Exclusive Interview: Dan Aykroyd Talks The Blues Brothers, His New Audible Series, & “SNL” In Mardi Gras

Any performer is lucky to have one iconic performance under their belt. Everyone wants something to be identified with. In the case of Dan Aykroyd, he’s got multiple. Of course, Ghostbusters is revered by paranormal, sci-fi, and comedy fans alike. But before all of that, it all started with the blues.

Aykroyd has teamed up with Audible to talk about the iconic Blues Brothers, which he created alongside his late comedy partner, John Belushi. The new Audible original, Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude, takes audiences on a deep dive of all things Blues Brothers, featuring recollections from those who were there including Jim Belushi, Paul Shaffer, Curtis Salgado, John Landis, Steve Jordan, Judy Belushi Pisano, and John Belushi himself in a never-before-heard interview. 

Fans will get to learn about how the duo went all the way back to the 1970’s, pre-Saturday Night Live. They’ll hear about the band’s formation with the best musicians in the world, their debut on the iconic sketch show, their platinum album Briefcase Full of Blues, the iconic 1980 film, and the legacy. In fact, on August 17th, Aykroyd and Jim Belushi are teaming up for a day of fun at the second annual Blues Brothers Convention at Joliet prison - as seen in the movie.

We recently spoke to Aykroyd about the Audible original, the upcoming festival, the first draft of the film, his partnership with John Belushi, the legacy of the duo, the iconic opening, and the time SNL went to Mardi Gras.

Before we start, I’m from Wauconda, Illinois, where you shot part of the movie. Of course you’re Canadian, but Chicago in general is very proud of The Blues Brothers connection. They worship the film and those characters. So whenever you go back, does it feel like an adopted city for you?

Well, it feels like they’ve adopted me. I got my H1 working visa there when I went to Second City in 1974. I also got steeped in the blues scene then and began to kind of explore the music scene and just the dynamic of the city. And of course fell in love with it through the association with Second City. Judy and John and I worked on the characters, and they bestowed upon me the mantle of Elwood Blues.

So I do feel like the city has embraced me, almost as much as being a Belushi. I’m just a little tick below that. I do feel it when I go back there, and I’m excited about August 17th where we’re going to be at the Blues Brothers Fest at Joliet Prison.

That must be fun getting to connect with fans at your own convention.

It was. Everybody turned out with glasses, hats. There was some Blues Mobiles there. The Mount Prospect Police Department brought the Blues Mobile as it would’ve look d as a police unit in its time before Elwood bought it at auction. They had a whole setup there that was food vendors and we were able to have some great guest stars onstage. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be really fun this year.

Tell me about how this Audible project came to be. Because I think it works really well in the oral history format, having everyone weigh in. And you sort of spearhead it.

I like narrating and I like doing Audible projects. I’ve narrated some interesting things. But I didn’t conceive of it. Amazon Audible came to Jimmy Belushi with the idea of doing a story of the Blues Brothers. Jimmy came to me, I kind of took it and ran with it and wrote a much larger story of my life, which the brilliant editors at Audible were able to condense. And they did such a good job of putting in interviews and music. I haven’t heard all of it completed, but I’ve heard a good part of it. Enough of it to applaud their efforts.

So it was really a commission from Audible. They came to Jimmy and me. And I wound up taking it over and telling my story about meeting John and building The Blues Brothers. Of course, Jimmy’s in there for interviews. But it didn’t occur to me to do it. Somebody came to me as a creative suggestion.

There’s so much I want to ask about it, but first I do want to extend my sincerest condolences about the loss of Judy Belushi a week ago. 

Yes, well we would’ve loved to have had her longer. But she was ready to cross. And she wanted to cross and it was her time to go, considering all of the horror she had been through in her medical challenge in the last four years I think it was. She hung on. Judy was one of the three in the tripod of the structure of The Blues Brothers. Let’s take the analogy of the Blues Mobile. Judy was the third wheel, with the band being the fourth. John, myself, Judy, and the band. That’s the wheels on the Blues Mobile.

Judy helped conceive of the whole concept creatively in terms of the writing. Where they came from, their legend, Catholicism, the outfits, the suits, the inspiration for that. She did that brilliant book on The Blues Brothers that flip book that had all the great graphics in it. She was really the Blues sister. We could not have done it without her. It wouldn’t be the movie or project or organ of cultural preservation that it is today if it weren’t for Judy.

I love that. And how long did it take you two to feel comfortable to keep The Blues Brothers going after John Belushi passed in a way that would be respectful? Did it take you some time to figure that out?

That was tough. We lost John, and it was like “Well, that’s it. All the music’s over. I’ll never get to play with this band again. Well, he’ll never get to play with this band again first. I’ll never get to play. No more dancing. No more fun.” And then Isaac Tigrett, the founder of Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues, came to me and Judy and said “Look, the Blues Brothers is still valid as a band and as a wonderful touchstone to this culture we all love with songs that nobody sings but The Blues Brothers. So he arranged for House of Blues to get a license from us, which we granted to open House of Blues.

Just prior to that, he said “Why don’t you bring the band and open the Hard Rock in New York?”. I thought “What band am I going to bring?” He said “You call it the Elwood Blues Revue and you bring the old band and you bring musicians and guest artists and open the 57th street Hard Rock.” So we did. And there I am, backstage. I’ve got my old band. I’ve got artists and guests. I wore a blue suit, shades, no hat. And I thought “I’m going to go out here and do this alone. It’s going to die. It’s going to bomb like the Hindenburg.” So I go out there, the music starts, the band starts, I start singing. The material is so good, the band is so good. Then I start to bring my guests up. People went crazy. They loved it. So here I was doing it again.

