Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), known professionally as Meat Loaf, was an American rock singer and actor known for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. He is on the list of best-selling music artists. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy—Bat Out of Hell (1977), Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell (1993), and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose (2006)—has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.[1] The first album stayed on the charts for over nine years, as of 2016 still sold an estimated 200,000 copies annually, and is on the list of best-selling albums.[2][3]
After the commercial success of Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, and earning a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for the song "I'd Do Anything for Love", Meat Loaf nevertheless experienced some difficulty establishing a steady career within the United States.[4][5][6][7] The key to this success was his popularity in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He received the 1994 Brit Award in the United Kingdom for best-selling album and single. He appeared in the 1997 film Spice World and he ranked 23rd for the number of weeks spent on the UK charts in 2006. He ranks 96th on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".[2]
Meat Loaf appeared in over 50 films and television shows,[8] sometimes as himself or as characters resembling his stage persona. His film roles include Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Robert Paulsen in Fight Club (1999). His early stage work included dual roles in the original Broadway cast of The Rocky Horror Show. He also appeared in the musical Hair, both on and Off-Broadway.
Early life
Meat Loaf was born in Dallas, Texas, on September 27, 1947,[9][10] the son of Wilma Artie (née Hukel), a school teacher and member of the Vo-di-o-do Girls gospel music quartet, and Orvis Wesley Aday, a former police officer who went into business selling a homemade cough remedy with his wife and a friend under the name of the Griffin Grocery Company.[11] Meat Loaf stated in an interview that when he was born, he was "bright red and stayed that way for days" and that his father said he looked like "nine pounds of ground chuck", and convinced hospital staff to put the name "Meat" on his crib.[12] He was later called "M.L." in reference to his initials, but when his weight increased, his seventh-grade classmates referred to him as "Meat Loaf", referring to his 5-foot-2-inch (157 cm), 240-pound (110 kg) stature. He also attributed the nickname to an incident where, after he stepped on a football coach's foot, the coach yelled 'Get off my foot, you hunk of meatloaf!'".[13]
His father was an alcoholic who went on drinking binges for days at a time, which started when he was medically discharged from the U.S. Army during World War II after being wounded by fragments from a mortar shell.[11] Meat Loaf often accompanied his mother in driving to the bars in Dallas to look for his father, and often stayed with his grandmother.[11] He attended church and Bible study every Sunday.[14]
When he was 16, on the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Meat Loaf had seen the President when he arrived at Dallas Love Field. After hearing about the assassination, he and a friend drove to Parkland Hospital where he saw Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, bloodied, getting out of the car.[15]
In 1965, Meat Loaf graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, having appeared in school stage productions such as Where's Charley? and The Music Man. Meat Loaf played high school football at the position of defensive tackle.[16][17] After attending college at Lubbock Christian College, he transferred to North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas).
In 1967, when Meat Loaf was 19 years old, his mother died from cancer and his father barely missed when trying to stab him with a knife, falsely accusing him of having girls in his bedroom.[18] He used the inheritance he received from his mother's death to rent an apartment in Dallas and isolated himself for three-and-a-half months until a friend found him.[19] A short time later, he went to the airport and caught the next flight to Los Angeles.[20] He intentionally gained 60 pounds (27 kg) to fail his physical examination for the Vietnam War draft.[9]
Career
Early career
In Los Angeles, Meat Loaf formed his first band, Meat Loaf Soul.[20] The band received several recording contracts.[21] Meat Loaf Soul's first gig was in Huntington Beach, California in 1968 at the Cave, opening for Van Morrison's band Them and Question Mark and the Mysterians.[22] Meat Loaf later described his early days in the music industry as being treated like a "circus clown".[23]
The band then underwent several changes of lead guitarists, changing the name of the band each time, to names including Popcorn Blizzard and Floating Circus.[24] As Floating Circus, they opened for the Who, the Fugs, the Stooges, MC5, the Grateful Dead, and the Grease Band. Their regional success led them to release a single, "Once Upon a Time", backed with "Hello". Meat Loaf then joined the Los Angeles production of the musical Hair.[24]
