Jim Belushi: Character Actor Food
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I love you, man, more than anything. Oh, my God. Look at you. You look amazing. You do. You know what I did? I stopped eating meat. What? I did. I stopped eating meat. There's something about a Belushi that doesn't eat meat that doesn't seem... A Chicago boy. A Chicago boy. So what made you stop? I couldn't eat another piece of meat.

Hi, welcome to Literally with Rob Lowe. So my guest today is just somebody who is so like near and dear to my heart. I like when we see each other, like our eyes fill up with tears. It's very sappy. I'm not going to deny it. We just hug on each other and love on each other. And he is a guy that I worked with in one of my favorite movies that I ever did.

One of the most successful movies that I ever did. And a large portion of About Last Night's success is because of him. And it is Jim Belushi, who you know from About Last Night, who you know from SNL, who you know from his great movie work, Canine and Thief. And just according to Jim...

Blues Brothers. We got a lot to talk about, a lot to catch up on. My dear friend for over 30 years, Jimmy Belushi. My cousin Chris, right? I have a farm up in Oregon. Yeah. And my cousin Chris has been there for a couple of years helping me with the farm. And he had 35 restaurants in Florida. So he was a chef. He was a cook. He was a restaurant owner. And so he cooks every night.

meat meat meat meat meat meat butter butter butter butter butter and i'm like chris chris give me a salad and a piece of fish i can't eat another piece of meat did you did you ever know speaking of chris's did you know farley at all did you ever have any yeah i had a couple couple times with him because i took farley to dinner the first day we did tommy boy to a steakhouse

And he ordered two bone-in fillets. Yeah, yeah. And on each bite, each single bite, he put a square of butter on top of it. And when I asked him what the fuck he was doing, he goes, it needs a hat.

Oh, you lived it, man. You lived it. And do you feel different now that you're not doing it? Yeah, I feel – yeah, I have more endurance. I don't take naps during the day anymore. I just feel better in general. My blood tests are like through the roof, you know, great cholesterol, great, you know. You and I are going in opposite directions. I'm napping now more than ever. Really? Yeah. No, I've leaned into –

Now, I used to hate them, and now I absolutely love them. I'm the opposite, man. I'm going to bed. I'm not going to bed earlier, but I'm getting up earlier. I get energy all day. God, I'm so jealous. I would love to want to get up earlier. I'm telling you, it just happened in the last couple months.

I mean, I've been an actor my whole life. You know, hi, diddly-dee, it's the actor's life for me. Stay up all night, sleep all day. Hi, diddly-dee, right? Now, you are – what's the new business you're into?

You got to tell me about this new business because I'm very excited. It's all those – see, that's the business. You're so busy that your phone – That's the business. My agent right there. Your agent? Yeah, one of them. You never – It's like lawyers. In the old days, you'd have one lawyer like Stanley Korshak and he would take care of everything. Now you got a real estate lawyer. You got a litigation lawyer. You got – My dad laughs at that. He's been practicing law for 55 years in Ohio and he always laughs about in California that –

Your lawyers have lawyers for each other. Absolutely. Absolutely. And agents, too. You got a lit agent. You got a TV agent. You got a reality agent. By the way, pour me some of that vodka, would you? Oh, God. It's so clear in the morning, you know? Isn't it? Isn't it just? Okay, what are the pills we're taking here? And by the way, one of them just fell down your shirt onto the floor. What's happening? This is amazing to watch. I forgot to take my little aspirin.

Baby aspirin. Are you owning that human growth hormone or anything really cool? Oh, no. That's cool. Have you done that? Well, maybe. Tell me about it. It's why my chin is so fucking big. It's like...

It's like, you're like, Rob Lowe's jawline. You took human growth hormone since you were 15. You'd have a jawline of a fucking Adonis as well. You look beautiful, Rob. Just as beautiful as the day I met you. Just an industrial accident. So Jimmy and I, we did a bout last night together. Wait a minute. This guy made me a movie star. All right. He approved me to work with.