I opened for Chuck Berry at the Hard Rock in Dallas. Then Carlton University - my old alma mater in Ottawa - asked me to come back and do a benefit. I brought the band, I called Jimmy up and I said “I need a partner, man. You’ve got to come in as John’s blood brother, Brother Zee. The Albanian prince that we found under a rock. You’re going to come in and you’re going to sing and dance and play. “I can’t do that. I can’t do that.” Meanwhile, he’s at a gig the other night. We’re on the road. So he came. We rehearsed, he was great. We played the Government Opera House in Ottawa, the National Arts Center. For the university, full house. And we ripped the roof off. It burned the rafters off the place and here Jimmy was anointed as John’s blood brother Zee.

And so brother Zee is now my partner and I’m his. And again we’re playing August 17th. I’ve got another gig in Dallas. There’s a big demand for our top line R and B revue.

In the Audible show, you talk about how the original draft of the film was over 300 pages.

I wrote it and a sequel. They say a script is 150 pages, really an ideal screenplay is 120-125. I wrote Return of the Blues Brothers, 150 and 150. I wanted to get in everything about the Blues Brothers that I could. Anything we could jam in there. There were scenes where we rehearsed in a toxic neighborhood where the entire neighborhood had to be abandoned like Times Beach, Missouri because of toxic waste. So we took over a deluxe bungalow there to practice. I had a scene on Highway 90 where things were coming off trucks and the Blues Mobile was dodging. I put everything in that I could.

And then Landis, the brilliant director - a true artist with a deep understanding of what movies were from the very beginning - he took it and he shaped that script down and that’s what we ended up working with for my rewrite and then our joint rewrite to get to the shooting draft we had. Landis - because he’s such a brilliant filmmaker and just knows movies and the references and the pacing of a movie - he really shaped it into what we shot either my rewrites.

When you watch the film now, do you get the sense that you miss anything from that first draft of yours? Anything you truly wish was in there?

Well, I liked parking the Blues Mobile where the electric bus transformer was. And I think there’s an extended version of it. It’s an indicator of how the Blues Mobile gets its power. How it’s getting infused with this bath of electric magnetic. So I think there’s an extended version where Elwood parks the Blues Mobile next to the bus transformer in a little shed. And then there’s also a part where Elwood is at work. His job is in a shaving cream factory. And Landis’ mother played the woman on the line. And I believe it’s the only cut where Elwood has no shades. So I’m there with the safety glasses and Landis’ mother is there down the line with her hairnet. And I take the shaving cream, I put it in lick it and eat the shaving cream. But of course, it was whip cream.

So those two I think they’re in the extended version. I’m glad they’re in there. Those two I did miss in the first movie. And also, I wanted to stay on John Lee Hooker longer. I wanted another two minutes with him. And I thought Landis cut that a little quickly.

I just saw the movie again a week ago, and it had a great crowd. One moment that I wanted to ask about that really resonated was the opening titles where you two stand opposite and give eachother a hug. It says everything you need to know about these guys without exchanging words, and I want to ask about the genesis of that iconic shot.

Well thank you. Of course the movie opens with that view of Calumet City and the prison. That scene where John and I hug was shot in LA much later than the prison sequence. We shot it in LA on a stage. I think you could say that was just Landis and I and the writing and wanting to make sure that the audience knew that there was a love affair between these brothers. I’m very proud of the harmonica that I played in She Caught the Katy. That’s my recording. And I thought the harmonica was pretty good in it, if I do say so myself. And our band - including in that song - was wonderful as well.

I watched the movie a while back, maybe when I started doing this project. Just the scene where we’re leaving Bob’s Country Bunker and they’re saying we’ve got to pay for all of the beer. John’s performance there is just exquisite. “Well, when we have these circumstances, I usually go to the car and I have a check and I write it out on the dashboard,” and he’s so correct. We get in there and we go. God, he was good in it. Just beautiful. Superb actor. Great performer. And my buddy for 8 years.

You two were so perfect together. And finally, I wanna ask an SNL question. I’ve always been fascinated about the time you guys all went to Mardi Gras with the show, especially you kicking things off as Jimmy Carter on that horse statue. What do you remember about that?

Well, I remember they didn’t wanna let me on that statue. And I think that we stole that [shot]. The city did not want me on there. And then John as Mussolini. [Tom] Davis and I and  all the writers, [Alan] Zweibel, we used the city so beautifully in that thing. Now it was a failure because somebody got mad at Lorne and held the parade up. Or somebody didn’t get paid off. Some Louisiana geopolitics thing that prevented the parade. There was never a parade. It was all about kicking to the parade.

But there’s some great scenes in that movie.  We wired the French Quarter for live television. Never been done before. And I had a Harley to get John and I back from scene to scene. It was fun. But I remember they didn’t want me on the horse. They thought it was irreverent. It was [a statue of] Andrew Jackson. He can kiss my ass, racist mother….

Was that a fun week? You guys are these brand new stars at the time.

One of the best weeks of our lives. Lorne may not say so, because they held the parade. But one of the best weeks of my life. I had a Harley. I had a beautiful local girlfriend there who was wonderful. We had the run of the town, working with great collaborators and writers. Really using the city. The cabildo there, perfect for the scene with John. Carter in the horse, perfect. All of it was well done.