Meat Loaf, Powerhouse Rock Vocalist And Unlikely ‘Fight Club’ Icon, Dead At 74

Meat Loaf, the gifted singer, talented actor, and lively VH1 talking head, has died at the age of 74, according to his official Facebook page. TMZ is reporting that the larger-than-life singer had recently become “seriously ill with COVID.”

Loaf, born Marvin Lee Aday in 1947, scored his first serious work in the late ’60s when he earned a part in a Los Angeles production of the flowery hippie musical Hair. He continued working steadily in the musical theater, both in Los Angeles and on Broadway, and caught a big break in 1973 when he was cast in the Los Angeles production of The Rocky Horror Show, which had been a big hit in London’s West End. The smash musical would, of course, eventually made its way to the big screen as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but Loaf’s role was downsized due in large part to his unconventional looks: Standing just shy of six feet tall, Loaf tipped the scales at nearly 300 pounds. Movie stardom wasn’t in the cards for Loaf — at least, not yet — but the unique combination of his towering voice and undeniable on-stage charisma meant that superstardom wasn’t far away.

Loaf befriended the eccentric playwright and songwriter Jim Steinman during his time in New York in the early ’70s, and the two combined forces to produce one of the best-selling albums in the history of recorded music, 1977’s Bat Out Of Hell. As documented in the Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell episode of the long-running music docuseries Classic Albums, the bombastic, operatic rock spectacle was widely divisive upon its release. “People either hate Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell or absolutely just worship it,” said none other than Meat Loaf himself, but as it turned out, plenty of people worshipped it. The sweeping, cinematic rock opera sold over 43 million copies worldwide, spawning two sequels (1993’s Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell and 2006’s Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster), exposing Loaf’s unique charms to multiple generations of rock and musical theater fans. In fact, Bat Out Of Hell II was an unlikely worldwide chart topper and MTV mainstay during the height of the grunge era, propelled by its ridiculous yet oddly-moving Beauty And The Beast style music video directed with gusto by none other than Michael Bay.

After spending much of the ’80s struggling with weight, substance abuse, and creative disappointment, the ’90s proved to be a very fruitful time for Meat Loaf. Thanks to his resurgence on the album charts, his acting chops began being recognized. He appeared in both Wayne’s World and Spice World, but hit the jackpot when David Fincher cast him as Robert “Bitch Tits” Paulson in Fight Club, the stylistic and machismo-laden critique of capitalism that was wildly misread (and, ultimately, willfully misinterpreted) by many men. The chant that followed the death of his character (“His name was Robert Paulson”) became a popular catchphrase, and a proto-meme, long before Twitter or Tumblr ever existed.

Loaf continued working steadily on TV and movies throughout the last two decades, and was a staple of the nostalgia-fest I Love The… series that ran on VH1 ad infinitum during the Aughts. He continued his role as a witty, reliable pop culture talking head on 80s Top 10, which debuted on Disney+ in early 2022.