And my career's been different ever since. So, you know, there's that old saying, you know, when you drink the water, remember the men who dug the well or the women. And it's you and Jason Brett. Wow. Yeah. And John and Danny, of course, the Blues Brothers. But you changed my career when we went into that room and worked on that first monologue, remember? I remember vividly because we had...

We had auditioned – the producers, because they worked with you and knew you from Chicago, always wanted you. It was just like, Jimmy's the guy. He's the fucking – there's nobody who can do it. It's Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. And I remember the director, Ed Zwick, who's gone on to other great, amazing movies as well, was like, yeah, that's great, but let's read everybody. I remember reading, you know, CSI Carrot Top Guy. Come on now.

We know who he is. David Caruso. Caruso. Do you know Caruso read for your part? No shit. Yeah, Caruso came in and. He would have been good. He would have been good. He was good, but he came in the door starting the scene. I was like, oh, and I was shuffling my papers, trying to catch up with him. I guess we're going no hellos, no nothing. And then finished the scene and walked out and slammed the door.

And we're like, oh, okay. Good character choice, I guess. But you, my fine-feathered friend. Well, you know the real story behind that. Okay. So I did the play, Jason and Stuart, Jason Brett, Stuart Oken, who produced the play at the Apollo Theater in Chicago. And this is the sexual perversity in Chicago. David Mamet. Written by David Mamet, which later became our movie. Right. It was a 60-minute play.

And I was, you know, I was kind of hot at Paramount at the time. I did a series and they wanted me for another series. And I kept saying to my manager, I want to be in movies. And so my manager talked to Don Simpson, who was the head of Paramount. Yep. And they wanted me for the series. But Jim wants to do something in a movie. And so whatever happened, Don Simpson came and saw the play to have drinks with me after.

Just to kind of sweet talk me, right, for the series. And he saw the play and he goes, wow, that was really good. You're really good on that. Well, thanks, Don. He goes, you know, you guys should write a screenplay on that. That was really good. Oh, thanks. And then we talked about the series, blah, blah, blah. And Stuart and Jason said, how'd it go? How did it go? He said, yeah, he said we should write a screenplay on it.

Like within two days, they raised $115,000, hired Denise Duclue and Tim Gazarinski and started writing a script. But what about David Mamet? Where does he, because he wrote the play. David Mamet sold his rights to a guy named De Silva in 75 for 10 grand. No. Yeah. So this guy De Silva, who's on the credits. Right. He got 500,000 bucks.

As executive producer. So David never. He's pissed the whole time. He has to have been. I actually asked me to do a play recently. I'm a huge Mammoth fan. Oh, he's terrific. He's easy. He's the best. And I love his philosophy on acting is great. And he was he was like, yeah, he was pissed about it. He never made any money. No, no. He got 10 grand. You know, it's like Bo Diddley sold his little his little riff.

In like 1963 for 10 grand, you know, you sell, you sell, you know. You sell, you sell. But anyway, what happened was they got the script, right? They wrote the script and they said, we send it to Simpson. I said, sure. I said, Don, remember you said casually have a script written? Well, we got a script. You want to see it? Sure. Send them the script. Now, a few weeks later, I get a call from my brother, John. Hey, Jimmy.

Hey, John, what's up? Listen, Don Simpson sent Danny and I a script called Sexual Perversity in Chicago. I know you did the play, and Simpson wants us to do it. What? That's what I said. Wait, what? Wait, what? What?

You mean to tell me Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi were going to play the original duo? Yes. This is the first I'm hearing this. You've never heard this story? No, I've never heard this. So I'm on the phone, and I'm going like, I'm like, John, don't do it. What do you mean? I said, don't do it. That's my character.

I mean, I developed that in rehearsal. I played it on stage. I know this character inside out. This is my guy. Jimmy, you don't understand how show business works. I said, I don't care how show business works, John. This is bullshit. I can't lift the cheeseburger. I can't lift the sword. I can't do Marlon Brando. I can't do shit because you've eaten up the whole wheelhouse of Belushi kind of imitations.

