Meat Loaf: a life in pictures
![Meat Loaf](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/Meat-Loaf-2_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.png?imwidth=160)
Meat Loaf, the rock star known for his operatic range and bombastic stage presence, has died aged 74.
He was best known for his Bat Out of Hell album trilogy, but he also appeared in films including The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Fight Club and Wayne's World.
While he was prolific, none of his other music achieved the same success as Bat Out of Hell. But with his soaring range, whipping hair and leather-clad style, he defined high-camp rock. His music and image leaves an indelible legacy.
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![Meat Loaf in The Rocky Horror Picture Show](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000283409901_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqoGbZwtdBNwcvkKZqZUEDOwRCImGGoEzjbTcxUvB_v8o.jpeg?imwidth=160)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
He was born Marvin Lee Aday, but also known as Michael, in Dallas, Texas. His father was an alcoholic who would disappear for days during drinking binges. But his mother, a teacher and gospel singer, encouraged his love of music.
At high school, he appeared in several stage shows and, once he graduated, he went to LA with his first band, Meat Loaf Soul. The name was inspired by his football coach who used to tease him about his weight.
He began to achieve success, appearing in off-Broadway musicals and performing with his band. They were offered three record contracts, but he turned them down. Later, he often complained that the music industry didn't take him seriously.
His break came in 1973 when he was cast as Eddie and Dr Everett von Scott in the original Rocky Horror Picture Show. He subsequently played Eddie in the 1975 film version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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Credit: Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection
![Jim Steinmann and Meatloaf backstage at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia on April 6, 1978](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000256514651_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqx1rGucoo2J_ExhuM2sOt-5Dg7ACGJPdPR4xgCzbOV8A.jpeg?imwidth=160)
Collaboration with Jim Steinman
In 1977, Meat Loaf met Jim Steinman, a lyricist and composer, during a National Lampoon show tour. They were collaborating on a work-in-progress musical called Neverland, based on JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.
They thought three songs from the musical were exceptional, and decided to spin them out into an album. Those songs – Bat Out of Hell, Heaven Can Wait and All Revved Up With No Place to Go – became the core of Meat Loaf’s breakthrough Bat Out of Hell album.
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Credit: Ron Pownall
![Meat Loaf on stage](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000160580825_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqCeUb4KqoO7Hiv_XyAWGXnQFM6BeGVYc9pkD5d3nEjgA.jpeg?imwidth=160)
Bat Out of Hell begins…
Meat Loaf and Steinman began working on Bat Out of Hell in 1972, but they didn’t seriously begin to concentrate on it until 1974.
A Wagnerian rock opera, scored by the sound of thrumming Harleys and mashed guitar chords, and lifted by Meat Loaf’s acrobatic range – his voice could span three octaves – it was treated as a joke by the session musicians. And it was rejected by four record labels.
Eventually, it was released by Cleveland International Records in October, 1977.
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Source: Keystone
![Meat Loaf performing](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000283409894_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqwY-xGGogePXKMa2k4Y4W5MVaBmRl1pMjtzek_c-9uWw.jpeg?imwidth=160)
…and takes off
Bat Out of Hell was a triumph. Since its release, it has sold an estimated 43 million copies globally (15 million in the US), making it one of the bestselling albums in history.
Meat Loaf broke out via his two barnstorming performances on TV in 1978 – on Britain's Old Grey Whistle Test and America’s Saturday Night Life.
Christopher Lee, the host of Saturday Night Live, famously mangled his introduction to Meat Loaf:
“And now ladies and gentlemen I would like you to meet Loaf. [Pauses, looks dumbfounded] I beg your pardon, what? [Listens to director’s aside] Oh! Why… why, I’m sorry, yes, of course… ah, ladies and gentlemen… Meat Loaf!”
The joshing did Meat Loaf no harm. By the end of the year, the Bat Out of Hell tour had begun, and he was flying.
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Credit: Keystone
![Karla Devito and Meat Loaf performing during the Bat Out of Hell tour](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000109217154_1_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqM37qcIWR9CtrqmiMdQVx7KmTKXIomgWFyyVc9h-5QJw.jpeg?imwidth=160)
Things fall apart
The punishing schedule of the Bat Out of Hell tour nearly broke Meat Loaf. Drugs, performing and exhaustion caused him to lose his voice.
