William Shatner Takes Riot Fest by Storm, Previews Album What the F Is Heavy Metal?

William Shatner performed with his backing band The *uckers at Riot Fest in Chicago on Sunday, a day after making his heavy metal live debut at an intimate club show in the same city.

As he did at the warmup gig, the 95-year-old Star Trek icon treated fans to performances of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train,” Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades,” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” along with the original song “Rage.”

Shatner addressed the Riot Fest crowd by telling them he was approached by Cleopatra Records to do a metal album, and his response was “What the fuck is heavy metal?,” which led directly to the album title, What the F Is Heavy Metal? He also noted that the album will be released sometime in the winter.

From there, Shatner yelled out Ozzy’s famous “All aboard” line to kick things off with “Crazy Train,” giving a highly theatrical spoken-word performance as The *uckers backed him up.

While Shatner may be new to metal, his backing band is made up of experienced musicians including musical director Marcus Nand on guitar, Phil Soussan on bass, Britt Lightning on guitar, and Fred Aching on drums.

In an interview with Billboard heading into the Riot Fest weekend, Shatner said of the performances, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. You’re talking to an actor just prior to the curtain going up saying, ‘I have no idea.’ Well, I have some idea, because there were some professional people that were at the rehearsal there yesterday saying, ‘Holy shit!’

He added, “I’m stumbling around in total ignorance, except for one thing. I have a feeling garnered intuitively but garnered over years of experience as to what’s entertaining.”

Shatner’s upcoming album will feature contributions from dozens of notable metal musicians, including Queen’s Brian May, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, and former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo.

Watch William Shatner address the audience and perform “Crazy Train” at Riot Fest in the video below.