Isaac Hayes Dead at 65

A long musical career ground to a halt with the loss of icon Isaac Hayes.

Courtesy: Eric Mason Endless Sky Communications

(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) - Legendary singer/songwriter and the voice of "Chef" on South Park, Isaac Hayes, has been pronounced dead at the age of 65. The man who composed the award-winning theme for the film Shaft was found dead at his home yesterday.

Media reports indicate that his wife Adjowa and their young son found him unconscious on the floor near a running treadmill, at their home in Memphis, Tennessee.

Isaac Hayes was transported to a hospital and he was pronounced dead in the afternoon. Early reports suggest he may have had a "simultaneous" heart attack and stroke.

Isaac Hayes' career spanned many years and generations. One of the flamboyant, deep-voiced performer's early accomplishments was winning an Oscar for the 1971 hit Theme From Shaft.

Mr Hayes was married four times and he has 12 children. After years of highly acclaimed work in the music world, he gained popularity with the younger generation as the voice of Chef on the animated series South Park.

In the spring 2003, one year after his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and a celebrated move back home to Memphis, the public persona of Isaac Hayes surged forward with a momentum usually associated with teen popstars and visiting royalty.

It turns out that Isaac Hayes was a figure of royalty himself, as a coronated King of the Ada coastal district of Ghana in western Africa where he was a member of the Royal Family.

Instead of a palace, he built an 8,000 square foot educational facility through his Isaac Hayes Foundation (IHF). This King will always be remembered as being the only King on earth with an Oscar, Grammy awards, #1 gold records, his voice on an animated tv series, a radio show, two restaurants, a best-selling cookbook, and a collection of top secret barbecue sauces.

The line of sauce stems from his role that began in 1997 when Isaac Hayes became the voice of Chef, the soul-singing, school cook and devoted ladies man on South Park. A song performed in the series by Hayes, Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You), wasted little time in becoming an international hit in 1999, reaching number one in the British singles' charts.

A change took place when Isaac Hayes left South park in 2006 after the show lampooned his own religion, the Church of Scientology. The began a falling out process that left many devoted South Park fans unhappy and grumbling.

Isaac Hayes was born in Covington, Tennessee, on August 20th, 1942 where he was raised by his grandparents after the death of his mother.