Jim Steinman Follow Up

In 2000, South African singer Jennifer Jones sang at the World Aids Day concert. Jones performed "The Future Ain't What It Used To Be". The World Aids Day concert was broadcast worldwide. For many people around the world, this was the first or only time they ever heard that song.

In 2001, the box set Andrew Lloyd Webber: Now & Forever was released. It included a recording, produced by Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber, and also co-produced by Steven Rinkoff and Nigel Wright, of the Steinman/Webber song "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste", from Whistle Down the Wind. It was credited to The Metal Philharmonic Orchestra, which was an unrealized performance project idea. Kyle Gordon, a.k.a. "Scarpia", a singer on many demo recordings for Steinman, sang the lead vocals.

Around 2001, Jim Steinman was working with singer Karine Hannah. Plans to make an album with her were eventually abandoned. Demo recordings of Hannah singing four songs by Steinman were leaked to fans and have since been available on numerous fan sites. The songs on these demos are "Safe Sex", "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", "Is Nothing Sacred" and "Braver Than We Are". Jim Steinman also recorded her voice on a demo of "Catwoman's Song", which recycled parts of the Steinman/Eldritch song "More". This demo was part of Steinman's preparations for the unrealised Batman: The Musical. He shared it with fans through a website. In 2002, Russell Watson released the album Encore. It included the Steinman/Black song "Is Nothing Sacred". Steinman had originally worked on his production of this song with Russel Watson on lead vocals.

Composed by Michael Reed and Jim Steinman, with a script by Warner Brown, Garbo – the Musical, about the life of the late screen idol Greta Garbo, opened in Sweden to poor reviews in 2002. Preparation for a stage musical based on the Batman comic book series began early in the decade, with Jim Steinman working on the music and lyrics. In August 2002, the New York Post reported that Warner Bros. signed Tim Burton to direct. According to an unnamed source Burton was attracted to the project because it was as dark as his 1989 film Batman rather than "the goofy, campy turn the franchise took with Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, both of which were directed by Joel Schumacher."

Jim Steinman said about Burton and the project, "It's more like his first two movies than any of the other movies. It's very dark and gothic, but really wildly funny. It was my dream that he do this." However, Warner Bros. cancelled its plans to cast and stage the show. Steinman has since shared some of the song demos from the show via the Dream Pollution website. The Dream Engine has, according to its website and MySpace page, also worked on recordings of some of the songs that were in the show. That includes the songs "We're Still The Children We Were Then" and "Not Allowed To Love".

Jim Steinman was executive producer for the 2003 MTV television film Wuthering Heights. He has cited Emily Brontë's novel, which had inspired "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", as one of his favorites. A limited-release six-track soundtrack CD was sold through MTV, on Steinman and Rinkoff's Ravenous Records label. Jim Steinman is credited as producer for the album and most of its tracks, and Steven Rinkoff is credited with recording, mixing and co-production. That album includes a simple recording of the Steinman/Eldritch song "More" with actors Mike Vogel and Erika Christensen performing lead vocals. It also includes the first-ever release of the song "If It Ain't Broke (Break It)", written by Jim Steinman, with lead vocals by Mike Vogel. The album also has a version of "The Future Ain't What It Used to Be" by Jim Steinman with lead vocals from Erika Christensen.

In 2002, the Opera Babes released the album Beyond Imagination. Jim Steinman produced the track "Vittoria!", adapted from the Giuseppe Verdi opera Aida. Steven Rinkoff was credited with co-production, recording and mixing. Like many Steinman productions, it includes work by electronic-music arranger and programmer Jeff Bova. Jim Steinman was also credited as arranger, along with Jeff Bova and Jon Cohen. In 2004, the film Shrek 2 was released, along with a soundtrack album. The album has two dance covers of the Steinman/Pitchford song "Holding Out for a Hero", one with vocals by Jennifer Saunders and the other credited to Frou Frou.

In 2005, The Everly Brothers released a limited edition album titled "On the Wings of a Nightingale: The Mercury Studio Recordings". This album included the song "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste", written and produced by Jim Steinman. The recording on that album was made in 1987, during the recording sessions that ended up being the 1989 album Some Hearts. However, the Steinman song was not released until 2005. This song is different from the song with the same title in Whistle Down the Wind. The two songs with this title share only a few words and no music in common, with the Everly Brothers version containing musical motifs recycled from the Steinman song "Out of the Frying Pan (And Into the Fire)". A demo recording of this song, with Rory Dodd singing lead vocals, has for many years been in circulation among fan websites. Steinman also wrote a later incarnation of "A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste", with partly different music and a partly different lyrics. Jim Steinman made a recording of this later incarnation with Gina Taylor, a.k.a. Gina Taylor-Pickens, singing the lead vocals. That recording was most likely made when the Pandora's Box album Original Sin was made, in the late 1980s, and has been in circulation among fans on the internet.