1970s
With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf accepted an invitation by Motown, in Detroit. In addition to appearing as "Mother" and "Ulysses S. Grant" at Detroit's Vest Pocket Theatre, he recorded the vocals with fellow Hair performer Shaun "Stoney" Murphy on an album of songs written and selected by the Motown production team. The album, titled Stoney & Meatloaf (with Meatloaf spelled as one word), was released in September 1971 and included the single "What You See Is What You Get"; it reached number 36 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart and number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Meat Loaf and Stoney toured with Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers, opening for Richie Havens, the Who, the Stooges, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, and Rare Earth. Meat Loaf left Motown soon after the label replaced his and Stoney's vocals from the one song he liked, "Who Is the Leader of the People?" with new vocals by Edwin Starr.[25] He moved to Freeland, Michigan for a year and was the opening act at the Grande Ballroom 80 times.[26]
In December 1972, Meat Loaf was in the original off-Broadway production of Rainbow at the Orpheum Theatre in New York.[27] After the tour, Meat Loaf rejoined the cast of Hair, this time at a Broadway theater. After he hired an agent, he auditioned for the Public Theater's production of More Than You Deserve. During the audition, Meat Loaf met Jim Steinman. He sang a Stoney and Meat Loaf favorite of his, "(I'd Love to Be) As Heavy as Jesus", and subsequently got the part of Rabbit, a maniac that blows up his fellow soldiers so they can "go home". Ron Silver and Fred Gwynne were also in the show. In the summer between the show's workshop production (April 1973) and full production (November 1973 – January 1974), Meat Loaf appeared in a Shakespeare in the Park production of As You Like It with Raul Julia and Mary Beth Hurt.[28]
In late 1973, Meat Loaf was cast in the original L.A. Roxy cast of The Rocky Horror Show, playing the parts of Eddie and Dr. Everett Scott.[29] The success of the musical led to the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in which Meat Loaf played only Eddie, a decision he said made the movie not as good as the musical.[30]
About the same time, Meat Loaf and Steinman started work on Bat Out of Hell. Meat Loaf convinced Epic Records to shoot music videos for four songs, "Bat Out of Hell", "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth", and "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" and convinced Lou Adler, the producer of Rocky Horror, to run the "Paradise" video as a trailer to the movie. During his recording of the soundtrack for Rocky Horror, Meat Loaf recorded two more songs: "Stand by Me" (a Ben E. King cover), and "Clap Your Hands". They remained unreleased for a decade, until 1984, when they appeared as B-sides to the "Nowhere Fast" single.[31]
In 1976, Meat Loaf recorded lead vocals for Ted Nugent's album Free-for-All when regular Nugent lead vocalist Derek St. Holmes temporarily quit the band. Meat Loaf sang lead on five of the album's nine tracks. That same year, Meat Loaf appeared in his final theatrical show in New York City, the short-lived Broadway production of Gower Champion's rock musical Rockabye Hamlet.[32][33][34] It closed two weeks into its initial run.[citation needed]
Meat Loaf and Steinman started working on Bat Out of Hell in 1972, but did not get serious about it until the end of 1974. Meat Loaf then decided to leave theater and concentrate exclusively on music.[35] Meat Loaf was cast as an understudy for John Belushi in the National Lampoon show Lemmings.[32] It was at the Lampoon show that Meat Loaf met Ellen Foley, the co-star who sang "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and "Bat Out of Hell" with him on the album Bat Out of Hell.[32][36]
Meat Loaf and Steinman spent time seeking a record deal; however, their approaches were rejected by each record company, because their songs did not fit any specific recognized music industry style.[32] Todd Rundgren, under the impression that they already had a record deal, agreed to produce the album as well as play lead guitar along with other members of Rundgren's band Utopia and Max Weinberg.[32][37] They then shopped the record around, but they still had no takers until Steve Popovich's Cleveland International Records took a chance, releasing Bat Out of Hell in October 1977.[32][38]
Meat Loaf and Steinman formed the band Neverland Express to tour in support of Bat Out of Hell. Their first gig was opening for Cheap Trick in Chicago. Meat Loaf gained national exposure as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on March 25, 1978.[39] In 1978, Meat Loaf jumped off a stage in Ottawa, Ontario, breaking his leg. He finished his tour performing in a wheelchair.[40]
