History Music / MeatLoaf

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Meat’s bombastic and over the top performance style and high level vocal histrionics, as well as health issues, finally caught up with him in 2016 when he collapsed on stage from exhaustion and completely lost his voice, and he is now unable to sing live well enough to tour. During his 2018 tour Caleb Johnson handled the singing for him while Meat restricted himself to spoken words only.

* EpicRocking: Many of Meat Loaf's songs (particularly those written by Jim Steinman) run considerably longer than the average pop tune and go through two or three [[TruckDriversGearChange major changes in key or tempo]] before the end. "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" is 7:38 in its ''short'' version, making it the longest song to ever reach #1 on the [=US=] charts. (The album version is an even twelve minutes -- Steinman reportedly ''wept'' when he was told they'd have to trim it down to get it on the radio. More to the point, Meat Loaf's autobiography describes the original studio version pre-album as ''fifteen'' minutes long, needing a shave presumably due to the limited space of a vinyl LP.)

* RealityEnsues: Meat’s bombastic and over the top performance style and high level vocal histrionics, as well as health issues, finally caught up with him in 2016 when he collapsed on stage from exhaustion and completely lost his voice, and he is now unable to sing live well enough to tour. During his 2018 tour Caleb Johnson handled the singing for him while Meat restricted himself to spoken words only.

* RealityEnsues: Meat Loaf's bombastic and over the top performance style and high level vocal histrionics, as well as health issues, finally caught up with him in 2016 when he collapsed on stage from exhaustion and completely lost his voice, and he is now unable to sing live well enough to tour. During his 2018 tour Caleb Johnson handled the singing for him while Meat restricted himself to spoken words only.

* RealityEnsues: Meat Loaf's bombastic and over the top performance style and high level vocal histrionics, as well as health issues, finally caught up with him in 2016 when he collapses on stage from exhaustion and completely lost his voice and he is now unable to sing live well enough to tour. On his 2018 tour Caleb Johnson will be handling the singing for him while Meat restricts himself to spoken words only.

* TheMusical: ''Bat out of Hell'' was expanded and made into a stage musical, essentially a retooling of the original '70s era ''Neverland'' concept altered to remove the explicit Peter Pan references, although this basically involved changing the names and not much else) that spent quite a while in DevelopmentHell[[note]]This is excluding the 40+ years the basic framework languished following the end of the 1977 workshop[[/note]] before finally premiering in Manchester in early 2017, transferring to the West End a few months later, and making its North American debut in Toronto. No Broadway transfer has been announced as of yet.

* EpicRocking: Many of Meat Loaf's songs (particularly those written by Jim Steinman) run considerably longer than the average pop tune and go through two or three [[TruckDriversGearChange major changes in key or tempo]] before the end. "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" is 7:38 in its ''short'' version, making it the longest song to ever reach #1 on the [=US=] charts. (The album version is an even twelve minutes -- Steinman reportedly ''wept'' when he was told they'd have to trim it down to get it on the radio. More to the point, Meat Loaf's autobiography describes the original studio version pre-album as ''fifteen'' minutes long, needing a shave presumably due to CD space.)

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: To say nothing else of the man, when he does anything (acting, singing, etc.), expect him to do it with enough [[LargeHam bigger-than-life bravado]] to kill him ([[FatalMethodActing and it nearly has]]!). As WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows put it when describing "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad," "Meat Loaf doesn't just not love you. He truly, sincerely and with ''all his heart'' does not love you!"

* YourCheatingHeart: "Cheatin' in Your Dreams."

* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' (1975) (Eddie, who gets eaten. "[[StealthPun Meat Loaf again?]]" "I would eat anything for lunch, BUT I WON'T EAT THAT!!")
* ''Film/ScavengerHunt1979'' (Scum)
* ''Film/WaynesWorld'' (1992) (Tiny)
* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' - "What's Cookin'" (1992) (Chumley, who also gets eaten.)
* ''Film/SpiceWorld'' (1997) (Dennis)
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' - "Chef Aid" (1998) (Himself)
* ''Film/FightClub'' (1999) (Playing Robert Paulson)
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' - "Gettysburg" (2000) (Col. Angus Devine)
* ''Film/TheSaltonSea'' (2002) (Bo)
* ''Film/BloodRayne'' (2005) (Leonid)
* ''Film/TenaciousDInThePickOfDestiny'' (2006) (Jack Black's father)
* ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' - "Pelts" (2006) (Jake Feldman)
* Hosting the Game Show ''Rock & a Hard Place'' on Direct TV's channel 101.
* ''Series/DontForgetTheLyrics'' (2009) (Contestant)
* ''Series/{{House}}'' (2009) (A patient in Season 5)
* ''Series/GhostHunters'' (2009) (Guest Investigator)
* ''Series/TheApprentice'' (2011) (Contestant)
* ''Film/StageFright2014'' (Roger)

