Meat Loaf


Meat Loaf in 1971

Born: Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947; Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Died: January 20, 2022 (aged 74); Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Website: meatloaf.net

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. He was noted 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. The first album stayed on the charts for over nine years, still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually, and is on the list of best-selling albums.

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", Aday nevertheless experienced some difficulty establishing a steady career within the United States. 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".

Aday appeared in over 50 films and television shows, 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.

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Early life

Marvin Lee Aday was born in Dallas, Texas, on September 27, 1947, 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. 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. He was later called "M.L." in reference to his initials, but when his weight increased, his seventh-grade classmates referred to him as "Meatloaf", referring to his 5-foot, 2 inches, 240 pound 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!'".

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. Aday often accompanied his mother in driving to the bars in Dallas to look for his father, and often stayed with his grandmother. 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 met 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.

In 1965, Aday graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, having appeared in school stage productions such as Where's Charley? and The Music Man. Aday played high school football at the position of defensive tackle. After attending college at Lubbock Christian University, 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. 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. A short time later, he went to the airport and caught the next flight to Los Angeles. He intentionally gained 60 pounds to fail his physical examination for the Vietnam War draft.

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