. And here's the other cool thing. So Yes, why didn't Meet Loaf sing the song because he lost his voice at the time, so he was going through this rough patch where he couldn't sing, and so this song is just sitting there. It was supposed to be Yes in this musical for a Noasperato. I don't know how it ended up on the cutting room floor.
00:12:37
Speaker 1: Well, it ended up because she was excited about the idea of working with the guy who produced Mee Loaf's hit album. She begged to meet with this guy. He didn't even want to meet with her. Steinman Jim Steinman goes to his apartment in Manhattan just to do a meet and greet. He was fascinated by her voice, sings this song. Gives her this one to perform. It became her song after that, She said meatloafs. She'd run into them over the years and would always talk is to her about that should have been my song. That's my song. That is great, a great story in great history. Robes. That song has been out since eighty three. I'm just learning this.
00:13:15
Speaker 2: That is And she actually got Grammy nominations for that on her nineteen eighty three album. But what a cool story that that was not her story initially and absolutely became her her swan song.
00:13:30
Speaker 1: You know what, let that be a lesson. Let's take that from Bonnie Tyler today. It doesn't have to be meant for you. It wasn't made for you. You weren't the first option. You weren't the first thought. But you take advantage of an opportunity when it's in front of you. Bruce Willis was the tenth guy in line to play in Diehard, and look what it became to that this is a thing, somebody else's song for some other thing landed to her and made her great Robes. That's fate. That's the universe. How do these things happen? That is an incredible story. And by the way, that raspy voice of hers and they would go, wow, that's awesome. Robes.
00:14:05
Speaker 3: It was.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: It came because she didn't follow doctor's order. She had surgery on her It had some nodules removed from her throat robes. It resulted in that raspy sounds. Said doctor told her she needed to rest her voice. Afterwards, she kept it going and they say that resulted in this iconic voice that we now have. Wow, didn't this woman has been around all this time, first time I've learned any of this about her.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: I love hearing those stories.
00:14:32
Speaker 2: And because of that raspy voice, she said she was constantly compared to Rod Stewart, who at the time was a really big star, and so she was like, it's a compliment, I know, but I don't know what he thinks about it. She just seemed so humble in all of her interviews. She's like, I can't help it if I've got a husky voice. But that husky voice is what just made her so distinctive. I mean, obviously she's incredible in her talents and her ability to sing. But I footloose too, just nineteen eighty four, holding out for a hero.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: That song.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: I run to that song all the time, and sometimes I forget it's Bonnie Tyler, Bonnie Tyler and total Eclipse of the Heart. Absolutely I know that, but somehow I forgot and you started playing it, I was like, oh my god, of course that's her too.
00:15:13
Speaker 1: Let's footloose, That's what I remember. So we just wanted to hop on, give the update, let you know what was happening. But this is just word coming out just moments ago. So we just wanted to hop on and record and let you know, go ahead.
00:15:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I always just wanted to say, like in our hearts, go out to her husband. She's been married to the same man, Robert Sullivan, since nineteen seventy three, and he has been by her side the entire time. And I'm sure he is just absolutely devastated as we all are, and.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: By her side, by her side before she became the superstar that she became. And so I always appreciate hearing those stories. Folks, We appreciate you spending some time. But yes, we know you're going to be listening to Spotify like a lot of us right now and listening to Bonnie Tyler songs. Enjoy, but remember some of the backstorre. Remember what this woman went through, and take some lessons from her that she's leaving with us today. It's sad, sad that she's gone at seventy five, sad that it was unexpected, but Ropes, there's joy we will have because of Bonnie Tyler today. So with that, we do appreciate you're spending some time with us on TJ on behalf of my dear Amy Roback will talk to me
Speaker 1: Hey, that Folcus. Thursday July nine, we were hopping on right after putting up our morning run as we often do, because we have a breaking news update. Just getting words that singer Bonnie Tyler has passed away at the age of seventy five. Welcome to this breaking news episode, Robes Even. I saw the name and knew immediately and connected her to that one song.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: You know what's crazy is I don't know her, I've never met her, but I feel emotional. She has had such an impact on so many people's lives. She has brought so much joy to people with her music and for many of us at a certain age, but I actually think she has touched just about every generation because who doesn't know total eclipse of the heart, holding out for a hero. But these were the anthems of my childhood and coming up. And still listen to her music when I want to have fun, when I want to when I want to release. She is that powerhouse of a voice that just will take you right back.
