Post #615809 by quickiki on Wed, Nov 30, 2011 3:11 PM

I'm a huge fan of Chris Isaak as well. When I first moved to Stockton, one of the first friends I had was a girl by the name of Lori, whom I worked with and was also a close childhood friend and sometimes roommate of Chris. My wife and I socialized with her a lot and she was always trying to introduce me to Chris, a struggling musician at the time because she wanted him to see some of my work (I was a struggling illustrator and graphic artist at the time as well), but as luck would have it, our paths never seemed to cross. Lori also worked as a cocktail waitress after her nine to five job at you guessed it, the Islander. She would invite her gang of buddies over there when she worked at the place, although I never did run into him (at least there). He definitely has ties to the place though, and I'm sure Lori fronted him many drinks when she worked the at the Islander. Lori in fact, was there when the placed closed and would often lament to me how she was screwed out of her wages when they locked the doors.

Chris even revealed his tiki side when he was selling T-shirts at some of his early shows with his name superimposed over Moari Easter Island head graphics. I later learned it was probably an homage to an apartment building near UOP (in Stockton) that had huge 12' faux pumice stone Moari heads at its entrance. I think they may even still be in existance, but the hood over there is a little sketchy these days.