In my limited experience, a producer can mean many things. If he is talking to you about expense, you have to assume that he is going to charge you to record, and oversee and produce the recording using his equipment, resources, and staff, etc. At the end of the day you might have a fine product, but it would be up to you to distribute and sell it, get airplay and so on. I would be surprised if he was willing to invest his money in a project with a middle aged performer. As far as I know, producers are making their living primarily off artist's dreams, which is not to say that they couldn't produce a great sounding project for you. I think you might be thinking more of a record company fronting a cd and developing you as an artist, and I don't know how much of this is even done any more.
Best of luck Don Adams