Meat as a baby...

FULL NAME : Marvin Lee Aday
DATE OF BIRTH : 27th September 1948 (or 47 or 51 depending on Meat!)
PLACE OF BIRTH : Dallas (Texas)

(Please note the following information has been taken from various sources. See bottom of this page for information credits.)

Meat is from a gospel-singing family in Dallas, Texas, so it was no surprise that he chose a career in singing. Sadly, Meat's mother died when he was quite young from cancer, and his father  became an alcoholic.

Meat decided it was best for him to leave home, so in 1967 he quit college (where he was studying to be an accountant), and moved to L.A., where he formed "Meat Loaf Soul", who later became "Popcorn Blizzard", a group which was quite successful. They opened local concerts for acts such as the Who, the Winter Brothers, Iggy Pop and Ted Nugent (on whose albums Meat Loaf sometimes was a guest doing as lead vocals). It was while living in a commune in Echo Park, LA, that Meat met an actor who suggested he audition for a part in the musical "Hair," playing at the nearby Aquarian Theater.

Meat Loaf got the job (are you surprised??)!! He was cast as Ulysses S. Grant-and so his second career, which runs, to this day, parallel with his singing career, began. While "Hair" was on tour and doing shows in Detroit, Meat Loaf and singer-actress Stoney cut an album for Motown's Rare Earth label. They notched up a minor American Hit: "What You See is What You Get" by Stoney and Meatloaf (sic) hit US:71 in 1971. Stoney soon quit, later to join Bob Seger's band as a backing singer, and Meat returned to "Hair", now playing Cleveland, Ohio.

That particular touring production folded at the end of '71 in New York, and Meat Loaf was then cast as Buddha in the musical, "Rainbow" [In New York], which ran from 1972-74. He then switched roles to appear in the off-Broadway musical, "More Than You Deserve!", written by Jim Steinman, a precocious and inventive New Yorker, who'd been brought up in California, but had come back to get back to the Great White Way. Steinman also sang, but at the time he was auditioning for his play, as his nose was broken by a female biker and he couldn't utter a decent note!!! When Meat Loaf appeared for the audition, Steinman was amazed by Meat's voice and his overpowering presence and declared "This guy is my voice! He should be singing Wagnerian rock opera!" Meat and Steinman became friends and colleagues.

In 1975 Meat Loaf opened at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway playing Eddie and Dr. Scott in Richard O'Brien's "Rocky Horror Show"....later, he would be in the movie, portraying Eddie.


Meat's adventures over the next couple of years included touring the States with the National Lampoon Road Show, playing the priest in "Rockabye Hamlet" (you guessed it... a rock version of Hamlet!) and singing on Ted Nugent's album 'Free for All'. In 1977, he rejoined Steinman's fantasy and became part of "Neverland" (yes, a futuristic rock version of Peter Pan!!!).

There, "Bat Out of Hell" was conceived - Steinman's Wagnerian rock opera vision of Meat Loaf himself!! Rarely has this kind of craziness been pulled off so well, and against such massive odds. The project was originally intended for CA Records, but they refused to let Todd Rundgren produce, so Steinman pulled out. The actual recording was financed through Albert Grossman's Bearsville Records (Todd Rundgren's label), who were distributed by Warner Brothers Records. Warner Brother's, however, wouldn't spend enough money on promotions, so Steinman backed off again. Eventually, manager David Sonenberg persuaded the fledgling Cleveland International corporation to play the "Bat Out Of Hell" tapes to Epic.

Epic saw the light. What Meat Loaf, Steinman and Rundgren had actually done was to take the metal/hard rock excesses of the early-mid '70s (all of which were getting a bit sluggish) and inject them with the New Wave energy of the late '70s, resulting in one of the most dynamic rock albums of all time (it stayed on the UK charts for an astonishing 400 weeks).

When the Epic parent company ,CBS, held its 1977 convention in New Orleans, Meat Loaf performed live to the assembled executives and his impact was so great that promotional films were immediately commissioned for no less than three of the tracks on the forthcoming "Bat Out of Hell" album. Those tracks were, "Paradise By The Dashboard Light", "You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth", and "Bat Out of Hell".

"Bat Out Of Hell" finally hit the US:14 (and stayed on the US album chart for 88 weeks) and UK:9. It was a slow-burning success but became one of the all-time biggest-selling rock albums. It also brought Meat Loaf rock star fame, which he embraced this with his usual overwhelming enthusiasm....sometimes even overwhelming for him!

