The evening that William Shatner discovered himself squaring off towards WWE legend Jerry “The KIng” Lawler throughout a 1995 match in Houston, Texas was an fascinating one.

“I knew it was fake, but I didn’t realize how fake it is,” he tells UCR now. What was presupposed to be a short dalliance ended up establishing the Star Trek legend as one of many many characters within the wrestling universe. He ended up inducting Lawler into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. Somewhat greater than a decade later, Shatner himself was inducted into the Hall as a part of the 2020 class.

It’s simply one of many many desirable milestones that Shatner has loved all through his lengthy profession. At the age of 90, he grew to become the oldest particular person to journey into house, a journey which surprisingly, he stated, stuffed him with “overwhelming sadness.”

But he is hardly mournful, however as a substitute, usually philosophical, one thing which comes by means of watching his 2023 documentary, You Can Call Me Bill. While he has a formidable legacy that is arduous to match, he stays grounded. “Nothing lasts forever. Statues are torn down, buildings crumble, names are taken off of labels and things like that,” he tells us. “The only thing that continues to exist are the waves that good deeds make.”

During a prolonged dialog, he mentioned a wide range of matters, together with the movie, the appreciation that he has for Star Trek and his most up-to-date album, Where Will the Animals Sleep? Songs for Kids and Other Living Things.

As with every thing you do, your new album appears to have intriguing roots. How did it come about?
It’s an fascinating story. I’ve spent quite a lot of my current previous finding out and studying tales in regards to the interconnection. My life is stuffed with canines and horses and I see the connection there, how canines have been with mankind for 10,000 years, but it surely goes a lot additional again than that, I feel. In any case, these two entities have been with human beings for that size of time. That merely stirred this curiosity in how entwined all of nature is. The extra I learn and talked, I realized how the only animals are linked to the extra advanced animals. Everything is clever. There’s an intelligence, most likely within the universe, however definitely on Earth that mankind doesn’t completely acknowledge. From the only cell lifeforms to the extra advanced [ones] like human beings. We’re all interconnected. Pollinators utilizing flowers to pollinate after which make honey after which animals eat the honey, that connection is pretty apparent. Then you get to the extra advanced interconnections. Where species talk with different species.

The tales of animals…I simply learn a narrative a couple of tiger who hung round a human place of residing, most likely a tribe — and stayed simply far sufficient away so no person received damage, however saved roaring there. They lastly started to grasp that the tiger was attempting to speak. They adopted the tiger again by means of the woods, taking their probabilities, and found that a few her infants had been damage by stepping on a landmine that had been put there years earlier than. They doctored the infants for a few weeks after which returned the infants to the tiger. That communication of a man-eating tiger that would eat a human being, the tiger had sought out the human beings to assist her infants. That includes a posh information by the tiger, the idea that the people would perceive what I want to speak. So there’s miracles taking place the entire time on the market. We simply must bear in mind sufficient to look at it. That’s what I’ve been studying.

Your recording profession started formally with The Transformed Man album in 1968. The concept of you moving into music shocked some individuals. What made you need to pursue it?
Yeah, yeah, it is mindless, actually. Decca Records at the moment was a very fashionable label. They requested me to do an album. Why they might ask me, I don’t know. But I thought of it for some time. What do I do on an album? It seems that the man pushing the dolly was a stagehand. He was a younger man and we form of fashioned a friendship on the set. He stated, “My father is a musician and I’m a musician. Maybe we can help.” The authentic idea was mine. I wished to indicate the connection between the spoken phrase and the sung phrase and the way lyrics are each bit as musical. The lyric of the track is each bit as necessary as the rest in there. You can sing the track by figuring out the lyric — and discovering a chunk of literature that both agreed with or disagreed with the rate of the track. I believed, “Wow, that’s a good concept.” So I did it as greatest I can and in a few circumstances, I’m profitable. One case that I’m profitable in is “To be or not to be,” the Shakespearan soliloquy [from Hamlet] of whether or not I ought to dwell or not dwell. It segues into “It Was a Very Good Year” and that made sense to me. That’s one of the best of The Transformed Man. Now, it wasn’t successful and went dormant till Ben Folds discovered it in a storage sale years later. He known as me and stated, “I’d like to work with you.” Working together with his genius means of melody and lyric, he wrote a track known as “In Love” on the Fear of Pop album [in 1998]. That grew to become a type of friendship with Ben and the technique of resurrecting no matter I wished to do musically. That begat the power to get any individual to finance an album of me doing songs.

