>> funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by hillco partners, texas government affairs consultancy and its global health care consulting business unit, hillco health. -úand by the mattson mchale foundation in support of public television. and also by mfi foundation, improving the quality of life within our community. and also by the alice and viewers like you.dation thank you. >> smith: i'm evan smith. he's a tyleeshly retro rock musician and sometimes actor who covers elvis, johnnie cash, jerry lee lewis and his most recent release,

beyond the sun. he's chris isaac. this is overheard. ♪ >> chris isaac, welcome. >> good to be here. >> nice to have you. good to meet you and congratulations on the record. >> thanks so much. already, but let me just tell you it's true. >> thanks. >> i think it's so much fun to listen to and congratulations on it, but mostly congratulations on covering all these greats we've heard for so manyt years and you don't seem small doing t you seem --

it's like they're your songs. >> you know, if i would have thought about it, i wouldn't have made this record. >> why s that? >> because if you think about it, it just doesn't make any sense. it was -- it's like, well, how dare you think you can sing an orbison tune or an elvis tune, but i wasn't thinking about that. i was just thinking this is going to be a lot of fun! it's kind of how i ran my personal life most of my life is just -- [ laughter ] >> asking forrtrouble. >> wow. she looks like she's going to be a lot of fun! [ laughter ] yeah, sometimms -- >> sometimes she was. >> sometimes it works, you know. you never know. sometimes it works. and in this case it was just like,,oh, i didn't think about -- and i don't think you ever should think about how many you're going to sell or who your audience is or anything like that. when you make a record you should think about what do i sing good, what do i want to sing. when i made the record one of the first people i sent a

copy to -- well, first i sent my mom and my dad a copy. they wwre the first ones. >> yeah. >> but scottie moore. >> legend. >> he's the guitar player who reelly everybody ought to tip their hat. if you like rock-n-roll, scottie invented it. he was elvis' guitar player from the get go. i sent him a copy and he wrote back and said i like the record. okay? where did this song come from? and he went to a couple of songs that i wrote. i only wrote two or three songs on this. >> there's a song called live it up on here that is fantastic. >> ♪ you can live it up and laugh it up. >> i had fun with that because i made my drummer sing along with me. >> is that right? >> it's all really fast lyrics..3 it's like this. he goes wow, that's fast. and i said you're going to sing harmony. [ laughter ] >> the best compliment i can pay that song is as i listen

-úto the record and you hit ring of fire and you hit can't help falling in love and great balls of fire. and i walk the line. and pretty woman. you get all thess and then you hit live it up. and i thought that's a great song. whose is that? and i hit it and i went that's his sopping. >> i was so happy. scottie moore wrrte to me and said who did live it up? and i saiddi got that one, scottie. >> the fact is it could have been one of theirs. that is evident in everything that you do. >> not only do i listen to everything that they did. i don't know much about much. you could ask me what month it is, i don't know. i can't balance a checkbook. i don't know. i can't change the oil in my car that well. but when you get into that kind of music, if it was a life or death jeopardy show and hi to pick a category and sun sessions.am phillips and that's the then. >> sam phillips, let's start there when we talk about the

story of this record. you read an article in the oxford american, a great magazine thankfully still holding on in its third or3 fourth iteration, back in 2000 when sam phillips name cheeked you. >> i was doing a tv show and i was overworred as i usually am. but i thought -- i don't have time off, but i thought that will be my vacation today same going to read this article. oxford american is awesome. it's worth about 10 years of any other music magazine. you read it and you go who are these people? how do they know all this stuff? so i had the magazine, a big interview with sam phillips. sam phillips, if you don't know, is the guy who built little recording studio in memphis that has a great big sound and he discovered and recorded people like elvis, carl perkins, roy orbison, jerry lee lewis. bb king. that guy is a genius. >> without him so much of the music we know woold not exist. >> he's a genius.

so i was going o read this úrticle and at the end of the article, and i didn't know thhs, they said who do you listen to today, sam? and he said i'm listening to this singer chris isaac and then he said some nice things. you'll make me tear up. it's like if your whole life you've been listening to one guy and his muuic and always -- i can remember being a kid and we used to go up and buy all our clothes at the junk store, the secondhaad store. >> this is back home in california? >> value village on harding. i would go there and my mom would look for clothes and say you go look at records. it was cheap. was a -- ♪ i never let youit go 'cuz i love you... ♪ i'm

