William Shatner's Insane Riot Fest Rider Demands Include DeLoreans, Renamed Boats, and Backstage Puppies

William Shatner is performing at Chicago’s Riot Fest on September 20th, and at ninety-five years old, he’s decided that subtlety is not his style. The legendary actor is bringing a full metal backing band featuring musicians who’ve worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, and Mötorhead. But the music is only half the story. His rider demands are the stuff of festival legend: a boat captained in his honor, a DeLorean for transportation around the city, a dressing room christened“Shatner’s Shag Shack,”four feet of Polish sausage for catering, a John Stamos-autographed Montreal Canadiens sweater, and an assortment of adoptable puppies. Yes, you read that correctly.

This isn’t Shatner playing around either. He’s got a serious metal album dropping on Cleopatra Records with collaborations from Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Mikkey Dee of Mötorhead. He’s approaching this genre with legitimate creative intent, backed by accomplished musicians, and apparently a complete disregard for conventional artist behavior. Riot Fest founder Mike Petryshyn spent years writing letters to convince Shatner to perform, and this is the energy he got in return.

The story captures something special about celebrity reinvention and creative freedom at any age. While some people slow down as they get older, Shatner is proving that you can spend nearly a century on the planet and still decide to shake everything up. So here’s our question: if you were backstage at Riot Fest, would you be more excited to see Shatner perform or to hang with the adoptable puppies?