E-mail a friendIsaac Hayes
airdate August 12, 2008
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.
Tribute to the legendary musician. (9:07)
Isaac Hayes
Tavis: In 1942, Isaac Hayes was born in a tin shack in Covington, Tennessee, and the prospects of becoming a music icon could not have seemed farther from his grasp. A year and a half later his mother died, his father left home, and young Isaac was left with his grandparents.
In the ninth grade, after winning a talent contest as a singer, he chose to pursue music full time. In 1969, he made an album called "Hot Buttered Soul" for the legendary music label, Stax Records. The album made Isaac Hayes a star and helped propel Stax Records to new heights.
When he paid us a visit back in 2004 I began by talking about the concert he helped put together here in Los Angeles in 1972, commemorating the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. The concert was called Wattstax and commonly referred to by some as the Black Woodstock. It became the basis for an acclaimed documentary by the same name.
[2004 conversation:]
Tavis: Take me back to the '70s 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: Stax organization got together with David Wolper, who produced it.
Tavis: Stax records?
Hayes: Yeah, Stax Records in Memphis. And they put it all together. Because after the riots and things, Blacks needed to be heard. So on the documentary it was like a celebration and Blacks had a chance to speak out on issues 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, who later became -
Tavis: "Love Boat," Isaac.
Hayes: Isaac from the "Love Boat." And Woodrow, the guy that was Redd Foxx's Esther's husband, they all had parts in there. And then the whole Stax organization as far as the roster with artists, they came to L.A., and you saw them coming to L.A., getting off planes and things like that.
And (unintelligible) in the back of the limousine eating some ribs - chicken, or something like that. But it was down to earth. And they performed, and 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. The hot sun till 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? One generation knows you as Black Moses; they remember Wattstax because they were there, they remember that time. There are kids who know you as Chef. (Laughter)
Hayes: We talked about that before.
Tavis: Yeah, but that's got to be cool, though, to be known by a variety of different generations of the American populous for different reasons.
Hayes: It's really a blessing to be remembered and 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. And I got up and went in the store, man, and people were there with "Hot Buttered Soul," with "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 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 have 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 and me had it very hard. So when I made it, through the help of my grandmother's prayers and rearing and teachers at 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 development king, over there.
Tavis: You built a school over there, too.
Hayes: Yeah, I put a school over there, it opened in 2000. So literacy is a big thing for me, and 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, and that's when the Sugar Hill Gangs and things like that came out. Of course, it took a weird turn; it 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 I mentioned Philly International, too.
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, (unintelligible) message and 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 they didn't - I can't think of the word for it, but they were very shaky.
So what they did, they were 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; from 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, Tavis.
Tavis: I'm glad to have you here.
[End of 2004 conversation]
Tavis: As I mentioned last night, just a few weeks ago I was in Memphis with a close group of friends, filming a feature documentary about our trip throughout the south. While in Memphis we paid a visit to the home of Stax Records and spent three hours with Isaac Hayes for a tour of the building and an extended conversation. That recorded conversation would prove to be his last and will be featured in our documentary due out next year.
Back to August 12, 2008