Chris Isaak Mourns David Lynch: ‘A Friend When I Needed One’
Chris Isaak shared an emotional tribute to David Lynch on Friday, a day after the legendary director died at age 78.
“I knew he was sick but I hoped he might make a comeback,” Isaak wrote on X. “I feel lucky for all the time I got to spend with him, he was one of a kind. He was so smart, so creative, and he had a way of being very honest and direct that reminded me of how kids say things…innocent without doubletalk or bumpers.”
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Isaak has long been associated with Lynch, with several of his songs featured in his movies including Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart. While the more well-known music video for Isaak’s “Wicked Game” was directed by Herb Ritts and famously featured supermodel Helena Christensen, Lynch included the track in Wild at Heart and directed the song’s first video, which was commissioned for the film’s VHS release.
“I couldn’t get the money to make a video and David stepped in, directed, and got the ball rolling,” Isaak wrote. “He was a friend when I needed one.”
After hearing the song on Wild at Heart, Lee Chesnut, a fan of Lynch’s films and a radio station music director in Atlanta, began to play the song, which would lead to the sleeper hit catapulting to Number Six on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991.
“Visionary film maker David Lynch and Atlanta radio music director Lee Chesnut make an odd couple. But they have one thing in common,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1991 as “Wicked Game” broke out. “Last fall they were probably the only two people in America who thought Chris Isaak’s moody ‘Wicked Game’ was a hit song.”
Isaak himself was also given a role as Chester Desmond in Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me back in 1992. The singer finished his tribute on Friday with a story of when he gifted Lynch a paintball gun after he finished filming Fire Walk With Me.
“He took a few practice shots and somebody bet him he couldn’t hit a wall clock at the far end of the set. He suddenly got very serious, focused, and BAM! Bullseye,” Isaak wrote. “I kind of carry that picture of him focused and hitting a bullseye. He was an amazing guy. I really liked him a lot. I think I’m gonna always miss him. Nobody like him.”
Isaak is one of many celebrities paying homage to Lynch after his death, with others including Stephen Spielberg, Nicholas Cage, and Naomi Watts.
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