Meat Loaf’s song played at anti-mandate rally in Washington D.C. as his death becomes politicized

Reports say that Meat Loaf had fallen sick with COVID-19 before his death last week, but that point may have been lost on anti-vaccine demonstrators who used his song, “I’d Do Anything for Love” to get themselves fired up at a rally in Washington D.C. Sunday to protest COVID mandates.

Or, the demonstrators saw the song as an appropriate tribute to a singer who called mandates politically motivated and who expressed skepticism about the use of masks to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Whatever the reason for what TMZ called Meat Loaf’s “cameo” at the rally, his death at age 74 and his views on COVID are being politicized in America’s increasingly bitter debate over public health and personal freedom.

Meat Loaf’s song was played at a rally that drew several thousands protesters, many of whom didn’t wear masks and who included prominent names in the anti-vaccine movement, according to the Washington Post. Two years into the pandemic, which has killed more than 860,000 Americans, the protesters decried vaccine mandates and carried posters and flags that included false statements such as “Vaccines are mass kill bio weapons” and “Trump won,” the Washington Post added.

The cause of Meat Loaf’s death has not been confirmed, and it’s not clear whether he was vaccinated. The Daily Mail said he refused to disclose his vaccine status to his fans, and he urged them to not talk politics when they came to his shows.

TMZ reported that Meat Loaf, whose real name was Marvin Lee Aday, died after falling “seriously ill” with COVID-19 in recent weeks. According to the site, the singer recently canceled a business meeting for a planned reality show, which would be named after “I’d Do Anything for Love.”

Meat Loaf’s daughter, Pearl Aday, posted on Instagram on Jan. 7 that several of her friends and family had recently tested positive, adding that that they were not seriously ill because they had been vaccinated.

“We are not sick, but we have too many friends and family testing positive right now, positive but doing OK,” she wrote. “Thank their respect for science that they’re all vaxxed, otherwise they’d be way worse.”

Meat Loaf may have held different views, at least when it came to other public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID. According to the Daily Mail, he told a fan in a Cameo video three weeks ago that he recently had an endoscopy and complained about seemingly endless lockdowns and restrictions, telling the fan: “COVID’s a drag, but you can blame China.”

He also railed out against mandates in Australia, TMZ reported. In May, he shared a clip of Eric Clapton and Van Morrison’s anti-lockdown song “Stand and Deliver,” the Daily Beast said. And, in what appears to be one of his last interviews, Meat Loaf appeared to be losing patience with pandemic measures, the Daily Beast added.

Speaking to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August, Meat Loaf said, “I understood stopping life for a little while, but they cannot continue to stop life because of politics. And right now they’re stopping because of politics.” He also asserted that masks are a “useless” and a “nuisance” that only “make your nose itch and make it so you can’t breathe.” He complained about being asked to wear a mask on a plane and said, “If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled.”

Immediately after his death, some prominent voices on social media jumped on the idea that COVID caused his death and criticized him for things he had said about masks and lockdowns. Fox News complained that the critics were people on the left who mocked the singer for his viewpoints.

Comedian Christopher Titus tweeted in reference to his song “I’d Do Anything for Love,” which describes a man who would do a lot for the woman he loves but that there is a line he won’t cross. “I would do anything for love. But I won’t do that. No I won’t do that.”

He died cuz he wouldn’t do that.

‘If I Die, I Die’: Meat Loaf Spurned COVID Rules Before Death https://t.co/kJDeeaUeqt

— Titus (@TitusNation) January 21, 2022

Tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin was more harsh in what she wrote, tweeting: “He was an anti-science mask and vaccine denier. His vaccine status not released. He mocked public health measures before he died, told a reporter ‘If I Die, I Die’. Friends, Meat Loaf was a pandemic (expletive).

“You can have two feelings at once,” Jardin continued. “If you were and are a fan? I get it, not mocking your love. But the dude was a (expletive) about the pandemic.”