Sunday Conversation: Chris Isaak On Holiday Music, Tom Waits, John Prine And More

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – AUGUST 17: Chris Isaak performs at The Grand Ole Opry on August 17, 2022 in … [+] Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Mickey Bernal/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Chris Isaak admits earlier in his career he probably would not have written a song as silly and playful as “Dogs Love Christmas Too,” found on his new holiday album, Everybody Knows It’s Christmas.

But the great thing for Isaak, as he points out, having had culture-changing hits like “Wicked Game,” as well as songs such as “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing” and “Somebody’s Crying,” Isaak doesn’t have to answer to anyone nearly 37 years into his iconic career.

Having spent much of 2022 touring with the like-minded troubadour Lyle Lovett, Isaak is enjoying his best musical life. Like many of the artists he admires, including Tom Waits and the late John Prine, Isaak has his devoted following and creates the music he wants to make.

I spoke with Isaak about touring with Lovett, holiday music, recording in Nashville playing phone tag with Waits and much, much more.

Steve Baltin: I love the fact this isn’t just like Christmas is awesome. There’s also songs that represent how tough the holidays are for people.

Chris Isaak: We covered life, a white swatch there. But I like to have an upbeat and you can put it on in the background while you’re having Christmas at your house and its happy and good times. But I like having a few in there that are eating dinner on paper plates [chuckle].

Baltin: It’s never more encapsulated than in “Dogs Love Christmas Too” into “Wrapping Presents For Myself.” That is Christmas for a lot of people. Some years it’s great and some years it sucks.

Isaak: To write a Christmas song about somebody calling up the person they love and hearing their kids in the background playing and saying, “I can’t take this, I gotta get off the phone, I can’t, I’m gonna break down.” And wrapping presents for himself and eating dinner by himself at Christmas. A lot of people go through it. I think the holidays are always tough on people because they imagine everybody else is having a wonderful time and here I’m feeling a blank, doing jail time or I have a car wreck or something. Christmas time makes it all tougher.

Baltin: Slash and I talked about the vibe in Dave Cobb’s studio but what we did not talk about was the Christmas vibe in there. And I’m a big believer in how environment affects writing, so I imagine Christmas in Nashville has a different feel.

Isaak: Okay, I’ll tell you a story, went in the studio and I worked with Dave Cobb, we were friends before. But I went in and I thought, “Wow, how cool there’s a Christmas tree.” It was like June or something we were recording. And it was a Christmas tree set up and decorated and I thought really Dave has really gone out his way and I said, “Wow that’s pretty cool.” And he goes “Oh no because that’s only here.” I said, “What?” [laughter] He goes, “Take a look at it.” And I walked over and he goes, “John Prine loves Christmas so much that he put up a Christmas tree in the middle of the year. Isn’t that great? Just keep it up.” And I can’t tell you how big a fan of Johns Prine’s I am. I got to know him a little bit, Dave knew him pretty well, but how cool was John Prine to put up a Christmas tree and leave it up in the studio?

Baltin: When you were in there, did you feel the John Prine vibes from the Christmas tree?

Isaak: Definitely. John Prine was like, every time I saw him he had a twinkle in his eye. He looked like he was just loving life and what a great character, great guy, great writer. And I’m so pissed that he is gone and that COVID took him away too soon. Because I’m a fan of his since I was 15, and to listen to him, I went back the other day and I thought, “Usually when I listen to people’s early recordings, I like their voice then.” John Prine got better and better and that’s so inspirational. I don’t know if I could do that. But I listened to him at the end of his life singing and he brought so much to the songs that I just went “Wow.” He continued to get better.

Baltin: I think for a lot of people, they get better. It’s interesting. You just toured with Lyle Lovett who I did a big piece with this year. I love him.

Isaak: I didn’t know what it was going to be like to tour with Lyle Lovett. We had just worked together a few times for a few minutes. Though on this tour got to know him. That guy could not be more talented and he’s a strange, funny, brilliant guy. And at the end of the tour, he takes me into where I’m sitting, he goes, “Chris, you have time? Let’s have lunch.” I go, “Yeah.” Anytime I could hang out with him, you bet I will. So, I go over and have lunch. He goes, “I wanna introduce you to my boot maker. I wanna show you my boot maker, he’s right over here.” I said, “Okay.” And I’m thinking, what’s the deal? He brings me to this guy, and the guy says, he goes, “Chris, take your shoes off. I’m gonna have you a nice set of boots made, custom boots, anything you want.” I’m like, “Who does that?” I just went, “Okay, now I got to figure out something to get him.” I think I have an idea too, but I just went, “Oh my God, he’s so generous, so nice.” He would sing on my set, come up and sing and I’d sing on his set. And he’s hilarious.

Baltin: He told me the whole thing started as a joke. Wait, now if I remember, the story is you guys were doing a show together or you were at the same festival, and he’s like, “Hey, do you want to play a joke?” And didn’t you come out and pretend to be him?

Isaak: Yes, he was playing at Saratoga Mountain Winery. We played there all the time, and he plays there all the time. And so he has his fans packed to play, and I’m gonna be playing the next night or something. I came down to see him, and he said, “Hey, do you want to do something?” I said, “Yeah, but let me walk out and do the first thing with your band.” And I walked out, and I played a song, and then I said, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It’s so great to be here. I know some of you were confused that originally Lyle Lovett had been booked on this stage, but of course that’s moved with Lyle and when I got the date, I was so excited.” And I saw people in the audience looking like, “What? I’m gonna see Chris Isaak tonight?” [Laughter] So disappointed. But just looked at the confusion, “What? They switched tickets on us?”

