Frequently Asked Questions |
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Q. What is Meat's real name? A. Meat Loaf was born Marvin Lee Aday , sometime in the 1980's he changed his name to Michael Lee Aday, but generally he answers to Meat! Anne |
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Q. When and where was he born? A. The "where" is easy : Dallas ,Texas (USA). The "when" has been the subject of a lot of debate over the years, Meat definitely entered this world like a bat out of hell on September 27th, as for the year Meat has in many different interviews said this to be anywhere from 1947 to 1952, however, according to his autobiography "To Hell and Back" he was born September 27th 1947. Anne |
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Q. Where and when did Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman first meet? A. Meat and Jim first made acquaintance in 1972 at Joe Papp's Public Theatre in New York. Jim was already working for Joe Papp and had written the score for a new play "More Than You Deserve". Meat auditioned for a part and he was offered and accepted the role of Rabbit. Diane |
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Q. Are there any books or sheet music for guitar, piano and vocals for Meat's songs? A. Yes there are. Books with the notation/tab for all the songs from both "Bat 1" and "Bat II" are still available as well as sheet music for some individual songs. A book containing all the songs from "Dead Ringer" was also published but is now long out of print and you would have to scour record fairs or second-hand book shops for a copy. Diane |
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Q. Where can I buy these music books? A. Your local musical instrument store should be able to help. If they don't have them in stock they will be able to order them from their catalogues. You could also try the following music specialists: Diane Rose Morris Ll Denmark Street London WC2H 8LS Tel.: Freephone 0800 376 9100 e-mail: print@rose-morris.co.uk website: www.rose-morris.co.uk/ OR: Chamberlain Music Weyhill Haslemere Surrey GU27 1HN Tel.: 01428 658806 e-mail: websales@chamberlainmusic.com website: www.chamberlainmusic.com/ |
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Q. How tall is he? A. 6 FEET 1/2 INCH. Meat |
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Q. What colour are his eyes? A. Blue! They do seem to change though from a light steely grey/blue to a very dark blue depending on his mood. Anne |
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Q. Where does Meat Loaf live? Meat has lived in several places including New York and the UK, (London for a short time in the 1980's ) however, he now resides in Los Angeles. His main home for many years (until he moved to California) was in Connecticut. Anne |
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Q. What did he do before he was a singer/actor? A. Previous jobs have included looking after turkeys and picking pecans on his cousin's farm. He worked as a night club bouncer when he first moved to LA. Diane |
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Q. Before Meat was famous did he record some tracks with Ted Nugent? A. Yes he did. The two of them had known each other for a long time and when Ted needed a lead vocalist for five of the tracks on his 1976 album "Free For All" Meat was drafted in. Diane |
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Q. Does he have any children? A. Meat has two daughters: Pearl is 25, and Amanda is 19. Anne |
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Q. Are his daughters planning on show biz careers as well? A. Pearl tours with Meat and sings background vocals with The Neverland Express. She has now completed four concert tours with her dad. As well as making cameo appearances in two of Meat's promo videos - "Objects In The Rear Views Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" and "I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth") she has also provided background vocals on three of Meat's albums. She has been working on an album with her own rock band Stella and is featured on a new album by rock band Filter. Amanda is pursuing a career in movies and has made cameo appearances in the "I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth)" video and the children's movie starring Meat "To Catch A Yeti". More recently she can be seen playing a production assistant in "Crazy In Alabama" and she is also reported as having a part as a grocery store clerk in the upcoming VH-1 movie "To Hell and Back". Diane |
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Q. Does he have any pets (of the animal kind!)? A. Yes he has two delightful West Highland terriers called "Winnie" and "Gussie". Anne |
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Q. What was the first song Meat ever recorded? A. In 1967 Meat was a member of a band called Popcorn Blizzard, they released a single "Hello/Once upon a time" on the Magenta label. The band produced and pressed 3,000 copies themselves and distributed them all within a 400 mile radius of Saginaw, Michigan where the band was based. Anne |
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Q. How many copies of "Bat Out Of Hell" have been sold A. Now there's a subject for contention. The popular theory appears to be around 35 million world wide and rising! Diane |
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Q. What was the highest chart position "Bat" reached in the UK? A. No. 9. Anne |
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Q. Did Meat ever imagine for one minute that "Bat" would be so successful? A. Meat says he always believed in the project and knew "Bat" would be a hit. The difficult part for Meat and Jim Steinman was convincing everyone else that this would be so! No one, including Meat and Jim (least of all their record company Epic) could have honestly imagined the phenomenal success "Bat" would become. Diane |
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Q. Will Meat and Jim be getting back together to record "Bat III"? GOD ONLY KNOWS THE ANSWER TO THAT. Meat |
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Q. Where can I get Meat's back-catalogue recordings? A. Well, you could try looking on the "Collector's Corner" page of this web site. If you can't find everything you want there, there are also numerous other places to search. If you have record fairs in your area this would be a good place to start. There are also lots of used record/CD specialist shops and mail order companies. Record Collector magazine in the UK contains hundreds of addresses of specialist dealers. Diane |
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Q. Of all the songs Meat has recorded, which is his personal favourite? A. During the Storytellers show at the Beacon Theatre, New York on Millennium night. Meat said he had 3 personal favourites: "No matter what", "Rock and roll dreams come through" and "For Crying Out Loud", his "most" favourite being "For crying out Loud". Anne |