So this is mine. I homegrown that character. It's mine. Don't do it. Jimmy, Hollywood are heat-seeking missiles. They'll never make the movie with you. If I don't do it, they'll give it to Bill Murray. Wouldn't you rather have someone in your family do it than Bill Murray? No, I don't give a shit. Don't do it. Fuck you. You don't know show business. Don't hear anything.

don't hear anything, don't hear anything. All of a sudden, the script is in turnaround. Which means they're not going to make it. They're not going to make it. And it probably went to Bill Murray. And I think John said, leave it for Jimmy. I don't have that confirmed, but I have a sneaking suspicion that John kind of like, you know, the asshole, he's talking about, leave it for him, leave it for him. So then it went into turnaround, and then Jason, you know, he went for six years trying to sell it, and finally packaged it with you and TriStar, and that was it.

I had no... And then I had to go through an audition on top of it. Had I known that... Honestly, I had no... I mean, I knew you created the part on stage. Right. But I had no idea that all of this had gone on. Yeah, I should have gotten a producing credit, Jason. No, it's...

That is just beyond. Did you ever read the sequels? They wanted to do sequels. Yeah, yeah. I was involved with those. Yeah, I wanted to do those. Did you ever see the new version of About Last Night that came out two years ago or whatever? I watched about 10 minutes of it, 15 minutes. They changed quite a bit of it, didn't they? Yeah. Kevin Hart's the new you. Yeah, yeah. But they made him more of the star and they kind of rewrote it and, you know.

When you were talking about this, you said that John had eaten all of the Belushi impersonation. Was that a household? Like, did you guys grow up going, ah, cheapa good cheapa or samurai? No, no, no, no. He just ripped everything off. No, no. He didn't rip a thing off from me. He created everything. He was quite brilliant. Did I tell you I met him? Did I ever tell you the story about meeting John? No, no. Ever? No. I can't believe I never did this. Yeah, so...

I, what my brother, Chad and I are huge sports fans. And we went to the Dodgers Yankees world series. That would have been what? 77. I want to say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he's wearing my, my brother, Chad is little tiny little boy and he's wearing a Yankees hat and the Dodgers fans are hassling him. And a guy comes up to him and saves him. And they start talking and the guy turns up. The guy is a puppeteer for the Muppets.

So at that point, and they're making the Muppet movie. So we go to the set to visit him and we see Kermit the Frog and everybody's singing, you know, what's the- Rainbow Connection. Rainbow Connection. Right. Which they played at Bernie Brillstein's funeral. Yes, they did. Who represented John. And so then he invites us to see Kermit host The Tonight Show. Yes.

So Kermit the Frog is hosting The Tonight Show. And afterwards, I go backstage and everybody's there and I look across the room and there's John.

And, you know, I grew up on Saturday Night Live. It's like, I mean, you know, it's... It's still hot right then, the 77. Oh, this is it. That was the peak. The peak. It's Blues Brothers. It's the peak for John. Yeah. And I'm probably 12. Yeah, right. Yeah.

And I'm looking at him and looking at him, and I was always really ballsy. And John gave off a vibe like, don't fuck with me vibe. Yeah, there's a great quote about him. It says, you know, he always shows you his asshole first. And if you can take the smell, he'll turn around. Oh, my God. So he really put off his air like, don't fuck with me. And if you can handle his attitude, he'd turn around, and he was like the warmest, nicest guy.

Connective person. Well, he's showing everybody his asshole. Right, right. And I was always a really ballsy kid with a lot of chutzpah. Oh, so he liked that. And so I walked across the room.

But first of all, he was staring at me. He was definitely clocking me the whole bit. Right. I don't know. But like with like not like a welcome, but just like a clocking me. So I walk over to him as he's staring at me. Right. And I put up my hand and I say, Mr. Belushi, I'm a big fan of yours and I want to be an actor someday. And he looked at me. He looked me up and down. It seemed like it took for fucking ever. And then he put his hands on my shoulders and said, no.

