Chris Isaak: Melting Moments with Dad

WHO Magazine
August 7, 1995

A magpie is sunning itself on a Sydney balcony and Californian crooner Chris Isaak is entranced.. "It's kind of like, noble," he says of the bird. As his drummer, Kenney Dale Johnson, creeps up for a closer look, Isaak, 39, whispers, "I'd love to see it go for him. That'd be great." The singer, who is renowned for his mournful melodies and soul-baring lyrics, laughs. "I'd fall out of my chair!"

Isaak, who began his first Australian tour in Brisbane on July 23, is here to promote his fifth album, Forever Blue, which has reached platinum sales and is No.8 on the ARIA chart.

His rise began in 1990 when a disc jockey in Atlanta, Georgia, put his haunting "Wicked Game" on heavy rotation after hearing it in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart. The song (re-released as a single) shot to the top of the US charts and the album of the same name subsequently reached No.9 in Australia.

But even before he was a hit, Isaak was working as a professional musician. "I made a living right off the bat," he says, idly strumming his ever-present guitar. "A lot of people probably made more money, but couldn't make a living. The trick is not make more money, but to spend less. Until I paid the rent I was eating Cup-a-soup, sardines and carrots. A lot of carrots."

His rabbit food days behind him, Isaak was eventually able to present one of his gold records to his forklift father, Clarence. "My dad said, 'You know, Fats Domino had a gold record. And now you've got a gold record.'And I went, 'Yeah?' He was (crying). He was like, 'Wow! My kid. Fats Domino. They're the same thing.'"

Except that Domino never made the leap to film as Isaak has, starting with a bit part in Jonathan Demme's 1988 comedy, Married to the Mob, and building up to a co-starring role in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1994 epic, Little Buddha. Acting, says Isaak, is "a lot of fun with very little pressure. I'm not responsible financially or artistically."

He doesn't yet have any more films lined up, but Isaak is busy enough touring, contemplating a proposed duet with Madonna - and denying rumours of a romance with US singer Paula Abdul. He shakes his perfectly coiffed head and says, "It just cracks me up that people will believe any kind of rumour. If you talk to her, ask her why she never calls me."

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