Isaac Hayes

At 65 years old, Isaac Hayes has this physical status:

Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and producer.

Hayes was one of the founding fathers of Stax Records, where he performed both as an in-house songwriter and as a session musician and record producer, as well as as a session musician and record producer during the 1960s, as well as as a Southern soul music label.

In 2005, Hayes and Porter were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for their contributions to music, the duo Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and others.

Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, and Sam & Dave's "Soul Man" was one of the most influential songs of the past 50 years by the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), have listed it as one of the Century's Top Songs of the Century.

Hayes began working as a recording artist in the late 1960s.

He had two hit soul albums, including Hot Buttered Soul (1969) and Black Moses (1971).

He performed as a composer of musical scores for motion pictures, in addition to his work in popular music. He was best known for his musical score for the film Shaft (1971).

In 1972, he was nominated for Best Original Song on "Theme From Shaft."

He became the third African-American to win an Academy in any competitive field covered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

He has also received two Grammy Awards for the same year.

Later this year, he was awarded his third Grammy for his music album Black Moses. In 1992, Hayes was crowned king of the Ada region of Ghana, as a result of his humanitarian work there.

He appeared in film and television, including in the films Truck Turner and I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, and as Gandolf "Gandy" Fitch in the TV series The Rockford Files (1974-1980).

He portrayed Chef Chef from the animated Comedy Central series South Park from 1997 to 2006.

Percy Mayfield, Big Joe Turner, Jerry Butler, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Otis Redding, and psychedelic soul bands like The Chambers Brothers and Sly and the Family Stone were among his influences. Hayes received the BMI Urban Award for his continuing influence on generations of music producers on August 5, 2003.

Hayes has received five BMI Pop Awards, two BMI Pop Awards, two BMI Urban Awards, two BMI Urban Awards, and six million-Air citations throughout his career.

His albums have sold more than 12 million albums as of 2008.

Early life

Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was born in Covington, Tennessee, the second child of Eula (née Wade) and Isaac Hayes Sr.'s second child, and his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade Sr., were raised by his maternal grandparents. He grew up on farms in Shelby and Tipton, Tennessee counties. He was the nephew of a sharecropper family. Hayes began playing at his local church at age five; he taught himself to play the piano, Hammond organ, flute, and saxophone.

Hayes dropped out of high school, but his former teachers at Manassas High School in Memphis encouraged him to complete his diploma, which he did at age 21. Hayes received several music scholarships from colleges and universities after graduating from high school. A week in Memphis and nearby northern Mississippi, he refused to care for his immediate family, was employed at a meat-packing plant by day, and played nightclubs and juke joints many nights. In the late 1950s, he appeared as a musician at Curry's Club in North Memphis, backed by Ben Branch's houseband.

Personal life

Hayes had 14 children, 14 grandchildren, and three grandchildren. In 1960, his first marriage was to Dancy Hayes, which resulted in divorce. On November 24, 1965, he married Emily Ruth Watson, his second marriage. In 1972, this union came to an end. There were three children from this marriage, including Vincent Eric Hayes, Melanie Mia Hayes, and Nicole A. Hayes (Murrell). On April 18, 1973, he married bankteller Mignon Harley; the two children were born in 1986. Hayes and his wife were then forced to file bankruptcy after owing more than $6 million. Isaac Hayes was able to rebuild financially over the years.

On April 10, 2006, Adjowa's fourth wife, Adjowa, gave birth to Nana Kwadjo Hayes. Isaac Hayes III, also known as rap musician Ike Dirty, was his nephew to whom he revealed his name. Jackie, Hayes' eldest daughter, is now named co-executor of his estate and other children, is expected to track Veronica, Felicia, Melanie, Nikki, Darius, and Vincent, as well as Heather Hayes.

Hayes took his first Scientology course in 1993 and then contributed to several Scientology books over the years. Hayes began hosting The Isaac Hayes and Friends Radio Show on WRKS in New York City in 1996. Hayes spent time in the Scientology film Orientation. Elijah Joy and his company Organic Soul Inc. In 1998, Hayes and fellow Scientologist entertainer Anne Archer, Chick Corea, and Haywood Nelson attended the 30th anniversary of Freedom Magazine, the Church of Scientology's self-described investigative news journal, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, to honor eleven activists. Hayes and Doug E. Freshman, another Scientologist musician, released The Joy Of Making – A Celebration of Creation – The Golden Era Musicians And Friends Play L. Ron Hubbard.

