NEXT weekend Meat Loaf takes to the stage in Cardiff Castle. Matthew Blythe spoke to the living legend about music, movies and staying twisted

With 24 films and two hit albums under his belt since 1997 the slim Meat Loaf has proved as successful as the fat. From his beginnings in freaky rock-operas touring B-league theatres of Middle America and first movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, everything Meat has been in has been a bit twisted and a little different.

"No-one else can do me", he says. "But then, a lot of people wouldn't want to be me". A large, amiable man, as much aware of his limitations as his talents, some might say it is his workload that has stripped away the flab revealing the trim figure we see today.

As ready to appear in small, art-house flicks as well as box office giants like Fight Club and 51st State, and an intermittent gigging career with his band The Neverland Express, Meat is somewhat of a workaholic.

Also busy in the studio, his latest album is two tracks from completion and the Meat is here just to play us some songs.

"Last year we did two or three benefit shows, and we've just finished ten tracks in the studio, and I said, 'God! Anyone wanna go play?'

"And they said, 'Yeah!' So, I just said give me 20 shows just so we can go out... they did and I called it, We Just Wanna Have Fun for the Summer Tour". Meat Loaf's idea of fun way back when was to tour constantly, racking up hundreds of shows, losing his voice, and generally pushing himself to the limit. His bit of fun is just to warm up for a tour later in the year.

"To me this is like going to your kitchen for a hootenanny", he said. "Sometimes my voice is tired, sometimes it's not. I don't think it'll be tired this time because we are only doing these few shows. My voice is tired after 140. Usually for the first 110 I'm pretty good".

Meat Loaf loves life and still has much to give even after 24 years as a major star - even more as a minor movie actor. His new album is going under the working title Testify, but this may change.

"A lot of the songs are very testimonial, in that sense", he said. "It made sense for the whole record because theres a preacher on here. As characters go you could have called it Lenin and Leather, if you wanted to. I might change my mind and call it that, because, I don't know. I keep switching back and forth".

Whether he plays any new material in Cardiff depends on how well rehearsals go, for which Meat said he only has two days.

"Two of the songs - I'm going to play them, one of which is a duet with my daughter Pearl, which I think is great", he said.

The new album will be Meat's first since The Very Best of Meat Loaf (1998) which was his tenth since Bat out of Hell (1978). Whether it spawns another never-get-off-my-screen hit like I Would Do Anything for Love (But I won't Do That), remains to be seen, although punters at his gigs may come away the wiser.

Meat's movie career has been much busier with appearances in dozens of films. On July 31 he flies back to the States for a film called Girdy, while Rust In, Black Top, Focus, Witchcraft and Extreme Dating are due to come out here soon.

"I have trouble keeping up with them", he admitted. "I know about the ones that are major. I have things popping up in film festivals, independent films like Rust In. You guys have 51st State which I haven't seen. That comes out in the States in August".

In 51st State, Meat plays a villain called The Lizard, a far cry from Fight Club's Bob, a recovering testicular cancer patient who attends a self help group for people like him. "I like playing villains but with Bob, he had a little more depth and there was more opportunity to create some character", explained Meat. "Extreme Dating - that was a comedy - was different again. And Focus, the Arthur Miller piece, that was a real different kind of guy.

"The new movie Girdy, in which I play Girdy's father, and Girdy, just so you know, is a cross-dressing boxer who's a middleweight, there's real depth there. That and Focus, are the two best roles I have been given. The Sheriff in Crazy in Alabama was good too because I made him not your typical southern sheriff that everyone and their mother has played 50 times".

And the results seem to speak for themselves. Detractors of the mighty Meat should look to Fight Club to have their scepticism dashed. He can act and, after 23 years since he appeared in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, he's not bad at all.

His method... "You give them humanity. The writer said he was actually feeling sorry for him. He asked how I did it and I just winked. You just twist the characters.

"I'm not really interested in a character unless I came give them a little twist. I don't want to play characters people have seen 50,000 times. So I'm always looking for the other side, the twist, and if you look at the films I choose, they are not predictable.

"I don't do the predictable commercial stuff. They want everyone to fit into a niche that the public can recognise right away. I don't like that. I don't want to be a character that they go, 'Oh, we know him. It's boring for me'.

"It's just like the music - it is a challenge. The music has always been very different - some people like it, some hate it, and that's fine. It's certainly twisted. No-one else is really doing the same and no-one else really wants to".

Meat Loaf plays Coopers Field, Cardiff Castle on July 28 with special guests. Tickets are £35 on either (029) 2022 4488, (0870) 333 6205 or www.ticketmaster.co.uk