00:01:07
Speaker 3: To a place of joy. And that's what I think of when I think of her.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: And Bonnie Tyler had been in the headlines here recently. We'll let you know we got word from her family. They put up a statement on her official social media pages talking about her passing. But she had Robe been in the headlines here recently, first of all for going into the hospital for an emergency surgery, then word that she was in a coma, then word that she came out of the coma. But Robe she had been still in the hospital. We always say, we hear now seventy somethings, albody dies. That is really really young. But the way the family explains it, rope she for the past month or two sounds like she's been going through it in the hospital.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, she ended up dying at the hospital in Portugal, where she has lived for quite some time with her husband. And this was the official family statement that came out just a short while ago. Bonnie's family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpected passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for. We will issue a further statement shortly, but now asked for privacy to deal with this tragedy. And I think that speaks to where we all are right now. Yes we knew she was ill, Yes we knew she had been fighting for her life. It definitely seemed serious. But to hear that she came out of the coma it I think a lot of us who had been following it felt like, Okay, good, she's passed the worst of it, and she's going to come out of this. I mean, she had tours scheduled, she was still active in her singing career and still beloved, obviously by millions around the world. So to hear her family say that it was a sudden or an unexpected passing, that speaks to the shock of it today hearing this news.
00:02:47
Speaker 1: I mean they said originally, I think, give us all the details when she first went into the hospital in May, but they called it an emergency intestinal surgery. So unexpected, so unexpected, obviously right, it was because you just said she still she had a tour plan, she was supposed to be back on the road very soon, so Robes she seemed to be indecent enough help to be out there on the road, still doing her thing. And if you saw her lately, I mean, Robes didn't necessarily see in the recent pictures of her. So anybody you'd be concerned about health wise as a seventy five year old Robes, this is awful, and for whatever reason, Robes, it seems awful or worse or unexpected because the updates look, somebody's in a coma sounds bad. Come out of a coma sounds positive.
00:03:33
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, but they.
00:03:35
Speaker 1: Did stay she was struggling and still stayed in the hospital. But ropes. I guess that last update at least hearing she was out of the coma, I kind of put it in your mind or the back of your mind that oh, okay, she's going to get through this.
00:03:47
Speaker 3: I mean, we had hoped this.
00:03:48
Speaker 2: I mean she has been just such an integral part of my life in so many people's lives. Even Look, you're not a big fan of eighties power ballads, but you also, like everyone knows for music. I don't know who care, who you are, what age you are, you know those songs.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: Oh just stuffing for folks like me who are nowhere. I guess that speaks to the reach. I don't know anything about this music in the eighties, but I know who she is and I know two songs. I know one of them because freaking Kevin Bakon was dancing his ass around to one of them in Footloot yes, I need a hero. That's probably the song I get more hype or energy to Total Eclipse of the Heart as iconic, and it's on every list of greatest songs ever made. You're gonna find that no matter what. But this is the one that I've admitted more times than not. I get annoyed because everybody else loves it so much and I'm around people who start screaming and yelling it in my ear. But it's without question, one of the greatest songs to have happened, one of the most successful songs. And to think it came out in nineteen eighty three, I think it was. And here we are in twenty twenty six. Play that song anywhere, play it anywhere. I was just everybody's going to be into it. That is still a current hit. And don't let there be an eclipse ever.
00:05:06
Speaker 2: Oh yes, we've had two eclipses. And I believe Gma it was twenty seventeen. I believe we had her on a cruise ship singing Total Eclipse of the Heart and you were everybody was for this big eclipse and she, you know what, I loved that she embraced it, that she knew that that song was so iconic, and she had given plenty of interviews saying I never get tired of singing it.
00:05:30
Speaker 3: And I appreciate that because you know, look, I get it.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: Some people get annoyed that they have to always sing that one song that they're only known for that. And look, she had well more than just that one song, but that was the iconic song attached to her. And I love that she never ever was annoyed by singing it, grew tired of singing it. She expressed how much she loved that song. She recognized what that song meant for her and what it means to everyone else.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: I guess sometimes we make the assumption about those songs and certain artists who look Michael Jackson had hit after hit after hit. Some people make one iconic hit and then the rest of their career is just okay. And yes, she had another hit, I Need a Hero one from Footloose. She had one other, the Heartache Song, which was her first hit. She had a long career, multiple albums. I think about Rachel Platten, what is the song the one iconic oh, fight song, fight song? Yes, And we asked her about that, and do you ever get tired of that? Everybody's just waiting on that one. She said that that song pay for my mortgage. No, she expressed, like every time I belt it out, it is a retelling and an emotional experience. You never get tired of it. I think that about this song. How many times? It's the only song. If I say, Bonnie Tyler, how many what's the percentage? The only song you can come up with is the one yes, And that's fine, and that's awesome. But you think that would wear on somebody. No, this lady embraced and sang that thing with that raspy ass voice as many times as anybody would invite her to sing it. Now I'm thinking, man, she should have been invited to the National Mall. She should have been singing that song for the anniversary. Like they're just it's just we lost somebody who was unifying in a song. Her genre wasn't necessarily for everybody. It wasn't that diverse, you could even argue, but that song touched everybody. And that's what music does. It brings folks together. Thank you, Bonnie Tyler for that song, which will never go away.
