career.
“Meat, you made a couple of good blocks and then you completely whiffed and they sacked our quarterback!”
“Coach, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.”
After his career failed to take off as Couscous
Meat’s 40th birthday was coming up and she wanted me to get him out of the house for 8 hours to decorate for a surprise party. First four hours would be easy with 18 holes of golf. Then remembered that Meat also wanted to play a particular course we has never been able to schedule to play. So scheduled that course about 45 minutes after we would finish first 18. After finishing the first round of 18, had the pro there come and tell me and Meat that we had a tee time at the other course. Meat called Leslie Loaf and she said no problem!
After 36 holes, Meat headed home while I waited then followed him home. My wife was already there. It was a fun bd party and Meat was surprised!
They threw a Christmas party that was even more fun. It included our entire softball team and spouses or sig others. (that team included Meat plus a mix of young high potential corporate guys who commuted on a train from Westport to NYC. I recruited them off the bar car hence I named the team—the BAR CAR! The other half of the team was young local plumbers, electrician, contractors etc. One of the plumbers had installed a garbage disposal in Paul Newman’s shower—apparently Paul likes to eat pizza in the shower and throws the crust away….) A second group invited to the party was thru their maid from Bridgeport who could bring any friends she wanted. That was about a dozen inter-city blacks. The third group was of course the band and company. A fascinating mix of people and a fun time was had by all.
Our daughter’s AAU basketball team was coached by a basketball coach from Joel Barlow. She became a good friend of Meatloaf, but early on she made the fatal mistake of calling him Marvin when she passed him in the hallway. “Call me Meat or Meatloaf,” he replied in a nasty voice. “Don’t ever call me Marvin.”
I lived in Westport. My friend Willy D was coaching a girl’s softball team in Westport and Meat showed up with his daughter Pearl. Willie D put her on that team with his daughter Elizabeth then invited Meat to join our softball team. Elizabeth and Pearl have remained in touch all these years.
Meat was born Marvin Lee Aday. But he hated Marvin as there was some commercial when he was growing up about a fat kid named Marvin. So he changed his name to Michael Lee Aday.
After Meat got into drugs and alcohol following the Bat Out of Hell album he and Jim Steinman (who wrote that music) broke up and Jim wanted to sing his own music. When I met Meat he had licked all chemical dependencies. But according to Meat apparently Jim was controlled by some “wise guys” who were trying to control the revenue from that album. A lawsuit followed. Michael Lee Aday decided to again legally change his name to Meat Loaf to control that name. Although I referred to his wife as Leslie Loaf I am not sure she legally changed her married name but we all
thought of her as Leslie Loaf.
We lived in Ridgefield for about 20 years before moving back to South Bend. Our daughter was at Ridgefield High School back then but had friends at other local high schools. We’ve been Meatloaf fans forever, and always heard good things about him from people who knew him. Of course, there were celebrities everywhere in that part of the state. Robert Vaughn, Judy Collins, and David Cassidy were in Ridgefield, and others were scattered here and there. I remember Jose Feliciano singing in Georgetown. I was shopping at Ancona’s one evening and spotted Dick Morris in one aisle and Mary Travers in another.