NEW YORK -- The pendulum is on the upswing again for Meat Loaf.

"For the past 32 years, I've done nothing outside the entertainment business. I've had some real highs and some real lows, but I love the work so much that I never once thought of quitting," he says.

"Performers only go wacko when they fall from grace if they like the adulation more than the work."

Meat Loaf, who is best known for his 1977 debut album Bat Out of Hell, which has sold more than 50 million copies, is busier than a hellbent bat.

In Fight Club, he stars as a dying man looking for meaning in the last months of his life.

In Crazy in Alabama, he is the bigoted sheriff of a small town.

On Oct. 30, he kicks off a 25-city tour of his new audience participation concert tour called Storytellers.

His autobiography To Hell and Back, which is already in bookstores, will be turned into a made-for-TV movie next year.

"This acting gig is so exciting. I'm getting the kind of critical recognition I never dared dream possible. Rolling Stone, which never appreciated my music, called me one of the hottest character actors in the business today."

Meat Loaf, who was born Marvin Lee Aday 52 years ago, made his film debut in 1975 in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, playing the freeze-dried motorcyclist Eddie.

"I had done the role onstage and I had been looking for a way to break into films, so this was the natural way to do it. I thought it was going to be a snap because all I'd have to do was break through a mock wall of ice, sing and die. I couldn't have been more deluded," he recalls.

"It took us eight days to film four minutes of screen time and each day there was an accident. My stunt double fell off the ramp with the cycle landing on him. I rushed over and, in my adrenalin rush, lifted the motorcycle into the air. He got out from underneath and walked away."

The next day, it was Meat Loaf's turn to crash.

"My stand-in saw what was about to happened and broke his leg trying to prevent the accident. After a debut like that, every other movie has been a cakewalk." Well almost.

In Fight Club, Meat Loaf plays Bob, a former bodybuilder who contracted cancer from his abuse of steroids. The steroids have also produced large female breasts.

"I was padded from the knees to the elbows and the breast sacs were filled with flax seeds and weighed 16 lbs. each.

"Brad Pitt teased me incessantly. He was always fondling them. He's a great kid. Very outgoing. He really livens up a movie set."

Meat Loaf has high praise for his Crazy in Alabama director Antonio Banderas.

"From our first meeting to our final handshake, Antonio treated me like an equal -- like a professional actor and not some old rocker."

Meat Loaf is not the only actor in the family. His 18-year-old daughter, Amanda Aday, has a small role as a TV production assistant in Crazy in Alabama.

"She auditioned on her own. I refuse to pull any strings."

Meat Loaf has learned his lesson.

When Star Wars: Episode One -- The Phantom Menace debuted this summer, Amanda reminded her father that she could have been playing Queen Amidala.

"Amanda and Natalie Portman are good friends. They were in the same acting class together when they were both asked to audition for The Professional.

"It came down to the two of them. I refused to let her do the screen test after I read the screenplay.

"I don't regret that decision. She was too young to start a serious acting career."