The soulfulness singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes, known for his gravelly voice, shaven head and plentiful jewellery, died on Sunday at his home in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 65.
Hayes was found by family members, who ascertained him prevarication next to a tread-wheel in a basement room at his home. Sheriff's deputies performed CPR until paramedics arrived. He was taken to hospital just was pronounced dead an hour later.
Hayes, a typical and splashy figure among the black rhythm and blues stars of the early 1970s, found fame later in his calling as the voice of Chef, the laid-back womaniser on the cartoon series South Park.
But it was his hit song for the soundtrack of the blaxploitation motion-picture show Shaft that made and cemented his reputation. An atmospheric portmanteau word of Hayes's lover-man vocals, breathless mount singers and a funk-fuelled wah-wah guitar arrangement, Shaft - the song and the type - became synonymous with black urban cool. It also provided Hayes with an double that stayed with him for the rest of his career.
The Theme From Shaft, released in 1971 was, Hayes later told an interviewer, "like a blastoff heard around the world".
He gave a memorable performance of it at the Oscar ceremony in 1972, scooping the Academy Award for c. H. Best original song. The song and the film soundtrack also south Korean won him two Grammy awards.
That success, coming before his 30th birthday, marked the end of the first base stage of Hayes's life history, a journey that had seen him take a familiar route for many black performers.
But four years later Hayes was stated bankrupt following a series of fiscal problems at Stax Records. He lost his base, much of his personal property and forfeited the right to royalties from his past hits.
Hayes was raised in a tin shack in Covington, Tennessee, 30 miles north of Memphis, by his grandparents following the death of his mother. His beginner left the family home when Hayes was 18 months old.
When Hayes was six, the family affected to Memphis. His intention to become a dr. was derailed after he won a singing contest. After jobs including shiny shoes on the city's famous Beale Street and gigging in southern juke joint joints, Hayes was hired by Stax in 1964 as a backup pianist. He worked with Otis Redding and others before forming a songwriting partnership with David Porter. The two went on to write R&B numbers such as Soul Man and Hold On, I'm Coming, both hits for the duo Sam and Dave.
The reward was a transcription contract, which led to his number one album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, released in 1968. That failed to find an audience, simply in 1969 came the more provokingly titled Hot Buttered Soul. Containing merely four tracks, it sold more than a trillion copies.
After Shaft and the follow-up Black Moses, he was not to handout another major seller, although he had several minor hits as the disco movement emerged. His soundtrack to the Shaft sequel included Zeke the Freak, a song that gained a new lease of life with the sign music motion in the UK.
Hayes likewise pursued an acting vocation, with cameos in several movies including Escape from New York, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and the blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka.
In the 1990s Hayes reached a modern generation as Chef. Two years agone, however, he left the show after an episode that he felt made fun of the Scientology movement, of which he was a member.
"There is a place in this world for satire, merely there is a time when irony ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," he said.
There was subsequent dispute about the origin of the financial statement. Hayes suffered a cVA in early 2006, and it has been reported that this was the reason he left the show.
An show on a TV talk show in April this year appeared to propose that Hayes was agony from the side-effects of a stroke.
However, he continued to lead an combat-ready life, spearheading a military campaign for the Memphis Heart Clinic which was due to start on Friday.
He established the Isaac Hayes Foundation in 1993 to do beneficent work in Africa, and was after crowned world-beater of a small community in Ghana.
A businessman world Health Organization owned deuce restaurants and wrote a best-selling cook book, Hayes was married four times and had 12 children.
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