Academy, Grammy-winning songwriter, singer of 'Shaft' and 'Hot Buttered Soul'

MEMPHIS, TENN. - Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. He was 65.

A family member found him unresponsive near a treadmill and he was pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, according to the sheriff's office. The cause of death was not immediately known.

In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco and urban-contemporary music. And he was rapping before there was rap.

His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

"The treadmill was running but he was unresponsive lying on the floor," Shular said.

The album "Hot Buttered Soul," which made Hayes a star in 1969, was groundbreaking in several ways: He sang in a "cool" style unlike the usual histrionics of big-time soul singers, and he prefaced the song with "raps" and lush arrangements.

Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working with Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone. Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite."

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2.