How Meat Loaf Got His Iconic Name
The 'Bat Out Of Hell' singer revealed how he got his name in a chat with Piers Morgan some years ago
It emerged earlier today that legendary singer Meat Loaf has passed away and now, people are remembering how he got his iconic name.
The 74-year-old was actually born Marvin Lee Aday but went on to legally change his name to Michael Lee Aday.
Speaking to Piers Morgan some years back, he explained the reason behind changing his name in the first place: "When I was a kid, I was so big, I mean I was really big that I literally could not wear blue jeans... so I wore like plaited pants in the first grade.
"And a commercial came on the air when I was about five or six years old from Levis and the commercial was 'poor fat Marvin can't wear Levis'."
He explained how he would be referred to as 'Meat' from a young age although people would still call him Marvin, which soon stopped.
Continuing with his story, Meat Loaf said: "After that nobody called me Marvin. And I went before a judge in Connecticut in 1984 and I told him the story and that's when he said to me 'if it was today you'd own the company now'.
"And he said 'that's why you want to change your name to Michael' and I said 'yes sir' and he said 'normally the process is about six weeks but in your case I understand completely' and he turned to the clerk and said 'give me the stamp'.
"And he stamped it and he handed it to me and said 'Michael have a great day'."
He went on to say that he had 'Meat Loaf' on his passport during the 'Bat Out Of Hell' tour which landed him in immigration for six hours at one point.
After the incident, he got 'Meat Loaf' taken off his passport (which sounds like it was for the best).
So where did 'Meat Loaf' come from, then? Well in 2016, the singer sat down with Oprah Winfrey and told her that four days after he was born he was bright red and slept in a plastic crib.
When it came to his name tag, this father asked one of the nursing staff to write 'Meat' because he looked like 'nine and a half pounds of ground chunk'.
The name tag was written up and he was referred to as 'Meat' until the 'Loaf' part came along sometime after when he became a big teenage football player.
He says that he accidentally stood on his coach's foot and was called a 'hunk of meat loaf' which he then became known as from then on.
The singer rose to fame in the late 1970s following the success of his album trilogy 'Bat Out Of Hell' and since then, he has become one of America's most recognised singers.
In 2016, he was honoured with the Hero Award at the annual Q Awards music ceremony, which he dedicated to everyday heroes and called on people to 'bring love back into this world'.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyRebecca Shepherd