Isaac Hayes R.I.P.

[Racerbvd]

RIP
I loved his music, and Chef, until he pulled his talent fit, but still love Chef!!!

Get a stress test you men over 50 with high blood pressure/cholesterol/diabetes/smoking.

Well, blood pressure is high, stress level is high, but my cholesterol is low, and even though diabetes is in my family (I was tested last week) that is in good shape too and I only smoke a few cigars a year, so I'm not really a smoker, plus I don't eat fried food. I go back to the Doc on Tues to find out how the 1st two are doing So you guys might be stuck with me for a bit longer.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Im black. I know what kills us.

So f' your lack of insight.

Still poor taste.

+1. (Except the being black part).

The ****ing guy is dead. Who cares how he died? Showing a picture of fried chicken and having a laugh because he was black is some weak ****. I don't recall the fried chicken pics and the big laughs when Tim Russert died, and he probably did die from too much fried something. It's just not the time to have a laugh or bring up the South Park deal that everyone has heard about 300 times. Let them get him in the ground first at least, for chrisakes.

BTW, when Cheney gacks are you going to have the fried chicken pic ready?

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by Minkoff

Too much fried chicken

and watermelon..

[3.2 CAB]

"salty balls"

RIP

They killed Chef... those b******!!!!

[126coupe]

Originally Posted by speeder

+1. (Except the being black part).

The ****ing guy is dead. Who cares how he died? Showing a picture of fried chicken and having a laugh because he was black is some weak ****. I don't recall the fried chicken pics and the big laughs when Tim Russert died, and he probably did die from too much fried something. It's just not the time to have a laugh or bring up the South Park deal that everyone has heard about 300 times. Let them get him in the ground first at least, for chrisakes.

BTW, when Cheney gacks are you going to have the fried chicken pic ready?

Here, this should make you feel better. My Bro in law ate crap his whole life, smoked for 45 years, he as white as the driven snow from Great Britain no less.
Just had 6 by passes...........when, and if he passes soon, I will probably post pictures of English bangers and definitely no vegatables! Get a sense of humor already! Tim Russert ate crap too, learn from it!

[rammstein]

It was a real shame that he left Southpark the way he did... it was truly an act of hypocracy. Matt Stone's response was spot on, much the way that their show always has been.

I really wonder if scientology did something to him. I mean, Issac (Chef) did a whole episode on racism that was brilliant and didn't get offended by that one. Why did the scientology episode get him so out of shape?

Shame he died, I was always hoping he would reconcile and bring chef back.

[artplumber]

Originally Posted by speeder

....Who cares how he died? Showing a picture of fried chicken and having a laugh because he was black is some weak ****. I don't recall the fried chicken pics and the big laughs when Tim Russert died, and he probably did die from too much fried something....

BTW, when Cheney gacks are you going to have the fried chicken pic ready?

Get over it. It was a minor joke (if there was a grading system). Poo-poo (for Zman) happens. And was anyone laughing because he was black? (is that where all the emotional outrage is from?) Let me tell you there are a bunch of white folk that eat fried chicken in the South, and butta on everything (just watch an Emeril show, or Paula Dean).

Actually you should care what the causes of his demise were, because, if he had a heart attack, that is the number cause of being dead in this country. And maybe you should use it as a wake up call.

Tim Russert ate fried chicken? I did not know. What risks did he have? While you may focus on food, it seems to me (again without knowledge of his actual habits), that the biggest thing he could have done was drop some weight. Especially, given he knew that he had disease. Instead he (my guess) chose to work 4 jobs (or whatever it was). Hard to make that into a one liner...

[Sonic dB]

One of his best songs IMHO was "By the Time I get to Phoenix"

That song was written by Jimmy Webb.

I like the stuff that Issac did on Stax for Sam and Dave such as Hold On Im Comin...early stuff that most people dont know he wrote... Shaft is just an iconic song, cant be matched today in its feel or production... just perfect for that era.

this guy seemed to be pretty cool and will be missed.

[Scuba Steve]

I heard him interviewed on the Adam Carolla show a couple of months ago and he didn't quite sound right... it's sad news nonetheless. He was a great artist.

[legion]

"Don't blame Chef, blame the fruity little club for scrambling his brains..."

I didn't realize he wrote "Hold On, I'm Coming". I have a version of Eric Clapton and BB King singing it that I just love.

[dhoward]

"Suck on my chocolate salty balls".

Re: the fried chicken picture...Are you (Z-man) poo-pooing me?
You guys need to chill the (Z-man) bumpin' uglies out.
Or just call Jessie.
Sheesh.
It's people like you that are going to keep Kurt's daughter ther reparations she deserves...


