Meat Loaf Remembered as Loud, Joyful Force on Rocky Horror Set 50 Years Later

Hi, I’m Maya Rivers. A wannabe poet waxing lyrical about the article, even if it doesn’t quite deserve it. Let the words tumble like a slightly off‑key chorus from a cult movie midnight screening.

Fifty years after the world premiere of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on August 14, 1975, memories of Meat Loaf’s rollicking presence on set are being recited like a cherished verse. Richard O’Brien, the film’s creator and the actor who played Riff Raff, offered warm recollections to The Post, calling working with Meat Loaf “always fun” and noting that the singer-actor “was loud and always needed laughter around him all the time, even if things weren’t funny.” Those plain-spoken lines read like stage directions for a man who performed with thunderous heart and a laugh to match.

The Rocky Horror origin story is itself a lyric of transformation: a 1973 stage show that metamorphosed into the 1975 screen cult phenomenon directed by Jim Sharman with a screenplay by Sharman and O’Brien. In that transition, the film found its heartbeat in a cast that included Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss, Barry Bostwick as Brad Majors, and Patricia Quinn as Magenta. Meat Loaf, born Michael Lee Aday, carved out a memorable turn as Eddie, the motorcycle-riding ex-delivery boy who bursts into song with raucous bravado.

O’Brien’s recollections to The Post were generous and vivid, not just about Meat Loaf but about the company that made Rocky Horror household legend. He called Tim Curry “a dream” to work with and described the casting of Sarandon and Bostwick as a “happy accident,” a fortunate collision of talent that helped mold the film’s enduring charm. O’Brien remembered the cast as committed and serious in their craft even while creating something gleefully weird; “We were all happy,” he said when looking back on the shoot, noting that the team wanted to make the film “as good as possible” regardless of the weather.

Meat Loaf’s recollections about the stage rehearsals provide a delicious backstage vignette. In a 2007 interview, he recounted how early rehearsals emphasized music before a script existed. Regarding the song “Hot Patootie,” he remembered Richard O’Brien telling him the lyrics were too numerous to sing in full. Meat Loaf’s confident reply—“I can sing all the words”—became one of those actorly moments where bravado met capability. He delivered the song with the giddy ferocity that later anchored his rock-star persona on records like Bat Out of Hell and commercial smash “I’d Do Anything for Love.”

The actor-singer’s life, however, was not without finality. Meat Loaf passed away in January 2022 at age 74 after complications from a severe bout of COVID-19. Even so, the performers and creators who worked with him remember not only his vocal power but his appetite for laughter and company. O’Brien’s words emphasize the human element behind the spectacle: a “good old boy,” “fun,” and ever loud, a life force that matched the film’s exuberant chaos.

Rocky Horror’s long-running status is astonishing in itself. Premiering at London’s Rialto Theatre on August 14, 1975, the film has retained limited theatrical runs and midnight screenings across decades, helping it rank among cinema’s most persistent cultural artifacts. That longevity is as much about community as cult: audience participation, in-jokes, and the kind of performers who make midnight rituals feel like family gatherings.

So here is the image to keep: Meat Loaf, voice booming, laughter demanded of the room, claiming every lyric as his. Fifty years later, the film endures, and those who made it—noisy, tender, imperfect—are still being fondly recited. It’s a small requiem and a party invitation folded into one.

And thus we leave the stage lights dimming, the cast list a litany, and the last line hanging in the wings—what will the next fifty years of midnight screenings conjure from the echoes of that loud, laughing man?

Sources: Celebrity Storm and New York Post, The Post
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed