Roadie (1980)

It won't win any awards for subtlety, but Roadie is a hoot of a comedy that is also a good an excuse for its producers to pack a soundtrack album with as diverse a group of pop music artists as ever assembled for a feature film. One of the film's jokes is that its star, pop singer Meat Loaf, doesn't warble a note; his character, Travis W. Redfish, has show-biz ambitions, but they extend only to the backstage area. Travis comes off as something of a redneck idiot savant, a beer delivery truck driver who is a dynamo when it comes to making sure that the microphone wires don't get mixed up with the ones for the amplifiers. Roadie is a rock & roll Pilgrim's Progress, as Travis must make his way down that highway to heaven (aka the Alice Cooper tour), a road traveled by music stars who are paying their own dues. Travis's journey allows him to encounter everyone in the pop world from Debbie Harry to Roy Orbison, providing the film with more musical interludes and the soundtrack album more tunes. Unfortunately, Roadie's two-disc soundtrack is not available on compact disc, but the movie lives on wherever video stores with discriminating selections can be found. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide