[music] Now back to the Pete McMurray show. Here's Pete Lisa. Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi will be appearing at Blue's Brothers Con. Held at the old Joliet prison for info, go to jolietmuseum.org. Let's welcome in, old clues. It is Dan Aykroyd. How are you, brother? I can't complain living in the Western world, considering what's going on everywhere else. I'm very grateful. My whole attitude of life, I've got the attitude of gratitude. The thing is, you know, guys, nobody's doing this music anymore. You just don't hear these songs anymore by these great artists, Willie Dixon, Winony Harris, Joe Turner. Our band is culturally preserving this music and delivering it. And it's such an honor, a privilege, and a joy to be able to do it. After 40 years of wearing the suit and doing the fake Chicago accent. [laughter] Listen, my Chicago accent is so thick that I'm totally going to get you ready for the show. Isn't there something magical though about being with great musicians on stage? Like, we have heard so much over-modulated, over-computer music that we forget that, like, a live horn section can change your life. I have four horns in the band right now, and every one of my players are. They're either Grammy-nominated, or they've won Grammys, or they produce records. They're everyone's an all-star. And that really was the strength of the Blues Brothers, because, you know, John and I went out there as Jimmy and I do, and we're clowns. We're dancing around, and we're seeing these funny lyrics and interacting with the audience. But the real strength is the musicians. And that's why the Blues Brothers work, because the music was real, the musicians were real. When we had Cropper and Dunn in there, you know, they were Otis Redding's guitar players. I had Matt Murphy. He played with many waters, and, you know, I got Tony Bronigal on drums, who is the Phantom Blues band. He produces Taj Mahal's records. So we have real musicians playing real music, and that's what makes it work. And I think the front man, or the weakest component of the act. [laughter] How did you find the original band back in the day? How did you recruit these guys and say, "Hey, I know we're on Saturday, night show. We're thinking about doing this." Well, I have a book out, a podcast, actually. It's on Audible Original, Amazon Audible Original. You can get it. It's called The Arc of Gratitude. And I do tell that story. I think, you know, Tom Malone, our music arranger, who was, of course, bones in the movie and played on the SNL band, and Paul Schafer, were really the instigators in terms of us recruiting great players. Now, we had Marini and Malone and Reuben, the horn players, from the SNL band, and they were the best session men in New York at the time. And then Schafer and Malone suggested, "Why don't you call Cropper and Dun?" And John and I looked at each other, "Oh, yeah." Like the Stax Volt, the backbone of Stax Volt, those two guys are going to join us, sure. But when we laid out what we were doing, the material we wanted to do, how we were going to treat these venerable artists, venerate them, and celebrate them, they signed on, and that then we became the Blues Brothers. And that's what really was, what formed this spectacular Superman. Of course, we had Steve Jordan, who was spectacular teenage drummer. He was 19 when he joined the band, and he was in the SNL band. And he drove us to great heights. He's now with the Stones. Oh, that's right. I mean, who came up with the Blues Brothers back in the day? Was it you or John Belushi or both of you guys out one night saying, "Hmm, we should do this." Well, he came up to Toronto to recruit for National Lampoon. He grabbed Gilda, but he didn't grab me because I had a nice life going in Toronto. I had my own car, my own motorcycle. I was running a booze can, you know, and it was really fun. And I didn't want to leave. He did get Gilda. And so that one night, the first night he came, we were at my booze can. It was like three in the morning. We were listening to music. And I was playing down child blues band, which is a local Toronto band. And he said, "I really like that music." And he was like, "Well, John, you're from Chicago here. Home of the Blues." He said, "Well, I mean, you know, I'm into heavy metal, grandfunk and cream and all that." And I said, "Well, you know, this is something that you could do. You'll conquer. You could certainly sing this music." And sort of that night we decided, "Yeah, maybe we should look into this music and put something together where we get to play and sing it." And, "Oh, it's sort of evolved from that first night." Now, the look of the Blues Brothers is obviously men in black, IRS agents, Hispanic diamond merchants. Lenny Bruce Wallace said, "You know, you've got to wear a tie and a jacket to look for..." You know, so you look straight for the straights. The hat and glasses are from John Lee Hooper's House of the Blues. And the idea of two Catholic guys who were outcasts coming from Calumet City, which is in some areas of distressed industrial quadrant of the city. It just all kind of came together in the myth that endures today. And now, Jimmy is not -- he doesn't go out as Jake. He goes out as brother Z, Zoroshida, who is a long-lost Albanian brother of Jake. That's the myth. Why is Albanian -- it's like, as soon as you say Albanian, it just makes a new amount of giggle. Why is that country so funny? Well, maybe it was the name of their king for a while. King Zog. That really is. King Zog. And it's kind of been a -- it's a country that's been kind of squished together between capitalism and communism, you know, since the '30s. Of course, it was a Soviet satellite. Can you tell that this guy works with the history channel? He knows his stuff. Oh, yeah. I know he knows his stuff. And, you know, the city of Albany, New York, it's called Albany because it was founded by Albanians. And there are a lot of Albanian immigrants in America. It's under -- and, yeah, you have this. When you associate the Belushi's, John and Jim with Albania, well, that makes me laugh. [ Laughter ] We're talking with Dan Akroyd. What was the last time you've been back to old Joliet prison? And how many times have you been there in your lifetime? Well, we shot there. Well, we were there two years ago. We did the concert. Yep. I drove by shortly after it was closed just to take a look at it. But the day we shot it, you know, it was a fully operating prison at that time. And it felt like kind of a college campus with inmates and denim walking with briefcases and books under their arms, you know, taking courses. It was a very quiet college campus. And believe me, we were anything but mirthful when we shot that scene. John was in a cell with three other guides. There were four to a cell at Joliet at that time. And he was in with real inmates. We didn't even know what they -- what they'd done to get there. But we put him in there and shot the scene with two or three other real inmates. And that kind of turned to a sense of reality a bit. And we were very respectful of that space. Now we can go just have a great time. And I must say, everybody out there, if you can come to the Joliet prison on the -- for the concert, there's lots of room. Like you're not going to be crowded. We had 8,000 people there. And there's all kinds of blues, brothers, displays, people dress up. But again, it comes down to that music. When are you going to hear -- you're not going to hear it on the radio. You're not going to hear a flip-flop and fly on the radio. You know, you're not going to hear a rubber biscuit or a mystery train or some of these great songs we do on the radio. You just don't anymore. If you want to hear that music, come and hear us play. If you have kids in the family that play drums or harmonica or guitar. We have the finest musicians on the planet. We have one of the top R&B reviews in the world. It really, when it comes to your town, it's not to be missed. And you'll walk away quite happy. And it is a family thing, please. There are very few people. Even though it's in a prison, it is safe for children. Yes. That's right. Yes. Well, I wouldn't go into the cell blocks. They're kind of a little hazard. But we'll be in the yard, you see, why wide open in the open yard. So, you know, we need a distraction. Look at what's going on in the world all over the place. And in your own country and where I have my summer home in Canada, where I was born, there's all kinds of strife and turmoil and economic troubles. And, you know, come on, we need distraction. This is a beautiful night. Bring the family. Bring people who play drummers guitar. I mean, you're going to get a lesson. Dan, back to the movie for a second. I have a sister that's a sister. And we call her the penguin when she gets to town. Now, the penguin just landed the penguins on her way to Mom's house. So we call our sister, the sister, the penguin. She is a hero in my view. And I think that women now today represent the best of the Catholic church. The last time we saw each other was a few months ago at Wonderverse, the Sony Wonderverse, and the people that showed up in Ghostbusters gear and outfits and the cars and the parking lot, they had the Ghostbusters mobile. I mean, Frozen Empire now on demand was bigger than big. This franchise will go on forever. Well, lots of the Sony pictures, certainly Jason and I would do more of them. But that's up to them to decide. You know, I was very sorry about Wonderverse. What happened was I wanted to spend more time with all of the Ghostbusters fans, but these professional autograph collectors pushed their way forward. About a dozen of them. And Elbow, all of the Ghostbusters fans, with kids and families aside, to get their material signed so they could sell it on the Internet. Well, I'll not be signing for any collectors at Joliet. I'll be doing my show and delivering that entertainment. And that's it. No, I don't. I really didn't like that. I was very inconsiderate and it made me leave early. So, I'm sorry about that. Keep it up to Wonderverse. It's a great display. And of course, I believe they're still serving Crystal Head Vodka, the Canadian maid Vodka. It has no blister. I had no sugar. No vomiting. It's clean. Everything in moderation. And if you're going to drink vodka, don't drink vodka that has junk in it. 35 a shot. Maybe a little more. And it's, we have a great female demographic. It's calorie friendly. What is it? It's great music that's happening. Do you have a song that just gets you going more than the rest? I haven't looked at the bill. I was like, shake your money maker. I don't know who's going to be doing that. I don't know who's going to be doing whether that's going to be done. Of course, some of the songs in our show, B-Movie, the Delbert McLinton song, the movie boxcar blues. You should play it there if you can find it in your database. It's a great song. And then we do classic old blues stuff. 300 pounds of muscle and joy. 300 pounds. Yeah, yeah, we do that and every song I just love. And we have the superb harmonica player, Jimmy Wood with us. And then we've got just great players, you know, on the keyboard. I love the Hammond B3. We have a Hammond B3, three horns, two guitar players. It's an outstanding band. And it just gives me excitement and adrenaline shock. Even think that I can get to play with them again. What a privilege. What an honor. I'm so grateful. And John and I, we never took any royalties from publishing royalties. Like if a guy was writing a wrote a song that we wanted to record, shake a tail feather, for instance, for the movie, you know, we were offered publishing rights for very low dollars. All the estate will take this. All the artists will take a little cash now that sell that off. You know, well, no. We decided to go out there, sell several million records and let them get the publishing royalties. We never took that. We only took mechanical performance royalties on those records. We bought no publishing. We left them in the hands of the original artists or the original estates to enjoy the big record sales that briefcase full of blues brought. And, you know, those are people made thousands and thousands of dollars there. Right. That was a monster album sold like three and a half million copies, one of the best of all time. Damn, we got to take a quick break. When we come back, we have a backup singer for the Blues Brothers band. Our guest is Dan Aykroy. He'll be performing with the Blues Brothers at the old Joliet prison. More with Dan on the way. More of a Pete McMurray show next. ♪ Back to the Pete McMurray show. Here's Pete and Lisa. Our guest is Elwood Blues, Dan Aykroy. He'll be performing with the Blues Brothers at the old Joliet prison. Dan, something you should know. I know you've been performing for 40 years, but Lisa is a trained professional singer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra if you need a backup. Would you like to come and sing money with us at the end of the show? I don't think you need to just classically train some piano to bust in. I'm serious. Drop by. You know, we'd love to have you come. That's what I want. It's the verse that you would say. It sounds like you're all over the place. Yeah, I know. I know. That's why I'm on the couch because I'm exhausted. Dan, this year... No, driving to the gig, just like Chuck Berry used to do. You know, he drove up to the hard rock in Dallas. Supreme Court of Rock and Roll that we opened before House of Blues with Isaac Tigris. And he drove up. And Isaac and I met him outside. He said, "I need some lunch. I need some lunch." So we served him lunch. And then Isaac said, "Bring him this bag." And I brought him a bag. And then it was 10,000 cash. And I put it on the kilo. And then I started in too much. Mr. Berry, you cannot believe the influence. I didn't get three words in. He says, "Get out of here. Go empty yourself. Get out of here." It's amazing. And so... But I got to do great things with House of Blues, of course, with my jam, with Little Richard. Can't imagine. Yeah, I'm driving. Driving down there, driving to the gig, no flying, no trains, no buses. I'd be driving myself. I love this. That's something that people don't know. You're going to drive from Canada to the old Jolie prison and just pull up. I am. Yes. Unfortunately, I won't be in a blues mobile. Nor will I be in a 1980 mark Lincoln. He was driving. I was driving a pretty blue mark six Lincoln. I remember that day with oval windows on the back of it. Oh, he was boy. He was handsome, eh? Brown eyed handsome man. He sang about it. He was a good looking man. And what an influence on rock and roll. But all he had to say to me was, "Get out of here. Go at yourself." That's so great, man. Dan, one of my favorite stories that you told years ago was when you were telling a story about filming of the Blues Brothers and you and John were coming home at like four in the morning. You were on State Street, I want to say, and John flagged down a police car. Do you remember this story? Oh, yes, of course. We were walking home from the old town tavern after being hanging at Second City. Yeah, it was late at night. Sure. Sure. Maybe LaSalle Street and we definitely flagged a police car. One of the only ones that was left after we bought a whole lot of stock was destroying the movement. I don't know. I don't know how they, I don't know how they patrol the city of Chicago that summer. Because we had 75 police cars I think we bought, most of them were wrecks, but they're needed somewhere in some neighborhood, aren't they? Yeah, I don't know. He flagged them and just like a taxi and they drove us home with delight. Undelighted everybody. He came across and who came across him. He was an extremely charismatic and magnetic person and it's on the Audible book or podcast book slash Amazon Audible Originals called The Arc of Gratitude. The whole story's in there about how we came to be and how we come to where we are now. And it's a neat journey. And one I was privileged to take. I'm, you know, I'm from Hull Quebec. Yeah. Oh, okay. A mill town that made matches and toilet paper. That's really where I'm fronting for me to come out of that environment and to experience all that I have. I just, I'm really thankful for all the collaborators. I had the musicians, the actors, directors. You know, I'm really sitting back and looking at it and going, you know, it was our right and I have so many people to thank for it. So that's the mode I'm in, right? This fall is the start of the 50th anniversary season of SNL. I'm sure there's going to be a 50th anniversary celebration and I'm sure you're going to be invited. You may even open the show because you were in the original cast. Have you heard anything? Can you share anything about that? Hi. Are you in the bathroom? In February. Excuse me. Sorry. I only know that it's a date in February. Okay. That's all I know. That's all I know. So that's happening. So Lauren calls you up. I'm sure you have a red phone at your house. Lauren calls you up and you pick up the red phone and you take off. Is that how it works? Well, I, you know, let me put it this way. There's a lot of players that have come up since I was on that show. Right. And they are mega stars and they're mega mega comedy talents. I think it's time to kind of put them out front a little more and make them really let them take that next generation. You know, I want to help out if I can, but I have, of course, I have to be invited. And I have not yet been invited because, you know, there's a space and placement problem. Because, you know, these stars come and they've got an entourage of five and they've got family and. Yeah. So, you know, if I can relieve Lauren of that problem by saying I won't bring my 25. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll have, well, you know, I will, I will, I'll celebrate. I'll watch the televised version of it because he's going to, he's going to do two shows, I think, a prime time in a late night. So whether I make it there or not, I sure will be watching, right? And maybe I can call in a Zoom or something. Dan, I just had my high school reunion and I feel like we're having the same conversation I had with myself. I don't know if I should go. Maybe I should go once you're there. And by the way, you were in the original cast 50 years ago, you have to go and you will get invited. But we want to see you there. We want to see how it's. Well, you know, it's nice. It's nice. It's crowded. Eight eight eight can get big, crowded. There's going to be a thousand people associated with, with the whole thing. I don't know. I just right now, I think of myself as, as a tiny man, a tiny little man. But I'm not. I, I, I realize I've passed a mirror, you know, this morning and, you know, I'm at my people bulked up bouncer awake. I'm, I'm huge. I'm big. I got it. Dan Aykra, Jim Belushi, appearing, Blues Brothers, Khan, held at the old Joliet prison. For info, go to jolietmuseum.org. Dan, we love you. It's always great to talk to you, man. Be careful and, uh, come and sing least that you want. I would love to see you. I'm in. I'll drive her. More of The Pete McMurray Show, next. [MUSIC PLAYING]
