“It made me want to go all the way in, bring in the best metal players I could find, and create something fearless”: Zakk Wylde gifted William Shatner a guitar. Now Shatner is making an album with 35 metal icons – and an AI-generated Les Paul, apparently

William Shatner, a man you might know as TV's Captain James T. Kirk, wears a wide-brimmed hat and dark jacket, is pictured in front of a flaming-red background, and is holding what looks like a Les Paul but... isn't.

You might know him as Captain James T. Kirk, the cavalier captain of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, but believe it or not, William Shatner is a true heavy metal warrior – and he has just announced an all-star metal album to prove it.

Given all that he has been through – all those times Montgomery Scott beamed him through the transporter, the long-running feuds with Klingons and Romulans – we can forgive Shatner for not holding the electric guitar in the orthodox fashion.