Meat Loaf was born in Dallas, Texas. He was the first child of Orvis Wesley Aday (a policeman) and Wilma Artie Hukel. Aday was an alcoholic who would go on drinking binges for days at a time. Meat Loaf and his mother would drive around to all the bars in Dallas, looking for Orvis to take him home. Because of this, Meat Loaf often stayed with his grandmother.
Although there have been various explanations for his stage name, according to his official website, the name started when his father called him "Meat" as a two-year-old. His schoolmates would later turn it into Meat Loaf as it has the same initials as his real name, M.L. In high school, he was on the football team until his senior year when his coach made him decide between being in the school play, and being on the team. Meat Loaf chose the school play.
After attending college at Lubbock Christian University, Meat Loaf transferred to North Texas State University. While there, he was called in for an Army physical which he tried to fail by gaining sixty-eight pounds in four-and-a-half weeks. They determined that he was fit despite being color blind, having a trick shoulder and a history of concussions (reportedly 17 of them). When his draft notice arrived two years later, he ignored it. In 1967, after seeing his mother hospitalized and her health deteriorating, Meat Loaf left Texas and moved to Los Angeles, where he became a bouncer at a teenage nightclub.
In his autobiography, Meat Loaf claims that shortly after his mother died, his father, acting in a drunken rage, tried to kill him with a knife. Meat Loaf barely managed to escape after they had a bad fight. After Meat Loaf got his inheritance from his mother's death, he rented an apartment in Dallas and isolated himself for three and a half months. Finally, a friend found him and got him out. Eventually he bought a car with his inheritance and drove back to California.
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Early musical career
In Los Angeles, he formed his first band, Meat Loaf Soul. During the recording of their first song, Meat Loaf hit a big note and blew the board - and was immediately offered three recording contracts. However, he turned them all down. Meat Loaf Soul's first gig was opening up for Van Morrison's band. Later, the band was the opening act at Cal State Northridge for Renaissance, Taj Mahal and Janis Joplin. The band then underwent several changes at lead guitar, changing the name of the band each time – including Popcorn Blizard, and Floating Circus. As Floating Circus, they opened for The Who, The Stooges, the Grateful Dead and The Grease Band. Their regional success led them to release a single, "Once Upon A Time", backed with "Hello".
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Hair
After the break up of Floating Circus, Meat Loaf had several odd jobs, including being a bodyguard . Having no steady work, Meat Loaf decided to get a job as a parking lot attendant with a friend of his. A man pulled up in the parking lot that Meat Loaf thought might be the guy that was going to hire him. The man asked Meat Loaf what he did beside park cars and Meat Loaf told him that he was a singer. The guy said that he should come in and audition for Hair. Meat Loaf went on to do the show in Los Angeles and then for a six month run in Detroit, Michigan.
French picture sleeve of Stoney & Meatloaf's "What You See Is What You Get"With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf was invited to record with Motown. They suggested that he do a duet with Stoney Murphy, to which he agreed. The album, titled Stoney & Meatloaf (Meatloaf being shown as one word), was completed in the summer of 1971 and released in September of that year. To support their album, Meat Loaf and Stoney toured with Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers, Bob Seger,and Alice Cooper
After the tour, Meat Loaf rejoined the cast of Hair, this time on Broadway. After he hired an agent, he auditioned for the production of More Than You Deserve. It was during the audition that Meat Loaf first met his future collaborator Jim Steinman.
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show
During the winter of 1973, after returning from a short production of Rainbow in New York in Washington, D.C., Meat Loaf received a call asking him to be in The Rocky Horror Show where he played both the parts of Eddie and Dr. Scott. The success of the play led to the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show where Meat Loaf just played Eddie. In the film he sings a song called "Hot Patootie" which is sometimes is still included in his live act as of 2006. The film is considered a cult classic and remains popular. At midnight showings, moviegoers will often dress up as a film character, dance in the aisles, squirt water guns at one another, and recite dialogue along with the film. Many second-run theaters have this film and its related activities as a regular monthly late-night Friday feature. Meat Loaf remains a fan of the movie himself, more so than the other stars of the film, and he hosted the broadcast television debut of the movie -- featuring a "live" audience at a theatre -- in the 1990s. About the same time, Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman started work on Bat Out of Hell. Meat Loaf convinced Epic Records to shoot 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". He then convinced Lou Adler, the producer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, to run the "Paradise" video as a trailer to the movie.
