HOW THEY MET:

John Belushi(1949-1982) met Dan Aykroyd in a trip to Toronto visiting "the Second
City Comedy Troupe" in 1973.
Dan become Johnīs best friend.John offerd Dan a job at "National Lampoon",but Dan 
had to refuse due to prior commitments.
They left with a promise to keep in touch.
So two years later in 1975 they started to work at the TV-show "Saturday Night Live".
In this show they did a lot of unforgetable scetches.

THE IDEA:

One day in chicago 1975,Dan played a record by "Down Child Blues Band" for John.
John said:
-What is this?
Dan answerd:
-Itīs the blues.Youīve must have heard this.Youīre from the blues hometown Chicago for 
christ sakes.
-Iīve never heard this,John said,I like only heavy metal.

Dan played a couple of song for John.And finally John said:
-Hey,this is pretty good stuff. After listening to the songs "Almost" and "Shotgun Blues".
Dan suggested after a while:
-It could be fun to start a band sometime.And if we do that,this would be the look,Dan said
and showed John an
album cover of John Lee Hooker when he wore a black suit and a black hat and shades.







THE "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" SHOWS:

John liked Danīs idea,but they wanted to keep it as a secret. In the "Saturday Night Live" 
shows in 1975 they did some music scetches,what would become the Blues Brothers.
They did the "King Bee" number withoutblack suits on June 17th 1976 because they didnīt want to 
show the public the Blues Brothers yet. 






THE BLUES BROTHERS SUCCESS:

In 1978,John and Dan gatherd the band and were ready to start.On the "Saturday Night Live"
show the 24 of april 1978 they did their first Blues Brothers act,
singing "Soul Man","Almost","I dont know" and "B"-movie box car blues.

It was a success. After that,they went on a cross country tour in the states and they become
famous.
Their first album came in 1978 and was called "Briefcase full of Blues". It was a "live" record,
recorded at the"Universal Amphitheatre" in Los Angeles August-1978.
It came out in the record stores November 28th. 
The record was a smash and sold over 3,5 million copies.


They became so famous that they in 1980 did a movie called "The Blues Brothers". The soundtrack 
album came out the 24th of June 1980. That sold a little less than 1 million.








THE BLUES BROTHERS MOVIE:

The Blues Brothers movie was made by the director John Landis.
It started with that "Joliet Jake Blues"(John Belushi)came out of prison,serving 3 years.
"Elwood Blues"(Dan Aykroyd) met him in "the Bluesmobile",a Dodge Monaco Sedan 1974.They visited
a nun and they had to get 5000$ to pay the rent for a orfinage.
They put their old band back together(they went into a lot of trouble for that)
and started to look for a place to play.

The cops had followed them throughout the whole movie but they finally got a play and they got 
the money and made it.






THE BLUES BROTHERS IN THE 80īS:

After the movie they went on doing cocerts around the states.They went on doing two more albums:
"Made in America" who was recorded from shows at the Universal
Amphitheater between July 26 and August 1, 1980, and "The best of the Blues Brothers"(1981).
They sold around 500 000 copies
each and John and Dan agreed to quit the Blues Brothers in end of 1981.






JOHNīS DEATH:

John had a very bad habit.Ever since the 70:s John had taken all kinds of drugs.He had tried,LSD,
acids,heroin and cocain.He was also a common drinker and smoker.He often(with friends)tried mixtures 
of drugs.
When they did the movie,John often locked himself in a room and took drugs.
One time when he did this,the director of the Blues Brothers movie,John Landis,
kicked down the door to the room that John was in.There found Landis, John lying on the floor
uncontious.He gave John a big slap and John woke up.

But one day on March 5th 1982,John took a "Speed ball",(a mix of heroin and cocain)that was the  
last thing John did. He died of a heart-attack.
Dan was heartbroken.
John was buried on March 9th.






DAN WENT ON:

Yes Dan was heartbroken. John was his best friend for "only" 9 years.It took a while before Dan 
came over Johnīs death. Than he started to make movies.
He did movies in the 80:s,like the smash "Ghostbusters"(1984)with his 
old friend from "Saturday Night Live",Bill Murray.
He also did a movie about "the Coneheads"."Coneheads" came from a scetch from the 
"Saturday Nihgt Live" shows called "Coneheads".
He stared in more than 50 movies though the years. Dan also went on touring with the old band. 



        

THE BLUES COMEBACK:

After Danīs documentary movie "The Best of the Blues Brothers"(1993),the public started to 
show interest for "the Blues Brothers" again.
Dan started to think about doing a second "Blues Brothers" movie.
And in 1997,Dan and the director of the first movie, John Landis started to do the second movie.
It was calles "Blues Brothers 2000". And it showed on February 6th 1998, in the U.S.A.

"I've been trying to get this movie made off and on now for 17 years," admits Aykroyd. "When John died,
I assumed the whole Blues Brothers concept died with him, but I learned that wasn't the case at all," 
explains Aykroyd, 49. "I was asked to do a Blues Brothers concert. I put together a band all the time assuming
it wouldn't work, but during the first number, I realized it wasn't John or me, it was the music that makes the
concept work."Buoyed up by the success of a string of these concerts, Aykroyd and Belushi's widow, Judy Belushi,
opened a House of Blues club in Chicago. 
There are now six House of Blues clubs, with two more under construction. Aykroyd open his Las Vegas club
in the summer of 1999. 
"Judy and I are jointly in charge of all licensing connected with the Blues Brothers and House of Blues. 
That was John's wish." 
In Blues Brothers 2000, Aykroyd is joined by John Goodman, Joe Morton and 12-year-old J. Evan Bonifant. 
He is quick to point out that Goodman does not replace Belushi. The first five minutes of the film address
the death of Belushi's character. 
"There are three new Blues Brothers. The film shows how they get together," explains Aykroyd. 
Jim Belushi was scheduled to play the Morton role, but production delays on the film caused conflicts 
with the actor's recently-cancelled TV series Total Security. 

Text by Christian Johansson & Tony Josefsson