The Bizarre Life of Meat Loaf

Meatloaf once gave a ride to an unsettling stranger who spoke of the world ending only to later learn he had come face-to-face with pure evil. While his name may conjure up visions of a favorite family meal, the reality of being Meatloaf was not always so easy to swallow. He was an incredibly troubled star who lived with a moniker that was a constant reminder of cruel taunts from bullies and from a dad who tragically tried to end his son’s life. Meatloaf poured all his childhood trauma into explosive songs that were as operatic as they were rock and roll, but one day he faced a challenge he couldn’t have seen coming. He was born in 1947 in Dallas, Texas as Marvin Lee Aday. When he was born, his skin was bright red so much so that his father, Orvis Wesley Aday, thought he looked like 9 lb of ground chuck. He even had staff at the hospital place a name card that read meat near his crib. As he grew up, Marvin Lee soon became ML. Then he started getting heavier and heavier. In the seventh grade, he was just 5’2 but already 240 lb. This prompted one of his classmates to change ML to Meatloaf. His father had become an alcoholic after serving in World War II. Sometimes when they couldn’t locate him, Meatloaf and his mother would drive around Dallas looking for him in bars. When Meatloaf was 19, his mother died of cancer. His father seemed to have trouble controlling his emotions and in one disturbing incident went at his son with a blade. Luckily, Meatloaf had inherited money from his mother and he used it to plan his escape from his cruel and unpredictable father. He got his own apartment and saved himself. There he hid himself away for 3 and 1/2 months. Eventually, one of his friends pulled him out of his self-imposed lockup. Meat Loaf needed a plan. He decided to head to LA to start a band. By 1968, his band Meat Loaf Soul were ready for their first concert at The Cave in Huntington Beach, California, opening for Van Morrison’s band Them. After releasing the single Once Upon a Time, Meat Loaf took a break from his band and tried musicals. His first professional gig was an LA production of Hair.

This got him noticed by the right people and soon Meat Loaf had Motown knocking on his door. Motown had the idea to pair Meat Loaf up with Shaun Stoney Murphy, who had also appeared in Hair. They recorded an album called Stoney and Meat Loaf. After appearing 80 times as an opening act at the Grande Ballroom in Freeland, Meat Loaf turned his focus back on musical theater. He appeared in Hair again, this time on Broadway. He even did Shakespeare in the Park in New York City. And while Shakespeare sounds very highbrow, his next production was definitely on the lower end. At this time, there was nothing on stage more outrageous than The Rocky Horror Show. It originated on the London stage and Meat Loaf was cast as both Eddie and Dr. Scott in the first LA run of the musical. He worked with writer Jim Steinman on his first album as a solo artist and they were not making a typical album. It was going to be theatrical, but they had one big problem. Their ideas for the album were a little out there and no record company was interested. No one seemed to get their concept and their music couldn’t be categorized so easily. Steve Popovich was instrumental in the careers of superstars like the Jacksons and Bruce Springsteen. In 1977, he took a chance on Meat Loaf. He released Bat Out of Hell through his own label and then Meat Loaf went on tour. A spot as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live helped to boost his presence. One of Meat Loaf’s first gigs as a solo artist was in Chicago. He was the opening act for Cheap Trick and the audience was far from welcoming. In fact, they jeered and threw things onto the stage. Worse still, they screamed insults about Meat Loaf’s weight. At a concert in Ottawa, Canada, he may have gone too far with his on-stage theatrics when he fell off the stage and broke his leg, causing the performance to end abruptly. He would go on to finish the tour from a wheelchair. Around this time, Meat Loaf found himself in an unconventional romance. In 1979, he proposed to Leslie G. Edmonds. Instead of a ring, he handed her an entire salmon. The couple married and the officiating priest was so old that he couldn’t distinguish the groom from the bride.

It seemed like Meat Loaf couldn’t take anything seriously, but his records were doing more than a serious amount of sales. Bat Out of Hell would eventually go on to sell somewhere around 43 million copies. In Australia, it knocked the Bee Gees off the top spot and was second only to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours in the UK. In all, the album was in the UK top 200 for 522 weeks. During the tour, Meat Loaf’s relationship with Steinman deteriorated. He also found that touring was stressful and he turned to booze and drug use. It came as no surprise that by the end of the tour, Meat Loaf had lost his voice. While he waited for it to come back, he decided to star in a movie. In Roadie, Meat Loaf plays a truck driver who becomes a roadie for a rock and roll band. Despite numerous cameos by musicians like Alice Cooper and Deborah Harry, the film was a critical failure that lost money. Meat Loaf and Steinman weren’t getting along, but because of their contract, they still had to work together. Meat Loaf brought his A-game. He had his voice back and he’d also beaten his addiction. Steinman was also ready with five new songs for the album. Sadly, Dead Ringer was a huge disappointment critically and commercially. Team of alcoholics we gathered up in the in the park. For his third album, Meat Loaf was going to have to work without Steinman because the record company claimed they couldn’t afford him. Without Steinman, Meat Loaf needed a songwriter who could produce hits. For Midnight at the Lost and Found, he collaborated with various writers and even wrote some songs himself. The album was another dud. This is Mal Chisholm writing the material. His second and third albums had tanked, but his first one sold 43 million copies. Meat Loaf should have taken in somewhere between 40 to 60 million dollars just based on record sales. So, when he announced that he had gone broke, people reacted with confusion. What had happened to all that money. Steinman said in 1993 that neither he nor Meat Loaf had received any money from Bat Out of Hell since 1980. The album came out in 1977, so that means they only received money on the first 3 years of sales. This album eventually sold almost as many copies as Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Jackson had Neverland Ranch to show for his earnings. Meat Loaf had almost nothing. He was completely broke and had to do something extreme. In 1983, he filed for bankruptcy. There were an astounding 45 lawsuits brought against him totaling $80 million. Some of these were from his former partner Steinman and others were from the record company. Sadly, this bankruptcy meant something even more devastating. He had lost the rights to his songs. After surviving his courtroom battles, Meat Loaf moved to the UK, but he was soon in more trouble. In 1987, he appeared in a charity tournament called It’s a Royal Knockout.

