The singer and actor Meat Loaf, known for a trilogy of albums entitled Bat Out Of Hell, has died at age 74. At his side were his wife Deborah and his daughters Pearl and Amanda. No cause of death has been announced, but one source indicates that he died from the coronavirus.
Marvin Lee Aday was born in Dallas, Texas to Orvis Wesley Aday, who had been wounded in World War II, and the former Wilma Hardy Hukel. In high school, he appeared in musical stage productions. He went to college at Lubbock Christian College and North Texas State University before moving to Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles, Aday formed a band called Meat Loaf Soul, the "Meat Loaf" part coming from a nickname he had been given by his high school football coach because of his weight. He joined the Los Angeles cast of Hair and was later invited to record with Motown, who paired him with his Hair castmate Shaun "Stoney" Murphy. The duo recorded the album Stoney & Meatloaf, his stage name being misspelled as one word. Aday later was in the original New York cast of Rainbow, the Broadway cast of Hair, and Public Theater's production of More Than You Deserve. In 1973, the was in the original L.A. Roxy cast of The Rocky Horror Show, and later appeared in its movie version The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
During his time with Rocky Horror, Aday and songwriter/producer Jim Steinman, whom he had met while auditioning for More Than You Deserve, started working on his debut solo album Bat Out Of Hell. In 1976, he recorded lead vocals on five songs of Ted Nugent's album Free-for-All, temporarily replacing lead singer Derek St. Holmes. In 1977, Bat Out Of Hell was finally released. The album included the hit Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad and the three-part song Paradise By The Dashboard Lights, which featured female vocals by Ellen Foley and a spoken cameo by baseball announcer and former New York Yankees player Phil Rizzuto.
Meat Loaf recorded 12 studio albums, including two revivals of the Bat Out Of Hell concept. His second album Dead Ringer featured Cher as a guest vocalist on the song Dead Ringer For Love. He also appeared in over 50 movies and TV shows, sometimes as himself. In 1984, he legally changed his first name to Michael. Aday met his first wife Leslie Edmonds in 1978. They divorced in 2001. In 2007, he married Deborah Gillespie, by whom he is survived along with his daughters.
Of course, I must include a sampling of Meat Loaf's music. First, here's Paradise By The Dashboard Lights.
In the middle, this is official video for Dead Ringer For Love, in which Meat Loaf and Cher meet in a bar.
And last but not least, let's join Meat Loaf and the rest of the Rocky Horror cast and do the Time Warp again.
No comments:
Post a Comment