William Shatner Talks New Spoken Word Album 'Ponders the Mystery'

At 82, actor and musician William Shatner is still going strong. The former Star Trek captain recently released his fourth album Ponder the Mystery, a primarily spoken word album with producer Billy Sherwood.

"This album pushes the envelope a little," says Shatner. "The melding of spoken word and music so that they're intertwined in such a way that they're inseparable."

Shatner discussed how his career in TV and movies made the recording process different from your average musician. "A lot of musicians lock themselves into a studio. They go into the studio with nothing in mind and emerge with a brilliant, or not so brilliant, record," says Shatner. "My discipline in writing scripts...the finger comes and points at you and says, 'You're on now.' Time is money in the movie game. [You have to] prepare material. I've spent weeks trying to find the right word to express what I mean and that's what we had here."

Watch the interview above and check out our favorite Shatner track—his 1998 anti-love screed with Ben Folds (as experimental pop group Fear of Pop)—below.