Man Wins Second Serving of Rocker Meat Loaf’s Gravy

Meat Loaf, the beefy rocker famous for melodramatic odes of teenage longing, once sang that “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.”

On Friday, when a jury in a federal trial returned a $5-million verdict to Steve Popovich, the Cleveland man who discovered the singer, he said he was happy with two out of two.

Popovich, the music executive who first signed Meat Loaf in the mid-’70s, has twice sued Sony Music, the company that now owns and distributes the album “Bat Out of Hell,” which has sold almost 30 million copies.

In 1998, the music giant settled the first suit, paying Popovich and his partners $6.7 million in disputed royalties on Meat Loaf’s albums. Sony promised then to print the logo of Popovich’s label, Cleveland International Records, on future releases. In 2001, believing that Sony had failed to keep that promise, Popovich sued again. On Friday, a federal jury agreed.

A spokesman for Sony BMG, parent of Sony Music, said the company would appeal.

“This shows that in America, David can still go against Goliath,” said Popovich, who has turned his courtroom battles into something of a crusade, complete with a website: www.oneamericanagainstsonymusic.com. “Now Sony knows: you don’t mess with Yugoslavians, man.”

The trial has received significant attention in Cleveland, home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Local coverage has championed the city’s rock heritage but also has noted that Cleveland gets little respect from rock stars and headbangers.

Popovich hopes that thanks to such Meat Loaf classics as “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” Friday’s judgment will help his city get its due.

“Once they put ‘Cleveland International’ on all those albums, people will know this city’s back,” Popovich said. “We can out rock-and-roll anyone from anywhere else.”