South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone first crossed paths with singer Isaac Hayes at the 1996 premiere of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. The pair were invited by Mike Judge, who befriended them after seeing their proto-South Park short The Spirit of Christmas. Hayes was in attendance because he contributed a song to the film’s soundtrack, which he also performed that night. Before the evening was over, Judge introduced Hayes to Parker and Stone.

The meeting didn’t lead to anything immediately, but Parker and Stone must’ve had it in the back of their minds when they were looking for someone to do the voice Chef on South Park the following year. In the 1999 documentary Goin’ Down to South Park, Stone said that Hayes was their number one choice, likely because they’d met him and knew they could at least get in touch with him. If Hayes said no, their plan was to try for Barry White or Lou Rawls. Hayes was excited when he first got the call from his agent because he’d been wanting to do voiceover work, but his attitude changed when he heard it was for a late-night cartoon for adults.

He went in to discuss the idea with Parker and Stone without really knowing any details beyond that. They explained to him that he’d be playing the only Black guy in town, who was also a chef who sang songs about sex all the time. Hayes almost walked out, but agreed to read some of the script. The dialogue made him laugh, though he thought for sure they were playing a trick on him by that point. Hayes finally decided that if Parker and Stone were crazy enough to actually go through with making the pilot, he’d go along with them. 

Hayes grew increasingly anxious as the debut episode was about to air, however. He worried about what his friends and family would think, and how it might affect the radio show he was doing at the time. Once the first episode aired to rave reviews, he calmed down quite a bit. Within a couple of weeks, his anxiety completely went away, and he was proudly telling everyone that he was Chef.

He wasn’t the only star to embrace the show in those early days, either. According to former South Park producer Debbie Liebling, both Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise surprisingly wanted to be involved in some fashion. Even Judge, who’d first brought Hayes together with Parker and Stone, was supposed to voice a character in the Season 1 episode “Damien,” but they didn’t have time to edit him in.

Hayes stuck with South Park for nine seasons before quitting due to them taking aim at Cruise and Scientology, interestingly enough.