Meat Loaf paid tribute to his longtime collaborator Jim Steinman with a short post on Facebook.
“Coming here soon, my brother Jimmy. Fly Jimmy fly,” the singer wrote. His words were accompanied by a selection of photos of the two throughout their careers (see below).
Steinman died Monday at the age of 73. The composer’s and producer’s partnership with Meat Loaf – born Michael Lee Aday – lasted more than 40 years, starting with the singer’s debut album in 1977, Bat Out of Hell, which Steinman wrote in its entirety. The high-octane theatrical album spawned several basic FM rock elements, including “You Took the Words Right Out of My Gouth (Hot Summer Night”) and “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and was certified 14 times platinum by RIAA.
Steinman wrote most or all of the other three Meat Loaf albums: 1981 Dead Ringer, 1993 Bat Out of Hell: Back in Hell and 2016 Braver than we are. Bat Out of Hell the sequel reached the top of the Billboard 200, won platinum 5 times and gave birth to hit no. 1 “I would do anything for love (but I won’t do that)”, catapulting Meat Loaf back in front of the star among the new generations of listeners.
Steinman met his rock ‘n’ roll muse in 1973 while writing music and lyrics for the musical. More than you deserve, who played alongside a young, pre-Meat Loaf Aday.
“From the moment he came in, I was amazed,” Steinman said of the Meat Loaf audition in a 2003 interview. “I thought he was amazing. He’s just one of those people who comes in and he’s the equivalent of a huge cat who he pees on the door. He immediately bets on the territory. “
Steinman also received many hits outside of his Meat Loaf work, including Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 classic “Total Heart Eclipse.” In his own Facebook post, Tyler remembered Steinman as a “true genius.”
“Jim wrote and produced some of the most iconic rock songs of all time and I had a massive privilege to have received some of them by him,” Tyler wrote. “I did two albums with Jim, although my record company initially thought they wouldn’t want to work with me, fortunately they were wrong.”
The singer went on to describe her former collaborator as “a funny, kind, supportive and deeply caring human being”. “I will always be grateful for the opportunity to work with him and also get to know him,” Tyler said.
In Memoriam: 2021 deaths