so sorry 'cuz i made you cry. >> and i heard that record and it had this beautiful -- >> who was it? >> elvis. elvis on sun. >> i don't recognize it as an elvis ong. i recognize it as a chris isaac song. -úeverything you sing sounds like you. >> i listen to that record and i went -- because i always listen to a lot of music, but i listened to that record and i said i want to be a musician. >> light goes off. >> but it wasn't -- this is weird to say. it was before the internet. nowadays i think when people, they listen to something like that, they would have gone, i've got to google that. who is that? >> you hold your phone up and sha sam it. >> they would know all about it instantly. but it was kind of cool because for me it was a mystery, whhch made it like i went -- >> it was all discovery. >> i'm the only one who knows this record and it's an old record and nobody has got this. what is this!!?? and it wasn't until about umppyears later i was in japan and i was fighting as a light heavyweight in

tokyo -- >> one of the many careers you've had. >> and i can show you all the creases in the nose. and i was over there and i was really home sick and walking down the street and i went in this record store because they had a white guitar in the window. and being a hillbilly, i went whoa! look at that white guitar. i didn't have the money for the guitar, but i found this record, elvis sun session. and i didn't realize there was more than one song cut out of there. and i bout that record and i had a flat top about like that long when i started. and i went home and i listened to that record and i went to the coach the next day on the boxing team and i said, i'm growing my hair longer. [ laughter ] and he said you can't, not on this boxing team you don't. >> and i said i'm grrwing my hair longer or i'm off the team. he said okay, you keep your hair as long as you win. >> oh wow. >> so i was fight to go keep my hairstyle. >> how did that work out for you? >> i did good. i got a long greasy

hairstyle out of it. >> pretty good. >> i want to ask you about some specific choices you made on here. as i went through this record, there are not many songs where the first few notes are as recognizable as ring of fire or pretty woman. >> yeah. the expectation that we all have, having heard those notes and what's going to come next. >> right. >> it's very easy to fall short. you covered those songs. it's a catch that you can -- a catch that you can fall into. but you managed to make those songssnot only familiar and you cleared the bar, but you made them yours. ring of fire in your hands is actually jaunty. it's more of a -- i guess if i went back and listened to the original with johnnie cash after listening to jauntier than i remember. but yours is a very different take on it. >> it was fun. we did johnnie cash songs and we were in the tudio with cowboy jack clements. we had roland james who

played guitar on all of jerry lee's stuff. he was hanging out and i'm a huge fan. >> these are guys who know the music. >> they know the music and they know the room. >> because everything must be clear. everything was recorded right there in the studio. >> we didn't have headphones, we didn't overdone. no tricks. we did it just like they did t but roland names was a great help. he knows a lot how to get& the sound. and cowboy jock was there. he wrote songs for johnnie cash -- he wrote the ♪ dream on, dream on, teenaged queen, prettiest girl we've ever seen. ♪ there's a girl in our town, prettiest girl for miles around. ♪ boys around her by the score, but she loves the boy next door. sam phillips said it was the worst song ever recorded at sun and it was a huge hit for johnnie cash. >> it does sound like johnnie cash. >> cowboy jack came down and i have to be honest, when he came down the first day i said do you want cowboy to

come down. i said he'll come down and hang oot. it will be fun to hear his stories. i didn't know what he would do exactly. he brought his guitar and i thought i'm the rhythm úuitar player. [ laughter ] i thought he's not going to wann to play. and i thought i can't play to other people's rhythm playing. number one, he's great and number two, i went oh, it's easy to sing to because he's the guy i've been trying to rip off all these times. >> i have been singing to him, i just didn't know t. >> and i thought how much energy because we're going to play, we're playing like -- we go in the studio and they would let us go in after the tours and we would play until like three in the morning. i thought maybe cowboy jack will tire out. let me tell you, cowboy jack about two nights into it, my bass player shows up to the session and he's wearing sunglasses. and what's up? he goes ha, i'm okay. >> i said what's wrong,

rolly. >> he said maybe i'm coming down with a cold. he tried to hang out with cowboy jack -- >> cowboy jack is like knoo holds barred, go for it guy. 15-year-old. >> how ld is he? >> i think he's pushing -- he's got to be 80. >> i was going to say must begin with an eight i'm thinking. >> this is a true story. i saw with my own eyes. i'm not adding to it. it blows my mind. my manager is very shy. she would never want to be on stage or do anything. so we're listening to play baak in on the city and we're listening to -- they're playing back some of the songs. and cowboy jack comes up and says come on, let's dance. come on. and she goes oh, no, i don't dance. and he goes -- and he pulls out a card out of his pocket with a flourish, cowboy jack, dance instructor. [ laughter ] >> how do you say no to that? >> i'm looking at this guy and going, i want to be just like you! >> who are you!!??

