HE flew into the music charts like a Bat Out Of Hell and spent the rest of his career beguiling fans and journalists with a mixture of fact and fiction.
But today, it was revealed Meat Loaf has passed away at the age of 74 – a year after he retired from music.
Few musicians can claim they managed to irritate the Queen, Prince Andrew and half of the entertainment industry in their career.
Yet the singer, whose real name is Michael Lee Aday, lived life to the full after overcoming a childhood of abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father, who allegedly tried to attack him with a knife after his mum’s tragic death.
In his school days, Meat Loaf claimed he experienced his first threesome and got his incredible voice due to a freak accident – the first in a long line of eyebrow-raising tales.
After conquering the music world with his iconic record Bat Out of Hell, the rock legend went on to cheat death, row with Donald Trump and even appear in the Spice World movie.
He married his first love, Leslie, within just a month of meeting, but passed away this week with his second wife, Deborah, by his side.
‘I fought for my life as dad plunged knife’
Meat Loaf’s mother, Wilma, spent her days teaching and her nights going from bar to bar in a bid to find her missing husband in their hometown of Dallas, Texas.
But in 1966 she died from cancer, devastating the teenager, then 19, who claimed he grabbed her dead body at the funeral and screamed at undertakers “you can’t have her”.
Shortly after the funeral his father, Orvis, allegedly attempted to attack him with a knife and Meat Loaf had to fight him off, breaking his father’s nose and ribs in the process.
“I rolled off the bed just as he put that knife right in the mattress,” he said.
“I fought for my life. Apparently I broke three ribs and his nose, and left the house barefoot in a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt.”
Meat Loaf never went home. Instead, he moved to LA in 1967 and began singing in bands and acting – getting an understudy role for John Belushi in National Lampoon Show.
He has since forgiven his father, explaining in a 2016 interview: “He tried to kill me with a butcher knife but all of that is just life. Alcoholism is a disease. You deal with it, you go on, you don’t hold grudges.”
Cat with ’48 lives’
Meat Loaf’s baffling number of injuries and near death experiences led him to describe himself as a “cat with 48 lives”.
In 2013, he told Ultimate Classic Rock he suffered 18 concussions, survived eight car crashes, and had close calls on planes.
He also claimed he had “fallen three storeys” and had so many near misses and collisions that he “should have died” – but the truth of these accidents has never been verified.
Meat Loaf even claims his singing voice came as the result of a 12-pound shot put being thrown at his head from 62-feet away during school.
He told The Telegraph: “Didn’t even knock me out. Weird.”
Shortly after he was trying out for a choir and found he suddenly had a three-and-a-half-octave vocal range. He was also left with a dent in his head.
But school wasn’t all bullies and injuries – Meal Loaf also got to experience his first ‘threesome’ at just 11 despite his large size.
“I had my first three-way in my mother’s car in the fifth grade,” he said. “OK, it was a make-out session with two girls, but that’s still a threesome.”
‘I was a perfect monster’
Before Meat Loaf made it big in the music industry, he worked as a jobbing actor and starred in The Rocky Horror Show film and Fight Club.
His big breakthrough came with 1977’s Bat Out Of Hell, which has since sold 43 million copies globally.
Meat Loaf’s larger-than-life persona dazzled listeners.
He stepped his antics up a notch on tour, opting to make out with singing partner Karla Devito on stage while performing “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”.
She had no idea it was coming.
The drummer in his band claimed Karla went through hell, with Meat Loaf allegedly hurling “a giant heavy steel mic stand bottom” at her and one time he got so carried way her chucked her off stage.
But he tortured himself just as much, requiring oxygen after some performances where he pushed himself too hard.
After one performance when Meat Loaf opted to begin with speeches rather than singing, his band was booed – leading to him trashing his dressing room backstage in a characteristic fit of rage.
“I was a perfect monster,” Meat recalled. Quickly the broken furniture turned into broken bones, with Meat Loaf fracturing his leg falling off the stage which ended the tour.
Furious, devastated and high on cocaine, the singer suffered a nervous breakdown and threatened to throw himself off the edge of a high-rise building.
Thankfully he was talked down by road manager Sam Ellis and continued his rise to world stardom.
