William Shatner Celebrates 93rd Birthday With Tender Vision of the Afterlife, ‘I Want to Be a Tree’

Jon Blistein
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
William Shatner - Credit: Jati Lindsay
William Shatner - Credit: Jati Lindsay

On his 93rd birthday, William Shatner has shared his humble dream for life after death on his new single, “I Want to Be a Tree.”

Like much of Shatner’s music, “I Want to Be a Tree,” finds him not so much singing, but waxing poetically, this time backed by instrumentation from Ben Folds and the National Symphony Orchestra, led by Principal Pops conductor Steven Reineke.

More from Rolling Stone

“When my time has come, don’t put me in a box,” Shatner quips charmingly at the start of the song. “Skip the fancy shiva, no platters of bagels and lox/Lay down that spike and chisel/No headstone will I need/Yeah, when I die, my wish is clear/Just plant me like a seed/Cause… I want to be a tree.”

“I Want to Be a Tree” will appear on the upcoming album, So Fragile, So Blue, which captures a 2022 concert that was part of Folds’ ongoing “Declassified” series with the National Symphony Orchestra. The album is set to arrive digitally April 19, with vinyl and CD releases scheduled for July 19. Selections from So Fragile, So Blue also appear in the new documentary about Shatner, You Can Call Me Bill, which is also out today, March 22.

The concert that became So Fragile, So Blue occurred in the afterglow of Shatner’s historic trip to space in 2021, when he was 90. “This recording brings the past two years of adventure and music full circle,” Shatner said in a statement. “Going up into space was beyond anything I could have imagined, and I felt we had to write songs that truly encapsulated the experience… This album is about something we all have in common: this beautiful planet Earth that we all call home.”

Best of Rolling Stone