AARP (Courtesy Dan Aykroyd)
Dan Aykroyd, 72, and John Belushi became household names as members of the original 1975 Saturday Night Live cast, and further cemented their place in comedy history when they transformed into the characters of Elwood (Aykroyd) and Jake (Belushi) to form the musical duo The Blues Brothers. The act took on a life of its own, and was adapted into a hit 1980 movie that featured legendary musicians Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982, but Aykroyd’s career continued to flourish — including as writer and star of the popular Ghostbusters movie franchise — and he still performs as The Blues Brothers with John’s brother, Jim Belushi. In a new audio documentary available July 25, Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude, Aykroyd chronicles the behind-the-scenes story of the band, and he tells AARP why the project was an emotional undertaking, the inspiration behind Ghostbusters and what he thinks about the current cast of SNL.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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What was it like to walk down memory lane and tell this story?
Well, it was extremely, extremely emotional for me, of course, because I had to sort of relive the moment that I met John, the whole putting the band together, working with these amazing talents, the tour…. Because I had to relive those sensory moments, it was really exhilarating, all of it. And then I had to [relive telling] Judy [John’s wife Judith Belushi Pisano] that John was gone. That part of it always gives me some residual grief. Judy just died [on July 5], and she was really “the Blues sister.” She was the tripod in the whole structure. John and I were the brothers, she was the sister. She devised the clothing with us, the whole myth, the story. She was one of the principal creative writing forces on the movie, and just a great angel of a lady.
In his new audio documentary, available for $6.95 on Amazon, Aykroyd chronicles how he and John Belushi formed The Blues Brothers and came to work with music legends Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Ray Charles on "The Blues Brothers" movie.
Audible
What do you miss most about John?
So many things. Going for shawarma in Times Square, and walking around and seeing him dance. And playing with him onstage, dancing with him, singing with him, having him [visit] in Martha’s Vineyard. He’d come over to my house in the army pants and the Herman motorcycle boots and crash on the couch…. I miss the concerts. But mostly just walking around and seeing him do weird things. Such as [when] we pulled up to a stoplight in Boston after Animal House was huge. We were doing some radio promotion. We pulled up, and John got out of the car at a four-floor elementary school, and he went to the first-floor window and knocked on it [and knocked] all along that row [of windows], and people were coming out and looking. And then they knew who he was from Animal House. And the second floor [windows] opened up, third floor — he had all four floors of these elementary school kids looking down on him and screaming at him. That was fun.
What do you think John would think of the world today?
I don’t think he’d like show business that much. I don’t think he’d like the misalignment of artists by the streaming services who have completely diminished the compensatory value of great creators. He would not like the geopolitics of the world. He would probably try not to concern himself with it. I think John, if he was alive today, would probably be working in New York theater directing, producing, working in a company. He was very literate and he loved theater…. I mean, I only had him for eight years, and then he went through the veil, and I just hope that he was there to pick up [wife] Judy. Not necessarily in a Blues mobile, though, but maybe an old Volvo.
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