According to Belushi

So last week, we chatted with James Belushi who's coming to The Mont this weekend. He'll be performing with Dan Aykroyd at the 2009 Christus St. Elizabeth Gala. The duo are coming as The Blues Brothers and some people - specifically a certain Irish co-worker of ours - call the resurgence of this pair an "abomination."

"It's not his place, it was his brother's," he said, stamping his foot and waving his hands in small circles.

(We added that last part for effect...but his quote is accurate.)

Anyway, we asked Belushi about it and this is how the conversation went...

"I didn't want to do it. It was John's thing, not mine. I didn't want to do the Blues Brothers or eat a cheeseburger or, you know, any of that stuff he made his own."

So, we asked him...why did you sign on then?

"It was Danny. He needed me. He said that...the partnership was like a great law firm. You know, when one partner dies and a son or uncle takes over? He said, 'Your brother went down. Come on, I need you.'"

Belushi said his brother had a certain perspective on things. One of John's famous sketches from "Saturday Night Live" was the Olympia Cafe, where he played the owner, Pete Dionasopolis. The character was determined to serve everyone a cheeseburger whether they wanted it or not.

One bar in Chicago claims to be the impetus for this sketch and has a prominently displayed sign boasting just that. In reality, John Belushi based the skit on a lunch counter that his father and uncle used to run.

James once asked his brother why he never told the owners of the bar to take the sign down, saying, "It's not fair, that's not their thing."

He said John just shrugged and said, "They must have needed it." And that was that.

"John wouldn't have cared," Belushi said about him stepping in as the other half of The Blues Brothers. "It wouldn't have mattered to him."