A separate and very different show from Tanz der Vampire, (Dance of the Vampires) opened on Broadway on October 16, 2002. After the original director left the show, it was directed by John Rando, who joined very shortly before the opening. The book was written by David Ives and was notable for the large number of jokes, many of which had a silly or vulgar quality to them. Whereas Tanz had been a "sung-through" musical with no breaks in the music (like an opera), Dance of the Vampires was a humorous spoken play with songs inserted at some parts. The reviews tended to be very negative.

It closed on January 25, 2003 after 61 previews and 56 regular performances. Financially, it was very unsuccessful and lost roughly $17 million. Jim Steinman did not attend the opening night, in order to show his disgust with the show. In his blog, Jim Steinman also described the show as "DOTV, which you guys know I hated & was disgusted by, & [I] was FIRED by my manager, acting as producer!" The manager he was referring to was David Sonenberg, who was one of the producers of the show and Steinman's longtime manager.

During the concerts in his Hair of the Dog tour (2005-2006), Meat Loaf told the audience that he and Jim would be releasing a new album. Later, Meat Loaf said that "lawyers worked for over a year putting together a contract for Jim Steinman to do Bat Out of Hell III. It was one of the best producer's contracts in the history of the record business." According to Meat Loaf, the composer had suffered some health setbacks, including a heart attack. Ultimately, according to the singer, Jim Steinman was not well enough to work on such an intense project. However, Steinman's manager refuted this version, saying that Steinman's "health is excellent" and although he had some "meaningful health problems about four years ago... he's been totally healthy the last couple of years... that's not the reason he didn't participate in [Bat III]".

Produced by Desmond Child, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose was released in October 2006. It has fourteen songs, seven of which were written by Jim Steinman; five of these were covers of songs already released on other albums. The other two were adapted from Steinman's demos of songs that were intended for musical theater projects. Steinman's demo of "In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher is King", with Rob Evan singing lead vocals, was part of the preparations for the unrealised Batman: The Musical project. Jim Steinman's demo of "Cry to Heaven", with Kyle Gordon singing lead vocal, was intended for the possibility that Steinman would provide songs for a musical based on the film Cry-Baby. Cry-Baby has since been staged, but without any work from Jim Steinman.

In 2006, the album's title became the subject of a legal battle between Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf. Steinman had registered a trademark on the title "Bat Out of Hell" in 1995, and sought to prevent Meat Loaf from using the title. Meat Loaf sought to cancel Steinman's trademark and use the title. Aside from the trademark case, he sued Steinman and longtime manager David Sonenberg for $50 million each, for a total of $100 million. An out-of-court settlement was reached, ending the legal cases, allowing Meat Loaf to use the title for this album, and allowing Meat Loaf to release his recordings of the songs "In the Land of the Pig the Butcher Is King" and "Cry to Heaven". The agreement allowed Steinman to use the title "Jim Steinman's Bat Out of Hell" for a musical theatre project based on the songs from Bat Out of Hell. This project was announced for opening on February 17, 2017 in Manchester.

In 2006, Westlife released The Love Album. It contained a cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart", produced by Steve Mac. A remix with an added intro, presumably done by Steinman, Rinkoff, and Bova, has leaked and been in circulation among fan sites. First publicly presented in early 2006, Jim Steinman and Steven Rinkoff created a music performance group named The Dream Engine. The group has worked on studio recordings and held live shows in New York City. It also performed at an award show in Atlanta, Georgia.

The people in this project were the first ever to publicly perform the songs "What Part of My Body Hurts the Most", "We're Still the Children We Once Were", "Speaking in Tongues", "Not Allowed to Love" and "(It Hurts) Only When I Feel". The last of those songs is partly adapted from "If It Ain't Broke (Break It)". This project was also the first to perform a revised and politicized lyrics to "Braver Than We Are". With the new lyrics, the song alternatively has been called "An American Elegy" and "God's Gone A.W.O.L.". According to Jim Steinman's blog, this project was "guided" by Steven Rinkoff. This project has not performed or been active in public since 2006.

In January 2012, it was announced that Steinman was working with Terry Jones of Monty Python fame on a Heavy metal version of The Nutcracker. In February of the same year, it was announced that he would be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 14. On April 10, 2012, Amherst College announced that Steinman would receive an honorary degree at the college's 191st commencement on May 20. However, honorary degrees are awarded only in person, and Steinman "had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances".

On April 17, 2013, the college announced that Jim Steinman would speak at a "conversation" on campus that will be open to the public on May 25, and would receive an honorary degree, a doctorate of humane letters, at the college's 192nd commencement on May 26. In April 2013, Meat Loaf said that he and Jim Steinman will collaborate on three new songs to be included on Meat Loaf's album Braver Than We Are, which was (at the time) to be released in 2015.

