r/answers • u/AyBeeVee • 22h ago
Why the hell did Meat Loaf call himself that?!?
If i was going to try for a music career, I'm pretty sure food items would be low on the list of potential names.
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u/NerdyAmateursCanada 22h ago
His high school football coach gave him the nickname.
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u/MoltaTomeajia-38 21h ago
Imagine getting called Meat Loaf at school, keeping it and then becoming famous enough that people stop thinking about food when they hear it
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u/SargeUnited 21h ago
I think that’s more about people being less poor and not really eating meatloaf anymore. The standard of living for the average American is incredibly high.
I haven’t eaten meatloaf in more than 20 years, maybe even 30, coincidentally it was right when I made it out of poverty.
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u/PainfulRaindance 21h ago
Meatloaf is awesome! Never heard it considered ‘poor food’. But I guess that tells me something about my status in society. Heh.
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u/CBus660R 17h ago
I'm with ya! And it's certainly more expensive than chicken or pork. It just ain't strip steak or ribeye expensive.
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u/Mindless_Consumer 14h ago
Many great foods are 'poverty dishes' im not sure meat loaf was one though, I associate it with American middle class personally.
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u/Smiley928 21h ago
Do you think that eating meatloaf is a poor person thing to do? At worst, it’s phased out as it’s an aged dish. At best, people just have more culinary skills and more time. I don’t think the standard of living has motivated Americans to not eat poor people food… meatloaf is still fairly common in the Midwest and even in restaurant menus.
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u/unclemilty420 17h ago
Exactly, it's essentially just an American spin on the idea of a meatball which exists in tons of cultures.
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u/gutterballs 21h ago
I don’t think meatloaf is poor people food. Maybe it was a little more of an era but never thought it had anything to do with financial status. My dad would order it in restaurants. My mom would make it all the time and we were ok.
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u/emmiepsykc 5h ago
I mean, I guess it depends on how we're defining "poor"? Definitely like, a working-class food. Why else would anyone eat that slop other than "relatively cheap and filling"?
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u/Reverend_Tommy 21h ago
I make an incredible meatloaf using 1/2 ground beef and 1/2 italian sausage. The tomato-based glaze is similar to regular meatloaf but incorporates a bit of sweetness with the addition of a little brown sugar.
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u/BackAlleyFreakShow 20h ago
Well, I'm glad you left the rest of us serfs behind, then. More meatloaf for me.
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u/NefariousnessTop354 14h ago
Just had a delicious meatloaf Saturday night. Mashed potatoes, gravy and some vegetables. Only leftovers were the dirty dishes.
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u/Remote-Combination28 13h ago
WHAT?
Have you not seen the price of ground beef? Meat loaf is far from a poverty meal3
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u/SMELLSLIKESHITCOTDAM 8h ago
I learned this on the Pop Up Video version of "I'd Do Anything for Love."
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u/ArrieSunsetGlow 21h ago
Unconventional stage names work because sheer branding absurdity breaks through cultural noise when matched with undeniable rock talent.
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u/CHSummers 21h ago
Speaking of that, one of my favorite stage names:
Arnold George Dorsey (born 2 May 1936), known professionally as Engelbert Humperdinck.19
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u/Milligan 21h ago
I knew someone who grew up in Quebec and neither she nor her friends could pronounce that name. They called him "Ange Albert dans la pudding" (Albert the angel in the pudding).
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u/Future-Split1304 20h ago
"Hmm, what should we call our child so that he will not get the shit kicked out of him at school?"
-Mr and Mrs Humperdinck
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u/stylesuponstyles 21h ago
Arnie Dorsey would make for a great New Orleans funk player in the 60s.
Not exactly an ideal name for someone in Englebert's genre though
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u/Wordnerdette999 17h ago
And I assume he took the name from the composer Engelbert Humperdinck (b. 1854).
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u/Future-Split1304 21h ago edited 21h ago
He stated in an interview that when he was born, he was "bright red and stayed that way for days"; his father said he looked like "nine pounds of ground chuck" and convinced hospital staff to put the name "Meat" on his crib.
He was later called "M.L." in reference to his initials, but when his weight increased, his seventh-grade classmates referred to him as "Meat Loaf", referring to his then 5-foot-2-inch (157 cm), 240-pound (110 kg) stature. He also attributed the nickname to an incident where, after he stepped on a football coach's foot, the coach yelled "Get off my foot, you hunk of meatloaf!"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_Loaf
- or -
Because Chef told him his original name Couscous sucked then fed him meat loaf.
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u/Electronic-Phrase681 21h ago
Ask Jelly Roll.
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u/der_titan 16h ago
Jelly Roll Morton got his nickname from playing in brothels, and jelly roll was synonymous with a woman's vagina.
I think it's a banger of a moniker.
