Meat Loaf has been a master musician since 1968, but where did he get his name?
Meat Loaf claims the true story behind his name stems from his childhood. When born, he was nicknamed Meat because he was a large, ‘fleshy’ baby. The ‘Loaf’ half calm from an insult he received after stepping on someone at school. The then heavyset teenager was thus christened, Meat Loaf.
Read on to learn more about the legendary rockstar and the story behind his name.
How To Make Meat Loaf
When Marvin Lee Aday was born in Texas in 1947, he never knew he’d one day be named Meat Loaf. He likely never knew he’d be a world-famous rockstar, either.
He was born to a humble family in Dallas, his mother a teacher, and his father a World War II veteran.
However, he wouldn’t have to wait long before his career got on track. Following the untimely death of his mother, Aday used his inheritance to relocate to Los Angeles.
It was here that’d start focusing on music, and began putting together a band.
His first venture was named Meat Loaf Soul. The naming convention had reportedly been around since Aday was a child.
As he explained in an interview with Oprah in 2016, the name goes back to when he was a baby. At birth, he was so large that his father nicknamed him ‘Meat’. Allegedly, he even told the nurse to write this name on Aday’s name tag.
The ‘Loaf’ section reportedly arose in high school. Aday had grown to become a particularly large teenager, and one day accidentally trod on his coach’s foot. In response, the coach yelled at him, calling him a “hunk of meatloaf”. At this point, the name stuck, and Meat Loaf was born.
Apparently, the name was also something of an escape for Aday. While on an episode of the talk show Piers Morgan Live, he opened up about an aspect of his childhood. He explained that he was an overweight child, and as a result, couldn’t wear jeans.
This led to mockery from other children, particularly following a campaign opened by Levi’s.
They were a famous, world-renowned manufacturer of jeans, and ran a series of commercials. In these advertisements, a slogan was featured: “Poor fat Marvin can’t wear Levi’s.” As Marvin was also Aday’s name, the commercials were immediately tied to him.
Reportedly, this is also why he changed his name from Marvin to Michael, and why he started actively going by Meat Loaf.
However, it’s worth establishing that while there are sources to back this up, the timelines directly conflict with the ‘coach story’.
Bat Out of Hell
Meat Loaf’s career didn’t begin quickly. He has said that his biggest struggle early on was not being taken seriously. He wasn’t the most photogenic star, and he was constantly chopping and changing his name, style, and band members.
He actually took some time out of straight musical performances to dabble in acting. His first role was in a stage production of a musical, called Hair.
He’d come to work directly with one of his colleagues from the show, recording some tracks together.
The acting wasn’t a one-off – Meat Loaf returned to Broadway again, taking the stage in Hair, and More Than You Deserve.
He also took an opportunity to appear in a production of As You Like It, the Shakespeare play. His career up until this point had been teetering between music and acting.
When 1973 came around, Meat Loaf had a breakthrough. He was cast in the stage show, The Rocky Horror Show.
This would come to be a massively successful show, spawning a movie, which Meat Loaf also appeared in. It was around this time that he started working on one of his most successful albums of all time: Bat Out of Hell.
As of 2020, Bat Out of Hell had sold over forty million copies worldwide. It had earned a firm ranking as one of the best selling albums in history.
It also was named the highest-selling Australian album ever. You can see the music video for the titular track below, taken from YouTube.
Meat Loaf would go on to become a hugely successful artist. By 2016, he’d released a massive twelve full albums, and toured countless times.
He boasted a massive filmography and had appeared in a range of television shows. What began as a rather humble life as Marvin Aday had evolved into the rockstar persona of Meat Loaf.