William Shatner has settled on a title for the heavy metal record he has been assembling, and it is the question he asked when the idea was first put to him.
Speaking to Michael Moynihan on “The Moynihan Report“, the 95-year-old actor said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “The name of the album — I hope; I mean, everybody agrees —is What The F Is Heavy Metal? That’s the name of the album.”
That was his response when Cleopatra Records suggested the project.
“Cleopatra, the label that I work with frequently, said to me, ‘Why don’t you do a heavy metal album?’ And I said, ‘What the F is heavy metal?’ Then I heard ‘Patience‘, the song ‘Patience‘ [by Guns N’ Roses]. So we write a song called ‘Impatience‘. ‘I’m not gonna wait around for you. I’m not waiting for you. Here, read my lips.’ And it’s all about, ‘I’m not waiting around for you. Yeah. You hear me? You hear my lips? I’m not waiting.’ And it’s got that kind of rage and tempo… Impassioned. ‘I’m tired of old age. I’m tired of losing hair. I’m tired of not eating. I’m tired of catching a cold. I’m tired of being tired. I’m tired!'” he explained.
Shatner was blunt about his grounding in the genre and how he went about finding a way in.
“You gotta start with the premise that I really know nothing,” he said. “I’m inquisitive. Apparently, I’m inquisitive, and I’m reading and looking up all the time, stuff. So I began to experiment. I fastened on to emotions. I thought heavy metal has gotta be about emotions — violent, passionate… Not violent — passionate emotions. ‘The Black Sky‘ is about what we’re doing to the planet. ‘Impatience‘ — don’t keep me waiting. ‘Rage‘. Five songs with meaning to me. I’m enraged, I’m angry about, I am disgusted with.”
Asked whether a man of 95 still carries that kind of anger, he said: “Oh, yeah. I wanna get on my horse and run the way I used to. My legs don’t have the strength that they once had, so I’m careful. I don’t wanna be careful. These albums that I have written with Rob [Shatner‘s longtime friend and collaborator Robert Sharenow] are all personal. They all have to do with my growth.”
On the appeal of the music itself: “The music is a distillation of emotion. It’s so right there.”
Shatner admitted he could not name many of the musicians lining up to appear on the record, with one exception.
“I don’t know. ‘Cause I don’t know their names. Brian May plucks an anguished guitar. It’s crazed. And it moves me,” he added. “There are 50 well-known heavy metal geniuses who wanna be on the album, led by Brian May. Why? Brian May laid his track down over a song that Rob [Sharenow] and I wrote called ‘Rage‘. ‘Rage against the dying of the light,’ to use that — what’s his name’s phrase. That’s the name of the song, and we’ll make it into a music video.”
The phrase he could not place is Dylan Thomas‘, from the 1951 villanelle “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night“.
Cleopatra has said May will also mix his own track.
The record is being produced by Adam Hamilton of L.A. Guns and Brian Jonestown Massacre with Brian Perera, the president of Cleopatra Records, alongside Derek Hughes of Nuclear Messiah, Marcus Nand and Jürgen Engler of Die Krupps.
When the album was first announced in February, the label put the number of guests at 35. Among those confirmed since are May, Rob Halford, who sings on a version of Judas Priest‘s “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’“, Disturbed bassist John Moyer, Zakk Wylde, Henry Rollins, and drummers Dave Lombardo and Mikkey Dee, the latter on a take of “Living After Midnight“. Ritchie Blackmore is also listed.
Two of those names carry qualifiers worth stating plainly: Lombardo co-founded Slayer but left in 2013 and is not a current member, and Blackmore has not played in Deep Purple since 1993, aside from a one-song guest appearance with them last month.
Alongside originals, Shatner has said the album takes in covers of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. The idea followed his work with Nuclear Messiah, the group led by former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland, for whom he recorded a spoken-word introduction.
William Shatner And The *uckers was supposed to play its first show at Riot Fest, but now they play Park West on September 19, a night before their Douglass Park set.
Organisers have confirmed a run of sideshows around this year’s Riot Fest, and among them is William Shatner And The *uckers at Park West on September 19, which moves the debut forward a day from the Douglass Park set on September 20.
“I am in a fervor of creativity,” Shatner told Moynihan. “I am writing books. I’m doing albums. This heavy metal album is like… They want me to do… I’m gonna do a concert. I’m gonna do 30-minute concert — 30 minutes of heavy metal, with a band. 30 minutes on stage.”
The band is Nand on guitar and serving as musical director, Britt Lightning of Vixen on guitar, Phil Soussan, who has played with Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Idol, on bass, and Fred Aching of Powerflo on drums. The set will mix reworked material from Shatner‘s back catalogue with previews of the new album.
Shatner has released around a dozen albums since The Transformed Man in 1968, on which he delivered pop songs of the day in spoken word. He returned to music properly with Has Been in 2004, arranged by Ben Folds and featuring Henry Rollins and Adrian Belew, and has since recorded with Joe Walsh, Zakk Wylde, Wayne Kramer and Iggy Pop.
A release date for What The F Is Heavy Metal? has not been announced.