** "One More Kiss (Night of the Soft Parade)" clumsily segues into the title track of ''Blind Before I Stop.''

* CallBack: "Souvenirs" from his 2016 album ''Braver Than We Are'' features the line "You been cold to me so long I'm crying icicles instead of tears", one of the most memorable lyrics from "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad", one of the big hits from ''Bat Out Of Hell.''

* ''[[Music/BatOutOfHell Bat Out of Hell]]'' (1977) [[note]] Songs by Jim Steinman[[/note]]

* ''[[Music/BatOutOfHell Bat Out of Hell]]'' (1977) [[note: Songs by Jim Steinman]]

* ''[[Music/BatOutOfHell Bat Out of Hell]]'' (1977) [[note]]Songs by Jim Steinman[[/note]]

* IncrediblyLongNote: On several tracks, most notably the end of ''Bat Out Of Hell''. In concerts he'll go for [[UpToEleven ''even longer''.]]

* HeavyMeta: "Rock 'n' Roll Hero", "Rock 'n' Roll Mercenaries" and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come True".

* AudienceParticipationSong: All together now: "You took the words right out of my mouth...oh, it must've been while you were kissing me..." When performing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, he stopped the show because the singing from the audience was lacklustre, and he said they sounded like they were from Sydney. The audience suddenly got a lot more involved, but exploded when he screamed at the top of his lungs [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome "ARE YOU TOO OLD TO STAND UP?!"]] During live shows, he has been known to stop the band mid-song and call out a particular audience member who was ''not'' singing along.

* AbusiveParents: When he was younger, [[OffingTheOffspring his father tried to kill him]]. This is not an exaggeration, his father came at him with a knife. A similar theme emerges in the song ''Objects In The Rear View Mirror (May Appear Closer Than They Are)'', in verse 2.

* AudienceParticipationSong: All together now: "You took the words right out of my mouth...oh, it must've been while you were kissing me..." When performing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, he stopped the show because the singing from the audience was lacklustre, and he said [[BerserkButton they sounded like they were from Sydney]]. The audience suddenly got a lot more involved, but exploded when he screamed at the top of his lungs [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome "ARE YOU TOO OLD TO STAND UP?!"]] During live shows, he has been known to stop the band mid-song and call out a particular audience member who was ''not'' singing along.

** A common CatchPhrase among fans is "Nobody [[ADateWithRosiePalms beats the meat]]!"

* TheManBehindTheMan: Jim Steinman.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: "Meat Loaf" is always two words, always capitalized - not "Meatloaf", not "Meat loaf", not "Loaf." How many times has the media made this mistake? Don't ask. Just ''don't''. And [[BerserkButton don't call him Marvin]]...he changed his name. He goes so far as to have himself credited as "Meat Loaf Aday" on the songs he's written.
** Hilariously invoked when Christopher Lee introduced him on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', mis-reading his cue cards; "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet... Loaf!"
** In concert, Meat Loaf introduced a man he claimed to be his brother to perform the spoken word track "Wasted Youth," introducing him as "Tony Loaf".

After several years shopping the concept around before getting ToddRundgren's attention, ''Bat Out of Hell'' hit the shelves in 1977. While not immediately a hit, the album grew with popularity over time. It spent 485 weeks on the charts in Britain (second only to Fleetwood Mac's ''Rumours'' at 522 weeks), is presently the #5 best-selling album ever released with more than 43 million copies sold worldwide (14 million in the United States alone), and still sells about 200,000 copies per year. A "sequel" album, ''Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell'', was released in 1993 with new songs by Steinman, including his only U.S. #1 single, "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)". A third in the series, ''Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose'', was released in 2006 featuring songs written by him and by Bon Jovi lyricist Desmond Child. This was the first ''Bat'' album not produced and written solely by Steinman, although several older songs written or recorded by Steinman beforehand are featured. In addition to the ''Bat Out of Hell'' trilogy, Meat Loaf has released several other albums, with varying levels of involvement on Steinman's part.