Chris Isaak is saving his voice. Fair enough. The bouffant-haired crooner of Wicked Game, Somebody's Crying and Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing has been talking an awful lot lately. Since releasing his Best of CD in May, Isaak has done the talk show circuit, co-hosted Extra and filled in for The Reeg on Live with Regis and Kelly. Then there's his current tour. So we agreed to an e-mail interview, grilling the singer about his computer habits.
Here are Isaak's responses. At least we're pretty sure they're his.
First question: How do we know it's really you?
When I boxed my nickname was "Canvas Back." Nobody would know that but me. Nobody would admit that but me.
Who's the last person you e-mailed?
I mailed my drummer. We are playing a trick on the bass player. He has been drooling over an old guitar on eBay for a week, so while he was in one room looking at it and talking about it I went in the other room and bought it. Now we are waiting until we go on stage someplace to have the guitar player come out and be wearing the new guitar. We want to see the look on Roly, my bassman's, face. We are doing a lot of trap setting. Eventually I will give him the guitar. Okay, maybe I will sell it to him, at just a little above cost. I gotta eat too, right?
What were the last three Word documents you opened? And what's the last thing you downloaded ... that you can tell us about?
Okay, okay. You must think I live on my computer. The first thing I do when I open my computer is blow off the dust, and then I have to crank-start it if the batteries are dead. I have a gas-operated computer, an early model from Briggs and Stratton. It has a pull start like a lawn mower. Most of my mail is concerned with lawsuits, threats and slander - you know, stuff from my family.
What's the most disturbing item you've ever come across after Googling yourself?
I don't Google myself and don't really look up things about the band. I know what I am doing already. I think most of the time spent is mailing my friends and looking at things I am trying to get to fix my house. I look up salvage yards or junk yards in towns I am going to play in and then ride my bike over and look around. I need a bunch of stuff for my house: lights, some latches, doorbell parts, just ... salvage. I went looking for stuff in Cleveland and ended up getting knocked off my bike by a car that was in the middle of some sort of police bust. Somewhere between the car knocking me off my bike and the police pointing guns at the suspects (and it wasn't about me; they had three cop cars before I got 50 feet away), I remember thinking, I should shop online ...
Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?
If people have not seen us play, I think you really should come out and see it. It is the only show of its kind, and I think soon laws will be enacted that make it virtually impossible to see this sort of thing. Dancing, singing, masked men, "Rafael the Wandering Cuban" and a bevy of show girls. This is not lip sync, we use no wires of any sort, and no animals are used or hurt. The bass player got a little bit of a rash, but we don't think that was actually caused by the show itself.
Seriously, if anyone comes to see us tell them to hang out after and say hi if they want. We always go out and shake hands and sign T-shirts and photos after the show. I know some mean-spirited person, perhaps my drummer, has started the rumor that it is court ordered, but we just like meeting our fans.
I would keep writing but the room service lady is banging on the door. I should get up and let her out.
