While the 2001 season of Showtime’s Chris Isaak Show featured cameos by Stevie Nicks, Bret Michaels and Shawn Colvin, next year’s will see Green Day, Everclear’s Art Alexakis, Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins and Shelby Lynne trot on.
Green Day filmed their episode, “The Wrong Number,” in Vancouver, British Columbia, several weeks ago. Although the full details are still under relative wraps, Isaak says that episode finds the punk triad behaving in typically punk fashion.
“They pretty much destroy my amps,” he says. “They wreck my house. I have to throw them out, but [Green Day singer] Billie [Joe Armstrong] and I have a nice moment where we get to play music in the living room. Billie’s jamming with me while the other guys were wrecking my bedroom.”
As for how Bille Joe & Co. handled the pressure of filming, Isaak says, “They were great. Billie did a fantastic job. He cracks me up the most of all. He’s so straight and deadpan.”
Shelby Lynne was equally at ease on the set. “It is the first time I ever acted,” she says. “There’s lines to learn, but it isn’t hard when you’re playing yourself.”
Lynne’s episode, titled “Family Ties,” centers around Isaak expectantly waiting for a gift from his record company, only to have Lynne inform him during a show that he’s getting a chimpanzee.
“We sang one of his songs [a track from Isaak’s next record] and one of my songs, ‘I Can’t Wait,'” Lynne explains. “So my deal was we’re doing a show, and I say, ‘I hear you’re about to get one of those chimps.'”
The Chris Isaak Show follows the sexcapades and rock lifestyle rigors of the Bay Area crooner and his band, Silvertone (Hershel Yatovitz on guitar, Rowland Salley on bass, and Kenney Dale Johnson on drums). The second season’s first episode airs January 6th. Stephan Jenkins’ show, “The Devil Made Me Do It,” airs January 13th, and Green Day’s “Wrong Number” episode follows two weeks later on January 27th. Lynne’s “Family Ties” and Alexakis’ “Duty Calls” will air in mid-February.
