The American rock singer and actor Marvin Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf and author of “Bat Out of Hell” (1997), one of the ten best-selling albums in history, has died at the age of 74 after six decades dedicated to music and interpretation, his family announced today.
“Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight, surrounded by his wife Deborah, daughters Pearl and Amanda, and his closest friends,” the Dallas-born singer’s family said on his Facebook page. 1947.
Leading the eponymous rock band, Meat Loaf went on to sell more than one hundred million albums worldwide and acted in more than 65 movies, including “Fight Club” (“Fight Club”), “Focus”, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Wayne’s World” (“Scatter me!”).
“We know how much he meant to many of you and we really appreciate all your love and support at this time of mourning the loss of such an inspiring artist and such a wonderful man,” remarks his family, which concludes with a message “from his heart to your souls…never stop rocking!”.
He wanted to adopt the nickname “Meat Loaf” (meat loaf) after suffering a childhood of bullying for his overweight in which he felt “tormented”, as he assured in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
According to his biography, his father, a policeman by profession, was an alcoholic, mistreated him, and even tried to kill him, while his mother, a teacher, died of cancer when Marvin was 18, in 1966.
With this background, the singer assured Big Issue magazine that much of his childhood had been erased from his head. “Because my name is Meat Loaf, people think I’m a babbling idiot. I read Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams. I read all the time. I just don’t want to play by the rules,” he said.
With major health problems for years, after “Bat Out of Hell”, he released two sequels, “Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell” and “Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose”, of which he sold over 50 million copies worldwide.
In addition, he won a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for the song “I’d Do Anything for Love”.