Dan Aykroyd Reveals How He and John Belushi Changed Lorne Michaels' Mind After He 'Didn't Dig' the Blues Brothers

A series of fortunate events brought the movie to life, Aykroyd reveals in a new Audible Original

The Blues Brothers is a literal joy ride, but the road to make the classic 1980 film was not quite so carefree.

In a new Audible Original Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude, writer and star Dan Aykroyd tells the history of the movie — plus the music and Saturday Night Live sketch that inspired it all — along with colleagues and collaborators Jim Belushi, Paul Shaffer, Curtis Salgado, John Landis, Steve Jordan and Judy Belushi Pisano (plus recordings from late friend and costar, John Belushi).

"I hope people take away the emotion of the love story between John and myself," Aykroyd, 72, tells PEOPLE. "But also laughs and knowledge, and inspiration that you can still keep doing something you love."

The concept of the Blues Brothers itself was born of Aykroyd's deep love for Blues music, which he imparted on Belushi. The two went on to create the characters of Jake and Elwood, who'd pop up on stages and jam. It was from there that they further developed the characters, and eventually attempted to get them onto the SNL stage during their time on the inaugural season of the show.

"It wasn't a bit exactly that they were doing," John's late wife Judy Belushi Pisano says via Audible. "It's often referred to, the Blues Brothers, as developed from a skit on Saturday Night Live. And, you know, that's really just not true."

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SNL producer Lorne Michaels "didn't dig it," SNL and Blues Brothers saxophonist Lou Marini says via Audible of the initial Blues Brothers sketch. "And then, one of the shows late in the season, they were short, and he said, 'You guys want to do your silly song? Go ahead and do it.' And so we did it on the show and it was a tremendous hit — people just went crazy for it."

From there, Aykroyd and Belushi would tour as a musical act, the Blues Brothers, along with a talented group of musicians and an ever-growing following. They even released an album, 1978's Briefcase Full of Blues, that went double platinum.

Eventually for director John Landis, a movie — penned in part by Aykroyd — made sense.

"John and Danny have the number one album in the country, they're on the number one TV show [SNL] in the country and John's the star of the biggest movie in the world, Animal House, all at the same time," Landis shares via Audible. "The idea of doing a movie was really for me, with the connivance of a Universal Studios executive named Sean Daniel."

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Aykroyd's memories from filming are crystal clear: a scene with the inimitable Aretha Franklin is among the highlights, he tells PEOPLE.

"The day we shot 'Think,' the playback starts and she starts to move and sing," he recalls. "I'm supposed to lift up off the stool and begin going with the choreography. But I was hit with a wave in my stomach of pheromones and endorphins — it was like falling in love. I couldn't move; I was paralyzed with the exhilaration of the moment."

Though he wanted to call "Cut," he stopped himself.

"I was floored by looking at this amazing woman sing, what we were about to do, the music, being able to dance with her and celebrate and venerate this music that we loved as kids and beyond. But I got up and I did it."

The Audible project also opened the door to less happy memories, like the day Belushi died in 1982. Aykroyd received the sad call from agent Bernie Brillstein, and "my first impulse was to find Judy as soon as possible, running down the entire length of Fifth Avenue to their townhouse on Morton Street," he recounts via Audible. "Arriving at Judy's house, I burst in and saw that she was standing at her fridge and did not know yet."

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"Having to tell Judy that John was gone, that I'll never forget. That's a piece of trauma that will be with me forever," Aykroyd tells PEOPLE. (Judy died on July 5, 2024.) "I lament that he's not around. It's more than wistfulness: it's a true lamentation. Losing him set me back for a full year, but then I just wanted to go on and do more work and carry on."

But a small silver lining came along with the Audible Original, too: "I loved hearing John speak again," Aykroyd says. "He was a very sensitive and honest performer."

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It's such performances that have kept his memory alive — a note touched upon in the Audible Original.

"The legacy of the band is that it turned a generation or two onto the Blues itself, onto Rhythm and Blues, and onto some of these great artists that the younger generation didn't know about," saxophonist Marini says via Audible. "And it really did. It, it really, I can truly say that it was instrumental, no pun intended, in getting the word out about this music. There's no question about it."

Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude is available exclusively on Audible now.

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