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Q. Where can we find the lyrics to "I'd do anything for love"? A. Check out our new lyrics section, here you will find the lyrics to all the songs from the main albums, and as we find them we'll add the more unusual ones too. Anne |
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Q. What is "that" in the song 'I'd do anything for love'? A. As Meat so expertly explained every night of the Storytellers tour: It's the line before every chorus! e.g. : "forget the way you feel right now" "forgive myself if we don't go all the way tonight" Or Meat's favourite: "stop dreaming of you every night of my life" ... ... ..... I would do anything for love, but I won't do that! Anne |
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Q. Can we look forward to a new Meat album this year? A. Meat is presently working on a new studio album, he has at times referred to it by the title "Fun House", but whether or not it will finally emerge under that name, and when it will be released is yet to be confirmed. Anne |
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Q. When will we be able to see Meat on tour in the UK again? A. It is expected that there will be a tour following the release of the new studio album, but nothing is confirmed yet. Anne |
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Q. Does Meat ever get stage fright? A. Not actual stage fright, but he says he gets nervous in as much as he wants his audience to have the best show possible. Diane |
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Q. When Meat played his debut UK concert in 1978 at the Manchester Apollo was that the first time he had ever been to England? A. No it wasn't. Meat had previously been to England in 1974 to film "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" at the Bray Studios where the old Hammer horror movies were filmed. Diane |
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Q. Does Meat have any tattoos and if so, where? A. He says he doesn't and since he claims to be terrified of needles I'm inclined to believe him! Diane |
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Q. Does he have any plans in the future to return to the theatre and if so would he like to do straight plays or musicals or both? A. I WOULD LIKE TO PLAY "MARTY" (WRITTEN BY Paddy Chayefsky WHO ALSO WROTE "NETWORK" AND "BEING THERE" AMONG OTHER THINGS), OR MAYBE JUDD FRY IN THE MUSICAL OKLAHOMA". Meat |
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Q. Meat played the part of Eddie in the movie of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" but is it true he played another part on stage? A. Yes, Meat played both the parts of Eddie and Dr Scott on stage at The Roxy in Los Angeles, he then went on to play Eddie in the movie. After the filming of the movie was finished Meat went on to repeat his dual roles as Eddie and Dr. Scott at the Belasco Theater on Broadway. There are various different recordings available of The Rocky Horror Show, but "The Original Roxy Cast" version on the ODE label has Meat singing Eddie's Teddy (Dr Scott) as well as the more familiar Hot Pattootie (Eddie). It also has a wonderful picture of Meat as Dr Scott in fishnet stockings and high heels!!!!!! Anne |
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Q. Did Meat play sport at school? A. Yes, Meat was what they call a "Jock" in the US. He played senior tackle for the football team and was Manager of the baseball team for a while. Anne |
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Q. What school did Meat go to? A. He went to Thomas Jefferson High School in Dallas ,Texas, then for a short period went to Lubbock Christian College, and then on to North Texas State. Anne |
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Q. Does Meat own a motorbike? A. No, and by his own admission is not a very competent motorbike rider either. In fact he actually broke his leg when he skidded and nearly ended up over the edge of a cliff whilst filming the promo video of Modern Girl. Anne |
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Q. Why did Meat cut his hair? A. Meat has said that he was getting a bit tired of his long hair and actually cut it for a movie part he was due to appear in, only to find that they changed the dateline and that he didn't need to have cut his hair at all! Anne |
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Q. Has he kept some of his long hair as a keepsake? A. I honestly don't know the answer to this one. Maybe if he reads this he would like to enlighten us. Just a little bit of useless information though: a company in London will sell you 5 strands of Napoloeon's or Elvis's hair for £500, so how much would you pay for 5 strands of Meat's long hair if it was available? Anne |
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Q. What make of guitar does Meat play? A. For many years he was always seen with either a Gibson Les Paul or a Fender Stratocaster. These days he seems to prefer Washburns. Diane |
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Q. Does Meat come from a musical background? A. His mother sang with one of her sisters and two other women in a gospel vocal quartet called the Vo-di-o-do Girls. His maternal grandfather, a minister in the Church Of Christ, played several musical instruments. Diane |
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Q. What was the first song written by Jim Steinman that Meat ever sang? A. The first song Meat ever sang written by Jim Steinman, was a song called "More than you deserve", written by Jim for a play of the same name which Meat appeared in. It was first released as a single on the RSO label in 1973 it has "Presence of the Lord" written by Eric Clapton on the B side. It later appeared on the album Dead Ringer, it was however by then a completely different arrangement. Anne |
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Q. What was the first song written by Jim Steinman for the album Bat out of Hell? A. The first song ever written by Jim for Bat out of Hell was Heaven Can wait. Anne |
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Q. For many years now I have been looking for any album , cd, video etc that has a live version of Heaven can wait on it. Does such a thing exist and if so can you tell me the details so that I can finally obtain a copy. Two official live recordings immediately spring to mind, both were only released in the US, but are available in the UK. There is a double album called "Live around the world" which was released in the US. It's a lovely digipak with a booklet and loads of photos inside. You can usually get it in the import section of major stores like Tower Records (Tel; 0207 2871510) or HMV (Tel: 0990 334578) as well as some online stores. The second album is called "Storytellers" and was released in the US in Sept 1999. There is also a video and DVD of the same name, they supported the Storytellers tour in the US, and the Storytellers show which has been shown here on VH-1. Again you may get it in import sections but if not you can certainly order it on line from www.amazon.com, www.towerrecords.com, www.towereurope.com or www.CDnow.com and probably others too. Anne |
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