The family of Isaac Hayes is believed to be working on releasing his old, unreleased material just weeks after his death.
Hayes son Isaac Hayes III, aka Dirty Ike, has stated that there is a wealth of unreleased Isaac Hayes material in the vaults, some dating back to the Stax days.Hayes was the architect behind the Stax sound. He composed many of those classic Stax tracks such as ‘Soul Man’ and ‘Hold On I’m Coming’ and went on to become a huge soul star in the 70s following the success of ‘Theme From Shaft’.
However, in the mid 70s, Hayes fell on hard times and was forced to sell his catalogue for $30,000 when he was declared bankrupt after Stax collapsed and could not afford to pay him millions of dollars in royalties.
Ike III says that he would like to turn his father’s unreleased tracks over for soundtracks, samples and ringtones. He will also prepare the release of the album Isaac Hayes had been working on at the time of his death.
Meanwhile, the family is now also chasing the rights to the old catalogue, claiming that he was tricked out the of catalogue in the bankruptcy move of 1976.
Rondor Music currently owns the catalogue. Lance Armstrong, President of Rondor agrees that the family is entitled to something. “He lost millions, it was morally and ethically wrong,” he has said.