At the end of 1978 he fell off stage in Toronto and wound up in a wheelchair for a month. Constant touring temporarily ruined his voice, and so the follow-up album to "Bat", with all tracks except vocals laid down and ready, sat in the studio for months until Steinman, tired of waiting for Meat Loaf's voice to recover, put on the vocals himself. In 1981 Steinman's solo album 'Bad For Good', originally intended for Meat Loaf, became a big hit in Britain and a modest hit in the States.

Later that year, the real Meat Loaf follow-up appeared: "Dead Ringer", again a close collaboration between Steinman and Meat Loaf, whose busy career now also included three movie roles: "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "Roadie" (with Debbie Harry) and "Americathon".

Non-stop touring with his hit albums and singles ("Dead Ringer For Love", a duet with Cher, was a global smash single), Meat Loaf could do little wrong. His third album, "Midnight at The Lost And Found", hit UK: 1, though in the States his popularity was on the slide. Steinman wasn't on it (he was busy with Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"), and it was produced by ex-Atlantic engineer Tom Dowd. At the end of 1983 Meat Loaf quit Epic and joined Arista. It's from Meat's later material on Arista that the tracks on this compilation are taken.

"Bad Attitude" in 1984 (with Roger Daltrey) hit No. 8 on the UK album chart and contained the hit, "Modern Girl", along with "Surf's Up", "Nowhere Fast", "Piece of the Action" (two UK hit singles), "Bad Attitude", and "Sailor To A Siren". In 1986, Meat Loaf played Gil in the movie, "Out of Bounds", and that September, scored another hit single with "Rock'n'Roll Mercenaries", a duet with John Parr. That track came from Meat's next album, "Blind Before I Stop", recorded in Rosbach, Germany, and produced by mentor Frank Farian. Other tracks from that album included were "Getting Away With Murder", "Rock'n'Roll Hero", "Blind Before I Stop", and "Special Girl".

"The singer who acts, the actor who sings" - Meat's intense charisma and personal performing power, as well as his huge capacity for work and for play, have earned him the often-spoken title of being "larger-than-life". Nevertheless, Meat Loaf really is. When one considers all the bad times he's had, along with these successes, one can't help but feel that his spirit must be unconquerable!! He was declared bankrupt in the mid- '80s; his act was shattered by the death of his drummer Wells Keily. Meat himself was clinically dead for 40 seconds after collapsing on stage; in Australia he insisted on finishing his tour despite breaking his leg half way through.

One of his most memorable guest appearances on vinyl was with Queen's Brian May, when the duo recorded "It's A Time for Heroes", a track issued only in the U.S. and adopted for the 1987 International Summer Special Olympics for the disabled. Meat also enjoyed enormous popularity on the live circuit - he played an impressive 500 sell-out shows in two years in the late 80’s. His TV credits include appearances on such diverse shows as Tales From The Crypt, The Equalizer, Monsters, The Odd Couple, Lightning Force, Saturday Night Live and nearly every talk show in the world.

April 1989, the strangely dynamic team of Steinman and Meat worked in secrecy at Ocean Way studios in LA and at the famous Power Station studio in New York City to produce the songs that would become Bat Out Of Hell II. "I think that the record is very deep in songs," Meat Loaf says. "I never want to say I'm equal to anybody, and I never want to compare myself to anybody, but I think this is a really great record." By 1990, Meat's career had turned full circle, with a reunion with Steinman, a contract with Virgin, and "Bat Out of Hell - Back Into Hell".

In September 1993, Bat Out Of Hell II was released and featured the epic songs "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)," "Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back," "Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through," and "Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are". The album and the single, "I'd do Anything For Love" were number one in over 25 countries and Meat Loaf had the biggest selling UK single and album of 1993.

Then "Welcome To The Neighbourhood" followed in 1995 and, although the album was missing Steinman and his production skills, it did well in the USA. It was a UK success and the single "I'd Lie For You" went straight in the UK Chart at No 2. Two further singles were released "Not A Dry Eye In The House" (UK 7) and "Runnin' For The Red Light" (UK 21). Included on the album were two old Steinman songs "Left In The Dark" (from Steinman's "Bad For Good") and "Original Sin", from the album "Original Sin" by Pandora's Box (a group of four female singers that Steinman put together in 1989).

And now to present day, 1998 saw the release of Meat Loaf's current album, the greatest hits compilation, "The Very Best Of...", which includes three news songs, two of which are true Steinman classics, "No Matter What" and "A Kiss Is A Terrible Thing To Waste". The Album also features a new song by Don Black (music by Jim Steinman) and will be Meat's new single in March 1999.

*This text from the album insert for Meat Loaf - Rock 'N' Roll Hero, Pickwick Music. It has some solid info on Meat Loaf. Some information also comes from various source on the internet. All copyrights apply.