Dan Aykroyd: AKA Elwood Blues Live at the Hard Rock
Multi-talented comedian, musician and actor Dan Aykroyd, alias Elwood Blues, spoke with the Hard Rock TIMES recently about the resurrection of Elwood, his efforts to help the homeless, working with his wife Donna Dixon, and his dream...
HRC: Did you ever imagine that Elwood Blues and the Blues Brothers Review would perform on the American Stock Exchange?
DA: That was the last gig envisioned. I didn't even think that the Blues Brothers were ever going to play again until Isaac Tigrett got us together to open the Dallas Hard Rock Cafe. We felt, with John's (Belushi) departure, that the band had outlived its life here in America. I realized in Dallas that, hey, the Elwood Blues Review and the concept of bringing other artists on to play with this superband that we assembled could be a viable entertainment vehicle. AMEX was so much fun! It sounded great in there. The acoustics were incredible.
HRC: The peformance was to announce that the Hard Rock Cafe was going public on the American Stock Exchange. You have a vested interest in the Hard Rock and are close friends with the Hard Rock co-founder Isaac Tigrett. How did you meet?
DA: It all ties in with John Belushi. After we buried John, I flew to England just to get away from the publicity and the grief. I met Isaac through my friend Larry Bilzerian, the owner of Take it Easy Baby clothing shop. I spoke with Larry and he said, "Look, we both loved John but he's gone. I have a great friend in England who is a very spiritual man (Isaac Tigrette) and could probably help you with the grief." So in a way, John left me but I found Isaac. I gained a wonderful and beautiful friend from the whole experience.
HRC: Now you are preparing to host the world's first life variety show--Live from the Hard Rock Cafe-Benefit for the Homeless sponsered by Coca-Cola.
Yes. It will be an hour-long television event. Through the Coke bottlers, contests and sales of T-shirts, we plan to raise public consciousness and generate donations. The main idea is to put together a fund which we will distribute to those agencies we feel are serving the needs of the homeless in an immediate sense. Not to buy typewriters or copy machines but to go right into canned goods, to meals, to blankets, and shelter. I can't sit here and tell you I have a long-range solution for the homeless. I won't even project that I can even have any thoughts on what a long-range solution is other than a complete turnaround in the economy and the drug/alcohol consumption in this country. But, I can tell you that we can raise money, and we are going to raise money. We are going to distribute it, and we are going to use it effectively, and it is going to benefit the homeless in a very real, nutritional, physical sense.
HRC: What can the viewing audience expect from the show itself?
DA: The show is the real root of it all. It's going to whip by. It is going to be so exciting! We're gonna have three bases--both the London and New York Hard Rock Cafes and either Dallas, Chicago or Los Angeles. We're going to bounce back and forth on satellite, and we'll have bands playing at each base. We'll show great moments in rock n' roll clips, as well as remote tape clips from Tokyo, Stockholm and Reykjavik, showing staff-organized activities to raise money for the cause. It's going to be a truly inter-global satellite extravaganza with a lot of great music!
HRC: When will the event be televised?
DA: Between September 10 and September 15 roughly. Definately after Labor Day.
HRC: You are involved in many projects in addition to the Hard Rock Cafe. Your most recent film release is The Great Outdoors with John Candy.
DA: Yeah. It's coming out on June 24. I think women are going to love this picture because it depicts men as the true jerks they have to live with. John and I play the typical middle American, middle-aged, over 30, suburban househusbands with thickening middles who are basically hell bent on making everyone have fun their way.
HRC: So are you an outdoors kind of guy?
DA: In the movie, no--definately not! John is the outdoors type of guy, and I'm the guy who believes you have to bring all the trappings with you from the city.
HRC: In real life?
DA: I'm a camper. Put me on a train track in a horseblanket and I'd be happy.
HRC: You have worked on several projects with your wife, Donna Dixon. What are the pluses and minuses of working on a project with your wife?
DA: There are a lot of pluses. We travel to work together; we travel home together. We are able to relate to each other on a completely professional level, although sometimes I try to assert my domestic authority over her. I tried to give her a line reading once and that didn't work out too well, and she let me know it. That was the only problem we really had. She's a fine actress and should pursue things on her own. She got me The Couch Trip. Orion hired her first and then they came to me. Working together is good because she's a pro. If she wasn't a pro, I wouldn't want to work with her.
HRC: Do you think it would be difficult to have anonymity now that you've had so much recognition?
DA: Well, I've got recognition but I have anonymity too. There are certain places in the world where people do not know or care what I do or who I am, and that's very refreshing. I meet a lot of people who just don't watch TV or movies, you know, people who are into other things. I can deal with them on a human to human, spirit to spirit level without any of the preconceptions of my work--whatever impact that might have had. I'm a recluse and a privacy freak and believe me, I know how to seize it after this long in the business.
HRC: Are you a workaholic?
DA: These days, I've always got something to do. I'm a writer who's sort of in suspension because of the strike, so everything is blocked up. When everything is freed up and I have my project to do, everything is going to be flying. I'm booked 'til 1993. I used to be a man of leisure.
HRC: Up to what age?
DA: Until I was 20, though I always worked. My first job was on the railway when I was 14, then I had a variety of jobs from testing runways to writing manuals for penitentiary guard employment. The best job I ever had was a flex track mechanic on tundra crawlers in the NW territories of Canada. For 5 months I changed the tracks on these huge vehicles.
HRC: Is that when you decided to become an actor?
DA: No I knew long before that. I knew very early. My parents sent me to improvisation classes when I was 12 years old.
HRC: Did you want to go?
DA: Yes I did. I loved it. I got into plays in high school and went through college doing heavy theatre work. I stage managed a play by Tom Paine and also did a small cameo in it. I was a bad stage manager; actually I started in this business as a bad stage manager.
HRC: Have you given much thought to going back to the theatre?
DA: One always does. I watched Dustin Hoffman in Death of a Salesman and it was just overpowering. So great...so great. It was really inspiring. It makes you think of the great stuff that's been written in the world of theatre. But there's no time.
HRC: What would you do if you quit the entertainment business?
DA: I would go to work for Isaac as his bodyguard and travel the world with him and develop Hard Rock concepts and just basically have a lot of fun...It's a dream; it'll never happen, but it's my dream.
The Hard Rock Times, Summer 1988
Transcribed by L. Christie
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