William Shatner has spent decades testing the elasticity of his spoken-word delivery, but taking on a room full of heavy metal enthusiasts is fresh territory. At 95 years old, the actor walked onto the stage at Chicago's Park West on September 19 for his live debut in the genre. Fronting a newly assembled backing group called The *uckers, Shatner used the club date as a warm-up for a forty-minute appearance scheduled the following afternoon across town at Riot Fest in Douglass Park.
The set was brief, running just six selections, but it offered an immediate look at how Shatner intends to inhabit heavy music. He worked through a trio of foundational staples, covering Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train', Metallica's 'Enter Sandman', and Motörhead's 'Ace Of Spades'. Before the concert, Shatner had framed the project online by noting that after spending his life exploring space and time, he had turned his attention to distortion. Alongside the covers, the group presented three original numbers written for his upcoming studio record, titled What The F Is Heavy Metal?.
To make the material work, Shatner gathered players with genuine hard rock backgrounds. The *uckers are steered by musical director and guitarist Marcus Nand, joined by Vixen guitarist Britt Lightning, drummer Fred Aching, and bassist Phil Soussan. Soussan has a personal history with the setlist, having logged years onstage with Ozzy Osbourne. That rhythm section and dual guitar setup gave the covers the standard volume and crunch required to carry Shatner's unmistakable cadence.
The warm-up preceded his September 20 Riot Fest booking, an appearance accompanied by an extravagant list of rider demands that went public over the summer. Rather than sticking to standard festival hospitality, Shatner asked for several fire-breathers, a selection of adoptable puppies, and a DeLorean tasked with chauffeuring him straight to the stage. His dressing room requests called for four feet of Polish sausage, eight full pallets of Faygo, a Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey signed by John Stamos, and an introductory short film produced by GWAR.
The theatrical humor behind the live show runs alongside serious participation from veteran metal names on What The F Is Heavy Metal?. The record gathers notable rock figures to fill out the instrumentation, including Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, and Queen guitarist Brian May. Former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Disturbed bassist John Moyer also contributed to the tracks, turning the album into an unusual summit of traditional and modern players behind Shatner's voice.
Chicago may not be the final stop for this project. In an interview with CNN last month, Shatner mentioned that he had locked down a thirty-minute slot at a major desert gathering in the spring. His daughter, Melanie Shatner Gretsch, clarified afterward that he had been talking about Coachella 2027. Organizers for Coachella have yet to release a lineup or verify any booking, but the prospect of the actor bringing his metal band to an empire polo field suggests he has no intention of treating this venture as a solitary weekend experiment.