Stay out of the clubs. Stay out of the clubs? And walked away. That was your advice? That was my advice. Stay out of the clubs. If only I had listened. Yeah, right. Bill Murray gave me advice one time. I was at Second City and Bruce and Nancy were getting married. And I took the night off to go to the wedding. And they were Second City people. And Nancy's sister was Bill Murray's girlfriend for a long, long, long time. And later wife, actually.

And I went upstairs with him to his room, you know, to do a little business. To his room in quotes. Yeah, in quotes. Upstairs. And he saw me. I was just staring at him, you know, like, wow, you know, you're a star. And, you know, one day I want to be an actor. You know, I didn't say any of that. But it read in my eyes because he stared back at me and he said, don't be in a hurry. Wow. I said, what? He goes, don't be in a hurry.

Learn all your character work right now. Do all the work you can right now because when you become Jim Belushi, you'll have to deliver Jim Belushi each time. Okay? Here goes another thing. You know us at Second City, you know, we get paid nothing and you're lean and hungry. But when you go to L.A. and Hollywood, they have this thing called craft service. Stay away from the craft service. Oh, my God.

And I said, like you just said, I wish I would have listened to that. Free food, he said, Jimmy. Free food all the time. Be careful. I, uh...

I live next to, like, near Don Johnson. Oh, yeah. He's cool. I like Don. Don's the fucking... Oh, yeah. He's Don Johnson. Come on. Yeah, but he's cool, too. He's just a cool dude. So we were watching some... It might have been, like, I want to say it was, like, the NFC Championship game or whatever, and we had, you know, nachos and, you know, football food. And I offered him a plate of nachos. I'll never forget. It's, like, the story you just told. And he looked at the nachos, and he looked at me. He said, no, no, man. You can't eat that. That's character actor food. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Character actor. It's ruined every piece of good. That's ruining my lunch coming up, that's for sure. And we'll be right back after this.

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to get retro with Ashley. Shop more Labor Day deals in-store and online. Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. No minimum purchase required. See ashley.com for details. You gotta tell me about Pirates and the Penzance. No, but if I live and die under the brave black flag I fly Wow, Jesus Christ. For I am a pirate king Jesus! Yeah, Broadway, man. Dude,

You got the pipes still. Well, I don't think they had. We didn't have mics on our face back then. Okay, thank you. Can we just. Okay, thank you. We had mics on the floor. Yeah, but the mics on the. Listen, the mics on the floor are literally so, you know, you can hear it on the fucking backstage thing and know your cues. It's such bullshit. Yeah.

this micing thing. Although it does save your voice. I'll tell you, eight shows a week, man. I did it for a year, Pirates and Penzance. Eight shows a week. We couldn't go into bars or restaurants and had ambient sound. I mean, it was just... Couldn't smoke? Couldn't smoke, couldn't...

I mean, you know. Got to get your sleep. You do eight shows a week. That's all you can do. That's all you can do. Yeah. I did A Few Good Men. Big, long, big, big, big. It's Caffey with Aaron Sorkin and the West End. And it's all you can do. You do eight shows of that. That's it. You sleep in. And I trained for that with my voice. Never missed a show like I was a singer. So I trained as if it were going to be a musical. Yes. Absolutely. But so...

And who, Linda Ronstadt was your leading lady? No, I replaced. Okay. Who was in your? Peyton. Carolyn Peyton was the girl I played with. And Peter Noon. Of course. Another one of my neighbors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Herman's Hermit sort of? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, another one of my neighbors. Now, on the West Wing, my character Sam Seaborn was the head of the

Gilbert and Sullivan Society. So I played a character that was obsessed with everything. That was Gilbert and Sullivan? That's funny. So it is surely to his credit? Is that in? Surely to his credit. If I had been so lucky, there was any mother who could give to me. I can't remember it. And then the other one, he is an Englishman? Is that? He is an Englishman.

No, no. Pirates that we did was the general. That was not terrible, right, what I just did? It was a little flat at the end, but otherwise. A little pitchy at the end. Oh, pitchy. Well, I'm in a band. I've been singing for 25 years of Teeny Aykroyd doing the Blues Brothers. What's your favorite Blues Brothers song?