Listen to William Shatner’s ‘Hamlet / It Was a Very Good Year’

In the opening scene of your current documentary, You Can Call Me Bill, you ask the query, questioning what legacy you’ll go away behind. What do you assume that legacy is?
Here’s how I really feel about legacy. Nothing lasts endlessly. Statues are torn down, buildings crumble, names are taken off of labels and issues like that. The solely factor that continues to exist are the waves that good deeds make. You do deed for any individual, that’s liable to contain deed for that particular person. Payback. And so it goes, just like the fluttering wings of a butterfly. The persevering with motion of deed is your legacy and it’s liable to final a very long time. I don’t find out about endlessly, however serving to individuals and doing issues is your legacy.

What do you admire most in regards to the legacy that Star Trek has now?
You know, I used to be very busy previous to Star Trek. I had began on Broadway and starred in films and tv. I don’t know what would have occurred if Star Trek hadn’t entered my life, however in that one fell swoop, I grew to become a fascinating commodity and it modified my life. I really feel I owe Star Trek every thing. My speaking to you now about an album that I invented together with a few mates, that’s [thanks to Star Trek]. Star Trek is the origination of my means to do these albums. What an exquisite factor that’s. I’ve nothing however love and appreciation for Star Trek. Of course, it then grew to become this showbiz phenomenon the place it exists 60 years later in lots of varieties and it’s simply as fashionable. What a legacy that’s!

READ MORE: William Shatner’s Favorite Star Trek Episode

One of the moments I like within the movie is your speech for George Lucas on the gala the place the American Film Institute honored him. That looks as if it might have been enjoyable.
Well, it was a whole lot of enjoyable. But what a room to enter. I imply, think about. Did you see the appears to be like on their faces after I first got here out?

Watch William Shatner Honor George Lucas of ‘Star Wars’

Yeah, I questioned, was George in on the bit?
No, no person was in on the bit! I come on stage and it was a hostile viewers, like, “What the fuck is he doing there?” I used to be conscious of that. [Laughs] It was an opportunity, man. It may have been a catastrophe.

Did you ever meet George outdoors of that?
I imagine I’ve. It’s been a few years, however I imagine I’ve met him. I really feel I do know him and I’d assume he thinks the identical of me. If we had been to see one another in a room and sat down, it might be like we’ve identified one another for a very long time.

How did you get entangled with the WWE?
One of the sequence that I’ve accomplished [TekWar], somebody stated, “We’re on directly after wrestling on a Monday night. Would you fly to Texas and fool around with the guys?” Because we’re on subsequent.” I believed, “That’s a great idea.” So I flew out to Texas and the entire wrestling guys had been there. They knew me and the entire sudden, I used to be with these unimaginable athletes, studying to my amazement that they needed to be taught their strains and strikes. We had been strolling to the sector and I heard any individual crying. I stated “What’s that?” they usually stated, “Oh, that’s so-and-so, he’s having trouble learning his lines.” I started to understand extra totally, as a result of I’m from Montreal, which is the place skilled wrestling started — I knew that it was pretend, however I didn’t understand how pretend it’s. I imply, the man I wrote a e book with was employed by Vince McMahon to jot down eventualities. I rehearsed throwing Jerry Lawler out of the ring. That was what I needed to do. I knew somewhat judo and stuff like that, but it surely’s fairly totally different. He launched himself out of the ring, is what occurred. We laughed and in reality, I launched him into the [WWE] Hall of Fame in Detroit.

READ MORE: 35 Great Rock and Wrestling Moments

Watch William Shatner Battle Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler

People are sometimes amazed to be taught that you just’re 93. What do you attribute your longevity and wholesome resilience to?
I feel it’s most likely good luck. I feel I’ve been in poor health and I’ve had severe issues go mistaken with me. I’ve had severe issues go mistaken in life. But by some means, I’ve survived it and my pleasure of life remains to be there. You discover so many individuals who’ve been in poor health or had unhappy issues occur to them destroy their power and lifeforce. In my case, it hasn’t been that manner. I nonetheless love life as a lot as I ever have and possibly extra. I feel that’s most likely one purpose. The different purpose is my telomeres are longer than yours.