Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180101
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JENNIFER BOWLES ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
``Do you sleep with somebody else now? How is that? I tell myself not to think about that stuff but I do,'' part of it goes. ``Hope you mourn an appropriate amount of time. At least 5 or 6 hours, I hope.''
The handwritten missive matches the adjacent, moody black-and-white photograph of the retro-rock singer-songwriter.
``I thought it gave people a way in on the record, gave them a way of knowing where I was coming from when I was writing this thing,'' Isaak said of his fifth album, ``Forever Blue'' (Reprise).
After his girlfriend walked out on Oct. 26, 1993, ``not that I'm counting,'' a depressed and dazed Isaak sat in his living room in San Francisco's foggy Sunset District, writing the songs that chronicle the tortured breakup of a three-year relationship.
``When you first break up, there's a lot of confusion, a lot of anger, you ask yourself `what happened?' '' he said. ``I remember walking around and feeling like my legs were heavy. I was drinking a malted milkshake with every meal and I still lost 20 pounds. I was so nervous and wrecked, I'd just work it off.''
The album - which weaves vintage rock 'n' roll with country and '60s surf influences - opens up with a wrathful, thumping number, ``Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing.'' Others follow, like the pleading ``Don't Leave Me On My Own'' and the almost panic-stricken ``There She Goes.''
From the looks of the 38-year-old singer - crystal blue eyes that rival Paul Newman's and short chestnut hair swept away from a well-chiseled face (even the nose, target of his many college boxing bouts, is only slightly pugged) - it's hard to imagine that Isaak was the dumpee.
At a recent concert at the House of Blues on L.A.'s Sunset Strip, female fans were swooning over the singer, clad in a shimmering blue suit. He says he's not dating anyone seriously (although he's been seen holding hands with Paula Abdul, and Madonna is said to be an ardent admirer).
Sitting poolside at a Studio City hotel, Isaak admits his thoughts are still with his ex-girlfriend.
``I'm not in the midst of it, but I still think about her,'' he said.
``Looking back, I think it's amazing. We must have really loved each other. I think it's amazing that two people who have so many things that were totally out of whack with one another could hang together even that long.
``It was night and day,'' he explained. ``We were always on different schedules. I'd want to pick up my guitar and play ballads at night, she'd pick up the channel changer. I'd say let's go for a run, and she'd say `yeah' and hop on my back.''
While Isaak's not the first to air relationship problems in public (Phil Collins, for one, wrote several songs about his painful divorce), some might wonder why he would throw his bruised heart into the spotlight.
``Am I supposed to be embarrassed because I say what I feel? I'm not,'' he said.
Besides, he said, those listening to the album will ponder their own relationships, not his.
``It's not like a window. It's more like a mirror,'' he said. ``People are not looking into me, they're looking at themselves.''
Isaak recorded his first album, ``Silvertone,'' in 1985. But it was the haunting ballad ``Wicked Game'' from his 1989 album ``Heart-Shaped World'' and the accompanying black-and-white video showing Isaak with a topless coquette on a beach that propelled him to stardom. Director David Lynch featured the song on the soundtrack of his 1990 film ``Wild at Heart.''
Another Hollywood director and Isaak fan, Jonathan Demme, cast the singer in cameos in ``Married to the Mob'' and ``The Silence of the Lambs.'' Last year, he had a lead role in Bernardo Bertolucci's ``Little Buddha.''
Not bad for the son of a factory forklift operator who grew up the youngest of three boys on what he calls the ``white trash'' side of Stockton, 60 miles east of San Francisco.
``My dad got up every day at 6 and he'd come back and be sweaty. You could tell he was beat. Then he'd mow the lawn, and he'd pass out,'' Isaak said. ``They worked him, they drained him, they got their money's worth. I wanted to get some job where I didn't have to do that.''
When Isaak is not singing, he often can be found at the beach delving into his favorite pastime. A self-taught surfer, Isaak shows off his wave-catching skills in the video for his first single, ``Somebody's Crying.''
by CNB