William Shatner has made his heavy metal debut. The Star Trek star, at age 95, performed at a concert alongside Chicago's Riot Fest with his new lineup, playing covers of Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Motörhead. He had already announced metal as his next musical frontier — after forays into spoken word, blues, country, Christmas songs and children's songs. "I've explored the universe. I've explored time. From now on... I'm exploring distortion," he wrote on social media about his metal odyssey. Rolling Stone France ↗
The journey began on Saturday at Chicago's Park West, where Shatner and his crew of genre veterans played a warm-up show ahead of their official debut on Sunday at Riot Fest. The six-song set included three tracks from the upcoming album What the F Is Heavy Metal?, plus covers of metal classics — "Crazy Train" by Osbourne, "Enter Sandman" by Metallica and "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead. Rolling Stone France ↗
Besides his band, the album will bring together rock royalty: Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Brian May of Queen, Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Dave Lombardo of Slayer. "I feel so alive. So full of passion," Shatner declared. "I've come to understand what metal is." Rolling Stone France ↗
Rolling Stone Italia adds that this is one of the most unexpected musical turns of the year — Shatner has been recording music since 1968, when his notorious album The Transformed Man came out. Rolling Stone Italia ↗
Illustrative photo: William Shatner in March 2026. Photo: Super Festivals / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
William Shatner is 95 and made his metal debut. He covered Metallica, Ozzy and Motörhead
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