Despite being best known for his largely theatrical songs and albums of the 1970’s, Marvin Lee Aday (born September 27, 1967) has been on camera for almost as long as he has been behind a microphone. According to his official website, his nickname was started when his father began to call him “Meat.” His schoolmates would later start calling him Meat Loaf, due to the fact that both that name and his real name shared the same initials: M.L.
In his autobiography, Meat Loaf talks about how his friend’s father took his friend and him out to see
John F. Kennedy land at Love Field. After watching him land, they went to a spot on his parade route: Market Hall. On the trip there, they heard he had been shot. Upon hearing that news, they drove to Parkland Hospital, to see
Jackie Kennedy and the Governor, John Connaly get out, but not John Kennedy himself.
Meat Loaf was transferred to North Texas State University, after attending Lubbock Christian College. He then tried to fail an Army physical by gaining sixty-eight pounds in a mere four-and-a-half weeks. The Army still considered him fit, even though he had a trick shoulder, was colorblind, and was quite prone to suffering concussions. He ignored his draft notice two years later, when it arrived. His mother died in 1967, which led to him moving to Los Angeles, becoming a bouncer for a nightclub.
Shortly after his mother died, his father, while in a drunken rage, attempted to kill him with a knife. Meat Loaf barely managed to escape, after a huge fight. After he received his mother’s inheritance, he rented out a place in Dallas, and didn’t leave for three-and-a-half months. Eventually, Meat Loaf purchased a car with the money, and drove out to California. It was there where he formed the band Meat Loaf Soul. His performance in the recording studio left quite an impression, as he was offered recording contracts on the spot. Meat Loaf turned these offers down, however, and the band would open for bands such as The Who and
Grateful Dead.
After the break-up of the band, Meat Loaf’s next steady job was a role in the musical,
Hair. After hiring an agent, he auditioned for a production of
More Than You Deserve, where he met
Jim Steinman, his future collaborator.
In 1973, after the success of
The Rocky Horror Show, Meat Loaf was asked to appear in
The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where he would play the role of Eddie. Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman were working on his album
Bat out of Hell at that time, and Meat Loaf even convinced the producer of
Rocky Horror to run one of his singles as a trailer to the movie.
1974 marked the year when Meat Loaf decided to stop doing theater and focus solely on his recording career. After getting turned down time and again by numerous recording companies,
Todd Rundgren eventually decided to produce the album (he would also play the lead guitar on the album). Steinman began to grow jealous of all the attention Meat Loaf was receiving. In May of 1978, Meat Loaf fell off of a stage during a performance in Ottawa, and broke his leg. The rest of the tour was canceled, and Meat Loaf resorted to doing cocaine to cope with the pressure. It peaked when he threatened to commit suicide by jumping off of a ledge of a New York building during a nervous breakdown.
In December of 1978, Meat Loaf traveled out to Woodstock to work on an album with Steinman, where he would meet his future wife, Leslie Edmonds. Meat Loaf lost his ability to sing in the middle of the recording process, which doctors attributed to a mental cause. Meat Loaf was able to pick up the pieces, however, mostly by playing a tremendous amount of softball and getting off of cocaine.
Leslie gave birth to
Amanda Lee Aday in 1981; the same year Meat Loaf changed managers after finding out his then current managers were stealing money. They froze his assets, and even spread rumors of him being violent, threatening people with handguns. He ended up declaring bankruptcy. Meat Loaf released a self-written album,
Midnight at the Lost and Found, in 1983. Even he didn’t like the lyrics he had written. 1986 also marked another critical failure, when his album Blind Before I Stop was given a dance beat underneath every song. He eventually started touring again, and developed a faithful following.
In the December of 1990, Meat Loaf reunited with Steinman, and the two began to work on the sequel to
Bat out of Hell:
Bat out of Hell II: Back Into Hell. The CD was released in 1993, and was greeted with enormous success, selling over 10 million copies. The single “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” hit the number one spot in over 28 countries. That song also won Meat Loaf a Grammy for Best Solo Rock Performance.
He collapsed during a performance at Wembley Stadium, due to
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, on November 17, 2003. He would later go under surgery to correct the problem.
Meat Loaf’s next CD,
Bat out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose, is slated to hit stores on October 31 2006. Desmond Child is set to produce, and it is reported that 9 of the 12 songs are written by Jim Steinman, as opposed to the other Bat out of Hell CDs, which feature songs written exclusively by Steinman.
Meat Loaf is married and has two daughters.
Discography
- Stoney and Meat Loaf [1971]
- Bat out of Hell [1977]
- Dead Ringer [1981]
- Midnight at the Lost and Found [1983]
- Bad Attitude [1984]
- Blind Before I Stop [1986]
- Live at Wembley [1987]
- Bat out of Hell II: Back Into Hell [1993]
- Welcome to the Neighborhood [1995]
- Live Around the World [1996]
- The Very Best Of Meat Loaf [1998]
- VH1 Storytellers [1999]
- Couldn’t Have Said It Better [2003]
- Bat out of Hell Live [2004]
- Bat out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose [2006] [tentative release date]
Filmography
- State Fair [1962] {as an extra}
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show [1975]
- Americathon [1979]
- Scavenger Hunt [1979]
- Roadie [1980]
- Dead Ringer [1981]
- Out Of Bounds [1986]
- The Squeeze [1987]
- Motorama [1991]
- Leap of Faith [1992]
- The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag [1992]
- Wayne’s World [1992]
- Spice World [1997]
- The Mighty [1998]
- Gunshy [1998]
- Black Dog [1998]
- Outside Ozona [1998]
- Crazy In Alabama [1999]
- Fight Club [1999]
- A Tekerölantos Naplója [1999]
- Blacktop [2000]
- Rustin [2001]
- Focus [2001]
- The 51st State [2001]
- Polish Spaghetti [2001]
- Face to Face [2001]
- The Salton Sea [2002]
- Wishcraft [2002]
- Learning Curves [2002]
- A Hole in One [2003]
- Chasing Ghosts [2005]
- The Pleasure Drivers [2005] - not yet released
- Crazylove [2005] - not yet released
- Bloodrayne [2006]
- Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny [2006] - not yet released
[-] Hide Full Biography
Despite being best known for his largely theatrical songs and albums of the 1970’s, Marvin Lee Aday (born September 27, 1967) has been on camera for almost as long as he has been behind a microphone. According to his official website, his nickname was started when his father began to call him “Meat.” His schoolmates would later start calling him Meat Loaf, due to the fact that both that name and his real name shared the same initials: M.L.
In his autobiography, Meat Loaf talks about how his friend’s father took his friend and him out to see
John F. Kennedy land at Love Field. After watching him land, they went to a spot on his parade route: Market Hall. On the trip there, they heard he had been shot. Upon hearing that news, they drove to Parkland Hospital, to see
Jackie Kennedy and the Governor, John Connaly get out, but not John Kennedy himself.
Meat Loaf was transferred to North Texas State University, after attending Lubbock Christian College. He then tried to fail an Army physical by gaining sixty-eight pounds in a mere four-and-a-
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