Howard Stern: Meat Loaf Was in “Some Weird Fucking Cult… and Now He’s Dead”

Howard Stern doesn’t hold his tongue. Not even when discussing the death of a friend.

The infamous “shock jock” radio DJ talked about his deceased friend, Meat Loaf, in a recent broadcast. The singer, who died last week at 74 years old, was friends with Stern.

While Meat Loaf’s cause of death has not been officially released, many have speculated the artist died from COVID-19. And this particularly rankles Stern, who noted Meat Loaf’s stance about vaccination and mask mandates.

Stern said, “Meat Loaf got sucked into some weird fucking cult.”

During the pandemic, Meat Loaf spoke out against social distancing and other measures of safety. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in August 2021, he said, “[Face masks] don’t do anything. They don’t stop you from getting COVID. They’re just a nuisance and make your nose itch and make it so you can’t breathe.

“The only good masks are N95. But we got one, and it was so badly made, the straps were so short, they would go on a child,” Meat Loaf continued. “So we had to go on the airplane with the paper masks and then on the way back, we got a Nazi: ‘Get your mask on now!’ They’re power-mad now.”

In the article, the Post-Gazette interviewer responded, “Oh God, we’re being controlled by everybody.”

To which Meat Loaf said, “Yeah, I know. But not me. If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled.”

Reflecting on the passing of his friend and the odd social context in which he died, Stern, on his radio show, said, “Poor Meat Loaf got sucked into some weird f**king cult. And somehow really believed that—he made a statement, ‘I’d rather die a free man than take that vaccine.’ And now he’s dead!”

While Meat Loaf never used the word “vaccine” the point Stern is making is taken.

Stern continued, “I wish the family would come forward and say, ‘You know, when Meat Loaf was laying there in the hospital and he couldn’t breathe, he said, ‘I made a mistake, I should have taken the vaccine’. Like all these anti-vaxxers, they all say, ‘I made a mistake.’”

Elsewhere in the Post-Gazzette story, Meat Loaf had said, “I’m happy to give you a hug. I hug people in the middle of COVID,” before saying, “I’m scared to death [of COVID]! You kidding me?”

And he finished by offering, “But I’m sorry, I understood stopping life for a little while, but they cannot continue to stop life because of politics.”

Watch Stern remember Meat Loaf in the clip below.

Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns