Editing Isaac Hayes (section)

==Early life==
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was born in [[Covington, Tennessee]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/303900/isaac-hayes/biography|title=Isaac Hayes – Biography &#124; Billboard|website=Billboard.com}}</ref> the second child of Eula (''née'' Wade) and Isaac Hayes Sr.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/84/Isaac-Hayes.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402021304/http://www.filmreference.com/film/84/Isaac-Hayes.html|url-status=dead|title=Isaac Hayes Biography (1942–)|archive-date=April 2, 2016|website=Filmreference.com}}</ref> After his mother died young and his father abandoned his family, Hayes was raised by his maternal grandparents,<ref name=Post20080810>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081001405.html |title=Isaac Hayes; Created Memphis Sound, 'Theme From Shaft' |work=Washingtonpost.com |date= August 11, 2008|access-date=September 11, 2010 | first=Joe | last=Holley}}</ref> Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade Sr. The child of a [[sharecropper]] family, Hayes grew up working on farms in the Tennessee counties of [[Shelby County, Tennessee|Shelby]] and [[Tipton County, Tennessee|Tipton]]. At age five, Hayes began singing at his local church and he taught himself to play the piano, Hammond organ, flute, and saxophone.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Hayes dropped out of high school, but his former teachers at [[Manassas High School]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] encouraged him to complete his diploma, which he did at the age of 21. After graduating from high school, Hayes was offered several music scholarships from colleges and universities. He turned down all of them to provide for his immediate family, working at a meat-packing plant in Memphis by day and playing nightclubs and [[juke joint]]s several evenings a week in Memphis and nearby northern [[Mississippi]].<ref name=Post20080810/> Hayes's first professional gigs, in the late 1950s, were as a singer at Curry's Club in North Memphis, backed by [[Ben Branch]]'s houseband.{{sfn|Bowman|1997|p=[https://archive.org/details/soulsvilleusasto00bowm/page/53 53]}}