P.S. I love you.

edited to correct lyric

[legion]

This sheds an interesting twist on the South Park conflict...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,401321,00.html

My friend, Isaac Hayes, died on Sunday, and his passing leaves many unanswered questions.
The great R&B star, actor, DJ, performer and family man, the composer of “Soul Man,” “Hold On I’m Coming” and other hits by Sam Moore and Dave Prater like “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby,” also was a member of the Church of Scientology.
Isaac was found dead by his treadmill, but conveniently missing from the wire stories was a significant fact: in January 2006, Isaac had a significant stroke. At the time, the word went out only that he had been hospitalized for exhaustion.
But the truth was, Isaac, whom I’d seen just a couple of months earlier when he headlined the Blues Ball in Memphis, was in trouble. Having lost the rights to his songs two decades earlier, he was finally making some money voicing the character of Chef on “South Park.” But “South Park” lampooned Scientology, so the leaders wanted Isaac out.
Push came to shove on Nov. 16, 2005, when “South Park” aired its hilarious “Trapped in the Closet” episode spoofing Tom Cruise and John Travolta. “South Park” creator Matt Stone told me later that Isaac had come to him in tears.
“He said he was under great pressure from Scientology, and if we didn’t stop poking at them, he’d have to leave," Stone said.
The conversation ended there. Isaac performed Chef’s signature song at the Blues Ball a week later with great delight. Although he was devoted to Scientology, he also loved being part of “South Park.” He was proud of it. And, importantly, it gave him income he badly needed.
But then came the stroke, which was severe. His staff — consisting of Scientology monitors who rarely left him alone — tried to portray it as a minor health issue. It wasn’t. Sources in Memphis told me at the time that Isaac had significant motor control and speech issues. His talking was impaired.
In March 2006, news came that Hayes was resigning from “South Park." On March 20, 2006, I wrote a column called “Chef’s Quitting Controversy,” explaining that Hayes was in no position to have quit anything due to his stroke. But Scientology issued the statement to the press saying Hayes had resigned, and the press just ate it up. No one spoke to Isaac directly, because he couldn’t literally speak. "Chef” was written out of the show.
Isaac’s income stream was severely impaired as a result. Suddenly there were announcements of his touring, and performing. It didn’t seem possible, but word went out that he’d be at BB King’s in New York in January 2007. I went to see him and reported on it here.
The show was abomination. Isaac was plunked down at a keyboard, where he pretended to front his band. He spoke-sang, and his words were halting. He was not the Isaac Hayes of the past.
What was worse was that he barely knew me. He had appeared in my documentary, "Only the Strong Survive," released in 2003. We knew each other very well. I was actually surprised that his Scientology minder, Christina Kumi Kimball, with whom I had difficult encounters in the past, let me see him backstage at BB King’s. Our meeting was brief, and Isaac said quietly that he did know me. But the light was out in his eyes, and the situation was worrisome.
But the general consensus was that he needed the money. Without “Chef,” Isaac’s finances were severely curtailed. He had mouths to feed to home. Plus, Scientology requires huge amounts of money, as former member, actor Jason Beghe, has explained in this space. For Isaac to continue in the sect, he had to come up with funds. Performing was the only way.
In recent months, I’ve had conflicting reports. One mutual friend says that Isaac had looked and sounded much better lately at business meetings. But actor Samuel L. Jackson, who recently filmed scenes with Isaac and the late Bernie Mac for a new movie called “Soul Men,” told me on Saturday that Isaac really wasn’t up to the physical demands of shooting the movie. (Neither, it seems, was Bernie Mac.)
Sam Moore, who recorded those Isaac Hayes songs in the '60s and loved the writer-performer like a brother, told me Sunday when he heard about the death: “I’m happy.” Happy, I asked? “Yes, happy he’s out of pain.” It was one of the most beautiful ideas I’d ever heard expressed on the subject of death.
But there are a lot of questions still to be raised about Isaac Hayes’ death. Why, for example, was a stroke survivor on a treadmill by himself? What was his condition? What kind of treatment had he had since the stroke? Members of Scientology are required to sign a form promising they will never seek psychiatric or mental assistance. But stroke rehabilitation involves the help of neurologists and often psychiatrists, not to mention psychotropic drugs — exactly the kind Scientology proselytizes against.
What will come next, I’m afraid, is a wild dogfight among family members for Isaac’s estate. His song catalog (with David Porter) is one of the greatest in music history. Isaac lost the rights to his big hit songs in 1977. But thanks to something called the Songwriters Act, his heirs — whoever they are determined to be — automatically get the rights back as the songs come up for copyright renewal. I guarantee this will not be pretty. Isaac Lee Hayes has over 300 original compositions listed with BMI, from the Sam & Dave songbook to Carla Thomas’ “BABY (Baby)” to his monumental instrumental “Theme from SHAFT.”
None of this should ever take away from who Isaac Hayes really was: a great friend, a warm congenial man with a big heart and a big laugh. He had married again right before his stroke, and was very happy. If he hadn’t had the stroke, I am certain he would have recorded a new album. There was talk of it after the stroke, but nothing materialized. When we made and promoted “Only the Strong Survive,” he was a masterful musician with a great mind and a wicked sense of humor. His loss at 65 is simply way too early and very tragic.