This event had celebs like Meat Loaf and also members of the royal family dressed in fancy costumes. Meat Loaf later said that he was pretty sure that Sarah Ferguson, the wife of Prince Andrew, was paying him some attention. The story goes that Prince Andrew was not okay with the attention that his wife was sending Meat Loaf’s way, so he tried to throw him into a nearby moat. When Meat Loaf fought back, Prince Andrew apparently said, You can’t touch me. I’m royal. Meat Loaf didn’t harm the now disgraced prince, but he believed that the queen hated him for roughing up her son. After these royal shenanigans, Meat Loaf decided to get serious about music once again. He reconciled with Steinman and the two made a follow-up to Bat Out of Hell. One of the songs that confirmed his return to success was I Do Anything for Love, But I Won’t Do That. But, there was some confusion about what the thing was that he wouldn’t do for love. Meat Loaf had a bet with Steinman about whether fans would understand what the that was. The answer is very clear in the lyrics. It’s I’ll never lie to you. I’ll never forget the way you feel right now, and I’ll never stop dreaming of you every night of my life. Almost spoiling the success was an accusation from writer John Dunmore Sinclair that Steinman had ripped off his song Anything for You. The two parties eventually settled out of court. In 1999, Meat Loaf appeared opposite Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in Fight Club wearing a fat suit filled with birdseed that added more than 100 lb to his weight. But, this suit caused some problems on the set. Sixth rule, no shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule, fights will go on as long as they have. Everyone remembers the rule that we don’t talk about Fight Club, but rule number six, no shirts, no shoes, proved to be a problem. Because Meat Loaf was hiding his fat suit under his shirt, he goes down as the only character who got to break one of the rules of Fight Club. I have it all. And speaking of breaking things, Meat Loaf’s list of accidental injuries is as long as a broken arm.

In addition to his 18 concussions, he said that he survived an emergency landing in a plane and a three-story fall from a building. He also claims to have been hit in the head with a shot put, and his head also got stuck in a steering wheel following a car crash. But, there was something even more dangerous that happened to Meat Loaf in a car. In his 1999 memoir, he tells the story of the time he picked up a random guy who needed a ride. This guy was actually going to Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s house. The guy was odd and told Meat Loaf that the world was going to end and that he was going to go with it. It was only much later that Meat Loaf realized this random stranger was actually the notorious Charles Manson. While this is eerie enough, Meat Loaf also had a brush with the supernatural. When he was recording his first album, he told the crew that he saw a groupie watching from the balcony. He said she was blonde and wearing a white dress. When the crew went to investigate, they found no one there at all. This incident caused Meat Loaf to be a firm believer in ghosts. Spooky. But while he may have believed in ghosts, there’s something else he thinks is 100% myth. In 2010, Meat Loaf felt obliged to declare his skepticism about climate change. But the outspoken singer didn’t let it stop there. He took on environmental activist Greta Thunberg, saying that someone had brainwashed her. Thunberg, just 19 at the time, kindly asked Meat Loaf and everyone else to simply look at the facts. The famously vegetarian k.d. lang reportedly refused to meet Meat Loaf based on his meaty name alone. But while his name may inspire feelings of dinner table carnage, Meat Loaf was actually a vegetarian for more than 10 years. But giving up meat hadn’t helped his health much. At a 2016 concert in Edmonton, Canada, he collapsed on stage due to severe dehydration. Strangely, while he lay flat out on the stage, his voice kept on going. Many assumed this was proof that he’d been lip-syncing, but Meat Loaf said it wasn’t true.

But, another truth was out there. Meat Loaf was not well. Following this incident, he went through physical therapy, acupuncture, and even emergency back surgery. In 2019, he fell off a stage and ended up in a wheelchair again. A few short years later, he would find himself back in a hospital bed, and this time would be the last. In early 2022, his daughter shared online that her father was sick, and that they made it just in time to say goodbye. He died on January 20th at the age of 74. American singer and actor Meat Loaf. Meat Loaf. Meat Loaf. to tell you that we are remembering, of course, a rock legend. and roll legend. me sad this morning. Meat Loaf, the American musician. One of rock and roll’s most unique performers, Meat Loaf. Tributes came from all corners of the entertainment world. The Queen’s Guard even performed their own version of I’d Do Anything for Love, But I Won’t Do That. Maybe the Queen didn’t hate him after all. If you enjoyed this Factinate video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more incredible stories. Your support means everything to us. If you want to say in who we cover next, join our membership program through the link in the description for exclusive perks, and check out the videos on screen for more amazing Factinate stories.