00:07:31
Speaker 2: No, and we've been actually already playing that song, and I need a hero at nauseum as soon as the word came out, and it did flood you with emotion. And I do love what you pointed out that Rachel plattin in that fight song. It's about what you feel when you hear the music, and when artists understand that and get that and lean into it, it's a beautiful relationship with the audience.
00:07:53
Speaker 3: And it never went away.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: She always had folks who, Yes, I dare anyone not to run on the dance floor at a wedding when that song comes on, or you.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: Know, maybe not.
00:08:04
Speaker 2: You know me, You couldn't hold wild horses, couldn't hold me back. You hear the beginning of that song, and I would say, at least every girl runs to the dance totally clips.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: Yes, how do you dance to that song?
00:08:16
Speaker 2: Oh? You just would turn around. Everyone turns around you. You like you sway with your girlfriends. Oh, I have danced to that song, believe me.
00:08:23
Speaker 1: How do you dance with your man to that song?
00:08:25
Speaker 3: I don't know if you necessarily dance.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna try it after this, after this recording. But as much as we know that song, as much as we love that song, as many years as that song has been around. You know what I learned something today about Bonnie Tyler, which is Bonnie Tyler was not her birth name. It wasn't even her second name. All right, we continue here on, Amy and TJ. I wanted to hop on and give this quick update, just getting word after we posted our already our morning run newscasts. It's right before this on the feed. But we hoped right back on because we got word that Bonnie Tyler passed away at the age of seventy five. And Rosie, you learned so much about folks, and I learned that Bonnie Tyler was not her name, not even close to it. I did not know this at all.
00:09:15
Speaker 3: I didn't know this.
00:09:16
Speaker 2: That her name was Gainner Hopkins. Yes, she was born in Wales, and when you hear about her humble beginnings, it actually makes you fall even more in love with what she was able to accomplish and what she gave to the world.
00:09:28
Speaker 3: But she was born in.
00:09:29
Speaker 2: Wales, daughter of a coal miner, born in a home that didn't even have indoor plumbing.
00:09:34
Speaker 3: She had an outside toilet.
00:09:36
Speaker 2: These were her beginnings and she built her life in this area, singing at pubs and had dreams of becoming, you know, the young girl from the small town who makes it big, and she did exactly that. She was discovered in one of those Welsh parts.
00:09:54
Speaker 1: Awesome.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: I love these stories.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: I think about that. We you and I just came from a lot of pubs in Europe, and to think you could be sitting in and we saw a bunch of performers, To think that could turn into something else's it's fascinating. She made it. But bro she went from Gayner Hopkins. That's how she was born. She started performing. She didn't want to use that name. There was some other Welsh singer named Mary Hopkins and she didn't want I guess that person was a big enough deal that she didn't want any affiliation. So she changed her name and was performing in the pubs as Scharene Davies.
00:10:28
Speaker 2: That's so wild, And every time I hear Gayner Hopkins, I was thinking of Gloria Gaynor, the other singer who actually is in a similar genre. I would think that could even have been confusing. So Sharen Davies and then ended up somehow with Bonnie.
00:10:41
Speaker 1: Bonnie Tyler the whatever the the I think whatever record label she was working with it was something back and forth about what she should be called. They landed on Bonnie Tyler. But it's not her name, not her name a name.
00:10:54
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: And then we also learned you found this out.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: I didn't know this about Total Eclips of the Heart, but it makes so much sense.
00:11:02
Speaker 1: This is okay. No one, I bet no one listening knows this story. I certainly did not. Total Eclips of the Heart was not her song, and in fact, the guy who wrote it did not write it for her. In fact, he wrote it for somebody else who was kind of a big deal at the time.
00:11:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, somebody else who I absolutely love too.
00:11:25
Speaker 3: Loved the music, loved the style.
00:11:26
Speaker 2: So the fact that the song was written by the same guy who had been producing meat Loafs Bat out of Hell.
00:11:32
Speaker 3: So yeah, the song was written.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: And meant for and intended for meat.
