Meat Loaf
b. Marvin Lee Aday, 27 September 1947, Dallas, Texas, USA. The name Meat Loaf originated at school, when aged 13, he was christened Meat Loaf by his football coach, owing to his enormous size and ungainly manner. Two years later his mother died of cancer, and fights with his alcoholic father grew worse. He moved to Los Angeles in 1967 and formed Popcorn Blizzard, a psychedelic rock outfit which toured the club circuit, opening for acts which included the Who, Ted Nugent and the Stooges. In 1969 Meat Loaf successfully auditioned for a role in Hair, where he met soul vocalist Stoney. Stoney and Meat Loaf recorded a self-titled album in 1971, which spawned the minor Billboard chart hit, What You See Is What You Get. HAIRclosed in New York in 1974, and Meat Loaf found new work in MORE THAN YOU DESERVE, a musical written by Jim Steinman, then took the part of Eddie in the film version of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. In 1976, he was recruited by Ted Nugent to sing lead vocals on his FREE FOR ALL, after which he joined up with Jim Steinman again in the famous US satirical comedy outfit, the National Lampoon Roadshow. Meat Loaf and Steinman struck up a working musical relationship and started composing a grandiose rock opera. After a long search, they found Epic Records and producer Todd Rundgren sympathetic to their ideas and demo tapes. Enlisting the services of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, they recorded BAT OUT OF HELL in 1978. It was pieced together around the high camp of the title-track, an operatic horror melodrama which saw Meat Loaf dueling with vocalist Karla DeVito, and Paradise By The Dashboard Lights, with Ellen Foley providing female accompaniment. The album was ignored for the first six months after release, although Meat Loaf toured extensively, supporting Cheap Trick, among others. Eventually the breakthrough came, and BAT OUT OF HELL rocketed towards the top of the charts in country after country. It stayed in the UK and US album charts for 395 and 88 weeks respectively, and sold in excess of thirty million copies worldwide, the third biggest-selling album release of all time. 
However, with success came misfortune. Meat Loaf split with his manager, David Sonenberg, causing all manner of litigation. He was drinking heavily to cope with his new found but barely anticipated stardom, and lost his voice. He also lost his songwriter too, as Steinman split to release solo what had been mooted as a thematic follow-up to BAT OUT OF HELL—BAD FOR GOOD: ‘I spent seven months trying to make a follow-up with him, and it was an infernal nightmare. He had lost his voice, he had lost his house, and he was pretty much losing his mind’. After a three-year gap, during which Meat Loaf declared himself voluntarily bankrupt, the eagerly anticipated follow-up, DEAD RINGER, was released. Again it used Steinman's compositions, this time in his absence, and continued where BAT OUT OF HELL left off, comprising grandiose arrangements, anthemic choruses and scintillating rock ‘n’ roll. The title song made the Top 5 in the UK and the album hit number 1, but it only dented the lower end of the Top 50 Billboard album chart. This was also the last time Meat Loaf would be able to use Steinman's sympathetic songwriting skills, and the consequent weakening of standards undoubtedly handicapped the second phase of Meat Loaf's career. Concentrating on Europe, relentless touring helped both MIDNIGHT AT THE LOST AND FOUND and BAD ATTITUDE to creep into the Top 10 UK album charts. Nevertheless, this represented a significant decline in popularity compared with his Steinman-penned albums. 
BLIND BEFORE I STOP saw Meat Loaf teaming up with John Parr for the single Rock'n'Roll Mercenaries, which, surprisingly, was not a hit. The album was, however, his strongest post-Steinman release and featured a fine selection of accessible, blues-based, hard-rock numbers. With live performances, things had never been better; Meat Loaf's band included Bob Kulick (brother of Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick, and now of Skull), and ex- Rainbow drummer Chuck Burgi. They delivered an electrifying show which ran for nearly three hours. Recorded at London's Wembley Stadium, MEAT LOAF LIVEemerged in 1987, and featured raw and exciting versions of his finest songs. By now Meat Loaf was also a veteran of several films, including ROADIE, AMERICATHON and, in the '90s, WAYNE'S WORLD and LEAP OF FAITH. Apart from re-releases and compilations, he maintained vinyl silence well into the '90s. However, he signed a new deal with Virgin Records in 1990, and as rumours grew that he was once again working with Steinman, the media bandwagon began to roll. BAT OUT OF HELL II—BACK INTO HELL, from its title onwards, displayed a calculated, stylistic cloning of its precursor. The public greeted the familiarity with open arms, pushing lead-off single I'll Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) to number 1 in both the US and UK, its parent album performing the same feat. Though critics could point at the formulaic nature of their approach, Meat Loaf had no doubts that by working with Steinman again, he had recaptured the magic: ‘Nobody writes like Jim Steinman. All these things—bombastic, over the top, self-indulgent. All these things are positives’.