Chris Isaak loves his job, valley heat and shiny suits

Chris Isaak believes when you have a job, you put on a suit and show up on time.

It’s a simple philosophy that has kept the singer and his long-running band, Silvertone, gainfully employed for the past 30 years. Granted, his suits tend to be studded in rhinestones and mirrors. And showing up on time means going on stage in front of throngs of fans. But still, it’s work Isaak – a born-and-raised Stockton native – said he tries his best every time he stands before an audience.

“My job is so unimportant; if I sing a bad note, nobody dies. But, honestly, I take what I do as seriously – not myself – but I take the show as seriously as if I was doing surgery,” he said. “Think about what are we are wearing, what are our dance steps, is this song working, is that song working. I always love that about the show and the band. That’s the idea, when we get people to come to a show it starts on time, the band looks sharp and we’re having fun.”

Isaak brings that professional attitude and fun-loving demeanor to his Turlock Community Theatre show Sunday, Sept. 11. His show comes on the heels of his latest studio album, “First Comes the Night,” released last fall. The “Wicked Game,” “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing” and “Somebody’s Crying” singer has been writing songs since he was 12 years old and growing up in Central Valley. The performer and Stockton go way back. He grew up the son of two factory workers in the port city where his grandparents and great-grandparents also lived.

He remembers crisscrossing the valley as a kid, going from Modesto to Tracy to French Camp and Turlock and Galt. He also worked across the region doing everything from farm labor to roofing.

“I’m a Stocktonian at heart, you know,” he said. “That town has so many memories for me. And every one of the little towns around Stockton we explored; most of the time that’s as far as our car would make it. People ask me: ‘What are some of your favorite places to play?’ And I go, ‘Oh man, like you can go through Tracy and Lodi.’ They say, ‘But those are just small areas.’ Yeah, but they’re fun. I am from Stockton. So when I go to someplace and it’s hot and flat and dry and has plenty of parking, I love that.”

Of course, Isaak has lived in San Francisco – home of hills and fog and always carrying a light jacket – for years now. But he gets back to Stockton often to check on his elderly mother who still lives there and do things around the house for her. He has just returned from cleaning out her garage and closets. He said going home is always a reminder that no matter how big a rock star he thinks he might be, his mom is always there to put him in his place and probably make him take out the garbage.

Earlier this summer, Isaak also celebrated his own milestone – he turned 60 in June. He said he doesn’t think too much about getting older himself, but he’s worried about those he loves: his 85-year-old mother and his 13-year-old Maltese among them.

“The only thing that makes me sad about getting older is I watch my folks get older. You can see time whittles at you,” he said. “Sometimes you just want people to keep going because you love them so much. Myself, I’m just blessed. I’ve got my teeth, my hair, my health.”

He credits his own spryness on good habits. He said he never got into the stereotypical rock star trap of nonstop drinking and partying. He said he “never smoked dope, never smoked a cigarette a day in my life” and runs, jogs or exercises in some way nearly every day.

And while he never married or had kids, he has kept his relationship with his bandmates in Silvertone going for 31 years. He said he has thought a lot about what has kept them together. Sure, they also all enjoy the music and laugh at each other’s jokes. But that shared familial background is what helps the most.

“All of them came from blue-collar fathers. All of them were broke or sort of broke. My dad worked in a box factory. All our dads had tools and second jobs and were just working guys. We saw our dads get up at 5 o’clock in morning and work two jobs,” he said. “When we became musicians, we thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, we got the keys to the castle. We get to wear a suit and stand on stage.’ From the beginning, all of us have been very protective of what we have because this is the best job ever, and it shows.”

Besides his hard-charging tour and new album, Isaak found himself back on TV last year. The crooner was a judge on the reality competition “The X-Factor: Australia.” The first-time judge ended up being the winning mentor, when his team member Cyrus Villanueva took the grand prize. Isaak said he agreed to be a judge on the show because reality TV has become the new nightclub for many acts – a forum to get discovered.

“I never thought of TV as a place where talent was discovered. But it’s a new world for people 15, 20, 25; social media and television is kind of the equivalent of what nightclubs were for me,” he said. “I would consider doing it again because I had a great experience.”

But, have no fear, the showman has no plans to hang up his 35-pound mirrorball jacket anytime soon. He said going out in colorful, crazy suits is part of what makes him love his job.

“It’s so much fun to walk out in that ridiculous suit and have people say, ‘Oh, my god, I can’t believe this idiot is wearing that,’ ” he said. “There are other jobs I could have had in my life, but I picked perfectly. I feel like we’re the last of the Vaudeville 1920s show. You get on a bus with 15-16 guys, drive all night, get there and dress up in ridiculously fancy suits. I look like I raided Liberace’s closet. Get on stage and have a ball. Get on the bus and eat dinner at 11 o’clock. It’s a strange lifestyle, but I’ve done it my whole life – touring the world with my best friends and having a party. I can’t think of anything finer.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2016 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Chris Isaak loves his job, valley heat and shiny suits."