Up Till Now: The Autobiography

asked, “Was that really Shatner?”
    And her partner responded, “Yeah, it was. And he’s still an ass-hole.”
    Well, that started a whole discussion. People kept calling the station to state their opinions. “I don’t think he is an asshole.” “Well, sometimes he can be an asshole.” “It depends on your definition of the word ‘asshole.’ “ For the entire segment the topic of discussion was, is William Shatner an asshole?
    Has Been eventually rose to number twenty-two on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart.
    A few weeks later a woman named Margo Sappington called me from the Milwaukee Ballet. She loved the album, she told me, and wanted to create a ballet around six cuts. As a man who takes pride in supporting the arts I asked her what I perceived to be the key question, “Any money in it?”
    “This is ballet,” she explained. “Ballet depends on the kindness of strangers.”
    Of course I gave them the rights for free—but then I made a documentary on the making of a ballet, titled Gonzo Ballet . I have to admit that when I told certain members of my family—and they know who they are—that I’d decided to record another album they were a bit dubious. More than anything, they didn’t want to see my feelings hurt again. So you can just imagine how they responded when I gave them the news, “Guess what? They’re doing a ballet from the album.”
    Knowing me so well, one of my daughters felt compelled to remind me, “Dad. You can’t dance.”
    I can’t? Of course not, but just the thought that this idea would be interpreted into an entirely different art form was exciting to me. And I’d never previously been involved with a ballet. It’s new to my life, and I like that a lot. I believe new challenges are essential in life.
    At this point in my life it’s amazing that my career is growing. Go figure that one out. I don’t believe I’ve ever been busier. Or, thank you very much, more popular.
    I now wonder if I’m working too much. Perhaps I should experience other things? But I’m having such a good time it’s difficult to say no to anything. In fact, my daughter Lisbeth and her husband play a game: Can they get through an ordinary day without hearing my name mentioned or hearing my voice on the radio or television? Mostly they lose.
    Ironically, the one part I might have enjoyed playing I wasn’t even offered. The producers of the movie Star Trek XI —which apparently focuses on the early life of our characters—did not ask me to appear in that film. Spock lives in that film, but I guess that because Kirk had been killed they felt they couldn’t find a place for him. Many people wondered if I was upset or angry not to be offered a role. I wasn’t; I was sad, though, and I was slightly mystified. It just seems like a poor business decision not to bring back Jim Kirk one last time.
    I recognize that I’m getting older. And I do think about my own mortality. And what I now know is that there are so many questions to which I’m never going to know the answer. We are born into mystery and we leave life in mystery. We don’t know what transpired before and we don’t know what’s coming ahead. We don’t know what life is. We don’t even know the truth behind the assassination of JFK. Is there a God? What is time? There’s everything we don’t know.
    I love a good mystery. I love wondering and speculating and guessing. I love looking at the stars and imagining what’s out there. Ilove closing my eyes and trying to visualize a day three thousand years ago. Mysteries simply are a feast for an active mind. And while in my lifetime I’ve seen science make extraordinary inroads into solving the most complex questions of life, after all this time I admit that I am thrilled that there are some things that forever will remain a mystery.
    For example, do I wear a toupee?