Scientologists made the decision without permission from Isaac Hayes. Not surprising knowing how they operate but damn.
Getting to your dad’s departure from the show, what was his reaction to “Trapped in the Closet?”
So, initially, the episode came out in November, and there was no reaction. There wasn’t any upswell about that episode at all. It really wasn’t a big deal at the time. That January, in 2006, my dad had a stroke, and during the course of his recovery, I think that March, they re-aired the episode. When it re-aired, that’s when Scientology got upset.
At that time, my father was recovering from a stroke — literally learning how to talk, learning how to function. I visited my father. He was really struggling sometimes to even speak and say words. At the time, the people that were around him were largely Scientologists — his publicists and management. Those decisions about his involvement in the show, his leaving the show, were made by those people and not him. He would have never quit that show. He loved that show, and he was making a lot of money doing that show. So, I take issue with the way those decisions were made on his behalf because it put him in a position to actually have to go on the road and tour before he was ready to tour.
Supremely interesting.
Did he ever talk to you about leaving South Park?
No, we never had conversations about it. Never.
Do I buy that he was manipulated by his inner circle of scientologists? Yes. Do I believe that he himself had no agency in both quitting the show and never returning? No.
The story of who someone is nearly 20 years after their death tends to get a little muddled within families.
I think it was the, “he just had a stroke” part that made him know that Isaac didn’t make the decision.
A full decade after Hayes quit South Park, his son, Isaac Hayes III, told The Hollywood Reporter that Hayes had suffered a stroke in January 2006 before he quit, and that he didn’t leave the show. “Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park; someone quit South Park for him,” Hayes III maintained. He explained that the initial stroke took away his father’s ability to speak as well as some cognitive comprehension. “He was in no position to resign under his own knowledge,” Hayes III continued. “At the time, everybody around my father was involved in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of people. So someone quit South Park on Isaac Hayes’ behalf. We don’t know who.”
Yes I read the article. You’ll also note he recovered and resumed touring, which his son also blames scientology for and blames his death on. It’s a narrative that removes his agency completely and I don’t buy it.
You agree that scientology is pretty evil though, right? They will do and have done faaaaaar worse. Stalking, wife disappeared, etc.
You don’t buy it even with countless examples of the same thing happening from Britney Spears, to Avicii, to Elvis Presley?
bruh chef was that shiw
