Shatner is making an album with 35 metal icons

19 comments

• jsheard 1 hour ago
  If I had a nickel for each actor who recorded a heavy metal album after their 90th birthday then I'd have two nickels, which isn't much but it's weird that it's happened twice.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_The_Omens_of_Deat...

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  • stavros 12 minutes ago
    I knew about this, though I'd never listened to it. I gave it a shot now, and I wanted to like it, but... it's terrible, unfortunately.
  • ziofill 46 minutes ago
    Oh wow he looks incredible for being 94
  • defrost 1 hour ago
    Impressive.

    The great Orsen Welles spring chickened out by only recording heavy metal tracks when he was 70. His excuse for not repeating that at 90 was dying not long after.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AMi-vCfAWw

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    • mberning 14 minutes ago
      Manowar are such a guilty pleasure of mine. They have a lot of very silly material, but hard to deny that Dark Avenger is anything but absolute art.
• ryandrake 1 hour ago
  No mention of Shatner's music career is complete without listing Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner[1]. And, yes, it's exactly as -unique- as you'd imagine it might be.

  1: https://www.amazon.com/Spaced-Out-Leonard-William-Shatner/dp...
• jimberlage 1 hour ago
  William Shatner has the most experimental, wild Spotify I've ever seen. If you haven't ever seen it, look at his discography. He does a lot of almost spoken-word poetry over soft rock, punk, etc. You get the sense that he views acting as his side hustle and is waiting for his musical career to take off.
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  • vunderba 1 hour ago
    He's also (to my knowledge) one of the only major Hollywood actors to ever star in a movie filmed entirely in esperanto. I've heard that the pronunciation is rather rough around the edges though I have no way of corroborating that.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_(1966_film)
  • etrautmann 46 minutes ago
    At one point he was huge into the paintball scene as well. Beyond hobby level
• amiga386 2 hours ago
  I'm amazed the guy is still ticking at all. He's 94! Seems he's also still driving... and eating his breakfast at traffic lights: https://www.tmz.com/2026/01/20/william-shatner-eating-cereal...
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  • 2muchcoffeeman 2 hours ago
    Only in earth’s frame of reference. He spent a long time at warp. So he’s really only 65
  • LeoPanthera 2 hours ago
    The breakfast cereal thing was a commercial. A successful one, apparently.
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    • dole 47 minutes ago
      I honestly couldn’t stop thinking about it. People around here eat plates of pasta in cars and throw them out the window.
• this-is-why 2 hours ago
  If you’ve never heard it, his duet of the song Common People is pretty awesome:

  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cMXhWf0vE7c

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  • magicalhippo 2 hours ago
    He did an interesting cover[1] of Elton John's Rocket Man[2] back in 78.

    That cover was later remixed into this[3] piece of internet gold (IMHO).

    [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wI4jMxveyI

    [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_QZe8Z66x8

    [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IffZh3V8oQ

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    • sho_hn 1 hour ago
      And Shatner's cover was covered by Family Guy:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZL4pNtI9nM
  • linsomniac 1 hour ago
    Agreed, it fits well within his range and it's IMHO a really great cover of Common People.

    I also really enjoy _That's Me Trying_: https://youtu.be/vjGaqFrF5Fw?si=eq_VSQXnxqXQ_Kyg

    and _Real_: https://youtu.be/hsKfZ3wvLkE?si=l7FdbGCX_u8ep0Ie
  • davidw 1 hour ago
    Mr Tambourine Man is pretty epic too

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmCi_-9Shhg&list=RDXmCi_-9Sh...

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    • DHolzer 36 minutes ago
      I have to say, the brass arrangement is pretty good - would have loved to be there when they recorded that staccato part.
  • crtasm 1 hour ago
    and only improved by adding the Star Trek cartoon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWEM4gZhg4
• WalterBright 2 hours ago
  Shatner ... knows ... how to ... have fun ... in his 90s!
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  • johngossman 1 hour ago
    As I age, I look on these happy, productive seniors, people like Dick Van Dyke (100), David Attenborough (99), and Mel Brooks (99) and keep my fingers crossed.
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    • phasetransition 1 hour ago
      Brooks was a combat engineer at the Battle of the Bulge! That always blows me away. What a life's journey.
  • ThrowawayR2 1 hour ago
    And more power to him; he's enjoying himself and that's all that matters. We should all be so fortunate.
• BLKNSLVR 44 minutes ago
  I can't get behind this!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAWP9Oxdn9Q
• webprofusion 1 hour ago
  It's Rad. It doesn't even have to be good, it just has to exist.
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  • webprofusion 1 hour ago
    I'm guessing the music will be much like this one (more about fun than having the best actual songs) but didn't know there was a track with both Chris Poland and Marty Friedman: https://open.spotify.com/track/7yDb6NVzvuUVuvLyTSfDhz?si=0c5...
• saas_startup 2 hours ago
  Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain, why is he climbing a mountain ?

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ
• ArchieScrivener 29 minutes ago
  God speed, Metal Man.
• block_dagger 1 hour ago
  The album he made with Ben Folds was worth a couple of listens. Only a couple.
• DoneWithAllThat 1 hour ago
  His 2004 album “Has Been” is surprisingly good.
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  • pdpi 1 hour ago
    I would never have expected that "Shatner and Henry Rollins ranting while Adrian Belew and Matt Chamberlain go absolutely wild on guitar and drums respectively" would be anywhere close to as good as it is.

    Incidentally, Rollins talking about the recording[0] of it is freaking hilarious.

    [0]: https://youtu.be/8zL3wtNrq00?t=4616
• protocolture 1 hour ago
  Still waiting for his spoken word, rnb, julius caesar.
• jrootabega 1 hour ago
  Guess the Beastie Boys were never in the running.
• Avicebron 2 hours ago
  It's Shatner, he can score anything.
• SilentM68 1 hour ago
  Don't know if true or not but I saw somewhere on the web that he is also in talks to return to Star Trek.
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  • ThrowawayR2 1 hour ago
    I recall that he consulted for an unofficial (semi-official?) concept video by the Roddenberry Archive that was a finale/sendoff for Captain Kirk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgOZFny7F50 . If you're a fan of TOS, it's worth a watch.
• excalibur 1 hour ago
  If you haven't heard his Bohemian Rhapsody cover, it's something else. He flat out admitted that he had never heard the song before recording it. Which... Number one, how? And number two, who let him do that?

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul6S84qF_TU
• pixelsub 24 minutes ago
  [dead]
• afavour 2 hours ago
  Sometimes I’m absolutely mystified by the items that appear at the top of HN.
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  • bgdkbtv 6 minutes ago
    I am also confused as to how this is relevant to HN.
  • johngossman 1 hour ago
    That's not a bug, that's a feature
  • Razengan 1 hour ago
    Mystified by the fact that people on HN have interests outside of computers and shit?
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    • afavour 1 hour ago
      A lot of those non-tech get flagged from the homepage. It’s interesting to see what is allowed to stay and what is not.
    • Krutonium 1 hour ago
      ...Yes. We're all fucking nerds.

      /s