Meat Loaf [ tickets ] has extended his VH1 "Storytellers" tour, which got underway in late October, into the new year. Meanwhile, the theatrical rocker's management has announced that the Columbus concert that was to take place today (12/8) has been postponed because the artist and some crew members have come down with the flu.

Tickets for today's show will be honored on the show's rescheduled date of Dec. 21.

Meat Loaf is touring in support of the ''Meat Loaf: VH1 Storytellers'' CD and the autobiography, ''To Hell And Back'' (Regan/Harper-Collins), both of which were released in September. The theater tour has so far focused on the East Coast and the Midwest, but shows in the South dominate January's itinerary. The tour's first California stop is also among January's dates.

The ''Storytellers'' tour recreates the same football locker set used by Meat Loaf on his appearance on the VH1 ''Storytellers'' television show. As on the TV show, Meat Loaf peppers his audiences with anecdotes from his career between songs. Expanding on the format, he invites audience members to sing backup on ''You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth'' and to act out ''Paradise By The Dashboard Light''

Meat Loaf's first album, ''Bat Out Of Hell,'' is one of the five top-selling albums in history, with 16 million copies sold in the United States and 30 million worldwide.