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Bat Out of Hell
Bat Out of Hell jacketMeat Loaf and Steinman started Bat Out of Hell in 1972, but didn't get serious about it until the end of 1974. Meat Loaf decided that he wasn't going to do any more theater and would concentrate only on the record. Then, the National Lampoon Show opened on Broadway and they needed an understudy for John Belushi, a close friend of Meat Loaf. He and Belushi had become friends in 1972. It was at the Lampoon Show that Meat Loaf met Ellen Foley who would end up singing "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" with him on the Bat Out of Hell album.
After the Lampoon show ended, Meat Loaf and Steinman concentrated on getting a record deal. They were rejected by every record company they approached, because it was not a specific style. Finally they performed the songs for Todd Rundgren who decided to produce the album. In addition to producing the album, Rundgren played lead guitar on it. They then shopped the record around but still had no takers until Cleveland International Records decided to take a chance. On October 21, 1977, "Bat Out of Hell" was released.
His first gig in support of the record was opening for Cheap Trick in Chicago, Illinois. The audience started out hostile, but by the end of the show had been won over. Their next stop came a couple of days after the release of the album in New Jersey. The show was a complete sell out and people lined up to see it hours before it started. Things really started to take off after Meat Loaf appeared on Saturday Night Live as the Musical Guest on March 25, 1978. The huge success of the album caused a rift to open up between Meat Loaf and Steinman. Steinman started to resent the attention that Meat Loaf was getting.
During a show in Ottawa, Meat Loaf fell off the stage and broke his leg. The injury caused the cancellation of the rest of the tour. To deal with all of the pressure, he started to do cocaine. It all culminated with a nervous breakdown where he threatened to commit suicide by jumping off the ledge of a building in New York. Then in December of 1978, he went to Woodstock to work with Steinman. It was at the Bearsville studio that Meat Loaf met his future wife, Leslie G. Edmonds. They met and were married within a month. Leslie had a daughter from a previous marriage, Pearl, who had followed in her stepfather's footsteps and become a singer. In the middle of recording his second album, "Bad for Good," Meat Loaf lost the ability to sing. His doctors said that physically he was fine and that his problem was mental. Steinman decided to keep going with Bad for Good without Meat Loaf.
Just as it looked like life was going down the tubes for Meat Loaf, he managed to get the part of Travis Redfish in Roadie. The movie had cameos by Debbie Harry, Roy Orbison and Hank Williams, Jr., but was still a box office flop. Over time, Meat Loaf got his singing voice back, getting off drugs and playing softball.
The struggles that Meat Loaf faced during the making of Bat out of Hell paid off because it has now sold over 35,000,000 copies worldwide, making it one of the biggest sellers of all time. It also stayed in the UK charts for a record 474 weeks, although it never reached Number 1.
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Life after Bat Out of Hell
In 1980, Meat Loaf started working on Dead Ringer. Steinman wrote all of the songs, but had little else to do with the album. At the time his manager, David Sonnenberg, stepped out and Todd Dellentash stepped in to manage Meat Loaf's career. The tour they planned to support the album was cancelled after one show because they ran out of the money that the studio advanced them. Sonnenberg and Dellentash also convinced Sony Records and CBS to advance more money for the making of Dead Ringer, the movie. The movie was shown at the Toronto Film Festival and got some favourable reviews, but Dellentash and Sonenberg re-edited the movie and it turned out terribly.
