The Devil made Chris Isaak do it
Wacky Chris Isaak adds his voice to the first strains of MuchMoreMusic
Toronto Sun
11/30/98
By Jane Stevenson
Dreamy-eyed, sad-sack crooner Chris Isaak opened MuchMoreMusic's televised launch party last night with a couple of songs from his just-released new album, Speak Of The Devil.
But the Stockton, Calif., native, who appears to take nothing very seriously in person despite his long association with songs about heartache -- 1991's Wicked Game anyone? -- doesn't think it's that big a deal.
"Actually, they said I might be closing it too because they've seen my act," joked Isaak yesterday morning as he sat in a hotel room with longtime drummer Kenney Dale Johnson.
"My manager called, he says: 'Chris, you're their first choice after K.D. Lang and Barenaked Ladies.' I think I was actually after a third guy -- Who was that Canadian guy? -- The ship went down?"
That would be Gordon Lightfoot and The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald? But Johnson has another answer: "Stompin' Tom Connors!"
Isaak brightens again."Stompin' Tom was their first choice. They must have been nuts not to have him," he said. "In fact, when I play the song, we'll end it and we'll go, 'So please stay tuned for 48 hours of Stompin' Tom Connors! You had Madonna weekend. It's a Stompin' Tom Connors weekend.' Damn straight!"
In case you haven't noticed, getting a straight answer from Isaak isn't easy. In fact, he and Johnson launch into a one-song serenade before the interview even gets under way.
So when asked about the video for his new single, Please, you can almost hear his eyes rolling in his nicely coiffed head.
"I've wrestled on a beach. This time I wrestle in a swimming pool," answered Isaak, sounding bored with the whole video-making process.
"Like those Tarzan movies, you know. It's pretty much the same plot, different location. Johnny Weissmuller did the same things for 40 movies. I like the ones with Johnny Weissmuller where he's not young and trim anymore. It's like he's out there in a cafeteria and he's having a beer and they go, 'We're ready for your close-up.' He gets down there. He's just a little chunky, he's about 51 or something, and he's still being Tarzan. That's going to be me."
Hardly.
Isaak, an avid surfer, former boxer and sometime actor, is still in fighting trim at age 42, and his retro sound, Orbison-like croon and consistent live shows continue to enjoy a healthy cult following.
The oddest thing about Speak Of The Devil, which was written by the San Francisco-based Isaak with his band in a rehearsal hall, is the inclusion of Breaking Apart, a collaboration with bombastic songwriter Diane Warren. She wrote Aerosmith's I Don't Want To Miss A Thing and Celine Dion's It's All Coming Back To Me Now.
"If I write something mellow and in a minor key, I want somebody who writes big and major key," explained Isaak. "Diane's about as far out as you can get -- the other extreme. So I said, 'Okay, try that.' And it was really fun because she's nuts. She's out of her mind in a good way."
Isaak begins touring the U.S. at the end of this month with a Toronto stop likely on the itinerary.
"Usually, when we hit the States, that's part of it, we get up and we cross the border at night, sometimes secretly," he said.
Isaak jokes right until the end.
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