William Shatner Unleashes Heavy Metal Mayhem During Riot Fest 2026

Posted in: Music, TV | Tagged: william shatner

William Shatner Unleashes Heavy Metal Mayhem During Riot Fest 2026

William Shatner can now add heavy metal to his lengthy resume of music genres he's covered after his performance during Riot Fest 2026.

Published Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:39:08 -0500
by Gavin Sheehan
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Article Summary

• William Shatner surprised Riot Fest 2026 with a heavy metal set, adding another genre to his spoken-word music catalog.
• The 95-year-old Star Trek icon performed six metal covers in Chicago, including Crazy Train, Enter Sandman, and Ace of Spades.
• William Shatner’s upcoming album, What the F Is Heavy Metal?, features his Riot Fest covers and major rock guest stars.
• Tony Iommi, Brian May, Rob Halford, and Dave Lombardo are among the legendary musicians joining William Shatner.

William Shatner is many things to many people, including being a spoken-word musician to many of the classic songs we have known throughout modern history. His delivery is often imitated, rarely duplicated, and always done from a place of earnest passion. Every story you've ever heard of him doing covers of other people's songs has talked about how he has a passion for adding his own kind of "essence" onto the track and making it an original for people to listen to. This is certainly the direction he went this past weekend, as the Star Trek star made his way to Riot Fest 2026 in Chicago to perform a number of heavy metal hits.

Enter Shatner: William Shatner Performs at Riot Fest Chicago

The 95-year-old actor took to the stage for an after-hours show, featuring his new band called The *uckers, according to a recap of the show from Rolling Stone. The short six-song performance included his takes on several popular metal songs from over the decades, all of which will be on his upcoming album, What the F Is Heavy Metal? The songs include Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train," Metallica's "Enter Sandman," and Motorhead's "Ace of Spades." The album will include guest cameos from several iconic musicians, including Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Queen's Brian May, Judas Priest's Rob Halford, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, and more.

As to the performances themselves, we have a couple of videos here that were recorded from that show, and you know what? They're not that bad. Well, let's be clear, they're not bad for Shatner's spoken-word stylings. We're sure there are a few hardcore metalheads reading this and watching it happen, thinking it's blasphemy, and that the Metal Gods should strike down Captain Kirk where he stands. But for everyone else who isn't stuck up about music, this is just fun to check out, and we'll see how the album does when it eventually comes out.

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