Oh, God, there's so many of them. John and Danny were so good. Oh, my God. There was one written by Curtis Salgato out of Portland, who was actually the guy who really made John a blues man. When John was doing Animal House, he hung out with Curtis up in Eugene. And Curtis turned him on to this song.

Willie Mabon's song, Hey Bartender. Oh, yeah, Hey Bartender. Got one, got two, got three, four glasses of beer. But there's one called At the Bottom. Oh, boys, I'm Hollywood bound at the bottom. Is that on the Blues Brothers record? Yeah. I don't remember that one. She comes to me, she goes to the west.

Did you ever see them when they played the amphitheater? Yes. That legendary. I was sitting next to Joe Cocker.

that's how full that crowd was so in what 78 nine maybe is somebody nine blues brothers play the universal amphitheater so was that 78 it was as big as it was there's nothing today that would compare oh no they opened for steve martin who was so brilliant that night steve was very generous bringing them on the road with him uh he was very good to them but um

I was sitting next to Joe Cocker and about three, Joe's not a talkative guy. It sounded like we were chit-chatting. And I was a kid. What did I know? And he turned to me, he goes, oh, they're taking it seriously. So I'm friends with Stephen Stills, right? And I told him that story and he goes, yeah, man.

We were all nervous. I mean, these guys are Saturday Night Live guys, and they make fun of us. And it's like, don't cock-block the way we make a living, buddy. And they were really scared that this Blues Brothers thing was going to make fun of them like Lemmings did many years ago. And so when that show came out at Universal Amphitheater and all these guys saw it, they went, oh, wow.

okay, they're committed. They're serious about this. Also, the bandits, the backup band itself. Oh, yeah. Come on, Duck Don. Ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, and how did it start? Because they did it on SNL as a bit. Is that right? Listen, I wasn't there, so I only know the stories. But Danny tells the story that

They were in Toronto, and Howard Shore, he said you guys should do a blues thing together because Danny was always trying to turn John onto the blues. John was all about the Dead Kennedys and really loud music. And Howard Shore said you should do something on Act Together called the Blues Brothers, blah, blah, blah. So I think that's kind of how it started. But the first time they ever did it publicly. Publicly? The first time they did it was at the Lone Star Theater.

in New York City on Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street with Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson invited them up on stage as the Blues Brothers, and they did a song. I think it was Hey Bartender. So the cool thing about that is because it was done publicly outside of Saturday Night Live, when they brought it to Saturday Night Live, they started doing the warm-up for the show. Jesus.

And then Lauren said, this is my understanding, so it could be wrong, but Lauren said, I'd like you to do it on the show. This is Lorne Michaels. Lorne Michaels. Yeah. I'd like you to do it on the show. Yeah. And John said, okay, but you have to bill us as a musical act and pay us as a musical act.

And so when they were introduced, they were the musical act for that week. That's as I remember it. Right. That's why I remember it being. And so what happened? Here's the killer of the whole thing. John and Danny owned those characters. Right. Had they done it first on SNL, they wouldn't have. Right. If they wrote it for us. That's what people forget is all of the SNL characters that you see as they live on in movies or other things. It's owned by SNL. Yeah. NBC and Lauren.

But Lauren's very cool. I mean, he's very generous. You ask him for something, you know. But that's...

That is just amazing. Yeah, yeah. What's the one where Danny does that like he's talking in tongues? Rubber Biscuit. Rubber Biscuit's insane. Yeah, yeah. He does that in our show. It's like speaking in tongues. Yeah, he does that in our show. People just die. They must lose their minds. We played 5,000 people two weeks ago up in Canada. I mean, and he goes, Rubber Biscuit.

What do you want for nothing?

Danny was my idol. He is an idol of mine to this day. He had a sketch called Bass-O-Matic. Do you remember that? That was the one, yeah. Right? He did it on the anniversary show. Well, better than that, I did it in my eighth grade talent show and won. I bet you won. I did. I did. I had a fish. I threw it in there.

