Meat Loaf paid tribute to longtime employee Jim Steinman with a short post on Facebook.
‘I’ll be here soon, my brother Jimmy. Fly Jimmy fly, ‘the singer wrote. His words were accompanied by a selection of photos of the two from throughout their careers (see below).
Steinman died on Monday at the age of 73. The songwriter and producer’s partnership with Meat Loaf – born Michael Lee Aday – spanned more than 40 years, starting with the singer’s 1977 debut album, Bat from hell, which Steinman wrote in full. The high-octane, theatrical album spawned several FM rock staples, including “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night”) and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light,” and was certified 14x platinum by the RIAA. .
Steinman wrote most or all of three other Meat Loaf albums: 1981’s Dead ringtone, 1993’s Bat Out of Hell: Back Into Hell and 2016’s Braver than we are. The Bat from hell The sequel topped the Billboard 200, went 5x platinum and spawned the # 1 hit “I’ll Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That),” making Meat Loaf a star among a new generation of listeners.
Steinman met his rock and roll muse in 1973 while writing music and lyrics for the musical More than you deserve, who co-played a young, pre-Meat Loaf Aday.
“From the moment he came in, I was stunned,” Steinman said of Meat Loaf’s audition in a 2003 interview. “I thought he was amazing. He’s just one of those people who come in and it’s the equivalent of a huge cat urinating on the door. Just put in territory immediately. ‘
Steinman also scored many hits outside of his work with Meat Loaf, including Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 classic “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. In her own Facebook post, Tyler recalled Steinman as a “real genius.”
“Jim wrote and produced some of the most iconic rock songs of all time and I had the great privilege of getting some from him,” wrote Tyler. “I did two albums with Jim, although my record company initially thought he wouldn’t want to work with me, luckily they were wrong.”
The singer described her former employee as “a funny, friendly, supportive and very caring person”. “I’ll always be grateful to him for the opportunity to work with him and get to know him,” Tyler admitted.
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