MICHAEL LEE ADAY A.K.A. MEAT LOAF, 'BAT OUT OF HELL'

The Grandma has read some sad news about Meat Loaf, the American singer and actor who has died today.

Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947-January 20, 2022), known professionally as Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor.

He was noted for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. His Bat Out of Hell trilogy -Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose- has sold more than 65 million albums worldwide.

The first album stayed on the charts for over nine years and more than four decades after its release still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually, making it one of the best-selling albums in history.

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. This did not stop him from becoming one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with worldwide sales of more than 100 million records.

The key to this success was his retention of iconic status and popularity in Europe, especially in Great Britain and Ireland, with him receiving the 1994 Brit Award in the United Kingdom for best-selling album and single, and 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 Bob Paulson in Fight Club (1999). His early stage work included dual roles in the original Broadway theatre cast of The Rocky Horror Show. He also appeared in the musical Hair, both on and Off-Broadway.

Meat Loaf died in 2022 at the age of 74 from complications of COVID-19. It was not clear if he had received a COVID-19 vaccine; however, he had spoken against compulsory vaccination and mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More information: The Guardian

Aday was born in Dallas, Texas, on September 27, 1947, the only child of Wilma Artie (née Hukel), a school teacher and member of the Vo-di-o-do Girls gospel 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.

In Los Angeles, Aday formed his first band, Meat Loaf Soul, after a nickname coined by his football coach because of his weight. He was immediately offered three recording contracts, all of which he turned down.

Meat Loaf Soul's first gig was in Huntington Beach, California in 1968 at the Cave, opening for Van Morrison's band Them and Question Mark and the Mysterians. While performing their cover of the Howlin' Wolf song Smokestack Lightning, the smoke machine they used made too much smoke and the club had to be cleared out. Later, the band was the opening act at California State University, Northridge for Renaissance, Taj Mahal, and Janis Joplin.

With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf was invited to record with Motown. They suggested he do a duet with Shaun "Stoney" Murphy, who had performed with him in Hair, to which he agreed.

 

The Motown production team in charge of the album wrote and selected the songs while Meat Loaf and Stoney came in only to lay down their vocals. The album, titled Stoney & Meatloaf (with Meat Loaf spelled as one word) was completed in the summer of 1971 and released in September of that year.

In late 1973, Meat Loaf was cast in the original L.A. Roxy cast of The Rocky Horror Show, playing the parts of Eddie and Dr. Everett Scott. Two other cast members from More Than You Deserve were also part of this cast; Graham Jarvis (playing The Narrator) and Kim Milford (playing Rocky).

The success of the musical led to the filming of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in which Meat Loaf played only Eddie, a decision he said made the movie not as good as the musical.

About the same time, Meat Loaf and 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 convincing Lou Adler, the producer of Rocky Horror, to run the Paradise video as a trailer to the movie.

Steinman started to work on Bad for Good, the intended 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.

Following the success of Meat Loaf's touring in the 1980s, he and Steinman began work during December 1990 on the sequel to Bat Out of Hell. After two years, Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell was finished.

More information: The New York Times

In 2003, Meat Loaf released his album Couldn't Have Said It Better. For only the third time in his career, Meat Loaf released an album without any songs written by Steinman, not counting live bonus tracks on special edition releases.

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.

In May 2009, Meat Loaf began work on the album Hang Cool Teddy Bear in the studio with Green Day's American Idiot album producer Rob Cavallo, working with such writers as Justin Hawkins, Rick Brantley, Ollie Wride, Tommy Henriksen, and Jon Bon Jovi.

In May 2011, Meat Loaf confirmed in a video on his YouTube account, that he was in the process of recording a new album called Hell in a Handbasket.

Meat Loaf's longtime collaborator Jim Steinman died on April 19, 2021, of kidney failure.

Meat Loaf died in Nashville, Tennessee, on the evening of January 20, 2022, at the age of 74 from complications of COVID-19. It was not clear if he had received a COVID-19 vaccine; however, he had spoken against compulsory vaccination and mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More information: The Guardian

I never fit in. I am a true alternative.
And I love being the outcast.
That's my role in life, to be an outcast.

Meat Loaf