Music: {allcanada} Shatner excited to host 2012 Junos

Thursday, March 29, 2012

{allcanada} Shatner excited to host 2012 Junos

Having interviewed William Shatner a number of times in the past few years, it struck me that every time I speak with him, it's for something completely different.

Is Shatner doing that on purpose?

"Yes," said Shatner, who is hosting this year's Juno Awards. "I say, 'Let's get something that will confound the Sun Media Bill Harris guy.' And they say, 'Well, he's used to that one, let's do something else.' "

But confounding me is such a short putt, Mr. Shatner.

"I know - it's a short putt!" Shatner repeated with a laugh.

"Shut your mouth and the ball won't go in." Shatner, Star Trek's legendary Captain Kirk, truly is the man of a thousand projects, and this weekend he'll add hosting the Junos to his lengthy resume. The Junos, which annually honour the best in Canadian music, take place Sunday, April 1 in Ottawa, and will be televised on CTV.

"I love music," Shatner said. "I have deep appreciation for the extraordinary invention - it's bigger than the word invention, the concept, the miracle, that's the word I want, the miracle - of man being able to make music.

"I wish I could perform music in the traditional fashion," added Shatner, slyly referencing his own history in the spoken-word genre.

Shatner's versions of songs such as Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Mr. Tambourine Man and Rocket Man in the '60s and '70s have been much parodied. The thing is, it's Shatner himself who usually leads the way in "taking the piss out of himself," for lack of a better term. "Well, I've got a weak bladder," said Shatner, recognizing a straight line when he hears one.

But did he always have the ability to laugh at himself, or did he have to learn it?

"I don't know - I guess that's what they were laughing at in high school," said the 81-year-old Shatner, who was born and raised in Montreal.

"Now it all comes info focus.

"The key here is the truism that everybody forgets. It's something that has to be inculcated to every soul. You can't succeed without making mistakes. How are you going to know something's good without having done something bad? You say,

'Well, that's bad, I'd better not do that again.' "You keep trying until it gets good, if you're given a chance. In several instances, I've been given a chance." Indeed, Shatner's insatiable curiosity leads him down new avenues of entertainment virtually every year. But despite how much he still works, he must get way more offers to do things than he actually has time to do.

"Well, it's true," Shatner said. "But here's the methodology: "Someone calls and says, 'Have you ever seen the Junos?'

I say, 'Yeah, it's great, it's the Grammy Awards of Canada.'

They say, 'Would you like to host it?' I say, 'God, what a great idea. But what date is that?

"I say, 'I'm shooting Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (for his series Weird or What?, which has aired in Canada on History Television). You need me there Saturday and Sunday for the Junos. But I have to be (back in Los Angeles) shooting again Monday. How can we work that?'

" Shatner said both the Junos organizers and the Weird or What? production team accommodated him, with a little leeway on either side, to secure his participation in the awards show.

"And why arrange all this?" Shatner asked.

"Because it's the Junos!"