Meat Loaf, the rock superstar loved by millions for his “Bat Out of Hell” album and for such theatrical, dark-hearted anthems as “Paradise By the Dashboard Light” and “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” has died at age 74
NEW YORK - Meat Loaf, heavyweight rock superstar loved by millions for his "Bat Out of Hell" album and dramatic, dark-hearted songs like "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", "Two Out of Three Is Bad" . ," and "I Will Do Anything for Love (But I Will Do That)," has passed away. He was 74.
Singer Marvin Lee Ade died Thursday, according to a family statement provided by his longtime agent Michael Green.
"Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf has passed away tonight," the statement read. "We know how much he means to many of you and we really appreciate the love and support as we go through this time of sadness of losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful person.. .From his heart to your soul...don't ever stop rocking!"
No reason or other details were given, but Ade has had several health scares over the years.
"Bat Out of Hell," his mega-selling collaboration with songwriter Jim Steinman and producer Todd Rundgren, surfaced in 1977 and made him one of the most recognizable artists in rock. Fans fell hard for the long-haired, 250-plus-pound singer's roaring vocals and the comic non-romance of the title track, "You Have the Words Right Out of My Mouth," "Too Out of Three Ain't No". Bad" and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," an operatic cautionary tale about going all the way. "Paradise" was a duet with Ellen Foley that featured a play by New York Yankees broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, who alleged - to much suspicion - that he could not reach third base and go for home without any alternative. was unaware of the meaning.
After a slow start and mixed reviews, "Bat Out of Hell" became one of the best-selling albums in history, selling over 40 million copies worldwide. Meat Loaf was not a consistent hit producer, especially after being out with Steinman for years. But he maintained a close relationship with his fans through his frantic live shows, social media, and his many television, radio and film appearances, which included cameos on "Fight Club" and "Glee" and "South Park."
Friends and fans reacted on social media to the death.
Actor Stephen Fry said on Twitter, "I hope heaven is as you remember it from Dashboard Light, Meatloaf."
Meat Loaf's biggest musical success after "Bat Out of Hell" was "Bat Out of Hell II: Back in Hell", a 1993 reunion with Steinman, which sold more than 15 million copies and a Grammy-winning single. I Did Anything". For love's sake (but I wouldn't do that)."
Steinman died in April.
Aday's other albums include "Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Lost," "Hell in a Handbasket" and "Braver Than We Are."
A Dallas native, the son of a schoolteacher who had raised him on his own after divorcing his alcoholic father, a police officer. Ed was singing and acting in high school (Mick Jagger was an early favorite, so was Ethel Merman) and attended Lubbock Christian College and what is now the University of North Texas. Among his more notable childhood memories: seeing John F. Kennedy arrive at Love Field in Dallas on November 22, 1963, when the then president was assassinated and taken to Parkland Hospital and a bloodied Jackie Kennedy. He was seen getting out of the car.
He was still a teenager when his mother died and when he received the nickname Meatloaf, the alleged origins of which ranged from his weight to his mother's favorite recipe. He left for Los Angeles after college and soon left for the band Meat Loaf Soul. For years, he alternated between musical and stage, recording for Motown, debuting for acts such as Who and the Grateful Dead, and appearing in a Broadway production of "Hair".
By the mid-1970s, he was playing the role of lobotomized biker Eddie in theater and film versions of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", working as an understudy for his friend John Belushi for a stage production of National Lampoon. and started working together. Steinman on "Bat Out of Hell". The intensive, fast production was openly influenced by Wagner, Phil Spector and Bruce Springsteen, whose bandmates Roy Bitton and Max Weinberg played on the record. Rundgren initially thought of the album as a parody of Springsteen's grand style.
Steinman had known Meat Loaf since the singer appeared in his 1973 musical "More Than You Deserve" and some of the songs in "Bat Out of Hell", including "All Rave Up with No Place to Go", debuted. I was written for an employed. Stage show based on the story of Peter Pan. It took more than two years for "Bat Out of Hell" to find a taker as it was turned down by several record executives, including RCA's Clive Davis, who denounced Steinman's lyrics and admitted that he had played the singer. was misquoted: "The songs were coming across as too dramatic, and Meat Loaf, despite a powerful voice, just didn't look like a star," Davis wrote in her memoir, "The Soundtrack of My Life." "
"Bat Out of Hell" was acquired by Cleveland International, a subsidiary of Epic Records, with the help of another Springsteen sideman, Steve Van Zandt. The album made little impact until months after its release, when a concert video of the title track was broadcast on the British program Old Gray Whistle Test. US In 2012, his connection to "Rocky Horror" helped when he persuaded producer Lou Adler to use a video for "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" as a trailer for the cult film. But Meat Loaf was so little known at first that they began their "Bat Out of Hell" tour in Chicago as the opening act for Cheap Trick, then one of the hottest groups in the world.
"I remember pulling up to the theater and saying, 'Tonight: Cheap Trick, With Meat Loaf.' And I said to myself, 'These people think we're serving dinner,'" Meat Loaf explained on the syndicated radio show "In the Studio" in 2013.
"And we went out on stage and these guys were such cheap Trick fans that booed us from the start. They were getting up and giving us the finger. The first six lines stood up and screamed. ... When we finished most of the booze had stopped and we were almost applauding."
He is survived by Deborah Gillespie, his wife and daughters Pearl and Amanda Ade since 2007.
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