00:11:36
Speaker 3: Loaf to sing.
00:11:37
Speaker 2: The song absolutely sounds like a meat Loaf song. It totally makes sense now.
00:11:43
Speaker 1: All right, So if that makes sense, does it make sense as well that he said he wrote it for a musical about the og vampire Nosparatu.
00:11:53
Speaker 3: It totally makes sense. But I didn't know that either.
00:11:56
Speaker 1: Yes, this song was written totally clips of the heart that You're go and raise it. I was written for a vampire musical.
00:12:01
Speaker 3: That I get it.
00:12:02
Speaker 1: I get it.
00:12:04
Speaker 3: It's opera rock.
00:12:05
Speaker 2: It's like this this genre that I love and Meet Loaf nailed it. But I never even equivocated Bonnie Tyler with that genre or anything. But now that you say it, now that I've learned it, it reads. And here's the other cool thing. So Yes, why didn't Meet Loaf sing the song because he lost his voice at the time, so he was going through this rough patch where he couldn't sing, and so this song is just sitting there. It was supposed to be Yes in this musical for a Noasperato. I don't know how it ended up on the cutting room floor.
00:12:37
Speaker 1: Well, it ended up because she was excited about the idea of working with the guy who produced Mee Loaf's hit album. She begged to meet with this guy. He didn't even want to meet with her. Steinman Jim Steinman goes to his apartment in Manhattan just to do a meet and greet. He was fascinated by her voice, sings this song. Gives her this one to perform. It became her song after that, She said meatloafs. She'd run into them over the years and would always talk is to her about that should have been my song. That's my song. That is great, a great story in great history. Robes. That song has been out since eighty three. I'm just learning this.
00:13:15
Speaker 2: That is And she actually got Grammy nominations for that on her nineteen eighty three album. But what a cool story that that was not her story initially and absolutely became her her swan song.
00:13:30
Speaker 1: You know what, let that be a lesson. Let's take that from Bonnie Tyler today. It doesn't have to be meant for you. It wasn't made for you. You weren't the first option. You weren't the first thought. But you take advantage of an opportunity when it's in front of you. Bruce Willis was the tenth guy in line to play in Diehard, and look what it became to that this is a thing, somebody else's song for some other thing landed to her and made her great Robes. That's fate. That's the universe. How do these things happen? That is an incredible story. And by the way, that raspy voice of hers and they would go, wow, that's awesome. Robes.
00:14:05
Speaker 3: It was.
00:14:06
Speaker 1: It came because she didn't follow doctor's order. She had surgery on her It had some nodules removed from her throat robes. It resulted in that raspy sounds. Said doctor told her she needed to rest her voice. Afterwards, she kept it going and they say that resulted in this iconic voice that we now have. Wow, didn't this woman has been around all this time, first time I've learned any of this about her.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: I love hearing those stories.
00:14:32
Speaker 2: And because of that raspy voice, she said she was constantly compared to Rod Stewart, who at the time was a really big star, and so she was like, it's a compliment, I know, but I don't know what he thinks about it. She just seemed so humble in all of her interviews. She's like, I can't help it if I've got a husky voice. But that husky voice is what just made her so distinctive. I mean, obviously she's incredible in her talents and her ability to sing. But I footloose too, just nineteen eighty four, holding out for a hero.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: That song.
00:15:02
Speaker 2: I run to that song all the time, and sometimes I forget it's Bonnie Tyler, Bonnie Tyler and total Eclipse of the Heart. Absolutely I know that, but somehow I forgot and you started playing it, I was like, oh my god, of course that's her too.
00:15:13
Speaker 1: Let's footloose, That's what I remember. So we just wanted to hop on, give the update, let you know what was happening. But this is just word coming out just moments ago. So we just wanted to hop on and record and let you know, go ahead.
00:15:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I always just wanted to say, like in our hearts, go out to her husband. She's been married to the same man, Robert Sullivan, since nineteen seventy three, and he has been by her side the entire time. And I'm sure he is just absolutely devastated as we all are, and.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: By her side, by her side before she became the superstar that she became. And so I always appreciate hearing those stories. Folks, We appreciate you spending some time. But yes, we know you're going to be listening to Spotify like a lot of us right now and listening to Bonnie Tyler songs. Enjoy, but remember some of the backstorre. Remember what this woman went through, and take some lessons from her that she's leaving with us today. It's sad, sad that she's gone at seventy five, sad that it was unexpected, but Ropes, there's joy we will have because of Bonnie Tyler today. So with that, we do appreciate you're spending some time with us on TJ on behalf of my dear Amy Roback will talk to me