In 2016, Jim Steinman was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Meat Loaf's album Braver Than We Are was released in Europe on September 9, 2016, and in North America on September 16, 2016. It contains ten songs composed by Jim Steinman. Jim wrote either nothing or almost nothing specifically for this album. Paul Crook produced this album. Like Desmond Child's Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, this album was made separately from the production team of Jim Steinman and Steven Rinkoff. Rob Evan was the first singer to perform the songs "Only When I Feel" and "Speaking in Tongues", in 2005 and 2006. The track "Going All The Way" is a mixture of some previously released material, some previously leaked material, and a little bit of material neither previously released nor previously leaked. Part of "Going All the Way" is in the song "Braver Than We Are/Say A Prayer" from Dance of the Vampires. Part of it is in a leaked demo of Karine Hannah singing, titled "Braver Than We Are". A small minority of it is not in the leaked demo of Karine Hannah singing or in Dance of the Vampires. "Loving You's a Dirty Job (But Somebody's Got To Do It)" is a cover of the released recording of Bonnie Tyler and Todd Rundgren. "More" is a cover of the released recording of The Sisters of Mercy. The tracks "Who Needs The Young", "Souvenirs", "Godz", "Skull of Your Country", and "Train of Love" are all covers of unreleased recordings that Jim Steinman made in the 1970s. Recordings from the 1970s of all of those songs have been in circulation among fans on the internet.

In February 2017, Jim Steinman's Bat Out of Hell: The Musical opened for previews at the Manchester Opera House in Manchester, England, then officially premiered at the same venue, then continuing on to the London Coliseum in June. This musical was based on multiple projects, including Jim Steinman's Neverland musical from the 1970s, the hit albums Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and on assorted other recordings from Steinman's career.

This musical did not contain any songs that had not been performed in public by the summer of the year 2006, though two songs - "Not Allowed to Love" and "What Part of My Body Hurts the Most" had never been released on any albums or singles at that point. The musical performed at Toronto's Ed Mirvish Theatre, then finished in January 2018 to make a return to London in 2018, this time the Dominion Theatre. A German version of the show was produced by Stage Entertainment, and ran at Oberhausen's Metronom Theatre from November 2018 to September 2019.

The Oberhausen production featured Willemijn Verkaik in the role of Sloane on launch, but she left the show at the end of March 2019. Jim Steinman had also set an American tour of the musical to take place starting in late 2018 through 2019 but it was cancelled after its 3-week run in the first city Toronto was complete. The musical began a limited six week run in New York City's Center Theatre from August 1 to September 8, 2019.

A cast recording album for Bat Out of Hell: The Musical co-produced by Jim Steinman, Steven Rinkoff, and Michael Reed was released in October 2017 on the BOOH Label, which was created specifically for this album. The album was first distributed in Canada to coincide with the show's run in Toronto, then later was released again via Ghostlight Records in July 2018, both as a worldwide digital release and on CD for sale in the UK to coincide with the show's run at the Dominion Theatre, London. The cast album features the vocals of the show's cast in Manchester, with Andrew Polec and Christina Bennington leading in their roles as Strat and Raven, Rob Fowler and Sharon Sexton as Falco and Sloane, and Danielle Steers and Dom Hartley-Harris as Zahara and Jagwire. Of this original cast, only Andrew Polec, Christina Bennington and Danielle Steers remained with the show from opening in Manchester in 2017 through to complete the NYC run in 2019.

In 2017, Velvet Valve Records was preparing to release music with Karine Hannah singing. In March 2017, Velvet Valve Records digitally released a recording of Hannah singing "Braver Than We Are". This recording is different from the recording of Hannah singing "Braver Than We Are" from the early 2000s. Plans to release an album with Hannah after the single, possibly to be titled Renegade Angel, were abandoned.

Responding to an interviewer's assertion that his songs are tragic, Jim Steinman said he has "never been stomped on literally. Figuratively, I am stomped on every day ... anyway, that is the way I feel sometimes. I've never had my heart broken the way you are talking about. I've never been dumped... but probably because I don't allow myself to be dumped."

At the time of his death, Jim Steinman lived in Ridgefield, Connecticut. According to The New York Times, Steinman lived alone in his 6,000 square-foot (557.41824 square meters) house described as a "majestic museum of the self, attached to a quaint cottage in the woods of Ridgefield. He spent years expanding and reimagining the house, transforming it into an embodiment of his own eccentric, complicated personality."

Jim Steinman had a stroke in 2004 and temporarily lost the ability to speak. He had another stroke four years prior to his death.

Per the death certificate from the Connecticut Department of Health, Jim Steinman died from kidney failure at a hospital in Danbury, Connecticut, on April 19, 2021, at age 73. Upon Steinman's death, rock writer Paul Stenning said he left a "tremendous legacy", referring to him as "the greatest ever composer of symphonic rock" and citing him as an influence on a variety of bands across many genres.

His frequent collaborator Meat Loaf (who died nine months after Jim Steinman) reacted to Jim's death by saying, "We didn't know each other, we were each other."