well, so i want to say that the burden is the his through of these songs and these artists and the fact that you could fall short very easily. but you didn't. you were also in the studio and there are literally of eyes of these artists on you beccuse you're in the studdo& and there are these black and white photographs of these people who recorded in the ssudio watching you. >> there's a picture of carl perkins in the sttdio. and carl perkins is the guy who did blue suede shoes. i love his guitar playing. i remember meeting carl perkins. the weird thing in my life, i grew up listening to these people and then in -- life's a weird thing. i mean, it really is. you grow up and i'm listening to these people and then i worked with johnnie cash, i got to meet carl perkins. >> i wondered if you actually -- orbison and presley may have died. >> no, i got to be friends with orbison. i opened for orbison when i

you know. and we need somebody to fill in for 30 minutes bbfore the star comes on. it's aac. >.isaac, sir. i'll give you a roy orbiion story. when i was playing with roy we were opening and my parents said can we come see you? i said you guys want to tickets to the orbison show. and of ccurse they did. and my parents said can you introduce us to orbison? and i said i'm just opening. i'm not like really -- i don't know if he's going to -- he came and had my parents come backstage and hung out with them like an hour and a half. i kept saying you spent too much time. he said no, it's all right. and he hung out with them for an hour and a half, bought them lunch, stayed with him. my parents loved him and i loved him. and after the show -- he had already made this big comeback. he had some movie music and stuff with david lynch.& and he had a big comeback. so he was really hot.

and the press came out to take his picture for the papers. well, they didn't want my picture. openinn or whatever it was. and my brother as standing watching roy and he heardd3 similar say, they said can we take your picture? and he said just a moment. go get chriss go get chris isaac. he got me and he put me under his wing and they kept saying, great. can we have a single shot of you? because they were thinking, and we'll ditch these. and he goes no, that's good, like this. [ laughter ] and the next day in the paper there was roadway orbison and chris isaac. [ laughter ] >> couldn't photo shop you out. >> but e was a really -- >> great guy. it's great that you got to know him. he would appreciate the fact that you've taken such care -úwith his songs. >> i loved his stuff. i remember going to his house and one oo the first times we got together and we were just playinn and& singing. and he was such a mellow guy and i was singing something

and he said i like the way you sinn that. he said you know, you remind me of buddy when you go to this part. and i was thinking yeah. and i'm walking out of the house later and i went dudley holly. >> buddy! >> oh god, this guy hung out with buddy holly. >> that's pretty great. now, see, the other side of this is can't help falling in love, the elvis song that you cover, seven sadder the way you sing it. >> ♪ wise men say only fools rush in... that song we cut the last 25 minutes, 30 minutes that we had in the studio. the guy -- i'm cheap. i used to do a tv show and -úon the tv show they always had me being cheap because i am cheap. >> you actually be cheap. easy to play yourself. >> yeah. so like the last 30 minutes of the studio and the guys are going honey, we're almost done recording..3 30 minutes. and i go we've still got 30

we could cut something! and i thought what song do we know? and we had triid thattsong at my house, but i had a piano half out of tune and it didn't sound ttat great. didn't sound majestic. it sounded funky. and i said can we try it in here once? and tte guys are like all right. and it just went. one of those things like in the movie, you start singing it, the base player runs were playing and i look at the engineer and he's going like we're rolling. he started rolling. and mark need ham, who i've worked with forever. and when markham smiles and is happy, you go something is good because mark is like basically looking at you like nah, come on, show me something. he's seen it all. >> but he loved it. >> he liked it. >> there's a llt there. you've been at this for awhile. you seem aa motivated to do it, as happy to be doing it, as happy to be on the road, not tired, not grouchy.

maybe this is not i caught out a good day, but i suspect not. >> i'm probably grouchiest most. and you know how noose most of us. like my manager would probably see me at my grouchiest, you know? >> how dare they bring me strawberries! i wanted rase berries! [ laughttr ] >> i'm sure i'm that guy at some point. everybody -- you know, we always complain about stuff and i remember at some point in my life i called up, it was my first girlfriendd she was -- my mom took a message and said she was sick. i called her up and i said how are you doing?& úhe said i'm doing good and blah, blah. but it is terminal and she went on. but she said they gave me a choice. i could have a bag or i could have this tube that i have to place in me so when listening to this and i i'm thought, no complaints. no complaints. >> my comparison to what

other people go through. >> no complaints. it's like my complaints in this world are i didn't get the red one. i don't have complaints. i have whining. [ laughter ] >> how many days or nights do you spend on the road úhese days? >> i couldn't tell you exactly, but i could tell you this, i unpack a suitcase into another suitcase. >> right.3 so it's most of the time you spend out. >> literally when i go home my garage, i have like two or three suitcases. i come home and i go, that's dirty, that's clean. actually, i can't because i -- i can hardly smell. so i have -- my manager has a white mall tease dog which i found out as a very good use. the dog can smell. and if your t-shirt or shirt is stinky the dog rolls in it like this is great! [ laughter ] so i'll take clothes out and i'll go hey, rodney, come here. is this good? and he'll roll in it and i go okay, that one's done.

