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Musician Marvin Lee Aday, known the world over as Meat Loaf, the singer of some of the most beloved rock albums of all time, 1977's Bat out of Hell and 1993's Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, passed away Thursday evening at the age of 74, it was announced overnight.
While he will be remembered forever for his music and acting career, Meat Loaf's career did bring him briefly into the world of professional wrestling on two occasions, each with WWE.
Back in 1985, Meat Loaf performed the drums in the legendary music video for WWF's Land of A Thousand Dances, which was the opening track for that year's The Wrestling Album. The video for the song featured every major WWF performer at the time as well as Cyndi Lauper (who produced the record under the pseudonym Mona Flambé), Meat Loaf and Rick Derringer, among others. The video was shot in Poughkeepsie, NY on the stage of the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, which regularly hosted WWF TV tapings at the time. The video received some MTV airplay for a short period. Even today, decades later, it remains a fun, iconic capture of that period of professional wrestling history:
Meat Loaf later appeared as a surprise Guest Star on a May 2010 Monday Night Raw episode from Pittsburgh, PA, promoting his then-new album Hang Cool Teddy Bear. In the appearance, which took place during the time period Raw had weekly celebrity appearances, Meat Loaf approached Randy Orton during the opening segment of the episode, attempting to get Randy Orton to use his music for a new theme song, only to suffer taking an RKO for his troubles:
During a post-appearance interview, Meat Loaf said, "How cool is that? How many people can actually say, walking around the world, can actually say Randy Orton RKO'd me?"
Meat Loaf's composer, writer and producer Jim Steinman (who crafted the Bat Out of Hell albums) also worked on The Wrestling Album, composing and producing Hulk Hogan's Theme for the record. While Hogan would more famously go on to use Rick Derringer's Real American (which was actually originally written for The U.S. Express tag team, Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham), Steinman's Hogan theme would later be used as the theme song for the Hulk Hogan's Rock N' Wrestling CBS Saturday morning animated series that debuted later that year. Steinman would later add lyrics to the song for singer Bonnie Tyler, with the song re-titled Ravishing. Steinman passed away from pneumonia in April 2021 at age of 73. At the time of Steinman's passing, Meat Loaf commented, "We didn't know each other, we were each other."
Meat Loaf's family released the following statement overnight:
"Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight surrounded by his wife Deborah, daughters Pearl and Amanda and close friends.
His amazing career spanned 6 decades that saw him sell over 100 Million albums worldwide and star in over 65 movies, including “Fight Club”, “Focus”, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Wayne’s World.”
“Bat Out of Hell” remains one of the top 10 selling albums of all time.
We know how much he meant to so many of you and we truly appreciate all of the love and support as we move through this time of grief in losing such an inspiring artist and beautiful man.
We thank you for your understanding of our need for privacy at this time.
From his heart to your souls…don’t ever stop rocking!"
PWInsider.com sends our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Meat Loaf, a truly gifted singer, actor and performer.
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