Music

William Shatner details upcoming guest-heavy covers record

by Nicole Villeneuve

Back in January, William Shatner surprised no one by doing something surprising and announcing he’d be working with former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist/Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde on an upcoming covers record called Searching for Major Tom.

The full tracklisting has been revealed and it looks like Wylde appears on two tracks: fittingly, Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” and Peter Shilling’s “Major Tom,” which also features members of the Strokes and Alice in Chains.

Some other standouts include Bootsy Collins on a cover of Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” and the Kinks’ Dave Davies on a cover of the Byrds’ “Mr. Spaceman.”

It remains to be seen whether or not some of these will have the novel crossover appeal of Shatner’s cover of Pulp’s “Common People,” but… oh, who are we kidding. Of course they will. We love this guy!

Searching for Major Tom has not yet been given an exact release date, but it will be out sometime this year. Here’s the full tracklist:

01. Space Trucking (Deep Purple) – Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and Johnny Winter on guitar
02. She Blinded Me With Science (Thomas Dolby) – Bootsy Collins on bass and Patrick Moraz (ex-Yes and Moody Blues) on keyboards/synth
03. In a Little While (U2) – Manuel Gottsching from Ash Ra Tempel on guitar
04. Empty Glass (The Tea Party) – Michael Schenker (UFO/Scorpions) on guitar
05. Lost in the Stars (Frank Sinatra version) – Ernie Watts on saxophone
06. Twilight Zone (Golden Earring) – Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule/Allman Brothers) on guitar
07. Space Cowboy (Steve Miller) – Brad Paisley on guitar and vocals
08. Rocket Man (Elton John) – Steve Hillage (ex-Gong member) on guitar
09. Space Oddity (David Bowie) – Ritchie Blackmore (ex-Deep Purple) on guitar and Alan Parsons on keyboards
10. Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum) – Peter Frampton on guitar
11. Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) – John Wetton (Asia) on bass and vocals
12. Silver Machine originally (Hawkwind) – Wayne Kramer (MC5) on guitar and Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge/Rod Stewart) on drums
13. Major Tom (Peter Shilling) – The Strokes’ Nick Valensi and Zakk Wylde on guitar and and Mike Inez (Alice In Chains) on bass
14. Learning to Fly (Pink Floyd) – Edgar Froese (Tangerine Dream) on guitar and keyboards
15. Mr. Spaceman (The Byrds) – Dave Davies (The Kinks) on guitar
16. Iron Man (Black Sabbath) – Zakk Wylde on guitar and vocals
17. Planet Earth (Duran Duran) – Steve Howe (Yes) on guitar
18. Walking on the Moon (The Police) – Toots (Toots & the Maytals) on vocals
19. Mrs. Major Tom (female guest vocals TBA)

[via Consequence of Sound]