The Big Picture

The Audible Original docuseries explores the lasting impact of
The Blues Brothers
and includes new insights by co-lead, Dan Aykroyd.
Narrated by Aykroyd, The Arc of Gratitude dives into the film’s journey, late nights with Belushi, and music legends’ collaborations.
Audible editors did a fabulous job at condensing 40+ years into a two-hour audio documentary where Aykroyd shares touching stories and John Belushi recordings.

It’s hard to believe The Blues Brothers first cruised into theatres with their signature black suits, fedoras, and sunglasses while driving around Chicago to some of the best music more than 40 years ago. The John Landis-directed buddy comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as the unforgettable “Joliet” Jake and Elwood Blues on a “mission from God” has become a timeless classic critiquing societal norms while celebrating blues, soul, and brotherhood. As the film honors its decades-long anniversary, Aykroyd returns with a new Audible Original docuseries illuminating the film’s cultural and aesthetically significant impact in Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude. In an exclusive with Collider about the film’s lasting legacy and its poignant influence on pop culture, Aykroyd shares that the Audible Original is unlike anything fans of the classic have ever heard as it gets deep down into retrospective interviews, including unheard soundbites from Belushi himself.

The two-hour documentary, narrated by living legend Aykroyd, gets the band back together (so to speak), taking listeners on a road trip through the film’s long, beloved journey. The behind-the-scenes look includes late nights in the early days with Belushi at Dan’s speakeasy in Toronto, their time working with blues legends Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Ray Charles on The Blues Brothers movie, as well as how they founded the House of Blues, released a sequel in 2000 and lots more. It’s an experience Aykroyd tells Collider that highlights his and everyone involved with the film’s “gratitude all the way through.”

The Blues Brothers Release Date June 20, 1980 Director John Landis Runtime 133 minutes Main Genre Comedy Writers Dan Aykroyd , John Landis Tagline They’ll never get caught. They’re on a mission from God. Expand

What Does the Audible Original Title ‘The Blues Brothers: Arc of Gratitude’ Mean?
COLLIDER: I’m so, so excited to chat with you today! Thank you so much for your time. I’m a huge fan and have been since I was 4 years old. I always wanted to be Ray Stantz, actually.

DAN AYKROYD: Excellent! Well, report all ghosts.

I’m a huge fan of the paranormal. But before we get a chance to talk about that, I heard the entire Audible Original, and I have to say I loved it so much. I think you’re such an incredible narrator and a beautiful storyteller; I appreciate the story. I thought it was so nice to have these different nuggets from such an iconic journey. As the podcast is titled The Arc of Gratitude, what does gratitude mean to you in the context of The Blues Brothers’ journey and legacy?

AYKROYD: There’s so much there to be grateful for. First of all, for African American culture, for the songwriters and the venerated artists that I grew up with and loved as a kid. Starting there. Then the friendship with John [Belushi], Lorne Michaels, SNL, the recruiting of the band, and Judy [Belushi Pisano], John’s wife, who was of the tripod and the whole structure and was our fellow Blues Sister. I’m so grateful for all of that. I don’t think there’s anything I’m not grateful for in the whole process, right through the recording and making the movie and the reception worldwide. I’m grateful that I get to go and play the music again and take on the Elwood character on August 18, at the Old Joliet Prison in the yard in Chicago. Here it is, 40-plus years later, and I still get to play. So, there’s gratitude all the way through the whole project.

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I love how immersive this Audible Original is and how it engages the listeners, especially with those recordings from John. There is so much to know and understand about the Blues Brothers’ legacy with those stories. What was the most challenging aspect of condensing this entire 40-plus-year journey into an audio documentary of just 2 hours?

AYKROYD: Well, guess what: the Audible team. First of all, look at those compilations they’ve done! What a spectacular job Amazon Audible has done with the compilations and the executions of the speeches, the music, and all of that. In fact, I really didn’t have to do any condensing. I handed them a cradle to the present-day manuscript, starting where I grew up in Hull, Quebec, and right to where we still play today. I had a big chunk of my life there that they did not use, but they took. Maybe they can use it someday. They went in there, and they judiciously sliced into the most relevant, that could be put within the time allotted, part of the Blues Brothers’ story. So, praise be to the Audible editors who did a great job. I didn’t have to do much condensing at all. I just gave them a book and said, “Take what what you think we can make work.”

