William Shatner, Star of TekWar, Fronts a Heavy Metal Band at 95

I won’t beat around the bush. I saw the news that William Shatner had performed with his new heavy metal band, and I knew I had to write about it.

Linking it back to gaming turned out not to be as difficult as I imagined, considering he literally starred in a game named after himself back in the ’90s, along with voicing Captain Kirk in a whole bunch of Star Trek games.

But let’s be honest, that’s not why we’re here. William Shatner, at the age of 95, is fronting a heavy metal band, and it doesn’t stop getting more wonderfully ridiculous from there.

William Shatner Has a Heavy Metal Band Now

The band’s lineup is genuinely excellent. Marcus Nand is on guitar and serves as musical director, Britt Lightning of Vixen is also on guitar, former Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Idol bassist Phil Soussan handles bass, and Fred Aching, associated with Kings of Thrash and other metal projects, is on drums.

And they have rather delightfully called themselves *The uckers. The album has perhaps the most William Shatner origin story imaginable. His longtime label, Cleopatra Records, suggested, for some unknown but entirely genius reason, that he make a heavy metal album and Shatner’s reaction was essentially: “What the F is heavy metal?” And incredibly, they’ve made that the album title: What The F Is Heavy Metal?

This is not where it stops getting fucking absurd. The lineup of artists featured on the album includes Brian May of Queen, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, Dave Lombardo, formerly of Slayer, John Moyer of Disturbed, Zakk Wylde and Henry Rollins. Yes. Seriously.

Captain Kirk Plays “Crazy Train”

On September 19, Shatner and The *uckers played an intimate warm-up show at Park West in Chicago. The following day, they played Riot Fest at Douglass Park.

The morning after Riot Fest, I watched 95-year-old Captain Kirk fronting a metal band through Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.” Glorious.

The set also included Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, alongside original material from Shatner’s new project. His delivery is more dramatic spoken word over a genuinely heavy live band than suddenly turning into an actual rock god overnight, but that is probably exactly what anyone familiar with Shatner would expect.

For Shatner, the important part appears to be the emotion behind heavy metal, particularly its anger, frustration and rage, rather than attempting to imitate a traditional metal vocalist. Which, frankly, makes considerably more sense than trying to teach Captain Kirk to scream.

And Apparently Coachella Is Next

Wonderfully, Shatner has also said that The *uckers are booked for Coachella 2027. For context, Coachella is one of the most famous music festivals in the world and an appearance there can be a fairly substantial career milestone, yet Shatner described it as: “The one in the desert.” Obviously.

Coachella itself has not yet confirmed the 2027 lineup, so for now this comes directly from Shatner rather than an official festival announcement, but our fingers are crossed.

William Shatner Has Been Doing This for Decades

The funniest part is that William Shatner suddenly making a heavy metal record at 95 somehow isn’t even particularly out of character. He has been making records for decades, ranging from spoken word, rock, blues and country to Christmas music and even children’s music.

And music is just one branch of an exceptionally strange career. Shakespearean stage actor. TV actor, including Captain Kirk, obviously. Director of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Novelist. Comic-book creator. Video-game character and voice actor. Horse breeder and serious equestrian. Actual space traveler.

Like, actually.

In 2021, aged 90, Shatner flew aboard Blue Origin’s NS-18 mission and at the time became the oldest person ever to travel to space. So Captain Kirk genuinely went to space.

And now, at 95, he’s a heavy metal frontman with The *uckers. There are careers, and then there is apparently whatever William Shatner has been doing for the past seven decades.

Yes, William Shatner Really Had His Own Video Game

Just to drag this back toward gaming before somebody asks why there is suddenly a William Shatner metal article on Unboxed Reviews, we should probably talk about William Shatner’s TekWar.

Released in 1995, TekWar was a cyberpunk first-person shooter based on Shatner’s series of science-fiction novels. You play an ex-cop hunting criminals involved in the futuristic drug Tek, with Shatner himself appearing as Walter Bascom in live-action sequences throughout the game.

He was also involved as an executive story consultant. So no, we didn’t have to work particularly hard to find the gaming connection. The man literally put his own name on a first-person shooter.

Shatner also returned as Captain Kirk across numerous Star Trek games over the years, including Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, Judgment Rites, Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: Encounters, Star Trek: Tactical Assault and Star Trek: Legacy.

His Metal Friends Have Gaming History Too

And just to pretend again that this article needs more than a 95-year old heavy metal frontman Captain Kirk, to make it worthy of this site, Shatner’s album guests have some pretty neat gaming connections of their own.

Rob Halford of Judas Priest voiced two characters in Brütal Legend, Henry Rollins voiced the lead character in Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter and appeared as himself in Def Jam: Fight for NY. Zakk Wylde appeared in Guitar Hero: World Tour, where players could actually face him in a guitar duel. Brian May, meanwhile, appears alongside the rest of Queen in the band’s official mobile rhythm game, Queen: Rock Tour. And between them, the musicians involved in Shatner’s latest project have supplied music to some of gaming’s biggest franchises over the years.

So yes, technically William Shatner’s new heavy metal band is relevant to a gaming website. But frankly, I’d have found a way regardless.