In 1981, Leslie gave birth to Amanda Aday, now a television actress. Also in 1981, Meat Loaf changed managers after finding out that Dellentash and Sonenberg were stealing his money. They had all of Meat Loaf's assets frozen and sued him for breach of contract. They also started spreading rumors about how Meat Loaf was violent and had threatened people with guns. Meat Loaf ended up declaring bankruptcy. In 1983, he released the self written Midnight at the Lost and Found. Meat Loaf himself, a poor songwriter by his own admission, didn't like the songs he had written.
In 1984, Meat Loaf went to England, to record Bad Attitude, which included a duet with Roger Daltrey and two Jim Steinman songs. The recording of the album was rushed. During the tour to support the album, Leslie had a nervous breakdown and had to check into Silver Hill rehab facility in Connecticut. Things finally looked like they were going to turn around in 1986 when Meat Loaf found a new writer, John Parr, and started recording a new album, Blind Before I Stop. Unfortunately, the producer put a dance beat underneath every song, which resulted in critical failure, Meat Loaf going bankrupt and losing everything. His relationships with lifelong friend Jim Steinman and his wife also deteriorated.
To try and get his career back off the ground, Meat Loaf started touring small venues, anywhere that would have him, such as pubs and clubs. Slowly, he developed a faithful following which grew to the point where they were unable to fit into the venues that Meat Loaf was playing and then they too began to grow. This carried on until the late 80's where he began to sell out arenas and stadiums again. He even sold over 10,000 tickets at Ohio State. Leslie studied to be a travel agent so they could save on travel expenses and they toured all over the United States, Germany, England, Scandinavia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Bahrain. Due to the success of the touring, Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman got to work on Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell which was released in 1993, seven years after Blind Before I Stop. The album was a huge success and is considered one of the greatest comebacks in music history.
Meat and Leslie divorced in 2001 and he is now engaged to be married again.
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1980s Albums
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Dead Ringer
Dead Ringer JacketSongwriter Jim Steinman started to work on Bad for Good, the album that was supposed to be the follow-up to 1977's Bat Out of Hell, in 1979. 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, and write a new album for Meat Loaf. This album was Dead Ringer, which was later released in 1981, after the release of Jim Steinman's Bad for Good.
After playing the role of Travis Redfish in the movie Roadie, Meat Loaf got his voice back, and started to work on his new album in 1980. Steinman had written five new songs which, in addition to the track "More Than You Deserve" (which Meat Loaf had sung in the musical with the same name) and a reworked monologue, formed the album Dead Ringer. The album was produced by Meat Loaf and Stephan Galfas, with backing tracks produced by Todd Rundgren, Jimmy Iovine, and Jim 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' (part of the name of the album's title) was the Pinnacle of the album and launched Meat Loaf to even greater success after it reached #5 in the UK and stayed in the charts for a surprising 19 weeks. Cher provided the lead female vocals in the song which arguably contributed to the success of the single.
The album reached #1 in the UK and three singles were released from the album: "Dead Ringer For Love" (featuring Cher), "I'm Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us" and "Read 'Em And Weep".
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Midnight At The Lost And Found
Midnight At The Lost And Found JacketFollowing a dispute with his former songwriter Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf was contractually obliged to release a new album. Struggling for time, and with no resolution to his arguments with Steinman seemingly on the horizon (eventually, Steinman would sue Meat Loaf, who subsequently sued Steinman as well), he was forced to find songwriters wherever he could.
Meat Loaf is credited with being involved in the writing of numerous tracks on the album, including the title track, 'Midnight at the Lost and Found'. However, as Meat would later admit, he was not much of a songwriter, and when the album was released, in 1983, it was regarded, by many, as being poor. Fans were disappointed to see that the iconic pictures on the covers of Bat Out Of Hell and Dead Ringer were replaced by a black-and-white photograph of Meat Loaf (On some later re-releases, a colour image of a screaming Meat Loaf was used as the cover image).
The title track still regularly forms part of Meat Loaf concerts, and was one of very few 1980s songs to feature on the 1998 hit album 'The Very Best of Meat Loaf'. This was the last album that Meat Loaf did with the record label Epic until the 1998 release of 'The Very Best of Meat Loaf'.
