A rock-tribute star who has performed Meat Loaf's songs on stage for over three decades has vowed to 'keep his music alive' following his death.
Meat Loaf, who sold over 100 million albums worldwide, died last night aged 74, his family announced this morning.
Former restaurant manager Steve Murray, from Oldham, began a long and successful career in the music business after performing as Meat Loaf on Stars In Their Eyes in 1993.
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He has since built up a huge following and filled arenas around the country performing the legendary star's songs on the stage.
And he says he was left shocked and saddened by the death of his hero who had 'always been there.'
"It's a sad day, waking up to that," Steve, 56, said.
"It was a bit of a shock as well.
"We knew he was not very well but you never expect them to go.
"I've made a career out of it so it's even more of a shock really.
"He's been part of my life for 30 odd years.
"You always seem to find that when people are doing the music of someone, they are not here.
"But Meat Loaf has always been around. I've been doing this for 30 years and he's always been there.
"So I don't think it's really sunk in yet really.
"He's just massive, a true legend, what can you say."
After around eight years as a Meat Loaf impersonator, Steve's tours morphed into a different kind of tribute show.
Rather than dressing up as Meat Loaf, he performed his songs as part of a number of different theatrical productions, staged by his own production company, including Anything For Love - the Meat Loaf Story.
Steve, who performs as Steve Steinman, a nod to Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell songwriter Jim Steinman, and who has also topped the charts with his own music, said his love affair with the star began when he was a teenager.
"I was probably 15 and I remember buying Bat Out of Hell," he said.
"I'd actually heard Paradise By the Dashboard Light in one of my friend's cars, we were going somewhere and I thought 'wow this is amazing.
"Bat Out of Hell is one of those albums you always remember where you were the first time you heard it and always have memories of it.
"It was kind of Rock N' Roll and opera and theatrical at the same time. I bought the album and I knew every single word, even before I started doing this for a living. I knew the songs off by heart.
"I ended up doing Stars in Their Eyes as Meat Loaf when I was 21 and my life took a different path because of it."
Steve said it was the "epicness" of Meat Loaf, whose real name was Marvin Lee Aday, that made him one of the most groundbreaking artists of his generation.
"The magnitude of the album Bat Out of Hell is quite something," he said.
"And then when you actually saw him for the first time, he was a massive big bloke, dressed in a dinner suit.
"And I don't think he was like anything you'd seen before. You'd seen all these rock stars, you'd got your David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, all these flamboyant artists.
"But then Meat Loaf comes along and broke the mould.
"You can't be a fat rock singer!
"I also think Jim Steinman, the way he wrote was very theatrical, he loved the car crash, he loved the motorbike going off the cliff, going to hell, going to heaven.
"It's storytelling at its best, that's what was missing when he came along and I think it's what missing in songs now.
"It's why people came to watch me, because they couldn't watch Meat Loaf at the time and they wanted some of that."
Steve's almost non-stop three decades of touring saw him cross paths with the stars several times, and he says he was just a big a character off the stage, as he on it.
"I met him a few times and we've had correspondence over the years because of my shows, I know his band.
"Lorraine Crosby tours with me who knew him very well and sang with him on Anything For Love.
"So I've had some brilliant stories told to me over the years and you kind of feel you know them more than you do.
"I met him for the first time in 1992 doing the Big Breakfast TV show and they got me on as well, so I went down to London and met him there.
"I also met him in South Africa when I was working there and he was doing a show.
"I think he became more aware of me when the internet started to kick-in, Myspace as it was then and then Facebook. Then we had correspondence.
"I knew his band well and we went to Vegas when we were trying to put on a show there. Our paths crossed quite a few times.
"In this industry, we're all a bit crackers but he was fun. He was just a massive character.
"When you went in the room you knew he was there. Not just because of the pure size of him, but because of his charisma. It just oozed out of him. He was an incredible guy."
Steve tonight intends to perform Meat Loaf's Heaven Can Wait during the performance of his musical Vampires Rock in Halifax.
"It should be a bit of an emotional one, and I'm sure they'll be a few tears in the audience," Steve said.
"We always finish on Bat Out of Hell as well so I'm sure that will go down particularly well as well. He was just a legend."
Asked what was next for Steve, he said: "We'll just carry on. We've been successful anyway.
"Will it change? I don't know.
"Maybe now more people might get the album out and have another listen.
"I guess Bat Out of Hell will go back to number one, where it belongs.
"For me, I'll just keep the music alive, that's all I'm doing.
"I'm just the man out there hoping people come and listen to live music and to his songs, which are just so incredible."