Bat Out of Hell has sold an estimated 43 million copies globally, including 15 million in the United States, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. In the United Kingdom alone, its 2.1 million sales put it in 38th place. Despite peaking at No. 9 and spending only two weeks in the top ten in 1981, it has now spent 485 weeks on the UK Albums Chart (May 2015), a figure bettered only by Rumours by Fleetwood Mac with 487 weeks.[41] In Australia, it knocked the Bee Gees off the No. 1 spot and became the biggest-selling album of all time in that country. Bat Out of Hell has, as of December 2020, spent a total of 522 weeks in the Top 200 in the UK chart.[42]
1980s
In 1979, Steinman started to work on Bad for Good, the intended follow-up to 1977's Bat Out of Hell. During that time, a combination of touring, drugs and exhaustion had caused Meat Loaf to lose his voice. Without a singer, and pressured by the record company, Steinman decided that he should sing on Bad for Good himself. While Steinman worked on Bad for Good, Meat Loaf played the role of Travis Redfish in the movie Roadie until his singing voice returned.[43] Steinman then wrote a new album for Meat Loaf, Dead Ringer, which was released in September 1981.[44] Steinman had written five new songs which, in addition to the track "More Than You Deserve" (sung by Meat Loaf in the stage musical of the same name) and a reworked monologue, formed the album Dead Ringer, which was produced by Meat Loaf and Stephan Galfas, with backing tracks produced by Todd Rundgren, Jimmy Iovine, and Steinman. In 1976, Meat Loaf appeared on the track "Keeper Keep Us", from the Intergalactic Touring Band's self-titled album, produced by Galfas. The song "Dead Ringer for Love" was the pinnacle of the album, and launched Meat Loaf to even greater success. While it failed to chart in the US, it reached No. 5 in the United Kingdom and stayed in the UK Singles Chart for 19 weeks.[45] Cher provided the lead female vocals in the song.[46]
On December 5, 1981, Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express were the musical guests for Saturday Night Live where he and former fellow Rocky Horror Picture Show actor Tim Curry performed a skit depicting a One-Stop Rocky Horror Shop. Also on the show, Curry performed "The Zucchini Song" and Meat Loaf & the Neverland Express performed "Bat Out of Hell" and "Promised Land".[47][48][49]
Following a dispute with his former songwriter Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf was contractually obliged to release a new album, resulting in Midnight at the Lost and Found, released in May 1983.[50] According to Meat Loaf, Steinman had given the songs "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" to Meat Loaf for this album. However, Meat Loaf's record company did not want Meat Loaf to sing Steinman's songs, saying that nobody wanted to hear them.[51] Bonnie Tyler's version of "Eclipse" and Air Supply's version of "Making Love" topped the charts together, holding No. 1 and No. 2 for a period during 1983.[51] Meat Loaf is credited with having been involved in the writing of some of the tracks on the album, including the title track, "Midnight at the Lost and Found".[52]
Poor money management as well as 45 lawsuits totaling $80 million, including ones from Steinman, resulted in Meat Loaf filing for personal bankruptcy in 1983.[9] The bankruptcy resulted in Meat Loaf losing the rights to his songs,[53] although he received royalties for Bat Out of Hell in 1997.[18]
In 1984, Meat Loaf went to England, where he felt increasingly at home, to record the album Bad Attitude; it was released that year.[21] It features two songs by Steinman, both previously recorded, "Nowhere Fast" and "Surf's Up". The American release on RCA Records was in April 1985 and features a slightly different track list, as well as alternate mixes for some songs. The title track features a duet with the Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey.[54][55] It was a minor success with a few commercially successful singles, the most successful being "Modern Girl".[21] In 1985, Meat Loaf took part in some comedy sketches in the UK with Hugh Laurie.[56][25] Meat Loaf also tried stand-up comedy, appearing several times in Connecticut.[56]
Meat Loaf worked with songwriter John Parr on his next album, Blind Before I Stop, which was released in 1986 by Arista Records. It features production, mixing, and general influence by Frank Farian. Meat Loaf was involved in the composition of three of the songs on the album.[57] Meat Loaf performed "Thrashin" for the soundtrack of the 1986 skateboarding film Thrashin' (directed by David Winters and starring Josh Brolin).[58]
1990s
Following the success of Meat Loaf's touring in the 1980s, he and Steinman began work during December 1990 on Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell which was released in September 1993. The immediate success of Bat Out of Hell II led to the sale of over 15 million copies, and the single "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" reached number one in 28 countries. In March 1994, at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards, Meat Loaf won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo for "I'd Do Anything for Love".[59] This song stayed at No. 1 in the UK chart for seven consecutive weeks. The single featured a female vocalist who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud". Mrs. Loud was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, a performer from England.[60] Meat Loaf promoted the song with American vocalist Patti Russo, who performed lead female vocals on tour with him. Also in 1994, he sang the U.S. national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.[61] He released the single "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", which reached No. 13 in the United States.[62]
In 1995, Meat Loaf released his seventh studio album, Welcome to the Neighborhood. The album went platinum in the United States and the United Kingdom.[63] It included three singles that hit the top 40, including "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" (which reached No. 13 in the United States[64] and No. 2 in the UK),[65] and "Not a Dry Eye in the House" (which reached No. 7 in the UK chart).[66] I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth) was a duet with Patti Russo, who had been touring with Meat Loaf and singing on his albums since 1993. Of the twelve songs on the album, two are written by Steinman. Both are cover versions, the "Original Sin" from Pandora's Box's Original Sin album and "Left in the Dark" first appeared on Steinman's own Bad for Good as well as the 1984 album Emotion by Barbra Streisand. His other singles, "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" and "Not a Dry Eye in the House", were written by Diane Warren.[67]
In 1998, Meat Loaf released The Very Best of Meat Loaf. The album featured three new songs co-written by Steinman – two with Andrew Lloyd Webber and one with Don Black, "Is Nothing Sacred", released as a single.[68] The single version of this song is a duet with Patti Russo, whereas the album version is a solo song by Meat Loaf.
2000s
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In 2003, Meat Loaf released his album Couldn't Have Said It Better. For only the third time in his career, Meat Loaf released an album without any songs written by Steinman (not counting live bonus tracks on special edition releases). Although Meat Loaf claimed that Couldn't Have Said It Better was "the most perfect album [he] did since Bat Out of Hell",[69] it was not as commercially successful. The album was a minor commercial success worldwide and reached No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart,[66] accompanied by a sellout world tour to promote the album and some of Meat Loaf's best selling singles. One such performance on his world tour was at the 2003 NRL Grand Final in Sydney.[70] There were many writers for the album including Diane Warren and James Michael, who were both asked to contribute to his 2006 album, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose. The album featured duets with Patti Russo and Meat Loaf's daughter Pearl Aday.
On November 17, 2003, during a performance at London's Wembley Arena, on his Couldn't Have Said It Better tour, he collapsed of what was later diagnosed as Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome, a condition marked by an extra electrical pathway in the heart which causes symptoms like a rapid heartbeat. The following week, he underwent a surgical procedure intended to correct the problem.[71] As a result, Meat Loaf's insurance agency did not allow him to perform for any longer than one hour and 45 minutes.[72]
From February 20 to 22, 2004, during an Australian tour, Meat Loaf performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, in a set of concerts recorded for the album Bat Out of Hell: Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The performances included the Australian Boys' Choir singing back-up on a Couldn't Have Said It Better track, "Testify".[73]
Meat Loaf and Steinman had begun to work on the third installment of Bat Out of Hell when Steinman suffered a heart attack. According to Meat Loaf, Steinman was too ill to work on such an intense project while Steinman's manager said health was not an issue.[74]
Steinman had registered the phrase "Bat Out of Hell" as a trademark in 1995.[75] In May 2006, Meat Loaf sued Steinman and his manager in federal District Court in Los Angeles, seeking $50 million and an injunction against Steinman's use of the phrase.[76] Steinman and his representatives attempted to block the album's release. An agreement was reached in July 2006.[77] Denying reports in the press over the years of a rift between Meat Loaf and Steinman, in an interview with Dan Rather, Meat Loaf stated that he and Steinman never stopped talking, and that the lawsuits reported in the press were between lawyers and managers, and not between Meat Loaf and Steinman.[78]
