Meat Loaf performing at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre in October 2011. Credit:Adam McLean AMZ In that album Meat Loaf, in the album's biggest-selling track, told his imaginary lover I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That). Over the phone from Austin, Texas, Meat Loaf laughed when I asked him what he actually did do for love. "To be honest, I hate that song," the 68-year-old actor and singer said. "There is just something about it that just drives me nuts."

Meat Loaf back with a new album, Braver Than We Are. Credit:Meat Loaf But it is one of four or five monster, big-selling singles that made Meat Loaf a big, big star with a big, big voice. Bat Out of Hell, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth, and Two Out of Three Ain't Bad sold millions. Publicity shot of Meat Loaf in concert in 1978. That profile was built on his actor's craft; Meat Loaf played Eddie in Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and later as Bob Paulson in Fight Club (1999) as well as a suite of TV roles.

And that's still the way it is almost 40 years on when Meat Loaf's newest 10-track album, Braver than We Are goes on sale this week. As the singer politely says: "Bat Out Of Hell is fine. And I'm glad they like it. But it is 40 years old and the moment is now, is about "Braver than We Are." Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday) is still the actor giving the voice to the lovers in Jim Steinman's songs. Braver Than We Are has 10 songs written by Jim Steinman over the five decades the pair have been friends; the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, up until mid 2016. The album's first song, Who Needs the Young is a Kurt Weill-styled burlesque song Steinman wrote for a musical in 1969 when he was 19.

The album's third track Speaking in Tongues – a big piano ballad – is the latest written for the album and was finished only months ago," Meat Loaf says. "I never ask him what he wrote any song about," Meat Loaf says. "He knows that I do characters. Every song that I've ever song is a different character, except for Hell in a Handbasket, which I did as myself." "And with this record, the only song we knew we would do was Who needs the Young. "And Jim and I both knew it would open the album."

Listen to the lyrics and you will see why. It tells of an actor admitting his body don't work as well as they did. "My legs just ain't what they were, my legs ain't what they were; my voice just ain't what it was, my voice, just what it was," Meat Loaf sings. It's brave, given the criticism Meat Loaf might feel from people comparing his voice in 2016-17; to the powerhouse, swooping voice he delivered for more than 20 years after breaking through in 1976-1977. The album does sound a bit out of time and Meat Loaf's voice these days rarely has the passion and the power to rise above the backing vocalists. But I can see it working live; with the character playing out the roles in the album's best tracks; Who Needs the Young, Speaking in Tongues, Souvenirs and Godz.

He has begun a promotional tour in the United States and is about to begin boxing lessons to help his sore back, he says as the interview begins to close. "I'm going to train with a boxing coach and I'm actually going to start boxing in November. And I've been on a diet and I've lost over 25 pounds." I ask if he might come back to Australia. "We had a tour that we were coming on, but I had back surgery." He'll re-think later in the year, mindful of that Grand Final. One thing that will draw attention to the album is Jim Steinman appearing on the album's cover for the first time.

Braver Than We Are is a tribute to Jim Steinman and the cover idea just came to him. "That's exactly taken from the Hitchcock movie, North by Northwest and the four horsemen replace the cropduster," Meat Loaf says. "I don't know where the idea came from. I'm constantly thinking sets, lights and that sort of thing. I'm constantly thinking of my craft." Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman create a huge 70's-sounding swelling mix of stadium rock bravado, stage pomp and pageantry, Little Richard doo-wop, hard rock and Alice Cooper theatrics with huge anthemic choruses. Meat Loaf still sees their music as rock and roll.

"We see it as rock and roll. We think it lives in that world and that's what it is," he said. "And that is exactly what it is. "It just happens to be completely different from anybody else." Meat Loaf says the pair still feel like outcasts, the same way they felt about their music before Bat Out of Hell was released. "And this record is the same as 'Bat'," he said.

"Everybody hated it. It didn't live in the universe. This record is exactly the same," he said. "The difference is that so far – when Bat Out of Hell came out, we got terrible reviews. And yesterday we got the first two reviews for this album and they were both 4 out of 5 stars." Braver Than We Are – Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman. Out this week. Three stars. Want more stories like this? Follow our Facebook feed.