On his new album “Bill”, William Shatner tells stories from his eventful life. Joe Jonas accompanies him musically.
George Clooney (60) once described William Shatner’s (90) album “The Transformed Man” as the record he would take with him to a desert island. It was so bad that he would hollow out his own legs to build a canoe out of. Just to get away from the album …
The “Star Trek” star is not deterred by criticism. He has just released his eighth album, “Bill”. It was released by Joe Jonas (32) record label. The singer of the “Jonas Brothers” can also be heard on a song. In one of these, Shatner raved about the “mysterious” collaboration with the musician, who was almost 60 years his junior.
As on his previous albums, Shatner can be heard again in his (not only with Clooney) infamous mixture of speech and song. Performed in his famous, deep and rough voice.
“Bill”: Songs from Shatner’s life
On earlier concept albums, Shatner declaimed songs with science fiction content (“Seeking Major Tom”, 2011). It gets personal on the “Bill” named after him. To musical accompaniment he sings and speaks from his life, from bullying experiences at school in “Toughie” to the end of “Raumschiff Enterprise”, which coincided with the end of his marriage.
The musical background on Bill is provided by old men like “Eagles” guitarist Joe Walsh (73), indie artists like Joan As Police Woman (51) and young musicians.
“Mysterious” collaboration with Joe Jonas
The most important part of the album, however, has Joe Jonas. The singer, who became known in the noughties with the “Jonas Brothers”, not only sings on the song “Clouds of Guilt”, but has also released “Bill” on his newly founded label “Let’s Get It Records”.
How this intensive collaboration came about is still a mystery to Shatner, as he says in an interview. “It’s a story full of secrets”. In the future he would like to sit down with Jonas Brother to find out what he liked about the album.
Shatner said he met Joe Jonas once when his daughters were teenagers. They really wanted to get to know the pop star and Shatner used his name to get them backstage. And years later Jonas is now releasing his album. “The universe runs in strange tracks,” says the “Star Trek” star.
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