Baltin: The whole reason I mentioned Lyle is because I do think that for most artists, and, from a writing standpoint in particular, you get better because what happens, of course, is you have all this experience to draw on. Do you feel like you’re able to draw on a greater breadth of subjects to write on?

Isaak: Yeah, I’ve lived a little longer. But, for me, I also feel freedom because I’ve had hits and I have a career. And when you’re starting off you’re desperate to get a hit. You’re desperate to go and eat something so that I can keep recording. And now, I kind of know I have an audience and people know who I am, so it gives you the freedom to write. I don’t know if I would have written something like “Dogs Love Christmas Too” early on [laughter]. But I had fun doing it. I don’t know anybody else who wrote a song about somebody stealing your nativity scene. And then you going around the neighborhood trying to find out who took it. I love that. We bought us a Nativity scene and set it up on the lawn. Somebody came in the middle of the night and took it. In the morning it was gone. They took the camel and the three wise men, Mary and the Manger too. They took my floodlights and extension cord. Worst of all they got you. Help me baby Jesus. Help me bring you home. And I love the guy. To me, that reminds me of like my dad and my family when we were growing up, you’d put out a decoration and somebody took it, it’s like, “God damn it, they took the floodlights and extension cords.”

Baltin: Are there artists that you really admire or that you that you look at and say, “That’s the type of career I want.” And John Prine’s a perfect example of that.

Isaak: John Prine did a record with kind of a country artist that most people don’t know,Mac Wiseman. I grew up listening to Mac Wiseman, and I go, “John Prine worked with Mac Wiseman. Perfect.”And I go, “I’m so pissed that John Prine died too young because I know we would’ve worked together and I think it would’ve been a really fun combination of our voices too.” And Tom Waits, I met Tom Waits and I love Tom Waits. I’m a huge fan. And somebody goes, “But his voice is so different than yours.” I said, “Do you ever listen to Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby together? Some things work together like that.” So Tom Waits and I would play phone tag. He had my number, and I had his number. And we’d call each other and we never could get through with each other but we’d call every three months. For a long time I kept messaging him. It was hilarious. It would be like, “Hi, this is Tom Waits, trying to reach you, Chris. You must be out. I’ll try you again.” And then be like, “Hi, this is Chris. I was calling you back.” This is like three months later. And then he called me back three months later and we just kept going, this slow phone setting for years. I’m a huge fan of Tom Waits.

Baltin: I hope by the way, there’s going to be another Christmas record because you did not do Tom Waits’ “Christmas Card From A Hooker in Minneapolis.”

Isaak: I made a list recently of a bunch of Christmas songs and I put some on there that just made me laugh. I go, “I think people need to laugh.” And one of them was Don Novello. You know the guy who plays Father Guido Sarducci? And Don Novello has a Christmas song, and it goes, “Yeah, everybody writes a list for Santa. What can Santa bring me?” He goes, “Nobody asks Santa what do you want.”

Baltin: One of my favorite Christmas songs of all time is the Kinks “Father Christmas,” which is really upbeat musically. But not an upbeat song.

Isaak: I think your music collection is probably going to be something that I would like to listen to because I’m a huge Kinks fan.

Baltin: Do you remember the first Christmas song that made a huge impact on you?

Isaak: Yeah. I think when I was a little kid, I remember I heard “Silent Night.” And I thought that is a sad song. That was very moving to me to hear “Silent Night.”

Baltin: Is there one song or one work from you that you go back and have a different appreciation for?

Isaak: We still play a song like “Forever Blue,” I always think that’s one of my best pieces of writing. And I always thought it would make a nice song for somebody else ’cause it’s just a love song. Talking about you really miss somebody and they’re gone. And that was really based on what was happening in my life at the time. But I thought sometimes a song comes together and I thought it came together well, but some things are commercial and they can be perfect as a commercial hit, and some things can be perfect because they just express what you are trying to express, and I’m okay with that. And as far as complaints go, like Sinatra says in the Paul Anka song, “Regrets, I have a few, but then again, too few to mention.” I look at my life and my career and I just think, “Boy, I’ve been lucky.” Cause there’s so many people I know that have more talent than me or that I think should have a great career, are struggling. I know a lot of artists who got to work some place during the day and they play at night, and a lot of really talented people have to hustle they work hard.

Baltin: Do you feel like right now, because you do know so many people who’ve struggled with it and you get to tour with Lyle Lovett, you’re enjoying it more and having more fun now?

Isaak: I think my entire career seems to have been a slow upward slide. I’ve seen people who go up and down, up and down. But we started playing clubs and we played there for a year, and then we played bigger clubs and then bigger venues. For me, it’s like that’s the best way to do it. It just always seems like it’s been a little more fun each year. Maybe that’s why we’ve had the same guys for 40 years.

Baltin: What’s the greatest Christmas song of all time?

Isaak: I like “White Christmas.” I’m going to go mainstream there. But there’s a lot of great Christmas songs. “Is That You Santa Claus” by Louis Armstrong, I like that too. But it’s like Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas.” That’s a great song and a great performance.