“I remember I had a crush on this chick whose family I used to pick (cotton) for, a black family.” “She used to pay off to us when we’d bring out cotton as that could to get her attention, since the most successful man is always on top, no matter what social situation he’s operating in. Well, I was hung-up on this chick and so busy day-dreaming that I wasn’t picking much cotton. Then this wine-head friend said, ‘I tell you what you do. You sing. You’ve got a good voice and one of these days you’re gonna be a big man, a big star. The next time you sing at school, when you get to a certain part, you think about his girl and fall down on your knees and sing like you’re talking about her.'”

Isaac followed through to the point where his fame spread out from the school and, as the wino had anticipated, the girl he’d sought came running after him. “I had the pleasure,” Isaac remembers, “of turning to her and then looking the other way…though I was jivin’.” [Ebony Magazine]

After Hayes “looked the other way” he was soon a senior in high school who was about to get married and had a baby on the way. I guess you can say he didn’t look completely away from the stronghold that the ladies had on him and his newfound fame back then. Hayes took care of his responsibilities, but missed opportunities to take advantage of the seven college scholarships he was offered for his excellence in music. So he did the next best thing – he hustled his way through life by doing music gigs all around town. Fortunately for us soul music lovers, Hayes never stopped grinding and eventually earned a nice spot at the top of Stax Records roster…the rest is history.

Typically we commend folks for furthering their education, but not in this case…nuh-uh not at all…words can’t express how grateful we are that Isaac Hayes decided to turn down those college scholarships, because if he wouldn’t have, we probably would have never gotten to experience the greatness of his soulful creations that still feed our souls to this day. Mr. hayes is no longer with us, but he will never be forgotten, his music is way too powerful for that to ever happen.