CHRIS ISAAK - ISAAK TRIED TO SAVE CO-STAR RENFRO

ISAAK TRIED TO SAVE CO-STAR RENFRO

CHRIS ISAAK tried to coax troubled actor BRAD RENFRO into rehab shortly before the tortured star died from a drug overdose at the beginning of 2008.
The singer/actor teamed up with Renfro and Mickey Rourke on the set of forthcoming movie The Informers and could tell his young co-star was in trouble in the weeks and months leading up to his death.
Isaak tells WENN, "The sad part is Brad's gone. It was really horrible for me. Brad was a guitar player too and we were in Uruguay hanging out during filming and playing music.
"I'm a guy who's never done a drug in his life; I don't smoke or drink or anything, but Brad was partying really hard. I never put my two cents in but I pulled him aside and I said, 'Brad, you want to know what people say about you when you leave the room? They say you're a great guy, you're a great actor and the third thing they say is and when is he gonna be dead?'
"I said, 'You're in pain, man and I can see it in your face. If you don't get something to kill the pain besides booze or dope you're gonna be dead!' I said, 'Get some help, you're too nice a guy.'"
And Isaak still remembers the last time he saw Renfro, just two weeks before his death.
He recalls, "We were standing in the hotel lobby in Uruguay having this conversation and he put his arms around me and just hugged me. I never talk to people like.
"A couple of weeks later he was found dead. When it happened I felt so sad. There was a recent montage of all the people who died in the past year on TCM (Turner Classic Movies TV channel) and they had a shot of Brad Renfro. When I saw that, man, I just lost it. He was just this fresh-faced kid."
Renfro, 25, died from an accidental heroin overdose on 15 January, 2008 - a week before Heath Ledger passed away.