Meat Loaf : I’d Do Anything for Love is dead at 74

Born Marvin Lee Aday and later legally known as Michael, the musician died on Thursday with his wife, Deborah Gillespie, by his side.

Written and composed by Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf’s 1977 debut album Bat Out of Hell remains one of the biggest-selling albums in history. Steinman and Meat Loaf’s 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell produced the global hit single I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). It was his only UK No 1 single, spending seven weeks at the top. He completed with Bat Out of Hell trilogy with The Monster Is Loose in 2006. The three albums have sold more than 65m copies worldwide.

Meat Loaf also had a breakout role in the 1975 film version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show playing Eddie, a feral and ill-fated delivery boy who sings the song Hot Patootie. He appeared in more than 50 films and TV shows, among them Fight Club, Wayne’s World and Spiceworld the Movie. In 2021, he signed a deal to develop a relationship competition series titled I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).

Meat Loaf is survived by his wife, Deborah Gillespie, his daughter Amanda Aday and stepdaughter Pearl Aday from his first marriage to Leslie G Edmonds.

Despite the stage name, he was for a time a vegetarian. In 2001, he legally changed his name from Marvin to Michael, having always associated the name Marvin with a Levi’s ad from his youth with the strapline: “Poor fat Marvin can’t wear Levi’s.” He also admitted to social anxiety that prevented him from socialising.

Speaking to Mojo, he characterised the public perception of his act:

“That I’m overblown, pompous, melodramatic, self-indulgent. I’ve heard it a million times. And the first person to describe me like that was me. It’s supposed to be overblown. It’s a fucking comedy. The entire history of rock’n’roll is a comedy … Rock’n’roll was never meant to answer the questions of the universe. It’s a laugh. I’m a laugh. So laugh at me if you like. I have no problem with that.”

Official site : meatloaf.net