>> i imagine that the economics of the music business these days, which we could do seven hours on and never be through t all, make it so that you can't survive on records alone. touring has got to be a big component of how you manage to stay up right in the business. >> touring is prrbably i'm suue that touring is probably a money maker compared to records nowadays. to me i never really have -úworried about either one of 'em because i grew up broke and i -- by the time i had any success, my habits and my desires were already set. >> ingrained. >> i never got into drugs, so that saves you a ton of money. [ laughter ] i don't date supermodels and marry them and then divorce them. so that saves you a lot of money right there. [ laughter ] and my -- like you take me out to eat or something, like you said, like may my travel bag my manager goes you're not going to open that on the plane. i go why? what's wrong? she said don't pen sardines on the plane. >> actual arrest deans?

>> -- sardines? >> i'm a beer budget and less guy. career are not the economics of somebody else's? >> i don't want to be a burden to society. [ laughter ] when i get old anddno longer nobody wants to see me, i'm going to save my money so that nobody else is going to have to worry about me. >> take care of you. >> yes. >> did the acting stuff happen by your choice or was it someone seeing you and going that guy would look good may my movii. >> jonathan demey. >> married to the mob? >> yeah. and before that it was -- no. he did it -- he asked me to be in a film and the part -- he asked me to be in a film, offered me the part and i didn't do it. ray liota did it. and ray did such a good job that after i saw it i went, geez, that -- you know, i don't think i could have done as good as ray. he's a great actor. but i saw what a great part

it was. and i knew it was a great part and i wanted to do it. i didn't really have a manager at the time so i auditioned for this part and i got it and i called my brother and i said they want me to be in this movie. and my older brother nick gave me advice which in a way was good. in a way it was bad, but he ssid, but i thought you told those people at warner brothers you're going to make a record. i said yeah. he goes you're not getting flaky, are you? he said if you tell somebody you're going to do something, you better show up for the job. i can't do the movie. then i realized years later it's hollywood. you could flake all over and everybody is like -- [ laughter ] yeah. sure, i'll be aa your part, baby. yeah, i'll be in your movie. sure! >> nobody remembers, right. but you did eventually flake, i guess is the case or whatever, but you did your movies and you seem to be a cop in about half of them. >> yeah, i guess because i had short hair and was the right height.

>> you were in several movies. you enjoyed that? >> i enjoyed it immensely. and i have to say if you look at hollywood films and you see people getting academy awards and stuff, a lot of them are related to famous people. and you go, i don't think it's the talent that is being handed down. it's the -- here, i'll get you in the movie. >> the opportunity. >> i really believe that there's people in this audience, i really believe, that are as good as an academy award winning performanne. i'm not making it up. there's a lot of talent out there. and if you get people in the -- if i give you the right role, you're going to win an academy award. you're going to be great. and i've been lucky that people said here, chris, stand here, good lighting and you'll be in the movie. and people go oh, you're an actor. and i say no, they just

asked me to come up here. >> at the end of the day you are a musician who happens to act as opposed to an actor who makes music. self definition is important. >> when i go home i never sit in my house in front of the mirror going "to be or not to be". i don't do that. but i do sit in the hallway going, you know ♪ i'll be the one... i sing in my hallway all the time because it sounds good. half [ laughter ] i have a neighbor down the street about 80 something years old and i was singing this ♪ heavenly flower... -úi sang this hawaiian song and i was singing it over and over. and she came one day and i sing and you can't see me, my front gate. and she came over and she said chris, what's that record you're pllying? that hawaiian one..3 i like that. i want to get that. what is that?

and i was thinking, trying to think. i said, no, i said that's me singing. and she goes, you wish. [ laughter ] >> that's not very nice. >> she's hilarious. i have her -- when it's sunny, my band would go out in the front in the driveway and we would practice in the driveway. and we would just like sit on chairs and play acoustic guitar. and we play in the driveway and i'm recording this. i have this on a recording. and you can hear this tip, tip, ttp, you hear her footsteps on come up. and she says, that sounds good. when is that coming out on a record? it's like right in the middle of it. [ laughter ] >> however much changes in the music business there's still hope. there's hope for us all. thank you for your time. great to see you. it goes by too fast..3 i really enjoyed it. >> thank you. >> chris isaac. thank you, good luck. [ applause ] 3

>> funding for overheard in part by hillco partners, texas government affairs consultancy and its global health care consulting business unit, hillco health. and by the mattson mchale foundation in support of public television. and also by mfi foundation, improving the quality of life within our community. and also by the alice kleberg reynolds foundation and viewers like you. thank you.