Watch as Dan Aykroyd Talks About John Belushi and The Success of THE BLUES BROTHERS

Dan Aykroyd sat down with veteran reporter Dan Rather to talk about his classic 1980 film The Blues Brothers and reflected on what made the movie such a huge success. He also opened up about his friend John Belushi. When talking about Belushi, he said:

“It was tough to lose my partner at that time and and also the way he died. ..it was a good warning to our community, that this could happen… it’s just John played in that arena and that’s dangerous. But he was a wonderful literate man. He knew all about theater and he read books and plays… I often think today that if he was alive he would be probably a director on Broadway, directing plays and and working with the greatest people in theater. I think that’s where he would have been headed.”

When talking about the music that was used in the film, Aykroyd wanted to make sure that they paid respect to the songs. When asked if they were looking to culturally appropriate the songs they used, he said:

“I think it was okay for us to step in there. I don’t think it’s a valid point. The blues is for everyone. There’s so many great blues artists who aren’t African-American but fair enough for people to protect uh the culture against cultural appropriation. But see, we did it in such a spirit of reverence and love for those performers.”

Aykroyd and Belushi also wanted to make sure that the artists were fairly compensated, saying:

Atlantic Records said well, you’re you’re doing all these cover songs, just just offer the the writers a percentage. … just give them 10 grand. ….we’re going to keep mechanical royalties only… The original songwriters they keep their royalties. we ain’t making no special deal.  All the people who wrote the songs in the in the in the show, all of them, got their full publishing because… we loved them, respected them, yeah and we weren’t going to do wrong by them.

You can watch the full video below. Aykroyd offers up some interesting insight! Check it out!