Meat Loaf and Me (The Early days) by Rick Bozzo featuring the bands: Meatloaf Soul Popcorn Blizzard The Floating Circus

I met Marvin Lee Aday (alias Meat Loaf) in the summer of 1967 at a local head shop called The Peace of Mind in Encino, CA. I was 14 and extremely mature and had a whole year of playing bass guitar behind me with my first group, the Winding Roads. ML was sitting on the back of his Chevy Impala in the parking lot, playing acoustic guitar. I thought there was something special about this guy even then. At that time, I knew about twenty songs, mostly Beatles, Rolling Stones and Motown tunes. Meat Loaf was already eager to get a band together At the time he was living with a guitarist, a fellow Texan, Don Burns. He needed a place to stay. I told him that my Mom was pretty hip and he could probably stay at my place for a few days. Within 48 hours, we had eaten my mom out of the house and home and had to make other arrangements.

We started putting a band together, recruiting some of the members of the Winding Roads, all of whom happened to live in my neighborhood. We had a lot of trouble getting rehearsal time, because the neighbors would keep calling the cops about the loud music coming out of the garage. The truth of the matter was, the guitarist from "The Electric Prunes", Jimmy (Weasle) Spaggnola lived around the corner from me. He and his brother Gary had a rehearsal studio and they let us make use of it.

by early in 1968, Meat Loaf had raised a little money and he was eager to put it toward recording some music. Meat Loaf, Gary Spaggnola and myself went into Gold Star Recording Studios on Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, CA and cut three songs: "Way of My Own" (written by Gramm Nash originally intended for the "Electric Prunes"), and a couple of Meat Loaf originals called 'Deep River Blues" and "I'm an Animal". Meat Loaf had been a folk-rock singer, adding the electric guitar and bass gave the music more of a rock appeal. Our next thought was that we needed a drummer. As I was standing outside of the studio taking a cigarette break, I saw a guy walking down the street with drumsticks and a music book in his hand. Peter Woodman agreed to lay down drum tracks for us if we would have his wife, Susie, play keyboards and sing. We jumped on it, and the band was born. Next we were in search of a guitar player, going through several over next several weeks. Finally, Frankie Montoya added his sound to the lineup. At this time we opened for Van Morrison and "Question Mark and the Mysterians" at the Cave. We played at Cal State Northridge opening for Taj Mahal and "Big Brother and the Holding Company" featuring Janis Joplin. Peter led us to Michigan where he already had a following as drummer for Question Mark and the Mysterians" and "The Bossman", featuring Dick Wagner and Mark Farner, who later was leader of "Grand Funk Railroad".

As "Meatloaf Soul" one of our first gigs at Huntington Beach at the "Cave". We were the opening band for "Them" featuring Van Morrison.

Shortly after we arrived in Michigan, guitarist Frank Montoya left the band to join "Question Mark and the Mysterions". By this time we had acquired still another guitar player, a Detroit born player whom we called Wild Bill. I never did find out his real name. We changed the name of the band to Popcorn Blizzard. We went through a half a dozen guitar players at that time. Here's one of our first band shots:

In this picture, from left to right, are Meat, Susie, Me (Boz), Wild Bill (I used to call him Lurch) and Peter. We're sitting in the home of our backer, Mrs. Gerstacker. Mrs. G financed the band, bought us new equipment, new clothes and these publicity photos. This in turn led to "Popcorn Blizzard" recording on Majenda Records a song entitled "Once Upon a Time/ Hello". Our next step was to find a booking agent, and we were lucky to get found by Michal Quatro (his little sister Suzi Quatro, who was maybe 14 then, used to come and watch us play sometimes).

PHOTO # 1 on the left the bands line up for the first recording (once upon a Time/Hello) on Magenta Records Cat #001. Line up consists of Michael Jean on guitar/vocals, Meatloaf ringmaster and lead singer, Rick Bozzo on bass and backup vocals, Pete Woodman on drums and whistles, and Suze Cane on keyboards and vocals. PHOTO#2 ( MEAT LOAF SOUL?) which appears in Meatloafs's autobiography "TO HELL AND BACK", BY DAVID DALTON. The guitarists name was Wild Bill Hodges AKA (Lurch). Over the next several months the band went through a halfdozen different guitar-pickin' guitar players, all of whom had very different styles which would alter the bands sound drastically. The last and the best of these players was Christopher Correll from Saginaw, Mich. Unfortunately, that didn't work out either. So at that point we decided TO HELL WITH GUITAR PLAYERS, and we started playing as a power trio, with Meatloaf taking center stage.

"Floating Circus"

Soon we were the opening act for bands like The Who, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, The Grease Band, featuring Leon Russell and Joe Cocker, as well as Ted Nuget and the Amboy Dukes, the The Bob Segar System and Grand Funk Railroad. But like all good things, "Meat Loaf Soul", "Popcorn Blizzard" had "The Floating Circus" came to and end and the band broke up.

With minimal funds, Meat and I hopped the next plane to Los Angeles to continue our quest for stardom, moving back into my mom's house. We tried to put another band together, but it didn't go anywhere. Disenchanted, Meat decided to audition for HAIR at the Aquarius Theatre, and as we all know, he got the gig for the Detroit production. As fate would have it, a few weeks later, I got a call form Dick Wagner offering me the gig as bass player for his band The Frost back in Saginaw Michigan. I was playing in a popular band like I'd always dreamed of doing, and Meat was becoming a star performing in HAIR.

As the Detroit production of Hair was nearing the end of it's run, Motown/Rare Earth Records quickly offered Meat Loaf and Stoney a one album deal which included the single What You See is What You Get. Following the release of this album, Meat Loaf was offered a the movie role for Rocky Horror Show.

Rick has worked with many, many name bands and artists. To read about his interesting life in rock and roll, including his current activities, see Rick and rock history.

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