News outlets are reporting singer Issac Hayes was found dead in his house in Memphis today. Cause of death was unknown. He was 65. Hayes, known for his deep, soulful voice, was probably best known for his Academy Award-winning theme to the 1971 blaxploitation film Shaft. In later years, Hayes gained fame as the voice of Chef on South Park, who would often break into classic Hayes-style singing. Hayes famously left South Park after a satire of the Church of Scientology, of which he was a member, which lead to a bizarre, hilarious, self-satirizing episode in which Chef had been hypnotized by a Scientology-style cult. Among other projects, Hayes authored a cookbook entitled Cooking with Heart and Soul, which featured a recipe for salty chocolate balls, a treat which his South Park alter-ego waxed poetically about in an innuendo-laced song which made it to #1 in Britain in 1999.
I wasn’t a big fan, but you can’t deny what a great voice the guy had. So long.
ETA: Didn’t realize there was already a thread. Please close or merge with pre-existing thread.