Tortured soul’s hell-raising ride to stardom from drugs and Rocky Horror to Spiceworld: Singer was nicknamed Meat Loaf after being bullied at school over his weight and nearly killed by his father who came at him with a butcher’s knife when his mother died
- Famed American rocker Meat Loaf died today, his family revealed in a statement
- The star sold more than 100 million albums in an incredible six decade career
- As well as his music success, he starred in several movies including Rocky Horror, Spiceworld and Fight Club
Famed for his powerful voice and theatrical live shows, Meat Loaf personified the phrase ‘larger than life’, winning the hearts of millions with his energy and spirit.
Hard-living and hard-rocking, he sold more than 100 million albums over a career that spanned six decades, including the 1977 smash hit Bat Out Of Hell, which is one of the best-selling of all time, alongside records from the likes of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.
He was born Marvin Lee Aday on September 27, 1947 in Dallas, Texas – the son of an alcoholic police officer and a school teacher who sang in a girls’ gospel quartet.
The early years in Texas were rough, particularly with his father. He once revealed in an interview: ‘I’ve forgiven my father for trying to kill me with a butcher’s knife.’
He also faced bullying at school, with his nickname Meat Loaf a jab at his weight. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School and was dubbed Meat Loaf after treading on the foot of his football coach.
All this was followed by the devastating loss of his mother to cancer while he was still a teenager. He told Classic Rock magazine that he grabbed her body at the funeral, screaming: ‘You can’t have her!’
It was his mother that instilled a love of performing in Meat Loaf and upon her death he quit high school football and left Dallas and his father, to take the first steps on the road to eventual superstardom.
Meat Loaf performing in 1982. The American singer has died at the age of 74, his family said today
Prince of Wales (left) meeting Meat Loaf and Beyonce following the ‘Party in the Park’ event in Hyde Park in 2003
Meat Loaf (left) being greeted at Stafford railway station by Prince Edward in 1987
Hard-living and hard-rocking, Meat Loaf sold more than 100 million albums over a career that spanned six decades
He formed the band Meat Loaf Soul in Los Angeles, with his trademark voice bringing them a string of offers for recording contracts and seeing them open for the likes of the Who and the Grateful Dead.
But he soon quit the band to join the musical Hair. It was in theatre that he first made his name and he went on to star in the stage and film versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The allure of music proved irresistible, however, and he quit the stage to focus on his career full-time.
Not long after he was on his way to New York, where he teamed up with musician and playwright Jim Steinman who provided the wild, theatrical backing music to accompany Meat Loaf’s bellowing voice.
It took years to convince music industry professionals and the duo were rejected by every major record label until they scored a meeting with legendary producer Todd Rundgren, who found their extended motorcycle rock operas hilarious.
He teamed them with musicians from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and ‘Bat Out of Hell’ was finally born in 1977, going on to sell 43 million copies worldwide.
However, the musician was ill-prepared for his sudden superstardom and the demands of overnight celebrity and continuous touring soon took a toll.
He suffered a cocaine and alcohol-fuelled breakdown shortly after his album’s release and was supported by his wife, Leslie Edmunds, who he married in 1978.
He undertook a gruelling year-long global tour and thrilled audiences with his chaotic performances. However, one appearance in Toronto saw him fall off the stage, leaving him a wheelchair for a month.
‘There were fights, mutinies, drugs and over-indulgence at every stop,’ wrote Louder Sound of the first major tour.
‘Meat pushed himself so hard physically every night that he required oxygen to revive him.’
Meat Loaf posing in front of a red background wearing a leather jacket and jeans with a smirk on his face
American singers Cher (left) and Meat Loaf posing for the media with Des Lynam in 1998
Meat Loaf, pictured in London in 1978. His 1977 smash hit album Bat Out Of Hell is one of the best-selling of all time, alongside records from the likes of Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston
Meat Loaf posing with very excited fans in this undated photo. He sold millions of records
Meat Loaf arriving for the Kerrang Awards 2006 at The Brewery in London in August that year
Meat Loaf and his wife Deborah at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in February 2008. She was by her husband’s side when he died
There were broken bones, piles of cocaine and nervous breakdowns – and that was only the first album.
‘He’s a tortured guy,’ Karla Devito, his backing singer, told Louder Sound in 2016. ‘There’s no doubt about that.’
His follow-ups failed to set fans alight. To make matters worse, his overwhelming success created tension between him and Jim Steinman, who felt he received insufficient credit for his role.
Steinman, considered a genius within the music industry, began working with other artists and Meat Loaf’s career began to fade, with Epic not renewing his contract.
However, the two rekindled their relationship and Meat Loaf made a blazing comeback with Bat Out Of Hell’s sequel in 1993.
Widely-regarded as one of the greatest comebacks in rock history, Meat Loaf went on another world tour, his passion undimmed.
At one concert in London, he told the crowd to ‘never ever ever stop rocking’.
Lead single I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) reached number one in 28 countries and earned him a Grammy award.
Music producer Pete Waterman said that the passing of Steinman last year would have affected Meat Loaf.
Meat Loaf, as he appears in the movie ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, 1975. He dipped in and out of acting throughout his life
Meat Loaf appeared in the 1999 film Fight Club alongside Edward Norton – a film that also starred Brad Pitt
Meat Loaf in the 1997 film Spice World, where he appeared as the Spice Girls’ bus driver Dennis
Teddy Pendergrass, Meat Loaf and Deborah Harry of Blondie on a night out
Meat Loaf at E.B. Marks Music Room working on his debut album Bat Out Of Hell in 1976
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘It’s like when your partner does go, it takes a part of you away. I don’t think you can ever work out what that effectively does to you personally. So, I think that must have had some impact.
‘But he was an amazing character. I once sat on a plane with him to New York and he took a box, like a cold trunk full of beef burgers. It was amazing, what that boy could eat, I’ll tell you – he could eat.’
‘Meat Loaf was Meat Loaf. His size was part of the whole legend. It was his voice – you know, you knew what you got with Meat Loaf. It was 100 per cent of everything.’
In 1995, Meat Loaf released Welcome To The Neighbourhood, which went platinum in the UK and US, and his third Bat Out Of Hell album, The Monster Is Loose, in 2006.
The Bat Out Of Hell trilogy was also adapted in to a stage musical, which was written by Steinman and featured some of the musician’s best-loved hits.
He would often dip back into acting, most memorably a cameo as Bob, a man with huge breasts, in ‘Fight Club’.
In 1997, he also made a scene-stealing cameo as the bus driver in Spiceworld.
In 2016, he released a new album – his first since 2011 – and returned to a busy schedule after a two-year gap in touring, a string of health scares and speculation he would retire.
Meat Loaf was plagued by health issues, including asthma, which caused him to collapse on stage during a concert in Pittsburgh in 2011.
He suffered from a medical condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White, which causes an irregular heartbeat, and underwent surgery in 2003 in London.
Meat Loaf reunited with Steinman for the fourth time for his last studio album Braver Than We Are, which was released in 2016 and reached fourth place in the UK album charts.
The singer had collapsed onstage at least three times since 2003, including once in Canada in 2016 after suffering from dehydration while singing ‘I’d Do Anything For Love’.
Meat Loaf has two daughters – TV actress Amanda Aday and adopted daughter Pearl – from his marriage to ex-wife Leslie.
As an adult, Meat Loaf changed his first name to Michael from Marvin because of childhood taunts about his weight.
He also described the emotional impact of a Levi’s jeans commercial that had the slogan, ‘Poor fat Marvin can’t wear Levi’s’.
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