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Bad Attitude
Bad Attitude, released 1984, features two songs by Jim Steinman, both previously recorded, and was mainly an attempt to keep Meat Loaf from going bankrupt during this period of lawsuits. It concentrated more on the hard rock side of Meat Loaf, was a minor success around the globe and released a few hit singles, the most successful being 'Modern Girl'.
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Blind Before I Stop
Blind Before I Stop was released in 1986. It features production, mixing, and general influence by Frank Farian, who was soon to become (in)famous for the Milli Vanilli fiasco. Meat gave songwriting another shot with this album and wrote three of the songs on the album. However, the only song released as a single (in the UK) was 'Rock 'N' Roll Mercenaries' which was a duet with rock singer John Parr. Meat never managed to sing the song live with John Parr because of an incident just after the release of the single. During a sold out show in London, Meat was going to perform the song, and as Meat Loaf didn't introduce John onto the stage he stormed off. Meat never saw John again, even after leaving dozens of phone messages begging him for forgiveness. But, in Meat's own words, "I never introduce people in the middle of a show - it breaks the continuity. You don't stop in the middle of a play and say 'And now ladies and gentlemen, entering the stage is Robert De Niro'". During his late 1980s tour of Europe, Meat Loaf picked up pianist Frank Doyle who later left the band.
According to Meat Loaf's 1998 autobiography, the album sold poorly due to the production of the album. Meat Loaf would have preferred to cancel the project and wait to work with more Steinman material, but this was impossible due to the lawsuit against Steinman.
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1990s Success
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Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell
Bat out of hell 2 jacketDue to the success of Meat Loaf's touring after his big downfall, he and Steinman began work during the Christmas of 1990 on the sequel to Bat out of Hell. Finally, after almost two years, Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell was finished and became a huge success. It sold 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. Meat Loaf won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo in 1994 for "I'd Do Anything for Love". This song also stayed at number #1 in the UK charts for 7 consecutive weeks. The single features a female vocalist who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud." Mrs. Loud was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, a performer from North East England who regularly performs at holiday camps and social clubs.
Some have found the lyrics of the song cryptic and claim that the singer never identifies what the "that" is that he is unwilling to do. Although some people assume that "that" is an exophoric reference to a sex act, it is actually an anaphoric reference to the varying activities specified as antecedents in the lyric that the singer says that he won't do.
"I'll never forget the way you feel right now ..." "I'll never forgive myself if we don't go all the way tonight ..." "I'll never do it better than I do it with you ..." "I'll never stop dreaming of you every night of my life ..." In addition, the female vocalist identifies two other things that the lead singer denies that he will do: "You'll see that it's time to move on" and "You'll be screwing around." To both of these, the lead singer responds, "I won't do that! No, I won't do that!"
The phrase does appear as an exophoric reference in a song on the Steinman-produced album Faster Than the Speed of Night, where it is a piece of overheard conversation in a bar. The video, based on Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera, is directed by Michael Bay, who also directed "Objects in the Rear View Mirror" and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" from the same album. It is the abridged seven minute single version, rather than the twelve minute (11:58) album version. The actress in the video is Dana Patrick, who is also featured in the video for "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" from the Welcome to the Neighborhood album. The cinematographer is Daniel Pearl, who filmed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1973. The video took four days to shoot, and it took up to two hours to apply Meat Loaf's make-up.
Also in 1994, he was honored by singing The Star Spangled Banner at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game (something he says was one of the two biggest highlights of his career). Meat Loaf made a valiant attempt to follow the success of "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" by releasing "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" as a follow-up.
Arista, Meat Loaf's previous label, was not willing to take a financial chance and decided against distributing Bat Out Of Hell II. The album was then recorded and distributed by Virgin Records, a decision that Arista later regretted. Meat Loaf used the proceeds from the album Live at Wembley to cover the initial costs of producing the album.
