William Shatner, 95, Debuts His Heavy Metal Band at Riot Fest

• William Shatner, 95, debuted his heavy metal band at Riot Fest in Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 20.
• The set: Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train,” Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades,” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and an original, “Rage.”
• His metal album, What the F Is Heavy Metal?, is due this winter on Cleopatra Records.

Beam him up, then turn it up. William Shatner, 95, closed out Sunday at Riot Fest in Chicago’s Douglass Park fronting a heavy metal band, 60 years after he first took the captain’s chair on Star Trek.

He did it the way he has always done music: talking, not singing, over a band that plays it straight. The songs were three metal standards and one of his own.

What did William Shatner play at Riot Fest?

• “Crazy Train” (Ozzy Osbourne)
• “Ace of Spades” (Motörhead)
• “Enter Sandman” (Metallica)
• “Rage,” an original from the new album

The band, billed as The *uckers, is guitarist and musical director Marcus Nand, bassist Phil Soussan, guitarist Britt Lightning and drummer Fred Aching. Soussan played bass in Ozzy Osbourne’s band in the mid-1980s, which made “Crazy Train” something of a homecoming.

Why did William Shatner start a metal band?

Because a record label asked. He told the crowd that Cleopatra Records came to him with the idea of a metal album, and his first reaction became the title: “What the f*** is heavy metal?”

The tracks are already recorded. He plans to go into the studio this winter to lay down his vocals, and the album is due after that.

It is less of a left turn than it sounds. Shatner has been making records since 1968‘s The Transformed Man, famous for his spoken-word takes on “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” In 2004, Has Been, produced by Ben Folds, turned the joke into critical respect.

And in 2011, on Seeking Major Tom, he had already taken on Black Sabbath:

His own explanation of why it works on a stage is typically Shatner: “I have a feeling garnered intuitively but garnered over years of experience as to what’s entertaining.”

When is ‘What the F Is Heavy Metal?’ coming out?

No release date has been announced. The album is due this winter, once his vocals are recorded.

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— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: William Shatner’s remarks from the Riot Fest stage, Sept. 20, 2026; Riot Fest (lineup and band announcement, July 16, 2026); Cleopatra Records. Consequence (Spencer Kaufman); Billboard; Rolling Stone; USA Today. Photos: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (CBS, June 2025). Video: Iron Man (Official William Shatner Page).