Cher, Adam Lambert, Andrew Lloyd Webber Pay Tribute to Meat Loaf: ‘The Vaults of Heaven Will Be Ringing With Rock’

The music world mourned a truly larger-than-life figure on Friday (Jan. 21), with tributes pouring in for Grammy-winning Bat Out of Hell singer Meat Loaf. The full-force singer (born Marvin Lee Aday) who died on Thursday of undisclosed causes at age 74 was honored by famous friends, collaborators and admirers, from Cher to Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber, Adam Lambert, Bonnie Tyler and British actor-comedian Stephen Fry.

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“The vaults of heaven will be ringing with rock. RIP Meatloaf. Give my best to Jim,” tweeted Webber in reference to the singer’s longtime collaborator songwriter-producer Jim Steinman, who died last April. Fellow superstar Cher fondly recalled the time the two melded their signature voices for “Dead Ringer For Love” from Loaf’s 1981 sophomore album, Dead Ringer. “Had So Much Fun With Meatloaf When We Did ‘Dead Ringer,'” she wrote. “Am Very Sorry For His Family,Friends,& Fans. Am I imagining It, or Are Amazing Ppl In The Arts Dying every other Day.”

Fry nailed the quirky nature of the singer, whose bombastic hits including “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” and “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” managed to meld operatic flights of vocal fantasy with humor, bathos, hard rock and ear worm hooks. “He had the quality of being simultaneously frightening and cuddly, which is rare and rather wonderful,” Fry wrote, including a clip of an absurd sketch the pair did on the British show Saturday Live in the 1980s.

Another performer who knows a little something about over-the-top stagecraft, Culture Club’s Boy George, hilariously paid tribute with an anecdote about a bizarre run-in the pair had at an English restaurant. “R.I.P Meatloaf. Love and prayers to all his family and close friends. He once turned me upside down in a Chinese Restaurant in St Johns Wood,” he wrote.

Queen singer Adam Lambert, no stranger to onstage bombast, called Loaf a “gentle hearted powerhouse rockstar forever and ever.”

British broadcaster Piers Morgan also honored Loaf, writing, “One of rock music’s all-time great characters whose seminal iconic album Bat Out Of Hell is one of the biggest-selling records in history. A wondrously talented, flamboyant, funny, outrageous and rebellious chameleon. Sad news.”

See the tributes to Meat Loaf below.

Had So Much Fun With Meatloaf When We Did “Dead Ringer”. Am Very Sorry For His Family,Friends,& Fans. Am I imagining It, or Are Amazing Ppl In The Arts Dying every other Day⁉️