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Success After Bat Out of Hell II
In 1995, Meat Loaf released his 7th studio album titled 'Welcome to the Neighborhood'. The album was a huge success and went platinum in the United States and the UK. It released three singles which all hit the top 40, including "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)" and "Not a Dry Eye in the House" which reached #2 and #7 in the UK charts. "Id Lie for You" was a duet with Patti Russo (who has been touring with Meat Loaf (and singing on his albums) since 1993). The video helped the single in its success, which had a bigger budget than any of his previous videos. Two of the twelve songs on the album were written by Jim Steinman, whereas the big hits, namely "I'd Lie for You" and "Not a Dry Eye in the House", were written by Diane Warren (who has more recently written for Meat Loaf on his newest album Couldn't Have Said it Better).
In 1998 Meat Loaf released The Very Best of Meat Loaf. Although not reaching the top ten in the UK, it recently went platinum, and was already platinum around the rest of the world just after its release. The album featured all of Meat Loaf's best-known songs as well as a few from his more unknown albums from the 1980s. The album featured no songs from the album Blind Before I Stop. The album also featured three new songs. The music on the two Steinman songs was written and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The single from the album was "Is Nothing Sacred", written by Don Black. The single version of this song is a duet with Patti Russo, whereas the album version is a solo song by Meat Loaf.
Most recently (in 2003), Meat Loaf released his album Couldn't Have Said It Better. The album was a minor success worldwide and reached #4 in the UK charts. There were many writers for the album including Diana Warren and James Michael. Meat Loaf liked James Michael so much that he is writing a few songs on his upcoming album Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. The album was accompanied by a sellout world tour which was used to promote the album and some of Meat Loaf's biggest hits.
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Hair Of The Dog
Meat Loaf sold out over 160 concerts during his 2005 tour "Hair of the Dog". 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. The following week, he underwent a surgical procedure intended to correct the problem. As a result, Meat Loaf's insurance agency did not allow him to perform for any longer than one hour and 45 minutes.
As well as singing all the classics, he sang a cover version of the hit single "Black Betty". During this tour Meat Loaf also sings one of the songs from his upcoming album Bat Out of Hell III:, called 'Only When I Feel'. He mentions that this is not one of the most critical songs on the album. Meat Loaf says that this could be his last 'World' tour and that he will be doing less than a fifth of the concerts he did on his most recent tour.
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Bat Out of Hell III
Main article: The Monster is Loose: Bat Out of Hell III
Bat Out of Hell 3 coverDuring the concerts in his latest tour, Hair Of The Dog That Bit You, he makes a point to mention that he and Jim Steinman are putting out a new album, due on October 31, 2006 Work has begun and, as of November 2005, Desmond Child has been producing.
In a radio interview on BBC Radio 2 (aired in April 2006), Meat Loaf stated that "Bat Out of Hell III" would not be worked on by Jim Steinman. However, the trademark to the phrase "Bat Out Of Hell" for CDs and music is currently owned by Jim Steinman. Meat Loaf is now hoping to record and market Bat Out Of Hell III without Steinman's involvement. Meat Loaf applied for the trademark to the title but was rejected because of Steinman's trademark. According to news wire reports in June 2006, Loaf, filing as 'Michael Aday' (the singer's real first name has been the subject of dispute over the years among fans), is suing Steinman for attempting to enforce these trademark rights against Loaf's record distributors.
The anouncement that Steinman will not be working on the album has caused an uproar among certain fans who have come to expect from the previous albums in the series that Steinman would be the sole composer. It is currently set to be released on October 31, 2006, with the first single to be released in September. In May 2006, what appears to be a song from "Bat out of Hell III" was leaked via the Internet. The song was co-written by Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, John "John 5" Lowery (guitarist for Marilyn Manson), and Bat Out of Hell III producer, Desmond Child. The title of this track, "The Monster is Loose" will also be the subtitle of the forthcoming album as can be seen on the jacket.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_Loaf |
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