IS IT SUCH A WICKED GAME TO PUT MUSIC BEFORE LOVE?
Chris Isaak’s breakthrough ballad put him on the road for decades as he played sold-out shows across the globe. Now 67 and heading to Britain, the singer has no plans to retire, nor any regrets about being too busy for marriage or children...
THERE can’t be that many rock stars who can draw on a 19th-century German philosopher for inspiration. “Arthur Schopenhauer said we only know we’re alive because of the pain,” says Chris Isaak. “I guess that’s like me. Part of the experience of love is you’re going to have some pain with it.”
With his Elvis pompadour, rockabilly style and boxer’s physique – with a broken nose to prove it – Isaak is best known for songs aching with heartbreak. His honeyed voice haunts lovelorn hits includingWicked Game, Somebody’s Crying, Forever Blue and Blue Hotel.
“My personal life has been rough,” admits the 6ft-tall hunk, looking decades younger than his 67 years, and who is heading to Britain for a trio of headline shows in August.
“My career kept me from love and marriage, for sure. The toughest part was early in my career, seeing all the people around me getting married, having kids, while I was still making records and out on the road. I still am.
“I just couldn’t imagine having kids and leaving them to go touring: ‘So long, kids! Pop’ll bring you a new toy when he comes back.’
“You don’t know what your career’s going to do next, and you think, ‘Well, I’d better go and promote this record, this movie, this TV show’. And then suddenly you look around and, ‘Hey – I’m the last man standing!’ But I’ve seen a lot of my friends married, and a lot of them got divorced too, so I’m cautious.”
He’s certainly been busy. In addition to 13 albums and 12 chart-topping singles, Isaak has created music for movie soundtracks including Eyes Wide Shut, True Romance, Wild At Heart and BlueVelvet.As an actor, he has won acclaim for films such as The Silence of the Lambs, That Thing You Do, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, plus sitcom Friends. He wishes he could do more acting, but his busy music schedule makes it hard.
“I still get offered acting roles, but either the timing isn’t right, or it’s a part I don’t want. Unfortunately most of the time I’m offered roles as a cop, a detective, or a bad boyfriend. I don’t know why – in real life I don’t think I’m mean.”
Perhaps he lacks Hollywood’s cutthroat narcissism.
Though hired by such great directors as Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch and Jonathan Demme, Isaak admits: “Honestly I never felt like I did a performance in a film where I went: ‘Wow.’ A lot of people could have done what I did.”
At heart, Chris Isaak is a lover, not a fighter.
“Despite boxing in my youth, I’m not an aggressive guy,” he says. “When trouble comes around, look at that guy running away in the distance – that’s me. I’ve had maybe two fistfights in my entire life, and they were always started by somebody else.
“I’m the most cautious guy. I’ve ridden a motorcycle maybe 100 yards before saying: ‘No, I don’t want to be on this thing.’ I’ve always looked ahead and was cautious and maybe that’s because I saw how tough it was on my dad with some of the things he went through.”
Before Isaak was born, his father Joe was jailed for armed robbery.
“My dad never had a break,” the singer laments. “He worked at a cannery but had to walk four miles to work because he didn’t have a car. When other people are broke I understand it, I feel it.
“He turned his life around, and was a sweetheart of a guy, a great dad, but he was always ready to go if trouble called.”
HE RECALLS how, at an early gig in a venue decorated with antique tools, a fight threatened to break out. “My dad took a hammer off the wall, and he was ready to go. That’s him.”
Isaak recalls bringing home his first gold record: “My dad didn’t cry much, but he had tears in his eyes, he was so proud.”
The singer’s mother Dorothy worked for years in a potato crisp fac
tory, but late in life went to university and earned a PhD in psychology. She died in 2022 of Covid.
“It was horrible,” says Isaak. “I had to talk to her through a camera, because I couldn’t go into her hospital room. It was killing me.
“She took down her mask, pointed at the camera and said: ‘Chris, I love you so much.’
“I was lucky that I had a family that supported and encouraged me.”
Born and raised in working-class Stockton, central California, Isaak spent a year as a student in Japan, and was approached to join the CIA.
“But I thought: I’m not going to be James Bond; I’ll be like an accountant, stuck in a room going through files and making notes. I’d rather work in a pizza kitchen.
“After graduating university, my parents asked me: ‘Now what?’ I was embarrassed to say it: ‘I’d like to sing.’ And my mum said: ‘Do it!’ My parents gave me the strength to do it.”
He now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, when he’s not on the road. “I’m excited to play in the UK,” he says. “We had a blast there last year. I love British audiences: we kind of speak the same language.”
Isaak attributes his youthful good looks and pristine voice to his squeaky-clean lifestyle.
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do any drugs,” he explains. “I don’t go out after the gig to nightclubs shouting to be heard.
“I take care of my voice. Luckily I’m still hanging together and I can hit the high notes, and still get up on a surfboard, and I work out every day. I think that helps in the long run.”
Boozing never appealed, partly because he couldn’t afford liquor.
“When I started out I was so broke, that I’d think: ham sandwich: $2; beer: $2.50. So I always chose the ham sandwich – no question.”
He still watches every penny. “I don’t spend a lot of money on cars, clothing, fancy trips. I have every dime I think I ever made.
“I had enough money to retire a long time ago. I’m doing the same stuff I always did: I stay home and play guitar, draw cartoons to relax, and hang out with friends who play guitar or draw.”
BUT HE is not without his vices. “I love drawing cartoons and can’t pass by a shop selling pens or pencils without buying something. I’m the same way with guitars. I have maybe 60, and I need every one of them.
“They’re all different, and sometimes I’ll pick up a guitar and go: ‘Oh, there’s songs in this!’” Even his love life is improving.
“There’s someone special in my life now, but I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it,” he says. “I’m like Frank Sinatra who, when asked about his love life, said: ‘I’m not unhappy.’
“I’m working on new records, writing songs and I’m as excited about doing music as ever.
“I’d like to put out a book of my cartooning, which is somewhere between Addams Family and filth. It’s fun and way more relaxing than television will ever be.
“I don’t think I’ll retire as long as I can sing and play. Life is pretty damn good.”
● Chris Isaak UK tour: August 11, London Palladium; August 12, Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre; and August 13, Birmingham Symphony Hall. He also opens for Billy Joel in Cardiff on August 9