It was one night Brad Paisley will never forget. He returned home to find his 2-year-old son with William Shatner having a light saber battle in the basement.
“I came home from the recording studio, and he was already over at the house playing with my two-year-old son in the basement—with light sabers,” recalled Paisley in 2010. “I walked in to see my son and Captain Kirk dueling with light sabers. I looked over at my wife and asked ‘What the hell kind of bizarre universe have I just walked into here?’”
Already friends for several years, the two first collaborated on Shatner’s 2004 album Has Been. Shatner also made a cameo in Paisley’s music videos “Celebrity” in 2003 and “Online” in 2007. Paisley appeared on Shatner’s 2011 album Seeking Major Tom, along with the actor’s one-man Broadway show, Shatner’s World: We Just Live In It, in 2012, and the two continued collaborating into the 2020s.
Since 2004, the country star and the Star Trek legend have shared four recorded collaborations, including a track Paisley wrote for Shatner.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Real” (2004)
Written by Brad Paisley
After releasing his 1977 live album, actor William Shatner took a long hiatus from music, only releasing a compilation album of his and former Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy’s recorded songs in 1996. Following the form of his debut, The Transformed Man, Shatner’s 2004 album, Has Been, featured a new collection of songs as monologues, written by the actor and set to music.
A majority of the tracks on Has Been were co-written with producer Ben Folds, along with “What Have You Done,” penned entirely by Shatner, and “Together,” co-written with his ex-wife Elizabeth Shatner and the British electronic duo Lemon Jelly.
Has Been also featured guest appearances by Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, and Henry Rollins, along with Brad Paisley, who wrote the closing “Real” for Shatner. The song, which also features Paisley on vocals, compare Shatner’s real life with his most iconic on-screen persona as Captain Kirk.
I have saved the world in the movies
So naturally, there’s folks who think I must know what to know
But just because you’ve seen me on your TV
Doesn’t mean I’m any more enlightened than you
And while there’s a part of me in that guy you’ve seen
Up there on that screen, I am so much more
And I wish I knew the things you think I do
I would change this world for sure
But I eat and sleep and breathe and bleed and feel
Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m real
“Space Cowboy” (2011)
Shatner’s 2011 album, Seeking Major Tom, features an all-star list of collaborators, including Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton, Ritchie Blackmore, Warren Haynes, Zakk Wylde, Michael Schenker, Bootsy Collins, and more. Paisley also makes an appearance on Shatner’s spaced-out cover of the Steve Miller Band’s 1969 classic “Space Cowboy.” The track also features vocals by Miller.
“Blue Christmas” (2018)
Written by Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson
In 2018, Paisley provided guest vocals and guitar on a honky-tonk rendition of the 1964 Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson-penned Elvis Presley classic, “Blue Christmas,” on Shatner’s holiday album, Shatner Claus: The Christmas Album. The album also features contributions from ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Judy Collins, and Todd Rundgren, among others.
“So Far From the Moon” (2021)
Written by William Shatner, Daniel Miller, and Robert Sharenow
By 2021, Shatner experienced a full-circle moment when he became the oldest man to ever go into space, at 90, aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space shuttle flight. That same year, he released an autobiographical album that also made him reminisce about his earlier Star Trek days.
Bill chronicles key moments in Shatner’s 90 years, including his obsessions in “Love, Death, and Horses,” a school bully on “Toughie,” and other pivotal memories. “It’s such a work of heart,” said Shatner, describing the deeply personal album, featuring special guests Joe Walsh, John Lurie, Joan as Policewoman, Joe Jonas, and more.
Released to commemorate his 90th birthday, Shatner co-wrote the tracks with They Might Be Giants’ Dan Miller and television producer Robert Sharenow and worked on the album remotely during the pandemic.
Paisley also joins on one of the most personal tracks, “So Far From the Moon,” which chronicles one of the lowest moments in Shatner’s life, following the cancellation of Star Trek in 1969, when his 13-year marriage to Gloria Rand also came to an end, and he was nearly broke, living in a truck.
“My marriage was canceled, so was my show,” said Shatner, elaborating on the country-bent track, which also features recurring guest Brad Paisley, who also appeared on his 2004 album, Has Been. “I was divorced. I lost my children, and even though I’d been in ‘Star Trek,’ I didn’t have any money.”
After booking some summer theater performances on the East Coast, Shatner decided to get there by driving and living in his truck with his dog.
The Apollo Mission took off
The planet watched, enthralled
But man’s greatest achievement
Made this man feel so small
I stared up at the sky
Stars like little pins
Armstrong took a giant leap
While I fell down again
“One evening, I was playing in Montauk in the Hamptons,” said Shatner. “I was parked in the pasture, lying down and looking up at the moon. It was a clear night, and I’ve got a four-inch television set on my chest. I’m looking at the guys landing on the moon and thinking about the teeny contributions we made.”
He continues, “Our ratings went up, and Congress voted for more money for the space program. In a way, I had been associated with the very people who were on the moon, and there I was lying in a truck bed out in a pasture in the Hamptons, broke and broken.”
Photo: Ben Gabbe/WireImage
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