Chris Isaak's On

Egg
3 1999
by David Boyer

Surfer, Musician, Actor and Self-Proclaimed Regular Guy. Egg catches up with Chris Isaak on Highway One.

Maybe it's his now-you-see-him, now- you-don't presence that's allowed Chris Isaak to be himeself, always. For the last fourteen years, the San Francisco-based singer has been recording make-out music for those in the know, gorgeous stories of loves won and lost, evoking sepia -toned times without descending into retro swing. During that time, he's been spotted high on the Billboard charts with the achingly plaintive-yet-sexy single "Wicked Game" and in films by Jonathan Demme, David Lynch and Tom Hanks. He can currently be enjoyed on the ballad-laden Speak of the Devil and in James Rowe's upcoming feature, Blue Ridge Fall, which costars Tom Arnold and Amy Irving.

"My idea of success is different than other people's," offers the Stockton, California-born Isaak. For him, it's not the size of his house or bulge of his bank account, but hanging out with his surf buddies and making the music and art that stirs his quiet soul. EGG invited Isaak to a session of wordplay, hoping to find out if the sensitive good guy in his lyrics-and the surfing fool we've heard about-is for real.

ISAAK ON THE PERFECT WAVE "Any time where I'm sharing it with a friend. The most fun I've had - it could be any old crummy wave and it's drizzly and gray and it's mushy - but your friend and you are out there and you're laughing and taking it all the way. It's better than a beautiful wave that you're fighting other people for or you're by yourself."

ISAAK ON THE PERFECT CROON "Bing Crosby. That's where crooning comes from. They called his style crooning because he sang in a kind of soft, more spoken-word way. They had good microphones then. I take being called a crooner as high praise. I like pretty music. I am totally always off on my own path, whether it's music or art. What I'm doing, to some people, is extemely safe or not rebellious enough or media-worthy because it's trying to be pretty. But that's exactly what I think we should be doing right now - you always need something to get you through."

ISAAK ON ROCKABILLY "I like it. I think it's a small and wonderful place to swim."

ISAAK ON THE DEVIL "All dressed in a latex suit with a tiny erection, he wants to be evil, but he's not really up to it. I laugh at the devil - there's nothing to fear because God outweighs him. People fear him because of that latex suit. And it's not so much a bad fear; you just don't want him to touch you like somebody with bad breath and sticky fingers."

ISAAK ON BOXING "I wouldn't box again if you paid me. I went down to the gym with a buddy of mine who fights pro, Irish Pat Lawler, out here in San Francisco. He says, 'Come on down and work out with us.' And I remembered how sweaty and miserable it was being down there with a bunch of angry guys getting hit. And I think, I have so much fun singing and so much fun surfing. Growing up, if you have no other opportunities, I guess you do it. But it's not a lot of fun. I like the training more than the fighting."

ISAAK ON BALANCE "It's boring. My life is completely out of balance. I'm always obsessed about something. You know, trying to burn it up, burn it at both ends. Trying to grab everything because it's sliding quick. Take a look at pictures of any beautiful woman from the 1960s. Take a look at your old family photos - nothing stays. You've got to burn it up quick if you want to grab onto anything. There's a great part in Moby Dick: The captain is standing on the ship and he takes his pipe and throws it over. He does so because he thinks, 'I don't want to have anything distract me from what I'm obsessed with.' And I like things that aren't totally balanced. When I see people who seem mentally ill, I relate. I look at them and I say, 'I get you brother, I'm with you.'"

ISAAK ON HOLLYWOOD "Everybody out in Hollywood wants to be your friend - for a minute. There's a whole lot of that 'This Week's Hero.' I'm a guy who's had a lot of dreams and seen a lot of them happen and a lot of them not happen. I'm from a kind of funky background. I don't have money in the family or anything like that. And to go to Hollywood, I see a lot of people just like me. They come there and get laughed at and pushed to the sides a lot of the time."

ISAAK ON WHO'S HOT "Who's hot? Miss Hathaway - the secretary from The Beverly Hillbillies. She was hot. All thin and scrawny.....Bette Davis when she was young. And Veronica Lake. If she was still around, I'd be pounding on her door."

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