William Shatner fronts heavy metal band at 95
The *uckers debuted at Chicago's Riot Fest with Brian May guitar solo and 50 volunteer metal musicians, the frontman now also advertises hearing aids
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William Shatner, 95, answers ‘What the f--- is heavy metal?’ with new album
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William Shatner performs live with The *uckers onstage at Riot Fest in Chicago.
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William Shatner, 95, answers ‘What the f--- is heavy metal?’ with new album
foxnews.com
William Shatner performs on stage with Marcus Nand and Britt Lightning.
foxnews.com
William Shatner performs on stage with band members Marcus Nand, Phil Soussan and Britt Lightning.
foxnews.com
William Shatner is 95 and has formed a heavy metal band. The project began when his label, Cleopatra Records, approached him earlier this year with the proposal; his first reaction, as he recounts it to Fox News Digital, was to ask what heavy metal actually is. The album is titled accordingly: What the F is Heavy Metal.
This is less a swerve than the next entry in a catalogue. Shatner has released 11 studio albums spanning spoken word, rock, progressive rock, Christmas and country. For the metal record he wrote six songs with Robert Sharenow, his longtime collaborator on five previous albums of autobiographical spoken-word material. "So we wrote six songs for the album," Shatner says. "And I laid down my track."
Then the genre's establishment queued up. "All of a sudden, 50, I'm told 50 heavy metal musicians all volunteer to be on this album," Shatner says. Queen's Brian May plays a guitar solo on a track called Rage, built on Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night." The label also assembled the live band — The *uckers, named for the album title, with guitarists Marcus Nand and Britt Lightning, bassist Phil Soussan and drummer Fred Aching. The group debuted in September at Riot Fest, the annual punk rock festival in Chicago's Douglass Park, playing originals alongside Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train; the organizers noted they had tried to book Shatner for more than a decade. A title track is slated for release in the winter.
The arrangement runs on the name, not the music. A 95-year-old newcomer does not audition his way into heavy metal — the metal establishment volunteers to play with him, because proximity to a Star Trek icon is its own currency. The label supplies the band, fifty musicians supply the credibility, and Shatner supplies a persona that has now been attached to spoken word, Christmas, country and, this winter, metal. Whatever the genre, the delivery is the same, and the delivery is the product.
Shatner's other engagement of the moment is an advertising campaign for Audien Hearing, a maker of over-the-counter hearing aids.