Hayes' Isaac Hayes Foundation was established in 1999. Hayes appeared in "United" on a Youth for Human Rights International music video in February 2006. The non-profit United Nations for Human Rights created YHRI, a human rights organisation. He has served with other human rights organizations, such as the One Campaign. Isaac Hayes was crowned as a leader of Ghana for his humanitarian and economic efforts on behalf of the country's behalf.

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Career

Hayes began his recording career in the early 1960s as a session musician for Stax Records' recordings. Sam & Dave produced "You Don't Know Like I Know," "Soul Man," "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby," "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby," and "You Don't Know Because I Know" later this year. Booker T. & the M.G. & the Hayes, Porter, and the Stax studio band aspires. During the mid-1960s, the Stax artists Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and other Stax artists were also the designers.' Booker T. and The M.G.'s "Winter Snow" was one of the first Stax records he played on (Stax 45-236), which means "Introducing Issac Hayes on piano" on the label.

Hayes-Porter contributed to the Stax sound of this period, and Sam & Dave praised Hayes for their contribution to both their sound and style. Hayes released his debut album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, in 1968, a jazzy, largely failed attempt at commercially.

Hot Buttered Soul, his fourth album, was released in 1969 after Stax went through a major upheaval. Otis Redding, the country's most popular actor, died in a plane crash in 1967. In May 1968, Stax's back catalog to Atlantic Records was lost. As a result, Stax executive vice president Al Bell's call for 27 new albums to be finished in mid-1969; Hot Buttered Soul was the most popular of these launches.

Hayes' image (shaved head, gold jewelry, sunglasses) as well as his music (extended orchestral songs heavily dependent on organs, horns, and guitars, as well as deep bass vocals) were included in Hot Buttered Soul's collection (shaved head, gold jewelry, and sunglasses). Hayes reimagined "Walk On By" (previously recorded by Dionne Warwick) into a 12-minute journey on the album. "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" begins with an eight-minute monologue before breaking into song, and the funky "Hyperbolicsesquedalymistic" runs almost ten minutes, a drastic departure from the typical three-minute soul/pop songs. Hayes' first appearance on "Walk On By" would be the first of many times Hayes would perform Burt Bacharach, also known as three-minute pop songs by Dionne Warwick or Dusty Springfield, and turn it into a soulful, long, and almost gospel number.

Hayes recorded two albums, The Isaac Hayes Movement and...To Be Continued. The former followed his previous album's four-song pattern. "I Stand Accused" by Jerry Butler begins with a well-known spoken word monologue, and Bacharach's "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" is re-worked. "The Look of Love" was another Bacharach track turned into an 11-minute epic of lush orchestral rhythm (mid-way, it morphed into a rhythm guitar jam for a few minutes before resuming the slow love song). An edited three-minute version was released as a single. The album contained the instrumental "Ike's Mood," which leads to a reversal of "You've Lose That Loving Feeling." "The Mistletoe and Me" was Hayes' Christmas album (with "Winter Snow" as a B-side).

Hayes wrote music for the soundtrack of the blaxplosion film Shaft in early 1971 (he appeared as a bartender in a cameo role). The title theme, along with its wah-wah guitar and multi-layered symphonic arrangement, will debut in the Billboard Hot 100 in November, and it will remain at number one in the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. The remainder of the album was mainly instrumentals spanning big beat jazz, bluesy funk, and hard Stax-styled soul. The other two vocal albums, the social commentary "Soulsville" and the 19-minute jam "Do Your Thing" will be edited down to hit singles. He received an Academy Award for Best Original Song on "Theme From Shaft" and was also nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score. Hayes' album "Black Moses," which expanded on his earlier sounds and featured "Never Can Say Goodbye" by The Jackson 5's song "Never Can Say Goodbye." "I Can't Help It" was another track on the album but not on the album.

Hayes would record the theme tune for the television series The Men, as a B-sider, and enjoy a hit single (with "Type Thang" as a B-side). During the year, he released two other non-album singles, such as "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Correct) and "Rolling Down a Mountainside." With the new title In The Beginning, Atlantic will re-release Hayes' debut album this year.

Hayes returned to 1973 with the release of Live at the Sahara Tahoe, as well as the album Joy. This album, he moved away from cover songs. An edited version of the title track will be a hit single.

Hayes appeared in the 1973-blaxploitation films Three Tough Guys and Truck Turner, and he also recorded soundtracks for both. Tough Guys was almost devoid of vocals, and Truck Turner was sold a single with the title theme. Truck Turner's soundtrack was eventually used by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino in the Kill Bill film series, and has been used for more than 30 years as the opening score of Brazilian radio show Jornal de Esportes on the Jovem Pan station.

