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.
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.
It doesn't bother me, it's fantastic that he did this, it was just objectively not very good. I'm glad his other contributions were better, and he's obviously had an illustrious career in general.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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...
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
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.
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.
He also did work with Rhapsody of Fire from 2004 to 2010, where his contributions were of much higher quality.
It doesn't bother me, it's fantastic that he did this, it was just objectively not very good. I'm glad his other contributions were better, and he's obviously had an illustrious career in general.
[delayed]
Oh wow he looks incredible for being 94
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...
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.
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)
At one point he was huge into the paintball scene as well. Beyond hobby level
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...
Only in earth’s frame of reference. He spent a long time at warp. So he’s really only 65
The breakfast cereal thing was a commercial. A successful one, apparently.
I honestly couldn’t stop thinking about it. People around here eat plates of pasta in cars and throw them out the window.
If you’ve never heard it, his duet of the song Common People is pretty awesome:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cMXhWf0vE7c
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
And Shatner's cover was covered by Family Guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZL4pNtI9nM
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
Mr Tambourine Man is pretty epic too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmCi_-9Shhg&list=RDXmCi_-9Sh...
I have to say, the brass arrangement is pretty good - would have loved to be there when they recorded that staccato part.
and only improved by adding the Star Trek cartoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWEM4gZhg4
I honestly thought his voice fit better for the theme of the song than the original
Shatner ... knows ... how to ... have fun ... in his 90s!
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.
Brooks was a combat engineer at the Battle of the Bulge! That always blows me away. What a life's journey.
100 is the new 80... I hope!
And more power to him; he's enjoying himself and that's all that matters. We should all be so fortunate.
I can't get behind this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAWP9Oxdn9Q
It's Rad. It doesn't even have to be good, it just has to exist.
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...
Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain, why is he climbing a mountain ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ
The album he made with Ben Folds was worth a couple of listens. Only a couple.
God speed, Metal Man.
His 2004 album “Has Been” is surprisingly good.
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
Still waiting for his spoken word, rnb, julius caesar.
Guess the Beastie Boys were never in the running.
It's Shatner, he can score anything.
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.
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.
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
Sometimes I’m absolutely mystified by the items that appear at the top of HN.
That's not a bug, that's a feature
I am also confused as to how this is relevant to HN.
Apparently more than 100 registerd users with voting rights thought it interesting and few to none felt it flag worthy.
So, much the same bar was cleared as every other article that makes the "interesting to HN community" grade.
Rack that up to more Trekkie-adjacent and metal-heads than you might have expected.
Mystified by the fact that people on HN have interests outside of computers and shit?
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.
...Yes. We're all fucking nerds.
/s