‘The Blues Brothers: Arc of Gratitude’ Features Unheard Recordings of John Belushi

I’m sure you had a diary and notes over the years, as you integrated so many of these things in two hours. Sure, we’ve heard nuggets and interviews back and forth, but to have everything condensed, I think, was just done so wonderfully, especially John’s recordings. They gave me goosebumps listening to them. I’m a huge fan of John Belushi; I love Animal House. But as we hear, he was someone with incredible depth to him. I know you share some fun anecdotes in the Audible Original, but what’s a memorable moment with him that you can tease audiences?

AYKROYD: Well, sure! First of all, there was no diary or no notes. My diary consists of where I was on a certain day for tax purposes. That’s about it. I don’t have a diary. I didn’t really take any notes. It was just mostly from memory. I know that [Paul] Shaffer,[Steve] Cropper, and [Tom] Malone probably had to correct me on a few things. As far as John is concerned and an anecdote, you said you saw Animal House. Well, we were in Boston once, and we were driving along doing a radio promotion. We were on SNL, I think, and we were promoting the record. This was after Animal House. We pull up at a light, and there’s an elementary school there of four floors. John got out of the car, went to the first floor of the school, knocked on the windows, and went all the way along the first floor. Everybody, of course, had seen Animal House, so windows flew up. They were just calling him, screaming at him, howling — second-floor windows, third, fourth. So we had the whole wall of windows in this four-story building screaming at him. That kind of fame, it’s almost demigod in its way, and I got to witness a lot of it with him and Chevy [Chase].

The music is such an integral part of not just the Blues Brothers’ journey but also your relationship with John, as we hear in the Audible Original. If you could sum up your experience from the film’s humble beginnings to the grandeur of this documentary in a song, which song would you choose?

AYKROYD: The Aretha [Franklin] number is pretty strong. I would say the gospel number because that’s where it all started — African American culture, the gospel church. Our focus was always cultural preservation. The Library of Congress took the movie two years ago into its permanent collection and the House of Blues Radio Hour has been taken in just last week or the week before into the permanent collection archives of the Library of Congress. We were always about cultural preservation, and there we wanted to show where R&B and blues music came from, and it came out of the church. So, I would say the gospel number, “The Old Landmark,” would sum it up.

Will There Be Another ‘Blues Brothers’ Movie?

You mention in the Audible Original that when the Blues Brothers 2000 movie was coming out, you thought about Queen Latifah, and I caught you saying that you still think about her. Does that mean there could be chances for another movie down the line? The movie’s so popular on streaming.

AYKROYD: Let me say that I did write a script called Soul Sisters, about two colleges — I should make them college professors now — who were devoted to the blues and wanted to go to Mississippi on a pilgrimage, and they get involved in stuff that’s going on down there. And, of course, I would love to work with Dana [Owens] anytime. She’s so great. But as far as Elwood on the road doing it again, we’ve seen two iterations. The first was superb, in my view, and beautifully done, because we had a cineaste named John Landis directing it, and he really made the movie what it was. And then the second, Blues Brothers 2000, has an amazing soundtrack and great performances there; and it’s a small, good companion to the first one. So, for a treat in an afternoon or an evening with family, get both of them and run them back to back, man! Everybody’ll be up dancing.

What Is Happening to the ‘Trading Places’ Sequel?
Image via Paramount Pictures

Before I let you go I have to ask one more question. I’m a huge fan of Trading Places. That was a movie my parents always had on, and I’d always watched, and I loved it so much. I know that there’s a sequel in development — at least, I know you’ve talked about it. Is there any progress on that?

AYKROYD: I did write a treatment that takes place in the Caribbean with Eddie [Murphy] as a billionaire hedge fund banker who comes to help old Louis out with a problem. I sent it to the former Paramount Chief, and they weren’t ready for it then. You know what? I should resend that now that Paramount has a new administration. That’s a good idea. It’s good, too. It’s an exciting treatment. If we made that, it would be really, really fun.

I would love that so much. I’m a huge fan of yours, and knowing, also, that Eddie’s been coming back to other movies, I think you guys would be so fun to play again and jam again together. But Mr. Aykroyd, I am so, so, so, so honored, and I’m almost put to tears because I just adore you so much.

AYKROYD: Obviously, you have great taste in entertainment. Your parents put you on to the best of the best, so thank you.

The Blues Brothers: Arc of Gratitude is available to hear on Audible beginning July 25.

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