TORONTO – William Shatner has boldly ventured into a new space-themed project: a spoken-word, cover-tune album that the former “Star Trek” captain felt was a risk when he recorded it.
“It’s such a departure and it’s such a reinterpretation of some classics that I knew that I was on dangerous ground,” Shatner, 80, said during a recent telephone interview to promote “Seeking Major Tom.”
“For the longest time I didn’t know whether it was going to be accepted or not. It seems to be taking (off).”
Out this week as a two-disc CD version as well as a three-disc vinyl edition, “Seeking Major Tom” features Shatner’s trademark speak-sing interpretations of classic rock favourites and other space-themed songs.
The first tune, “Major Tom (Coming Home),” begins with a blast: the sound of spacecraft lift-off followed by pulsating ’80s synth sounds and Shatner’s deadpan-to-dramatic delivery of the lyrics.
Other songs include “Rocket Man,” “She Blinded Me With Science,” “Walking On The Moon,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Iron Man.”
There’s also an original tune, “Struggle,” by Shatner and producer Adam Hamilton.
Guest artists include Brad Paisley, Zakk Wylde, Sheryl Crow, Ritchie Blackmore, Lyle Lovett, Steve Miller and Peter Frampton. Also featured are members of the Strokes, the Kinks and Alice in Chains.
Shatner said Cleopatra Records in Los Angeles approached him about a year ago to do recitations on an album. It wasn’t a stretch: after all, Shatner had already done this type of thing before, first with his much-lampooned 1968 album “The Transformed Man,” and then with 2004’s
“Has Been.”
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“I ultimately presented them with this and they were a little hesitant at first and then they got behind it,” said the Montreal-born star, who’s won two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.
To gauge whether the project would work, Shatner and Hamilton tackled the toughest tune first.
“I didn’t know Adam at that time and I said to him, ‘Look, you don’t know whether I’m capable of doing this and I don’t know whether you’re capable of doing this record. Let’s start with “Bohemian Rhapsody” and if we can do “Bohemian Rhapsody,” we can certainly do the rest of the album,'” said Shatner.
“So we struggled through ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for quite a while and got what we wanted and we realized that we could work together and do something that was very interesting.”
“Rocket Man” was another tune of particular importance to the prolific performer, who’s written nearly 30 books, the most recent of which is “Shatner Rules.”
“I had done ‘Rocket Man’ before and perhaps unsuccessfully, I don’t know,” said Shatner, who did a trippy, spoken-word version of the Elton John hit while smoking a hand-rolled cigarette at a 1978 sci-fi awards show.
“I was somewhat unaware that it would have any import. This time I redid ‘Rocket Man’ deliberately so that I could give it the interpretation that I really thought about.”
In most cases, Shatner was not with the musicians in the studio. But he did have a recording session with Zakk Wylde, the former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne who performs on Shatner’s version of “Iron Man.”
“I had laid down my track first and then went to his studio and realized after I heard him that what I had done was terrible,” said Shatner, who can be seen in a YouTube clip growling the lines to the Black Sabbath hit over and over as he tries to strike the right tone.
“I had to go back and get into the energy and the excitement of the heavy metal that he played.”
Shatner wanted the album’s focus to be Major Tom, a fictional character created by David Bowie. He chose songs that fit with the tale of the astronaut who blasted off to a place “far beyond the stars,” leaving his family behind. He also refers to Major Tom on most of the songs.
“We’re trying to contact Major Tom, who’s getting further and further lost in space and walking on the moon and thinking of his wife … and then begins to get darker as he begins to fade and remember what his previous life was like and then going to heaven and hell,” he said.
“In my fantasy, I have an arc of Major Tom’s life right now.”
On Thursday, Cineplex Entertainment theatres in Canada will screen Shatner’s new documentary, “The Captains,” which he wrote and directed and which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the “Star Trek” franchise. It will make its TV debut next Thursday on Movie Central and the Movie Network.
On Oct. 19, Shatner kicks off a Canadian tour called “How Time Flies,” featuring the actor discussing his life and career.
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