FRIDAY
E-mail a friendIsaac Hayes
original airdate November 3, 2004
Isaac Hayes' career is a testament to perseverance. He grew up picking cotton in Tennessee and spent his early years playing keyboards in Memphis clubs. He played in the house band at Stax Records and wrote a string of hits with David Porter. Hayes became a successful solo artist and composer and the first African American to win a best-song Oscar (for the Shaft theme). With his role as the voice of Chef on TV's South Park, he expanded his fan base. Hayes is a tireless philanthropist and champion of human rights.
Isaac Hayes
Tavis: I'm delighted to welcome to this program music legend Isaac Hayes. In addition to his numerous awards, today he was honored here in Los Angeles with the naming of Isaac Hayes Day. He's also a tireless philanthropist and champion of human rights through his Isaac Hayes Foundation, which we'll get to in a moment. But first, some of you may have seen the recent documentary here on PBS about the famous Wattstax concert of 1973, held seven years after the Watts riots in Los Angeles. Now, from that historic concert, here is the black Moses, Isaac Hayes.
Tavis: Check out Jesse Jackson's 'fro. Jesse wasn't ready for those chains, Isaac. He wasn't ready for all that. How you doing, man?
Isaac Hayes: How you doing? I'm good.
Tavis: Nice to see you.
Hayes: Congratulations for your show, man.
Tavis: Congratulations to you. Congratulations to you, first of all. Can I hold this thing up? This is awfully nice. Tomorrow here in Los Angeles, although they honored you today, but tomorrow we celebrate here in Los Angeles, Isaac Hayes Day. I love these proclamations. These things are really cool. Whereas, whereas, whereas, whereas, whereas, whereas, whereas, and whereas. Now therefore be it resolved that November 4 is Isaac Hayes Day in L.A. You've got to be something special--trust me, I live in this city--to get all of the members of our city council to agree on anything. How did you pull that off, man?
Hayes: I don't know. I don't know. It's nice to be honored, you know, especially in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has got a lot of celebs living here. Actors and performers. And to be recognized by the City Council is awesome. Somebody remembered me.
Tavis: And you're also--tomorrow, as you're being honored here in L.A., having your name placed on the Rock Walk.
Hayes: That's right. Put my handprints in the cement.
Tavis: Yeah. See, I get scared when they give you too many awards. You ain't about to die or nothing, are you? Something you want to tell me?
Hayes: I'm trying to stay healthy, man, because too many of us are dropping. You know what I'm saying? So I'm on a fast right now. 15 days on my fast.
Tavis: 15 days?
Hayes: I'm going for 30 days.
Tavis: I want to lose weight, too, but I'm not going on no 30 day fast, Ike. So you can have that. Speaking of L.A., take me back to the seventies when you all did that Wattstax concert. That was a great piece, by the way, here on PBS. But take me back to that day and tell me how that actually came to be.
Hayes: The Stax organization got together.
Tavis: Stax records?
Hayes: Yeah. And they put it all together. 'Cause after the riots and things, blacks needed to be heard. So they, on the documentary, it was like a celebration. Blacks had a chance to speak out on issues, you know, about the living conditions, about politics, religion, personal relationships, and that's all they wanted--to be heard. And a lot of blacks talked in the film. It was like a barbershop thing. That's what happened in barbershops. A lot of people talking. And Richard Pryor was in it. And Ted Lange, you know, Isaac from the "Love Boat." And Woodrow, the guy that was Redd Foxx--Esther's husband, you know, they all had parts in it. And then the whole Stax organization, the roster of artists, they came to L.A. You say 'em coming to L.A., getting off planes, and things like that, and several scenes in the back of limousines eating some ribs, chicken, or something like that. But it was down to earth. And they performed, great performances. Emotions and church. Just moving.
Tavis: This is commonly referred to, this event at the L.A. Coliseum that was huge, is commonly referred to as the black Woodstock.
Hayes: Yeah. That's what they call it. But the amazing thing about the whole event, the whole day went without incident, and the people there, 125,000 of them, in the Coliseum, sat there all day. You know, the hot sun to the chill of the evening, and they sat. And it went without incident. That was the amazing thing about it.
