Musicians - Meat Loaf

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	Musicians - Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday September 27, 1947 in Dallas, Texas) is an American actor and rock and roll performer who is noted for his his smash hit album Bat Out of Hell and for his movie performances, including Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Robert "Bob" Paulsen in Fight Club. He has had a successful music career spawning some of the greatest selling albums of all time and breaking several records. Although he enjoyed success with Bat Out Of Hell and Bat Out Of Hell II, he experienced some initial difficulty establishing a steady career within the United States; however, he is very popular in the UK, where he is ranked 23rd for number of weeks overall spent in the charts. In Germany, he became notably popular following the release of Bat Out of Hell II but has traditionally been succesful among pop/rock fans. He ranks at 96th on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock".

Early life

The Start

Meat Loaf was the first child of Orvis Wesley Aday, a policeman, and Wilma Artie Hukel, Orvis was an alcoholic who would go on drinking binges for days at a time. Meat Loaf and his mother would drive around to all the bars in Dallas, looking for Orvis to take him home. Because of this, Meat Loaf often stayed with his grandmother.

Although there have been various explanations for his stage name, according to his official website, his name started when his father called him "Meat" as a two-year-old. His schoolmates would later turn it into Meat Loaf as it has the same initials as his real name, M.L. In high school, he was on the football team until his senior year when his coach made him decide between being in the school play, and being on the team. Meat Loaf chose the school play.

After attending college at Lubbock, Meat Loaf transferred to North Texas State University. While there he was called in for an Army physical which he tried to fail by gaining sixty-eight pounds in four and a half weeks. They determined that he was fit despite being color blind, having a trick shoulder and being very concussion prone (he's had seventeen of them). When his draft notice arrived two years later, he ignored it. In 1967, after seeing his mother hospitalized and her health deteriorating, Meat Loaf left Texas and moved to Los Angeles, where he became a bouncer at a teenage nightclub.

In his autobiography, Meat Loaf claims that shortly after his mother died, his father, in a drunken rage, tried to kill him with a knife, and that he barely managed to escape after they had a bad fight. After Meat Loaf got his inheritance from his mother's death, he rented an apartment in Dallas and isolated himself for three and a half months. Finally, a friend found him and got him out. Eventually he bought a car with his inheritance and drove to California.

Early musical career

In Los Angeles, he formed his first band, Meat Loaf Soul. During the recording of their first song, Meat Loaf hit a big note and blew the board dash;and was immediately offered three recording contracts. However, he turned them all down. Meat Loaf Soul's first gig was opening up for Van Morrison's band. Later, the band was the opening act at Cal State Northridge for Renaissance, Taj Mahal and Janis Joplin. The band then underwent several changes at lead guitar, changing the name of the band each time - including Popcorn Blizard, and Floating Circus. As Floating Circus, they opened for The Who, The Stooges, Grateful Dead and The Grease Band. Their regional success led them to release a single, "Once Upon A Time" backed with "Hello".

Hair

After the break up of Floating Circus, Meat Loaf had several odd jobs, including being a body guard . Having no steady work, Meat Loaf decided to get a job as a parking lot attendant with a friend of his. A man pulled up in the parking lot that Meat Loaf thought might be the guy that was going to hire him. The man asked Meat Loaf what he did beside park cars and Meat Loaf told him that he was a singer. The guy said that he should come in and audition for Hair. Meat Loaf went on to do the show in Los Angeles and then for a six month run in Detroit, Michigan.

With the publicity generated from Hair, Meat Loaf was invited to record with Motown. They suggested that he do a duet with Stoney Murphy, to which he agreed. The album, titled Stoney & Meatloaf (Meatloaf being shown as one word), was completed in the summer of 1971 and released in September of that year. To support their album, Meat Loaf and Stoney toured with Jake Wade and the Soul Searchers, Bob Seger,and Alice Cooper

After the tour, Meat Loaf rejoined the cast of Hair, this time on Broadway. After he hired an agent, he auditioned for the production of More Than You Deserve. It was during the audition that Meat Loaf first met his future collaborator Jim Steinman.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Meat Loaf ]

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Musicians - Meat Loaf

Early life

The Start

Early musical career

Hair

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