The album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose was released on October 31, 2006, and was produced by Desmond Child. The first single from the album "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (featuring Marion Raven) was released on October 16, 2006. It entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 6,[79] giving Meat Loaf his highest UK chart position in nearly 11 years. The album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200,[80] and sold 81,000 copies in its opening week,[81] but after that did not sell as well in the United States and yielded no hit singles, although it was certified gold.[82] The album also featured duets with Patti Russo and Jennifer Hudson.[83] In the weeks following the release of Bat III, Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express did a brief tour of the U.S. and Europe, known as the Bases are Loaded Tour. In October 2006, Meat Loaf's private jet had to make an emergency landing at London Stansted Airport after the plane's forward landing gear failed.[84][85]
In 2007, Meat Loaf began The Seize the Night Tour, with Marion Raven, serving as a supporting act. Portions of the tour in February 2007 were featured in the documentary Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise, directed by Bruce David Klein.[86] The film was an official selection of the Montreal World Film Festival in 2007.[87] It opened in theaters in March 2008[88] and was released on DVD in May 2008.[89]
During a performance at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, on October 31, 2007, at the opening of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" Meat Loaf walked off the stage early in the song and said that it was his last performance. His tour promoter, Andrew Miller, said that it was a result of "exhaustion and stress" and said that Meat Loaf would continue touring after suitable rest.[90] The next two gigs in the tour, at the NEC and Manchester Evening News Arena were cancelled because of "acute laryngitis" and were rescheduled for late November.[91] The concert scheduled for November 6, 2007, at London's Wembley Arena was also cancelled. Meat Loaf cancelled his entire European tour for 2007 after being diagnosed with a cyst on his vocal cords.[92]
On June 27, 2008, Meat Loaf began The Casa de Carne Tour in Plymouth, England alongside his longtime duet partner Patti Russo, who debuted one of her own original songs during the show.[93] The tour continued through July and August with twenty dates throughout England, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. Six U.S. shows were also added for October and December 2008.[94]
In May 2009, Meat Loaf began work on the album Hang Cool Teddy Bear in the studio with Green Day's American Idiot album producer Rob Cavallo, working with such writers as Justin Hawkins, Rick Brantley, Ollie Wride, Tommy Henriksen, and Jon Bon Jovi.[95] The album is based on the story of a fictional soldier, whose "story" furnishes the theme.[96] The album is based on a short story by the Los Angeles-based screenwriter and director Kilian Kerwin, a long-time friend of the singer. Hugh Laurie and Jack Black both perform on the album, Laurie plays piano on the song "If I Can't Have You", while Black sings a duet with Meat Loaf on "Like A Rose". Patti Russo and Kara DioGuardi also duet on the album. Brian May of Queen features on guitar along with Steve Vai. It received positive reviews from critics and fans alike.[96][97][98] The first single from the album, "Los Angeloser", was released for download on April 5 with the album charting at number 4 in the UK Albums Chart on April 25, 2010.[66] The Hang Cool Tour followed in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Patti Russo accompanied him on the tour, continuing through mid-2011.[99]
2010s
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Hell in a Handbasket, released in October 2011 for Australia and New Zealand, and February 2012 for the rest of the world, was recorded and produced by Paul Crook; Dough McKean did the mix with input from Rob Cavallo. The album features songs called "All of Me", "Blue Sky", "The Giving Tree", "Mad, Mad World", and a duet with Patti Russo called "Our Love and Our Souls".[100][101][102]
At the 2011 AFL Grand Final, the pre-match entertainment was headlined by a 12-minute medley performed by Meat Loaf. The performance was panned as the worst in the 34-year history of AFL Grand Final pre-game entertainment in a multitude of online reviews by football fans and Australian sport commentators.[103][104] Meat Loaf responded by calling online critics "butt-smellers",[105] and the AFL "jerks", vowing to convince other artists not to play at the event.[106][107]
In 2011, Meat Loaf planned to release a Christmas album called Hot Holidays featuring Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire, but the album was never released.[108]
In September 2016, Braver Than We Are, a 10-track album created with Jim Steinman, was released. Meat Loaf recorded reworked versions of Steinman's songs "Braver Than We Are", "Speaking in Tongues", "Who Needs the Young", and "More" (previously recorded by the Sisters of Mercy) for the album. Additionally, the song "Prize Fight Lover", originally issued as a download-only bonus track for Hang Cool Teddy Bear, was re-recorded for the album.[109][110