At the time of its release in 1980, The Blues Brothers held the world record for the number of cars crashed in a movie.
Two days ago, Dan Aykroyd lived through the real thing on his way to Edmonton.
"It was a terrible drive," Aykroyd says. "I had to negotiate Highway 2 from Calgary in all that blowing snow. I counted about 20 cars off the highway. Some complete rollovers, one with a fire. Winter driving is something we Canadians think we're up to, but every time it comes up it's a challenge. I'm very thankful I got here."
Aykroyd and Jim Belushi, taking the place of his late brother John, are performing tonight as the Blues Brothers for the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce's chamber ball at the Shaw Conference Centre. The event is sold out.
The 54-year-old Aykroyd has also been visiting bars and liquor stores around the city to educate Edmontonians about the virtues of premium sipping tequila. Specifically, the Patron brand, owned by his friend, business partner and entrepreneur John Paul DeJoria. Aykroyd is the registered Canadian importer and distributor for Patron.
Yes, that's right - the former Ghostbuster is now hawking spirits instead of catching them.
"We've been having a lot of fun with it," he says. "J.P. started Patron about 12 years ago. They started out with 1,000 cases and they've just done their millionth in the last year.
"I wasn't actually a tequila drinker. My experience with it has been waking up in Mexico in the pen with the performing mules - with technicolour vomit everywhere.
"But one night, we were in the House of Blues and J.P. was there. We'd been selling so much of it, but I'd never tried it before ..."
The Aykroyd special now consists of two ounces of silver Patron and one ounce of lime juice cordial shaken with ice.
"When I drink it and close my eyes, it's almost like a fine scotch," he enthuses.
These days, Aykroyd is more content being recognized as a Blues Brother, booze brother and nightclub mogul than as a comic and actor.
Last year, he sold House of Blues - the club and promotion concept he started in 1992 to celebrate the African-American contribution to blues music and culture - to Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter.
Staying aboard as a founding consultant, Aykroyd will be launching House of Blues locations in Dallas, Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Denver, New York, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and Shanghai over the course of the next five years.
As such, he hasn't much time left for Hollywood. Aside from a role in the Adam Sandler-starring I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, due out later this year, Aykroyd says he's pretty much done with acting after a fun, 30-plus year run.
He will, however, be revisiting the role of Dr. Raymond Stantz for a Ghostbusters video game.
"Universal purchased the rights from Sony for a game. I'm actually going to have to perform and do some motion capture for them. That will be next year."
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