Mourning for Meat Loaf: The mighty voice of rock has fallen silent

Created: 2022-01-21Updated: 2022-01-21 4:17 PM

By: Zoran Gojic

Meat Loaf called his songs "mini plays".

And that's how he interpreted it.

© Jörg Koch

Meat Loaf has delighted his fans for decades with his impressive voice, excessive concerts, his hit "I'd do anything for Love" and film appearances.

Now the singer and actor has died at the age of 74.

Our obituary:

A giant with a four-octave voice, that's how Marvin Lee Aday became famous in the late 1970s. Shortly thereafter, his voice is gone, his money too and his life is in serious danger due to persistent drinking. But Meat Loaf, as he has been called since school, does not give up. The fact that he was fighting his way back to life and the hit parades is in itself his greatest triumph. British actor Stephen Fry has described the unique quality of Meat Loaf better than anyone else: he is scary and cuddly at the same time. The career begins like a modern fairy tale for the Texan, born in Dallas in 1947, who actually wants to be an actor: right from his first film appearance in 1975, he stole some of the most beautiful scenes from the cult film "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

Meat Loaf released Bat Out of Hell in 1977

At that time, the hobby musician, who performed with bands like Popcorn Blizzard, was working on the album "Bat out of Hell".

Accomplice Jim Steinman wrote Meat Loaf a kind of Wagner opera in rock format on the mighty body, the record became a worldwide hit in 1977 and became one of the most successful rock productions of all time, to date it has been sold around 50 million times.

Meat Loaf: His concerts made him famous

On the ensuing monster tour - performing more than 170 times in a year - Meat Loaf ruins his voice, falls out with Steinman and faces bankruptcy from ongoing legal battles with his management.

He continues to make records that are ignored in the US but do well in Europe.

Meat Loaf also performs obsessively to stay fluid, earning a loyal audience over the years with his excessive live shows.

He doesn't look like other rock stars - and he doesn't want to either.

His fans like him because instead of trying to be glamorous, he screams his heart out.

evening after evening.

"I'd Do Anything for Love" was Meat Loaf's biggest hit

"I've always been different, that's my thing. If I ever go hip, shoot me," Meat Loaf once declared and was right about his course - he stays in business, regardless of which trends come or go. In addition, he often appears on television and in films - he likes to be in front of the camera and he needs the money urgently. In the late 1980s, he reconciled with Steinman and began working on the sequel to Bat out of Hell. The work drags on, the record only appears in 1993, but it becomes a huge success and gives Meat Loaf a global hit with "I'd do anything for Love". Meat Loaf is finally free of its financial worries. He's back on track, touring harder, starring in movies including classics like Fight Club (1999) and releasing Bat out of Hell III,which he later called a huge mistake and even ironically denied the existence of this record.

Meat Loaf: Concert canceled after heart attack

In 2003, overexploiting his own body took its toll: he had to stop a concert after suffering a heart attack.

Meat Loaf still tours from time to time, but has to step back, which hurts the artist himself given the way Meat Loaf performs live: He can no longer throw himself into his songs as unreservedly as usual, after all he interprets his "mini Theater plays” like to be physical.

And even the once voluminous voice no longer carries him as far as he would like.

Still, people continue to cheer him on.

Maybe because he doesn't let himself be beaten and always wrests everything from his body.

When he breaks his leg at a concert in 1978, he continues the tour in a wheelchair.

In general, there is hardly a musician

Meat Loaf's real name was Marvin Lee Aday

However, the artist never loses his sense of humor, he happily circulates new years of birth (sometimes 1947, sometimes 1951) and thinks the confusion about it is great.

And with great pleasure he dissects myths that are circulating about him.

Of course he didn't give himself the nickname Meat Loaf, he clarifies once - only a complete idiot would do something like that.

It was his football coach who called him that after the 13-year-old stepped on his foot.

And he often corrects the rumor that acting is more of a hobby: He takes every role seriously, after all acting is his original profession.

Marvin Lee Aday, one of rock's mightiest voices, the best and only exponent of the meat loaf rock genre, has died at the age of 74.

When his accomplice and nemesis Jim Steinman died last year, Meat Loaf announced that he would soon follow him.

He made it come true.