Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd have something major in common: The Blues Brothers. Aykroyd first appeared as Elwood on Saturday Night Live in 1976, and Belushi has performed with Aykroyd as Zee for over 25 years. The Blues Brothers are still going strong, and as you’ll see in the Discovery show Growing Belushi, the two have even started using the iconic name to sell marijuana.
So, how did Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd come to the conclusion that their comedy/music group had an obvious crossover with the cannabis industry? It’s easier to understand once you learn how Aykroyd convinced Belushi to get involved with cannabis in the first place.
Why Jim Belushi Started Growing Marijuana
Dan Aykroyd is more than a pop culture icon, as he’s also a great business man. He’s also not afraid to milk the beloved franchises he started for everything they’re worth. He was a strong proponent of both Ghostbusters reboots (he even wants a prequel series to happen), he never really stopped performing as The Blues Brothers, and he even continues to pitch potential Blues Brothers movies to this day, despite the fact that they haven’t graced the silver screen since 1998. Outside of the entertainment industry, he founded popular businesses like The House Of Blues and Crystal Head Vodka. So, when he gave Belushi advice on how to utilize his new farm, Belushi took it to heart, and the rest was history.
I recently caught up with Jim Belushi to discuss Season 3 of Growing Belushi, and when I assumed that it was he who had dragged Aykroyd into the cannabis industry, he corrected me that it happened the other way around:
He [Dan Aykroyd] got me involved. He got me involved because when I when I got the farm, I didn't know what to grow, right? I got 90 acres, 93 acres. I didn’t want to raise cattle because I didn't know how to do that. And he's like, ‘Jimmy, cannabis is legal in Oregon. Why don't you grow cannabis? I got a perfect guy for you, Captain Jack. Captain Jack was our weed dealer at SNL. He has the greatest skunky, smelly, cheesy strains. It was so creative.’ And I was like, ‘All right.' So I met Captain Jack, and that's when we started growing.
As you’ll see on Growing Belushi, Captain Jack still works on the farm to this day. Given the fact that SNL started both Belushi and Aykroyd’s careers in comedy, their SNL weed dealer’s inclusion in this business of theirs is a strange and beautiful story for the comedy history books. But how did they come to brand it Blues Brothers? We went there as well.
How They Came To Sell Blues Brothers Weed Products
The Blues Brothers are clearly a huge part of both Jim Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s lives. Dan Aykroyd’s original Blues Brothers co-star was John Belushi. John’s untimely passing was obviously a big moment in brother Jim Belushi’s journey, which led to him pleading with Chris Farley to stop using drugs, and caused him to reflect on his firing from SNL as the “best thing that’s ever happened to him.” It also caused Jim to believe that growing marijuana is his own “mission from God,” referencing the famous Blues Brothers quote, as he believes it’s possible that with access to legal marijuana his brother John may still be alive.
Aykroyd has seen tragedy under the Blues Brothers umbrella as well, having lost his own brother, SNL writer and Blues Brothers The Animated Series star Peter Aykroyd. In 2021 they even paid tribute to Aykroyd during the Simu Liu episode of SNL. Understanding all of this information helps to understand why the two see The Blues Brothers, family, and this cannabis “mission from God” as all being one in the same, as Jim Belushi went on to explain:
Judy [Belushi] and him, you know, they own the IP for the Blues Brothers, and I had to get permission to use that, and I thought it was perfect. I mean, cannabis is mischievousness, you know, cannabis is sister to music and the soul and the spirit of the gospel. And also it's a mission from God, the healing properties. So I'm like, Blues Brothers is music, mischievousness, mission from God. It's like perfect branding for cannabis, you know?
There you have it! The Blues Brothers, the Belushis, the Aykroyds, and a mission from God. You can hear more about the cannabis industry from the SNL legends when Growing Belushi returns with Season 3 on April 5 at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery. We here at CinemaBlend will of course continue keeping you updated with all upcoming 2023 TV premiere dates.
