William Shatner Is Recording Star-Studded Metal Album in L.A.: We Got the Details

William Shatner is back in the studio working on yet another great big pile of Shat-mazing, Incredibly Strange music.  It's been over a week since Shatner first formally proclaimed Zakk Wylde's mad skills via Twitter ("Best, Bill"), but our sources on the scene confirm that some big metal heavy-hitters have been engaged to play backup to Captain Kirk.

Peter Frampton and Mike Inez (who will be playing "Iron Man" with fellow Ozzy alum, Zakk Wylde) are definitely participating and our source claims artists slated to perform (but who haven't done their parts yet) include Steve Howe of Yes, Ian Paice of Deep Purple and the god among men, Brian May of Queen. Supposedly it's only a matter of scheduling that prevents confirmation (come on May, make this happen!).  Finally, it wouldn't be a space themed album without the space man and his self proclaimed Space Bass, Bootsy Collins! 

(Caveat: some of these people might not appear on the final album. Reportedly, Shatner runs a loose (space)ship and sessions are fun and chaotic, nobody knowing how or when they're gonna happen. Picture session musicians standing next to their iPhones waiting for the "Bill is ready RIGHT NOW" text.)

There are almost 20 songs slated for inclusion so far and all are to have a "space" or "flying in space" theme. Um, ok, that is EXACTLY the same as before, but who would want anything else from Captain Kirk?

Track list currently includes "Bohemian Rhapsody" (which May will not be playing on-no joke), a Byrds song, "Space Odyssey," "Iron Man," "Learn to Fly" and... wait for it... "SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE"! Brace for impact, that one's got a chance of replacing "Rocket Man" as all time greatest Shatner moment.

[UPDATE: LA Weekly's own Liz Ohanesian points out that The Byrds have a song called "Space Odyssey" and that it's quite likely our Deep Throat embedded in the Shatner operation was referring to it and not to Bowie's "Space Oddity"--which The Onion's AV Club's snotty commenters called us out for. This should teach us to pay attention to The Onion...]

Our sources in the studio today said it was "too early to confirm a lot of the artists and songs" but that "what's been recorded so far is fucking amazing, he is fucking amazing".

They also said that Trent Reznor needs to do a bad ass industrial remix of "She Blinded Me with Science" and we're going to second that. Reznor, come on, you know you wanna, everyone else is doing it.

And by "it" we mean Bill Shatner.