[Scuba Steve]

I believe it. In his interview he seemed to struggle to answer pretty much anything with a comprehensible sentence. Most answers were some version of 'yeah' or no...' The words that came out didn't sound right, like he had developed a pretty significant speech impediment. If he always talked that way, there's simply no chance he could've continued to perform as Chef on South Park.

[rammstein]

I hope that account is accurate. It was such a shame, because I want to remember him in his role as Chef and I'd hate to think that he backed out like that.

[speeder]

I was thinking about this thread yesterday as I sat in traffic. Was I being too PC? Making something out of nothing? Maybe, but the fact is that the guy was not significantly overweight ever in his life and in fact was a fit-looking dude in his 30s/40/50s... Just thought the fried chicken picture was in poor taste and inaccurate or an ethnic stereotype.

[Rot 911]

Originally Posted by speeder

I was thinking about this thread yesterday as I sat in traffic. Was I being too PC? Making something out of nothing? Maybe, but the fact is that the guy was not significantly overweight ever in his life and in fact was a fit-looking dude in his 30s/40/50s... Just thought the fried chicken picture was in poor taste and inaccurate or an ethnic stereotype.

cartoon with f-bomb removed - ns

[sammyg2]

That's a very interesting story.
Interesting but I don't believe it. Blaming the scientologists for everything is too convinient.
The author of that article said

What was worse was that he barely knew me.

refering to Hayes' mental condition after the stroke. In the same sentence he wrote:

Our meeting was brief, and Isaac said quietly that he did know me. But the light was out in his eyes, and the situation was worrisome.

He talks abouty a scientologist "keeper" who restricted access to Hayes. If that was true, would she allow Hayes to spill the beans and talk smack about scientology to a reporter? No, she wouldn't.

If Hayes was that incapacitated, who told the author all those details? Did Hayes tell him all about it after he didn't recognize him?
If Hayes was so far out of it that he didn't recognize friends, how credible was his recollection of the details?

Hayes was directly quoted as saying

"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends, and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins, As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11812699/
Maybe he was pressured into saying that by his cult, maybe not.

Then Matt Stone was quoted as saying

"This has nothing to do with intolerance and bigotry and everything to do with the fact that Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist and that we recently featured Scientology in an episode of South Park, in 10 years and more than 150 episodes Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show. To bring the civil rights struggle into this is just a non sequitur. Of course, we will release Isaac from his contract and we wish him well.

That doesn't sound like something Matt would say if Hayes had gone to him in tears and was a victim of cult pressure. Besides, hayes had two legs. He could have walked away from the wackos.
I wasn't there but i have strong doubts that his 'friend's" account is accurate or tells the whole story. I'd rather concluse that someone wanted to tell a story for fame, or had an axe to grind with scientology. whatever his motives, I believe that article is more fiction than fact.




That account is different that the one that Matt Stone gave, and I'd think that Matt would know. He was there.

[legion]

Sammy, do a quick Google search on what Scientology does to members that leave...

[johndglynn]

RIP Isaac, you left us with some good memories brother

[artplumber]

Originally Posted by speeder

I was thinking about this thread yesterday as I sat in traffic. Was I being too PC? Making something out of nothing? Maybe, but the fact is that the guy was not significantly overweight ever in his life and in fact was a fit-looking dude in his 30s/40/50s... Just thought the fried chicken picture was in poor taste and inaccurate or an ethnic stereotype.

Glad you reconsidered your position (even if you didn't change)

Newsflash, you don't have to be obese to die from a heart attack:

Jim Fixx, author of The Complete Book of Running dead at 52.

Darryl Kile, pitcher, dead at 34.

almost a mid 40's guy today, I'd call him skinny, shall I go on?

Edit: I see a recent story suggesting stroke (the 3rd leading cause of death, and another part of cardiovascular mortality) was cause of death, apparently had high blood pressure, no other factors described.....