American singer and actor known as The Wild Man of Rock Opera. Meat Loaf was the larger-than-life singer who never fit a rock star stereotype and was often referred to as the “everyman” guy. A devoted family man, he was most famous as a live artist: wildly unpredictable on stage and full of energy, often collapsing from exhaustion after a concert.
A loner in childhood and often tormented for being overweight (nicknamed Meat Loaf and some 320 lb/ 145 kg at his heaviest), Marvin always had a hard time fitting in. He was closer to his mother than his alcoholic father, but the day after his mother’s funeral (when Marvin was 19) his drunk father attacked him with a butcher-knife. When Marvin challenged him he was literally fighting for his life.
He escaped to Los Angeles and later joined the tour of “Hair” in 1969 when a friend invited him to audition. The musical moved to Detroit in June 1970 before Marvin left to record with the female singer Stoney. He rejoined the cast in Ohio in March 1971 and the tour reached Broadway in September 1971. In January 1974 a standing ovation for his performance in the off-Broadway musical “More Than You Deserve” convinced him to take up singing full-time.
The following year saw a show-stopping performance in the musical “The Rocky Horror Show,” which opened on 10 March. After playing small clubs he secured a record deal (CBS, January 1977) with musical partner Jim Steinman. The result was “Bat Out of Hell,” (released October 1977). The album, a collection of grandiose rock opera songs, took some time to attract interest but would later become one of the top-selling records in history.
After his huge “overnight” success in 1978, Marvin began a downward spiral into drink and drugs, culminating in a four-day blackout in May. He walked out of recording a follow-up album when he experienced throat problems and moved from rock star to rock casualty with a nervous breakdown and suicide threat. In September 1981 he released “Dead Ringer” with Cher, but its commercial failure in the US resulted in lawsuits and he was forced to declare bankruptcy. Marvin kept sane staying at home for three and a half years raising his two young daughters with wife Leslie (they had married on 23 February 1979 after a whirlwind romance).
Disillusioned with the music industry and without a US record deal, nevertheless he re-built a strong concert following and between 1987 and 1993, fueled by his electric stage performances, “Bat Out of Hell” shifted a further eight millions units. His love-hate professional partnership with Steinman produced “Bat Out of Hell II” in 1993 which, along with a spin-off single, topped the charts in the US and UK in September and October 1993. The album won him a Grammy for Best Rock Performance in February 1994. Marvin, who had always considered himself more of an actor than singer, spent much time acting in films and TV.
Meat Loaf underwent emergency intestinal surgery on 10 June 2003 in Los Angeles. The singer collapsed during a concert in November 2003 and left a London hospital on December 1 diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. The condition is a potentially fatal heart condition. The singer underwent surgery to correct the defect and gratefully said, “I cheated death.”
Meat Loaf died on 20 January 2022 at the age of 74.
Link to Wikipedia biography