Chris Isaak: Rock 'n' Roller

Esquire
March 1989

The look is vintage We-Like-Ike: wild ties, high cheekbones, clean-cut, a single loose lock of hair on the forehead. The sound is well manicured: leaning more to Roy Orbison than Elvis, with plaintive lonely-guy lyrics and a crafted catch in the soft rockabilly voice. So what exactly separates Chris Isaak from the legions of wanna-bes out there trying to twang their way into our hearts and onto the charts? Enormous charm, a sense of genuineness, and the strong hint that, his music aside, he doesn't take much else seriously. After turning down film roles in Blue Velvet and Something Wild to finish his second album, he showed up as a hit-man clown in Jonathan Demme's wacked-out Married to the Mob. What experience qualified him for the role? "Hell, I'm an American. I've watched a lot of TV. It's the American birthright to be in a movie."

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