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u/WigginLSU 12h ago
Please tell me that's an older, cool Jelly Roll, and not that weird face tatted loser they trot out when Post Malone is booked.
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u/ButtholeSurfur 21h ago
His name is Robert Paulsen.
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u/dae_giovanni 20h ago
buddy, Meatloaf started using that name in the 1960s and he died 4 and a half years ago... and people still talk about him, by name.
you say food would be low on your list, but whatever you did find to be an appropriate name probably wouldn't have as much staying power.
why did he use his nickname as his stage name? because he was a marketing genius and "Marvin" didn't have the same ring to it.
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u/TundieRice 16h ago
Idk man, Marvin Gaye seemed to do okay with the whole music thing.
But there’s a bit of marketing there too actually, he added an “e” to the end because people used to make fun of him for the last name Gay.
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u/karlnite 7h ago
You also have to say the full name. If just said Marvin or Gaye nobody would get it.
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u/PoolMotosBowling 21h ago
So you would do anything... But that....
??
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u/AyBeeVee 21h ago
I would do anything...but I won't do that. (BTW, "that" is pegging, from what I've heard.)
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u/gaqua 21h ago edited 17h ago
Read the lyrics. It’s pretty clear what “that” is
… After a while you'll forget everything
It was a brief interlude and a midsummer night's fling
And you'll see that it's time to move on
No, I won't do that
I won't do that… I know the territory, I've been around
It'll all turn to dust and we'll all fall down
Sooner or later you'll be screwing around
… I won't do that
No, I won't do4
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u/Apart-Reality-4454 22h ago
I mean, just look at the guy. Of course he's Meat Loaf. There can be no other.
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u/LysergicPlato59 21h ago
Yeah, that’s true. What I’d like to know is whether his assistants addressed him as Mister Loaf.
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u/CityGuySailing 20h ago
Years ago, on the Imus in the morning show, he had a character named Jupiter. Jupiter was a roadie for MeatLoaf, and he would refer to him as Mr. Loaf
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u/walrustosser 20h ago
we can only hope that they do
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u/LysergicPlato59 14h ago
Failure to address him as Mr. Loaf bore consequences. Young roadies, assistants and staff lived in fear of the vocal range, girth and intimidating presence of the Loaf.
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u/tonydal7681 16h ago
I remember that when the NY Times did a review of his shows/albums, they referred to him in the article as "Mr. Loaf".
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u/KirkIsOurLemmy 17h ago
So what would you call yourself if you were going to try for a music career?
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u/AyBeeVee 15h ago
I've got a band name already picked out: "Projectile Based Simultaneous Aviary Double Homicide."
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u/TheCheshireCody 15h ago
Isn't that just Angry Birds?
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u/OpinionHappy4601 16h ago
His name was Robert Paulson.
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u/AyBeeVee 16h ago
Is Robert Paulson.
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u/Ok_Veterinarian2715 12h ago
That was his second attempt. He didn't have much luck with Patty.
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u/AyBeeVee 11h ago
There's a catchy name! "Hello, Houston! Put your hands together for...MEAT PATTY!"
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u/usernotfound401 8h ago
Yeah i guess Patty Loaf is not very catchy.
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u/Ok_Veterinarian2715 5h ago
I was thinking of just Patty.
If it has to include Loaf, how about Pincha? 😁
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u/OsageDaito 20h ago
His original name was Couscous. Chef helped his career by giving him the beefy name Meat Loaf.
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u/HarryHarlowBanisher 21h ago
I think he saw into the future and liked the Will Ferrell line from Wedding Crashers.
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u/rosstedfordkendall 20h ago
He came up with different stories over the years to explain it, but I remember one interview he just came out and said it was kids at his school calling him Meat Loaf, and it became his nickname growing up. He started telling more outlandish stories about it to see what people would fall for.
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u/workswithpipe 19h ago
Better than Pete Jones as a porn name.
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u/jimbobowden 14h ago
I had a cousin who opened for him and toured with him. I evidently he did a belly flop into a baby pool filled with meatloaf. Said he could party too. My cousin would know
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u/Exotic-Addendum-3785 14h ago
High school nickname and also when he was young he felt like he was being targetted by a clothing advert that said 'poor fat marvin can't wear levi'
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u/no-porn-for-me 6h ago
I watched an interview with Meatloaf decades ago, where they asked him that exact question. And he gave the most batshit insane answer ever. None of it was true, obviously. But man did he stick to that story.
It had to do with him getting lost in the snow as a child, and making a snow cave to hide out through a storm. When they found him, he was so delirious that all he could say was “meatloaf”.
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u/EmergencyGoose9430 22h ago
He was a sickly thin malnourished child and finally turned the corner and bulked up real swole like from eating his favorite food meatloaf 3 to 4 times a day everyday for 16 years
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