Hayes did not have an Afro haircut when he was younger; his bald head became one of his signature features.

Stax Records was having serious financial difficulties by 1974, owing to overextension issues and a lack of established and distribution. Hayes himself was deeply in debt to Union Planters Bank, which arranged loans for the Stax brand and some of the company's other key employees. Hayes fought Stax for $5.3 million in September of this year. Hayes was released from his recording and production jobs, but Union Planters agreed to collect all of Hayes' income and put it into his debts as Stax was in deep debt and could not pay.

Hayes founded Hot Buttered Soul, which also appeared on ABC Records. Hayes' new album, 1975's Chocolate Chip, saw them embrace the disco sound with the title track and lead single. As time went on, "I Can't Turn Around" would become a hit song. Hayes' last album to chart in the top 40 for many years will be this one. The all-instrumental Disco Connection album, released later this year, has fully adopted disco.

Hayes, alongside Mike Storen, Avron Fogelman, and Kemmons Wilson, took over the Memphis Tams' American Basketball Association team on July 17, 1974. Charles O. Finley, the owner of the Oakland A's baseball team, was the previous owner. The Memphis Sounds team was renamed by Hayes' staff. Despite a 66% rise in home attendance, recruiting highly respected coach Joe Mullaney, and, unlike in the previous three seasons (losing to the eventual champion Kentucky Colonels in the Eastern Division semi-finals), the team's financial difficulties continued. The corporation had a deadline of June 1, 1975, to sell 4,000 season tickets, attract new investors, and negotiate a more favorable lease for the Mid-South Coliseum. However, the team did not come through and the ABA took over the team, selling it to a group in Maryland that renamed the Baltimore Hustlers and then the Baltimore Claws before the club officially folded during preseason play for the 1975–1976 season.

Hayes appeared naked on the album cover of Juicy Fruit in 1976, sparking the title track single and the classic "Storm Is Over" in a pool. The Groove-A-Thon album came out later this year, with the singles "Rock Me Achiebe" and the title track included. Nevertheless, although all these albums were regarded as good efforts, Hayes' debuts were no longer in huge numbers. In 1976, he and his wife were forced into bankruptcy because they owed over $6 million. Hayes had lost his home, a portion of his personal property, and the right to all future royalties earned from the music he wrote, performed, and produced by the time of the bankruptcy cases in 1977.

Hayes returned to life in 1977 with a new contract with Polydor Records, a live album of duets with Dionne Warwick, was a hit single that sold well and was also known as "It's Heaven To Me." Hayes recorded a sequel to "Shaft II") in 1978, but he was best known for the album "Zeke the Freak," which would have a long shelf life and be a central piece of the House movement in the United Kingdom. Fantasy Records, which had bought out Stax Records, also released an album of Hayes' non-album singles and archived recordings as a "new" album in 1978. Hayes returned to the Top 40 in 1979 with Don't Let Go and its disco-styled title track that became a hit single (U.S. #18) and was also known as "A Few More Kisses To Go." Later this year, he added vocals and appeared on Millie Jackson's album "Deja Vu," a script he co-wrote, became a hit for Dionne Warwick and gained her a Grammy Award for best female R&B vocal. Neither 1980s And Once More Than Ever's Lifetime Thing was released or big sales, but Hayes decided to abandon music in favour of acting.

Hayes appeared in the films Shaft (1971) and Truck Turner (1974) as an old cellmate of Rockford's Gandolph Fitch (who always referred to Rockford as "Rockfish"), as well as one episode with duet-partner Dionne Warwick. He appeared in many films, including Escape from New York (1981), I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1991), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), as well as in episodes of The A-Team and Miami Vice. For 1986s U-Turn and 1988s Love Attack, he attempted a musical comeback, adopting the look of drum machines and synthes, but neither were successful. He appeared in a duet with fellow soul singer Barry White on White's ballad "Dark and Lovely (You Over There) in 1991.

Hayes appeared as a Las Vegas minister impersonating himself in the comedy series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1995. In May 1995, he launched Branded, an album of new material that received high sales figures as well as positive reviews from critics who announced it a return to form. Raw & Refined, a companion album that was released around the same time, featured a collection of previously unreleased instruments, both old and new. He created a version of the Beavis and Butt-Head theme for the 1996 film Beavis and Butt-Head Do America in the style of the Shaft theme.

