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It should still be Salisbury Steak Day, according to Isaac Hayes III, son of Isaac Hayes. In a recent interview with Cracked, Hayes III blamed Scientology leaders for his father’s South Park departure. Hayes Sr., who was a Scientologist, voiced Chef on South Park for a decade before quitting the show in 2006 over the 2005 episode “Trapped In The Closet,” which criticized his religion. Hayes’ exit came with a statement in which Hayes accused the episode of “bigotry and intolerance.” Hayes III says that at the time, his father was recovering from a stroke and was “literally learning how to talk” again, making it impossible for him to quit under his own volition. In Hayes III’s telling, the controversy didn’t begin until months after the episode aired. “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,” he said. “When it re-aired, that’s when Scientology got upset.” His management and publicists were Scientologists and were making decisions for the singer. They quit the show on Hayes’ behalf, Hayes III contends.
“Those decisions about his involvement in the show, his leaving the show, were made by those people and not him,” Hayes III tells Cracked. “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.” Claiming his father “loved Matt and Trey” and the character, Hayes III believes his father would still be on the show today had he not been forced out.
Hayes III says that the decision to leave didn’t help his father’s health. Hayes Sr. returned to the road because he lost his South Park income stream. “What I recall from Scientology is, they weren’t big on modern medicine,” he continues. “They were more into holistic things. So even the medication that he was probably supposed to be taking, he probably wasn’t taking. All of those factors, you know what I’m saying? My father was very big on holistic medicine and things like that, but at the same time, you have to be real and understand the science of what’s going on—whether it could be your blood pressure, your heart, your kidneys. To this day, I think this had a major effect on me and how I view my health.”
In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Hayes III about the show. At the time, Hayes III offered a similar perspective. “Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park; someone quit South Park for him,” Hayes III said in 2016. “What happened was that in January 2006 my dad had a stroke and lost the ability to speak. He really didn’t have that much comprehension, and he had to relearn to play the piano and a lot of different things. He was in no position to resign under his own knowledge. 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.”
“We sort of figured out the whole picture a bit later,” Matt Stone said in response, “but that’s totally what happened.”
