Isaac Hayes comments on life after 'Shaft'

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

The many sides of Isaac Hayes include songwriter, musician, jazz lover, soul artist, cartoon voice and literacy advocate. Associated Press

Two of the honors result from the soul music pioneer's longtime humanitarian and economic-development efforts in Africa. The third is the result of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's admiration of his deep, smooth-as-real-butter-on-movie-popcorn, mack daddy purr of a voice. You make the call.

The Academy Award- and Grammy-winning musician who blessed us all with the monumental "Theme From Shaft" is Honolulu-bound for appearances at both of promoter David Gest's multi-act New Year's Eve concerts.

Have a chocolate salty ball and feel the love, baby.

Q. A lot of young R&B and hip-hop stars speak of you as an inspiration. Do you listen to any of the kids?

A. Some of them I do. Some I don't. Maxwell is a good friend. I like Maxwell a lot. I like Joe ... Raphael Saadiq. I like Mary J. (Blige) ... India.arie as well as Alicia Keys.

A. Doug E. Fresh is a good friend of mine. Doug E's a good guy. I like Doug E. I don't lean too much into hip-hop because whenever they lean toward a lot of violence and stuff, I just back off. That's where they lose me.

Q. So what does Isaac Hayes groove to at home?

A. I listen to jazz. See, I've never recorded jazz, but I sang jazz when I was a teenager. I sang club jazz. I'm thinkin' at some point in time, I'll do a jazz album (with) a lot of standards and things. That was my strong suit.

Q. Why didn't you go in that direction, musically?

A. Well, I started off in songwriting working at (legendary soul label) Stax. (Owner) Jim Stewart's bread-and-butter (and) what he liked was R&B. So I was never encouraged to go in (a jazz) direction.

Q. I'd love to hear you do a jazz CD.

A. Yeah, I think I'd do all right. You know, I've done some jazz gigs in the last couple of years with (pianist) Cyrus Chestnut's quartet. So, you know, I'm gettin' my chops ready.

Q. You've done much over the years to promote education and literacy for children through your Isaac Hayes Foundation. Why do you feel so strongly about both?

A. Well, because I was a high school dropout. And I realize the value of education. If you don't have education you have nothing. Without literacy, it's like walking around in a foreign country where you can't speak, read or write the language. Illiteracy is (a common element in) a lot of the downside of society. Where you find crime, drugs and all kinds of junk like that, you find illiteracy. ... Therefore, I struggle hard to help kids get educated. When people become educated, they stop being a victim. They become more responsible. They can take care of themselves. They can contribute to their community and to society.

Q. Your Rock And Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2002. "Surprised," or "Damn, it's about time?"

A. I was surprised. I never expected to get nominated, let alone inducted, you know? (Laughs.)

Q. I'm planning a visit in 2004. What's in the Isaac Hayes exhibit?

A. It's a nice display. They've got a nice piece of film on me. It's interesting. They've got a saxophone of mine. They've got some jewelry ... some furs. Something like that. I don't really know exactly what all they got. (Laughs.)

Q. Have "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone ever told you why they wanted your voice for the character of Chef?

A. No, they never did. I don't know if they created it for me, or not ... but I didn't really want to do (a voice-over) at first. My agent told me and I thought it was a Disney thing. And he told me, 'No, it's not Disney. It's a thing called 'South Park.' I was, like, 'What the hell are you talkin' about?' (But) he talked me into going over and meeting Matt and Trey. They were young guys. And I still kind of had an attitude until I read a little bit of what they had written. I said, 'Wow! This is wild stuff.'

I laughed (and) thought somebody was playing a joke on me at first. When I realized they were serious, I said, 'Y'all are nuts! Y'all got insurance, because y'all gonna be sued, man.' ... I thought, well these guys will last six weeks so I'll just go do it and pick up some decent money. After we had several episodes in the can, I started having fun with it. ... It became a really fun thing to do, and quite big.

Q. I've heard you're releasing two CDs next year. One as Isaac Hayes. One as Chef.

A. Well, I've talked to Matt and Trey about it (and) said, 'Guys, it's time for Chef to do another CD.' The one we did called 'Chef Aid (The South Park Album)' went platinum, so I thought it was time to do another. They'll probably work on an episode to introduce it.

Q. And your next CD as yourself?

A. I'm gonna start working on it immediately for Virgin (Records). It'll be out in the latter part of the next year. ... Just vintage Isaac Hayes stuff. I wanna title it 'Love M.I.A.' because we don't have a lot of love in music today. I think there should be some love in music — personal love, made love, humanitarian love. It's not mentioned so much. And I think that's what's needed right now. The whole world is mad at each other. There's a lot of wars and terrorism and all kinds of stuff. Where is love?

Q. I hear you.

A. Yeah. I figure it's time for that.

Q. I bet you do a killer "Auld Lang Syne," Mr. Hayes.

A. (Laughs.) Nah. A lot of people do it ... (starts singing) 'Should auld acquaintance be forgot ...' And everybody's drunk anyway. Who the hell knows what the lyrics to that are? (Laughs even harder.)

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.