Hayes appeared in Comedy Central's animated TV series South Park, beginning with a founding cast. From the show's debut on August 13, 1997 (one week shy of his 55th birthday) to the end of its ninth season in 2006. He provided the voice for "Chef," the amorous elementary-school lunchroom cook. Due to Chef's penchant for making conversational points in the form of crudely suggestive soul songs, he merged his work as both an actor and as a singer. "Chocolate Salty Balls," a chef's performance "Chocolate Salty Balls" (P.S. In 1999, I Love You (I Love You)" received international radio airplay. It debuted on the UK singles chart and also on the Irish singles chart. The track appeared on the album Chef Aid: The South Park Album in 1998.

Hayes appeared on the soundtrack of French film The Magnet's "Is It Really Home" written and composed by rapper Akhenaton (IAM) and composer Bruno Coulais, and composer Bruno Coulais appeared on the French film "Is It Really Home" in 2000. Hayes was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. "Only The Strong Survive" after he appeared at the Glastonbury Festival in the same year as a documentary highlighting Isaac's career and his influence on many of the Memphis artists from the 1960s to 1980s was released. On the television show Stargate SG-1, Hayes appeared in a recurring minor role as the Jaffa Tolok. He appeared in Hustle & Flow, a critically acclaimed independent film, for the next year. Eugene Childs (father of Toni) appeared on UPN/The CW's Girlfriends for a brief period of time.

Hayes did not appear in his role as Chef in the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet," a satire of Scientology that aired on November 16, 2005. "What did you think about when Matt and Trey did the episode on Scientology?" Hayes wondered when the episode aired. "One thing about Matt and Trey is that they lampoon everybody," he said, and if you take it seriously, I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge for two dollars." That's what they do."

In an interview for The A.V., Mike Johnson discusses the importance of a good show. Hayes was back in the club on January 4, 2006, when he was asked about the episode again. "Guys, you have it all wrong," Matt Stone and Trey Parker told them. We are not like that. Well, I know that's your thing, but get your details correct, because someone else could believe that shit, you know." He advised them later that they should take a few Scientology courses to find out what they do. Hayes defended South Park's controversial humor, saying he was not pleased with the show's Scientology approach, but that he "understands what Matt and Trey are doing."

A statement in Hayes' name revealed that he was requesting to be released from his Comedy Central employment on March 13, 2006, implying that the earliest episodes that mocked religious convictions were intolerant. "There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire comes and intolerance and bigotry against religious beliefs of others," the author said in the press release. However, the document did not specifically mention Scientology. Hayes' complaints arose from the show's condemnation of Scientology and that he "has no problem," the show's president said, "has no problem" and that he "has no problem," according to a witness, "with our show ridiculing Christians, Muslims, Mormons, or Jews." "We] never heard a peep out of Isaac before we did Scientology," Stone continued. He wants a different kind of faith than his own, and here, intolerance and bigotry begin." Hayes was released from his employment by his request, and Stone and Parker agreed to release him. Hayes said in 2007 that he had to leave because "they [Parker and Stone] didn't pay me enough... They weren't alluring."

Roger Friedman of Fox News announced that the March 13 tweet was made in Hayes' name, but not by Hayes himself on March 20, 2006, two days before the episode "The Return of Chef" aired. "Isaac Hayes did not leave South Park," he said. Someone left it for him, according to my sources. ... Hayes did not make any remarks about South Park on his own, according to a Memphis friend. They are perplexed." Hayes' son Isaac Hayes III said the decision to leave the show was made by his father's entourage, many of whom were ardent Scientologists, and that it was made after Hayes suffered a stroke, leaving him vulnerable to outsiders and unable to make such decisions on his own.

The first South Park episode after Hayes' death, "The China Probrem," was dedicated to him.

Hayes' income was drastically reduced as a result of his removal from South Park. He will be touring and performing, according to subsequent announcements. "Isaac was plunked down at a keyboard," a Fox News reporter who had been following Hayes for many years, and told him proudly that he had been there for a few days. His words were stumbling, and he talked-sang. He was not the Isaac Hayes of the past.

Hayes stumbled in his responses to questions in April 2008, perhaps as a result of health issues. A caller asked whether Hayes was under the influence of a drug, and Carolla and co-host Teresa Strasser asked Hayes if he had ever used marijuana. Hayes replied that he had only tried it once before there was some confusion about what was being asked. During the interview, the radio hosts mocked Hayes' odd answers and recapped snippets of older ones to recreate chat with his co-hosts. Hayes said in this interview that he was no longer on good terms with Parker and Stone.

Hayes shot scenes for Soul Men, a comedy based on Stax Records, in which he appears as himself in a supporting role. After Hayes and his costar Bernie Machad died, the film was released in November 2008.

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