Hayes spoke with liveDaily about the Stax years, acting and upstaging his sister.

liveDaily: Tell me about the early years, and singing in church at such a young age.

Isaac Hayes: Covington, Tennessee is 38 miles north of Memphis. I lived in a suburb called Rialto, and I lived across the road from the church, which was called Stevens Chapel. Me and my sister sang in the Easter program when I was three, and my grandmother played piano. And, see, I had kind of a talent to arrange, even then. My sister and I would sing in harmony, and when she screwed up her part, I'd stop her, "It's not like that! It's like this!" And I'd make her sing the part, and I'd tell my grandmother, "OK, we can go on, now." It was ... oh my God. [laughs]

liveDaily: Was your sister older than you?

She was a year older than me.

liveDaily: Oh, so she loved you pointing out all her mistakes.

Oh yeah, and my grandmother would be looking at me, "Are you crazy?" What did I know? I was three years old. We finished the song and got a nice ovation.

The Stax years. So many memories, but do you have a favorite or two?

David Porter was the vocalist for Booker T and the MGs. One time, Booker got the dates mixed up, so he had to go to Kansas or somewhere like that, and David had to go with the MGs to Pennsylvania. I went with David, because I had to play organ instead of Booker T. So we started playing "Green Onions" and all those songs, and one guy says, "Hey man! That ain't Booker T! He ain't got no hair!" I said, "Oh, we're going to get it now." So I started tap-dancing and singing with David, and all this kind of stuff, and that saved our butts. Later on, when we went back, I said, "Do you remember when we were here a long time ago, with a bald-headed guy playing with them?" "Yeah, yeah ... that was you!" [laughs]

When did the acting bug hit you, and what was the first film you were in?

The first film I did was called "Three Tough Guys," a Dino De Laurentiis film, in 1973.

How did you get that role?

What happens, if you're a hot artist, they will reach for you. So I was the star with Fred Williamson, Paula Kelly and a European actor, Lino Ventura. We had a great time. We filmed part in Chicago and part in Rome. And I did the music for it too.

Did you think at the time that you were going to do more acting and a little less music?

No, I was taking it as it came. And next, I went into another movie called "Truck Turner," and I did the music for that too.

How fun was it to do the remake of "Shaft" with Samuel L. Jackson?

I knew John Singleton, and he had been bugging me for a few years. "Will you re-do 'Shaft,' man?" I thought it was bulls---. Then, when I realized he was serious, I said, "John, let me tell you something. If you're serious about this, I would like to do the theme exactly the way I did it before. I don't want to change a thing. So I'll do it on that condition." He said, "Okay, you do what you want."

How did the "Can You Dig It?" collection come together?

My good friend Rob Bowman, who I've known for years, put it together for me. I read the liner notes he wrote on me; he told it exactly like it was. Very flattering. And I liked his selection of cuts. Of course, the "Theme from Shaft," but "Precious, Precious" and "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic," all the early things.

Concord Records bought the Stax catalog from Fantasy Records. I like Concord, these are some ethical guys. They immediately started working on putting this album together, and what better guy to do this than Rob Bowman? He wrote a book about Stax ["Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records"]. He knows Stax.

You have a New Year's Eve gig in Estoril, Portugal.

I've never been to Portugal. I've been to Spain several times. I'm really looking forward to it.

Love to see some Portuguese kid show up with a Chef doll to autograph, "Por favor, Señor Hayes."

Hayes: [laughs] Don't be surprised.