The problem, though, was that Steinman had already written a follow-up album, Bad For Good. Without a singer, he decided to sing on the album himself and begin composing a fresh album for Meat Loaf. Steinman's Bad for Good was released in 1981.
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Credit: Michael Putland
![Meat Loaf Backstage at the Manchester Apollo](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000283409898_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqX7pHcCCmtgwidDdHSvx2cHE86QaQRwDHQBsfS7ZzE-Q.jpeg?imwidth=160)
Real Mad – Meat Loaf Backstage at the Manchester Apollo, 1981
Despite his soaring success, Meat Loaf's troubles were just beginning. Contractual issues meant he didn't get paid royalties from Bat Out of Hell for years – later, he would have to declare bankruptcy.
In fact, he told reporters that he was so angered by the situation that he used to go into record stores, pull the CDs from the shelves and smash them so no-one else could make money either.
But things turned around after performing the role of Travis Redfish in the film Roadie. Meat Loaf recovered his voice and released a follow-up album, Dead Ringer. Dead Ringer for Love, on which Meat Loaf duetted with Cher, became another breakout hit, staying in the US singles chart for 19 weeks.
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Source: Terry Lott
![MEAT LOAF - 1982](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000283411767_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqvf93cyop1gpr4w56dB_PHEesG0c3JfN39xLu8JFarZQ.jpeg?imwidth=160)
Meat Loaf on stage in 1982
Meat Loaf struggled to match the success of those first two albums. He fell out with Steinman over writing credits, but was contractually forced to release a new album in 1983. The result – Midnight at the Lost and Found – was marred by time-pressures and inferior songwriters, though its title track would later become a feature at concerts.
He released two further albums in the 1980s: Bad Attitude in 1984, and Blind Before I Stop in 1986. The latter release, though not setting the US and UK album charts alight, was the first Meat Loaf album to appear in the USSR.
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Credit: Richard Young/Shutterstock
![Meat Loaf in 1993](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000283408662_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqX9bjHiwLnzqli-gJ5VBMRB70EvQzuYZFpNwo6v6r_1w.jpeg?imwidth=160)
Bat Out of Hell II – The Comeback
After his wilderness years, Meat Loaf roared triumphantly back with a sequel to Bat Out of Hell. Released to huge success in 1993, it saw the singer collaborate again with Steinman.
The album sold more than 15 million copies, and Meat Loaf won a Grammy for Best Vocal Performance for the single I'll Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That). The gloriously camp song spent seven weeks at number one in the UK.
(The mystery of what “that” is remains.)
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Source: Shutterstock
![Edward Norton and Meat Loaf in Fight Club](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000003506158_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqytStWzET8IU_YHbhIsrHT9vRAnmODq28Y6vnNKiMQ5c.jpeg?imwidth=160)
Fight Club & Bat Out of Hell III
Meat Loaf continued to record and release albums during the Nineties. But it was his turn in the epochal hit Fight Club (1999) that won him a new generation of admirers.
Playing a washed-up bodybuilder called Robert Paulsen, his restrained performance was a marked contrast to his flamboyant stage persona.
Despite health problems and (premature) threats to retire, Meat Loaf completed the Bat Out of Hell trilogy with the release of a third part in 2006, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. It didn't sell as well as the previous instalments, but Meat Loaf continued to tour.
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Credit: Film Stills
![Meat Loaf in concert, Wembley Arena, 2010](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2022/01/21/TELEMMGLPICT000015138521_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqPY_fZuYW8iceZO_7gQ9ijfK1EDDAUOcQG36HTz2dwOw.jpeg?imwidth=160)
The Final Years
Meat Loaf released three further albums before his death. Despite his tours being dogged by health problems, he insisted he would keep making music. He told The Mirror in January 2020: “I’m not old. I’ve got songs for another record and I'm reading a script.”
When his collaborator and sometime rival Steinman died in 2021, Meat Loaf posted: “Coming here soon, my brother Jimmy.”
At the time of his death, Meat Loaf was working on an album with seven new songs and live tracks from throughout his career. None, though, have yet been released.
Meat Loaf is survived by his daughters and wife, Deborah.
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Credit: Brian Rasic / Rex Features