Tavis: How does it feel to be known over a number of generations for a variety of different things? I mean, one generation knows you as black Moses, and they remember Wattstax because they were there. They remember that time. There are kids who know you as Chef.
Hayes: We talked about that before.
Tavis: Yeah, but that's got to be cool to be known by a variety of different generations of the American populous for different reasons.
Hayes: It's a blessing, you know, to be remembered and, you know, be current. When I did "South Park," my fan base increased from six to 96. I went to a store up in Connecticut, and when I pulled up, the crowd was around the block. I got up and went in the store, man, and people were there with "Hot Buttered Soul," "Shaft," all my old records, and the young ones had babies with little shirts on. "Will you sign this?" Chef dolls and all this kind of stuff. So, you know, it's amazing.
Tavis: Yeah. You do a lot of good work through the Isaac Hayes Foundation, and you cover so many areas. Tell me why, for you--we try to feature on this program regularly people, some known, some not so well known, but people who are engaged in philanthropy. People who found a reason and a way to give back. Tell me about philanthropic efforts.
Hayes: Well, Tavis, it's about my beginning. I was very poor. My mother passed when I was a year and a half. My father split. I didn't find him until I was grown. And I had it hard. My older half sister had it very hard. So when I made it, through the help of any grandmother's prayers and rearing and teaching, the school I went to--I was dropout but I got back in. And I realized the importance of education. I'm the international spokesperson for the World Literacy Crusade, plus I have my own foundation. And I wanted to do something to help. I even went to Ghana, West Africa, where they made me a king, a king over there.
Tavis: You built a school over there, too.
Hayes: Yeah, put a school over there. It opened in 2000. So literacy is a big thing for me. I did literacy over there in Ghana, and I do it in the states. In addition to that, in the states through my foundation I foster education, music education in schools for kids in inner cities who wouldn't have a chance, because when they dropped out all the arts, that was atrocious.
Tavis: How do you think that's impacted, that reality? I've heard people complain about that before, and I think it's a legitimate complaint. As an artist, though, how do you think that has impacted the creativity of African Americans and others?
Hayes: Well, I think that gave rise to hip-hop, because the kids didn't have any music lessons, so they had to find a way to express themselves. That's when Sugar Hill Gangs and things like that came out. Of course, it took a weird turn and became gangster rap and all that stuff, but kids have to have a way to express themselves. And people found out it was commercial, and that's when the kids started being exploited by record companies. So we need to get them back on track. Get them back into music and creating real music.
Tavis: Speaking of being exploited by record companies, tell me what made, back in the day, record companies like Motown and Stax was for a moment a hot competitor of Motown. Stax, of course, out of Memphis. Motown out of Detroit. Tell me what made those record companies such a wonderful A&R experience for African American artists and compare that to how black artists and others are being treated by record companies today.
Hayes: Well, those companies--and mention Philly International--
Tavis: Philly International, sure. Gamble and Huff.
Hayes: That's right. They gave blacks a chance to express themselves and create, and your creation, it would be experienced by people, be accepted by people. It was our voice, and it became very big. Motown, Stax, and Philly. And then in later years, it changed. When these kids had a way to express themselves, and they found out--they meaning the record companies found out that they could be exploited, then all they were looking for was money, that's all it was. So the things is, the problem is--I always tell the hip-hoppers, I say, man, learn something and earn something and save something. Remember the kids you left in the 'hood, help them get educated. Support them. These A&R people were so, feeling like, you know, like, they didn't, I can't think of the word for it, but they were very shaky. So what they did, they worried about getting replaced, so they had to have a winner. And then they wanted everybody to sound like everybody else, and that's where the problem came from. Therefore, back in the day, you knew everybody from everybody. You knew Teddy Pendergrass from Marvin Gaye, Kool and the Gang, you knew them from Earth, Wind and Fire.
Tavis: I know one thing. Even today when you hear Isaac Hayes, you know it's Isaac Hayes, and because he has so distinguished himself over the years, tomorrow, again, we celebrate Isaac Hayes Day here in L.A. To honor that, put on some "Hot Buttered Soul," some "Shaft," something. Anyway, Isaac, Congratulations.
Hayes: Thank you so much. Good hanging with you, man.
Tavis: I'm glad to have you here. Thanks for watching. Keep the faith.
Back to November 3, 2004