Married first wife after a month
By 1978 Meat Loaf was one of the most high-profile performers on Earth.
He and his band teetered on the edge of self-destruction – fuelled by insurrection, drugs, and infighting.
The same year, he met his first wife Leslie, then a secretary for Bearsville Records. He married her within a month of their first meeting.
His proposal to her at The Bear Cafe was bizarre to say the least.
Producer Todd Rundgren recalled Meat Loaf got down on one knee with “a giant whole salmon. And it was as if a bear had proposed to his mate. Instead of a ring, a salmon.”
The pair moved to Stamford, Connecticut, with Leslie’s daughter Pearl from a previous relationship.
In 1981 they welcomed their daughter Amanda Aday and Meat Loaf coached baseball and softball while the girls grew up.
By 2001 the marriage had collapsed and the pair divorced. The singer later found love again with Deborah Gillespie who he married in 2007 and stayed with until his death.
The couple split their time between LA and Texas and while her husband may be comfortable in the public eye, it appears Deborah was not.
Little is known about her, despite being credited on two of Meat Loaf’s documentaries.
The pair did not go on to have children, but Deborah was a step mum to his two children with Leslie.
Bankruptcy troubles after voice disappeared
Shortly after Bat Out Of Hell was released, Meat Loaf was unable to sing for psychological reasons.
Longtime collaborator Jim Steinman said Meat “sounded literally like the little girl in The Exorcist … like a dragon trying to sing. It was a horrifying sound.”
His inability to sing lasted for years and required six months of psychological therapy to restore his voice.
In 1983 he was forced to declare bankruptcy – his road to financial hell paved with poor money management and expensive lawsuits.
He became more insular and admitted: “I was nuts. I mostly turned it inward. And it was all over being famous. I didn’t want people to call me a star.”
The singer claimed coaching little league baseball got him through the rough patch – and it’s no surprise he turned to sport.
Meat Loaf has had a long love affair with the beautiful game and was a proud supporter of Hartlepool FC despite growing up across the pond. He was allegedly planning to move to the town but never made it over.
He was also a devoted Yankees fan and owned a large collection of memorabilia and made history by drafting the first girl to a Stamford Little League team.
‘I don’t care if you’re Prince Andrew – you’re going in the moat’
By 1987 he was back on his feet and performing in England and even managed to have an alleged scuffle with the Royal Family.
Meat Loaf took part in the UK’s Royal Knockout tournament. The event involved celebrities and members of the royal family dressed as damsels, squires, and minstrels at an amusement park.
The event, broadcast on TV, raised £1.5million for charity and had more than 18million people tune in to see royals prodding celebrities in the bottom and messing around.
Allegedly, the Queen was furious for it making royals look ridiculous and Meat Loaf claimed he riled Her Majesty by putting his hands on Prince Andrew.
In one of his typically tall-tales, the singer joked that Fergie – then still married to the Prince – wanted a piece of him and her husband was less than impressed.
He explained in a 2003 interview: “Fergie wasn’t exactly flirting with me, but she was paying attention to me.”
Andrew allegedly tried to shove Meat into a moat, but the singer grabbed Andrew instead.
“You can’t touch me. I’m royal,” the prince supposedly said, to which Meat replied, “Well you try to push me in the moat, Jack, I don’t give a s**t who you are, you’re going in the moat.”
Not one to be pigeoned holed, Meat Loaf even made waves on reality TV when he appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2011.
During the show, he became pally with Donald Trump but things went sour after he was asked a question about Trump running to be president.
Meat Loaf said: “And I answered honestly – ‘Well he’s not running for President. But if I was President I would see if I couldn’t get him to join the staff in a finance position and give me advice on finances and the economy as the man is really smart at that.’”
It resulted in the pair having a heated row backstage at an Emmy nomination ceremony – with Trump being furious that Meat Loaf didn’t think he should run for president. He did anyway.
But music was always Meat Loaf’s first love, and he even hoped to die on stage – saying it would be the best thing that could happen to him.
He said: “Because then I’m dying doing what I love.”
When the time came, he didn’t pass away in front of a large audience.
Instead it was in bed surrounded by friends and family, who remained his most loyal fans.
