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.
When I watched Incubus I remember him sounding very much like he was trying to speak Italian. My only basis for comparison are some podcasts in Esperanto I've listened to, and completion of the duolingo course (I've forgotten everything).
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?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_The_Omens_of_Deat...
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
1: https://www.amazon.com/Spaced-Out-Leonard-William-Shatner/dp...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_(1966_film)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cMXhWf0vE7c
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZL4pNtI9nM
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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmCi_-9Shhg&list=RDXmCi_-9Sh...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWEM4gZhg4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAWP9Oxdn9Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ
Incidentally, Rollins talking about the recording[0] of it is freaking hilarious.
[0]: https://youtu.be/8zL3wtNrq00?t=4616
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul6S84qF_TU
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.
/s