Bat Out of Hell singer Meat Loaf dies aged 74 with wife by his side
‘Don’t ever stop rocking!’ Iconic Bat Out of Hell singer Meat Loaf dies, aged 74, with his wife Deborah by his side – as his family pays tribute to flamboyant star who sold more than 100m albums
American singer Meat Loaf has died after selling more than 100million albums and starring in 65 movies He had extraordinary career over six decades with Bat Out Of Hell trilogy among most popular offerings I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) reached number one in 28 countries and won him a GrammySuffered health issues including asthma and collapsed on stage in Pittsburgh in 2011 and London in 2003
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American singer Meat Loaf, who was known for hits including Bat Out Of Hell, has died at the age of 74 after selling more than 100million albums worldwide and starring in 65 movies, his family announced today.
The singer, whose real name was Michael Lee Aday, died with his wife Deborah at his side – and while no cause or other details were given by his family, he had suffered numerous health scares over the years. Meat Loaf had an extraordinary career over six decades with the Bat Out Of Hell trilogy among his most popular musical offerings.
His hits included the near ten-minute title track from Bat Out Of Hell, Paradise By The Dashboard Light from the same album, and I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) from 1993 album Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell.
The single I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) reached number one in 28 countries and earned him a Grammy award. The rocker also played the role of Eddie in the 1975 musical film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
In 2016 he was honoured with the Hero Award at the annual Q Awards music ceremony, which he dedicated to everyday heroes and called on people to ‘bring love back into this world’. His career spanned more than just music, with the musician also featured in a string of films including 1999’s Fight Club and 1992’s Wayne’s World.
Bat Out Of Hell was also adapted as a stage musical, which premiered in Manchester in 2017 after being written by long-time collaborator Jim Steinman and featured some of the Texas-born musician’s best loved hits.
Meat Loaf had spoken openly about health issues that had plagued him, notably asthma, which caused him to collapse on stage during a concert in Pittsburgh in 2011, and in 2003 he collapsed at Wembley Arena in London and was admitted to hospital. He later held a press conference in Kensington to reassure fans about his health. Then, following an on-stage collapse in Canada in 2016, a statement said it was due to ‘severe dehydration’.
Born in Dallas in 1947, Meat Loaf found early success on the stage in the 1970s, performing in the Broadway musicals Hair and The Rocky Horror Show – before he switched focus to rock music around 1972.
Meat Loaf started collaborating with Jim Steinman – who died last April – on a debut album that year which showcased his powerful voice and established his leather-clad, motorcycle-riding rock persona.
And the singer will be best remembered for famously singing in Bat Out Of Hell: ‘Like a bat out of hell I’ll be gone when the morning comes; When the night is over, like a bat out of hell, I’ll be gone, gone, gone.’
Meat Loaf performs in Las Vegas in October 2013. The American singer has died at the age of 74, his family said today
American singer Meat Loaf sold more than 100million albums worldwide and starred in 65 movies. He is pictured in 1993
Meat Loaf and his wife Deborah at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in February 2008. She was by her husband’s side when he died
Prince Charles meets singers including Meat Loaf and Beyonce following ‘Party in the Park’ at Hyde Park in London in 2003
Meat Loaf and Cher pose with Des Lynam (centre) after they joined him on The Des Lynam Show on BBC Radio 2 in 1998
Meat Loaf (right) with long-time collaborator Jim Steinman (left) in March 1978. Mr Steinman died in April last year
A statement by Meat Loaf’s family posted on the star’s Facebook page this morning said: ‘Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight with his wife Deborah by his side. Daughters Pearl and Amanda and close friends have been with him throughout the last 24 hours.
‘His amazing career spanned six decades that saw him sell over 100 million albums worldwide and star in over 65 movies, including Fight Club, Focus, Rocky Horror Picture Show and Wayne’s World. Bat Out of Hell remains one of the top ten selling albums of all time.’
The post added: ‘We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man.
‘We thank you for your understanding of our need for privacy at this time. From his heart to your souls… don’t ever stop rocking!’
Meat Loaf initially made his name in theatre productions, including a Broadway run of Hair, and spoke in 2012 about his roots as an actor.
He said: ‘I started as an actor, I am an actor. I started in New York in theatre, almost 10 years before Bat came out. While other people were playing out in bars and doing music, I was doing theatre, so that’s why Jim (Steinman) and I struggled so much because Jim and I both came from theatre, and they went ‘You’re not rock people. You’re theatre people. Theatre people don’t make records’. The public didn’t care, but I’ve gone up against that my entire career.’
His long music career saw him release more than ten albums, with his final studio album, Braver Than We Are, coming out in 2012.
Music producer Pete Waterman was among the first to pay tribute to Meat Loaf today, saying Mr Steinman’s death just nine months ago would have affected him.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘It’s like when your partner does go, it takes a part of you away. I don’t think you can ever work out what that effectively does to you personally. So, I think that must have had some impact.
‘But he was an amazing character. I once sat on a plane with him to New York and he took a box, like a cold trunk full of beef burgers. It was amazing, what that boy could eat, I’ll tell you – he could eat.
‘Meat Loaf was Meat Loaf. His size was part of the whole legend. It was his voice – you know, you knew what you got with Meat Loaf. It was 100 per cent of everything.’
Singer Cher said she had ‘so much fun’ with Meat Loaf when she worked with him on his 1981 album Dead Ringer. In a tribute posted to Twitter, she added: ‘Am Very Sorry For His Family, Friends, & Fans. Am I imagining It, or Are Amazing Ppl In The Arts Dying every other Day.’
Stephen Fry was also among the first to pay tribute online, saying in a tweet: ‘I hope paradise is as you remember it from the dashboard light, Meat Loaf. Had a fun time performing a sketch with him on Saturday Live way back in the last century.’
And BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley paid tribute, describing his voice as ‘extraordinary’. She tweeted: ‘God I loved Bat Out Of Hell. Soundtrack to my youth. Sad news RIP Meatloaf. Extraordinary voice. Phenomenal character.’
Bat Out Of Hell, his mega-selling collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, came out in 1977 and made him one of the most recognisable performers in rock.
Meat Loaf performing at Newbury Racecourse in Berkshire in August 2013
Meat Loaf arriving for the Kerrang Awards 2006 at The Brewery in London in August that year
Meat Loaf with his wife Deborah at a hotel in Kensington, West London, in 2003. He passed away with her by his side
Meat Loaf performs on stage in Zwolle in the Netherlands in May 2013
Meat Loaf with Donald Trump at an ‘An Evening with The Celebrity Apprentice’ in New York in April 2011
Fans fell hard for the roaring vocals of the long-haired singer and for the comic non-romance of the title track, You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth, Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad and Paradise By The Dashboard Light, an operatic cautionary tale about going all the way.
Paradise was a duet with Ellen Foley that featured play by play from New York Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, who alleged – to much skepticism – that he was unaware of any alternate meanings to reaching third base and heading for home.
After a slow start and mixed reviews, Bat Out Of Hell became one of the top-selling albums in history, with worldwide sales of more than 40 million copies.
Meat Loaf wasn’t a consistent hit maker, especially after falling out for years with Mr Steinman.
But he maintained close ties with his fans through his manic live shows, social media and his many television, radio and film appearances, including Fight Club and cameos on Glee and South Park.
Meat Loaf in The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975
Meat Loaf in the 1997 film Spice World
Meat Loaf appears in the 2001 movie Focus
Meat Loaf in the 1992 movie Wayne’s World
His biggest musical success after Bat Out Of Hell was Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell, a 1993 reunion with Mr Steinman that sold more than 15 million copies and featured the Grammy-winning single I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).
Mr Steinman died in April last year. Meat Loaf’s other albums included Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose, Hell In A Handbasket and Braver Than We Are.
A native of Dallas, Meat Loaf was the son of a school teacher who raised him on her own after divorcing his alcoholic father, a police officer.
He was singing and acting in high school – Mick Jagger was an early favorite, so was Ethel Merman – and attended Lubbock Christian College and what is now the University of North Texas.
Among his more notable childhood memories were seeing John F. Kennedy arrive at Love Field in Dallas on November 22, 1963, then learning the president had been assassinated and driving to Parkland Hospital and watching a bloodied Jackie Kennedy step out of a car.
Meat Loaf held a press conference in Kensington, West London, in 2003 where he informed everyone of his good health
Meat Loaf during a photocall at the Virgin Megastore in London’s Oxford Street in April 2003 where he did an album signing
Meat Loaf speaks during a press conference in Hong Kong in September 2006
Meat Loaf (left) being greeted at Stafford railway station by Prince Edward (now the Earl of Wessex) for rehearsals of charity event, the Grand Knockout Tournament at Alton Towers Theme Park. They are pictured there in June 1987
US singer Meat Loaf, whose hits included Bat Out of Hell, has died aged 74, a statement on his official Facebook page said
He was still a teenager when his mother died and when he acquired the nickname Meat Loaf, the alleged origins of which range from his weight to a favorite recipe of his mother’s.
He left for Los Angeles after college and was soon fronting the band Meat Loaf Soul.
For years, he alternated between music and the stage, recording briefly for Motown, opening for such acts as the Who and the Grateful Dead and appearing in the Broadway production of ‘Hair.’
By the mid-1970s, he was playing the lobotomized biker Eddie in the theater and film versions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, had served as an understudy for his friend John Belushi for the stage production of National Lampoon and had begun working with Steinman on Bat Out of Hell.
The dense, pounding production was openly influenced by Wagner, Phil Spector and Bruce Springsteen, whose bandmates Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg played on the record. Mr Rundgren initially thought of the album as a parody of Springsteen’s grandiose style.
Mr Steinman had known Meat Loaf since the singer appeared in his 1973 musical More Than You Deserve and some of the songs on Bat Out of Hell, including All Revved Up With No Place to Go, were initially written for a planned stage show based on the story of Peter Pan.
Bat Out of Hell took more than two years to find a taker as numerous record executives turned it down, including RCA’s Clive Davis, who disparaged Steinman’s songs and acknowledged that he had misjudged the singer: ‘The songs were coming over as very theatrical, and Meat Loaf, despite a powerful voice, just didn’t look like a star,’ Davis wrote in his memoir, The Soundtrack of My Life.
With the help of another Springsteen sideman, Steve Van Zandt, Bat Out of Hell was acquired by Cleveland International, a subsidiary of Epic Records.
The album made little impact until months after its release, when a concert video of the title track was aired on the BBC TV music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In the US, his connection to Rocky Horror helped when he convinced producer Lou Adler to use a video for Paradise By the Dashboard Light as a trailer for the cult movie.
But Meat Loaf was so little known at first that he began his Bat Out of Hell tour in Chicago as the opening act for Cheap Track, then one of the world’s hottest groups.
‘I remember pulling up at the theatre and it says, `TONIGHT: CHEAP TRICK, WITH MEAT LOAF.’ And I said to myself, `These people think we’re serving dinner,” Meat Loaf explained in 2013 on the radio show ‘In the Studio.’
‘And we walk out on stage and these people were such Cheap Trick fans they booed us from the start. They were getting up and giving us the finger. The first six rows stood up and screamed. … When we finished, most of the boos had stopped and we were almost getting applause.’
He is survived by Deborah Gillespie, his wife since 2007, and by daughters Pearl and Amanda Aday.
