Soul Man

Spencer Leigh introduces an unpublished interview with ISAAC HAYES, the inventor of symphonic soul, who died of a stroke on August 10th.

In 1995 Isaac Hayes was in Liverpool, acting in a TV film, Soul Survivors, which turned out to be only marginally better than Paul McCartney’s Give My Regards To Broad Street. Still, it was good to have him in the city and to interview him for BBC Radio Merseyside. This interview has never appeared in print.

If I asked you for your influences, would Nat ‘King’ Cole would be near the top?

He would, and when I was in high school I won my first talent contest by singing Looking Back, and they started calling me Nat. I’ve told Natalie that her dad was one of my biggest influences. Brook Benton wrote Looking Back and, although I’ve done his song, It’s Just A Matter Of Time, I haven’t been tempted to record these wonderful songs as I revere these guys too much. I fear to touch them.

How did you get started at Stax?

I got thrown right in an Otis Redding album session (The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, 1965). Sink or swim, kid. But Otis made it very easy for me. Next thing I knew I was jamming and they were all digging it. I learnt a lot in those early years at Stax. I got my arranging skills and I wrote with David Porter. At first we were a last resort, “What you got, Ike, to fill up the album?” but then I was taking …

by Spencer Leigh
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