Meat Loaf is staying relatively tight-lipped about his next album, which is expected in 2010, but he can't help gushing about what a great time he's having making it.

Credit for that, the rock singer says, goes to producer Rob Cavallo (Kid Rock, Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls), who's at the helm of Meat Loaf's first release since 2006's Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose.

That's a real producer, Meat Loaf told Billboard.com. That's the real deal. His ego does not get in the way of an artist. He'll make a ton of suggestions and make it much better than it was. He lets my horses run, and (with) other producers the best I could get out of them was a gallop sometimes. But my horses are running on this record, and I'll stop my horses from time to time and go, 'Rob? I don't know what to do now,' and he'll come up with brilliant ideas.

Meat Loaf said he and Cavallo are pretty much 50 percent finished with the album, but he won't say whether it's another thematic work or a song collection. You'll have to wait and see. I'm not giving away anything on this record.

He did, however, confirm that Queen's Brian May, who also guested on Bat III, contributed a little 12-bar solo for one of the songs.

Meat Loaf will take time out from recording to be the headline counselor at the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, November 17-22 in Los Angeles. The singer, a veteran of baseball fantasy camps, said he hopes to impart a little wisdom to the aspiring rockers.

I'm a pretty good teacher, he said. If I wasn't doing what I've been doing for 42 years, my other option was to be a football coach and a history teacher. My thing is I'm never above learning. Anybody can say anything to me, and I'm wide open for it. So if people are open and they're willing to listen, I have a lot to tell 'em.

Meat Loaf is keeping up his acting career as well. He plays a detective in Citizen Jane, a Hallmark Channel true-life drama debuting September 12. He also has roles in the upcoming thriller Burning Bright and the drama Polish Bar.