Meat Loaf: Evil fiery tempered monster or genius monster hit-maker?

Marvin Aday was dubbed Meat by his father after seeing his bright red, newly born son. A coach at school then added the ‘Loaf’ after Meat stood on his foot and the name stuck. But he had a turbulent childhood. He was frequently bullied about his size and weight. His mother died when he was young, and he was so traumatised he reportedly tried to pull her body out of the coffin. Then his alcoholic father attacked him with a butcher’s knife. Meat fought back, overpowered him, escaped the family home and never returned. He moved to Los Angeles, started a band and soon found fame and fortune. As Stevie says in this episode: “You’ve got to be forged in fire to be a rock god.”

Let’s be honest: no superstar will ever look like me again.

Meat Loaf

Against: He had a fiery temper

Meat Loaf struggled with fame. After the huge success of Bat Out of Hell, he described himself as a ‘perfect monster’. He suffered breakdowns, admitted to substance abuse and left showbusiness for many years. Band members claimed he could be intense and would be more likely to throw a chair when frustrated than quietly fume. As Rachel explains on the show, after years of Meat’s rock star pampering, “it’s no wonder when he doesn’t get his own way, he’s like a petulant child.” Karla DeVito, who sang with him on stage, claimed he launched a microphone stand at her and once threw her offstage. Meat, who always considered himself more of an actor than singer (he appeared in many movies), insisted he was in character, so it wasn’t actually him doing the throwing.

For: He wasn’t a typical rock star

Russell describes Meat as “a lump of masculine energy from another planet.” Meat himself admitted, “Let’s be honest: no superstar will ever look like me again.” He was big and not that pretty, but the public loved his music. Bat Out of Hell was an astonishing success, becoming one of the biggest albums of all time and the sequel, Bat Out of Hell II, featured the massive hit I Will Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That). This was despite Meat Loaf’s music being thoroughly derided by critics, with Melody Maker deciding that Meat and his crew were the worst rock and roll band in history. But Meat didn’t care. He defied convention and ploughed on. As Rachel states on the show: “There’s nothing wrong with lots of people liking what you do.”

Against: He wasn’t a conventional romantic

Meat recounted that by the age of 11 he was ‘making out’ with multiple schoolfriends, and claimed his raunchy songs were all based on personal experience. For reasons that are somewhat unclear, he proposed to his first wife by presenting her with a whole salmon. As Johnny points out on the podcast: “You’d probably want a little more romance than, ‘here’s a salmon, crack on’”. As well as getting thrown off stage, Karla DeVito has also stated that the way Meat kissed her during a particular song was a little over-zealous, saying, “the tongue in the mouth was not in the job description”. Ew.