Hear John Belushi slam“ ”Blues Brothers music critics in previously unheard interview (exclusive)
The clip comes from Audible’s new series chronicling the history of the band, hosted by Belushi’s bandmate Dan Aykroyd.
Saturday Night Live costars and Blues Brothers bandmates John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd reunite!
Aykroyd revisits the history of the Blues Brothers in the Audible Original Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude, which includes a previously unheard interview with Belushi, who died in 1982. The project also features interviews with the band’s friends and entertainment industry figures, including the late comedian's brother Jim Belushi, longtime musical collaborator Paul Shaffer, and The Blues Brothers film writer-director John Landis.
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John BelushiIn an exclusive preview clip, Belushi talks with music critic Steve Bloom of the Soho Weekly News in New York in 1979. The Animal House star responds to critics who disapproved of his status as a white man occupying a prominent space in the blues, a genre fundamentally tied to African-American history and primarily shepherded by Black artists.
In the audio, Bloom shares unfavorable headlines about the Blues Brothers with Belushi. “I have this stuff in front of me,” the journalist says. “Daily News: ‘Can Belushi sing the whites?’ The Real Paper: ‘Why the Brothers ain’t got no blues.’ How do you respond to all of this?”
“It’s just weird, you know?” Belushi says. “Why would I do these things? The people watching me understand why I do it, and the band members do. The other people — there’s a certain amount of jealousy, I think, involved.... Why do I do what I do? First of all, it has nothing to do with ego, it has nothing to do with money, you know, or the need to be loved by an audience. I don’t have any of those feelings.”
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Bloom then attempts to ask Belushi another question, but the actor interrupts with more thoughts on his critics. “What the f--- do these people think I am, anyway?” Belushi continued. “I can’t f---in’ understand why they would attack — see, when they attack me, they attack the band, and I hate when they attack the band, because then it makes them look like schmucks for doing what they did for me.”
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John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in 'The Blues Brothers' movieBloom explains the context of the criticism. “Well, to be honest with you, I think they were attacking you,” he says. “You see, there’s a long line of cases where white musicians play Black music and make money while the Black musicians don’t make the money, supposedly.”
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Belushi sounds offended by this suggestion. “That’s not the purpose of the Blues Brothers!” he responds. “I say on the record, ‘Buy as many blues records as you can.’ [I] introduce my band, which is never done. I share the stage with each member of the group, which is never done. I have, Danny Akyroyd, you know, we all split everything right down the middle, I give the people, artists parts of the album. I’m putting them in a movie, you know? Nobody believes me!
“I’m not f---in’ fantastic, but that’s not the point!” Belushi concludes.
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Courtesy of Audible
'Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude' Audible originalBelushi and Aykroyd joined musical forces in the mid-1970s while they were both in the original cast of Saturday Night Live. The Blues Brothers’ first album, 1978’s Briefcase Full of Blues, ultimately went double platinum and hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The group reached even bigger audiences with their 1980 film The Blues Brothers, ultimately netting over $100 million at the global box office.
Belushi then died at age 33 at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Hollywood on March 5, 1982. The actor had been injected with a cocktail of cocaine and heroin and died of a drug overdose.
Despite Belushi's death, The Blues Brothers film spawned a sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, which again starred Aykroyd and added John Goodman, Joe Morton, and J. Evan Bonifant to the lineup in 1998.
Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude streams on Audible beginning Thursday. Listen to the exclusive preview clip with John Belushi above.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.