How many times has this happened to you? You have a bass. By the way, where you're from, they were probably fishing and they probably thought it was a very good thing. They would have bought it. Yeah. Where I'm from. Yeah. You're from what part of Chicago again? West side of Chicago. And then we moved to suburbs and then I moved back to Old Town. Well, tell me a little bit like according to Jim is legendary. I'm actually surprised according to Jim isn't back in some way.

way she performed. It was like, it's the perfect moment. Yeah, it's a nice family show. It's very funny. And, you know, I get so obsessed with the things I do. I never see the humor until I get removed for a couple of years. Right, yeah, sure. And now I see it every once in a while. And, man, it was a funny show. It's the perfect show for you. Oh, we had a ball on that. Larry Joe Campbell, he was like my favorite actor.

Favorite, favorite man. He's so funny. And Courtney and Kimberly. Oh, man, we had a ball. A ball. Natural ball. You're like... Because television, a lot of times, dads and the leading guys are like these beta... Like, they're the idiots that can't figure anything out. Well, you know, that was the start of the pilot. And it was a challenge with the writers because...

The classic situation in those kind of comedies is the husband screws up, the wife finds out, the husband says, I'm sorry. And it's like, you know, Jackie Gleason, you know, oh, baby, you're the greatest, right? Right. And that was fine in the 50s, you know. But, you know, what happened here was the women became bitches, right?

And the men became idiots. Right. And that formula worked, by the way, in sitcoms. But I was, my point to them was, why does this guy, you'll appreciate this, at the end of the pilot, I screwed up. And they had this whole scene where I apologized to her. And I said, why do I have to apologize? Well, you did something wrong, didn't you? I said, he didn't think he was doing anything wrong. What he was doing was trying to help his daughter.

And he just didn't tell his wife, you know, but he's a parent. And some of who he is as a man, he did the right thing. So why does he have to apologize to her? Can you write a scene between a wife and a husband where nobody has to apologize, but they resolve it? Yeah.

Let's show the audience how let's teach the audience how to resolve problems. That's awesome Yeah, and I got a little kickback on it, but then they wrote the scene that became very charming and

And so what I did was she's in bed, really pissed, won't speak to me. And I come in. I know she's mad. So now I'm trying to charm her a little bit. Now I'm just goof around a little bit. She's not moving. She's not moving. She's not moving. I pull my stomach out and do wipe out on the stomach. Oh, she laughs just a little bit. Oh, I just dive right into bed next to her. Right. Because I got her to laugh. You get a girl to laugh during a fight. It's over.

I mean, that's what one of the most successful things about marriages is a sense of humor, right? For sure. Do you remember the night? Don't ever lose your sense of humor. Don't ever. Ever lose your sense of humor. So at that point, it became a really nice scene where you can see this relationship. And at that point, once she left, I laid down next to her and we actually discussed the problem. And I was literally saying it was the best I could do. And she goes, well, I love you. I didn't say I'm sorry.

So you got 182 episodes where I never say the word, I'm sorry. Wow. So it forced the relationship to be a mature or immature, but mature relationship and solving problems without one person being wrong or the other person being wrong, just being different. And the same with her. Right. Right. Right. Hold that thought. We'll be right back.

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Ashley has you and your sleep covered. Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. No minimum purchase required. See store for details. I don't know why. Oh, when you said never lose your sense of humor, it reminded me back to about last night. Do you remember the bit you kept trying to get into the movie that you would do? You had a bit you would do. The scene would be over.

And then you would start the bit hoping that because it was on film that maybe they'd change their mind and use it because they told you over and over it's not going to be in the movie. Do you remember this? Well, I only remember it because I do that in every scene in every movie I'm ever in. Do you find something additional you want in? Always add. Always add? Always add that last beat.

And I'm going to tell you seven out of 10 times they keep it. Really? I did red heat, right? Yeah. Wait, is that Arnold? No, Arnold. I run up the stairs. There's a dude that comes running down, bald dude. And I put my gun up to his head. And the line that was written is, don't get nervous. I'm a professional. Right. Okay, cut.

I'm wearing these stairs and cameras way back there, long lens, Walter, you're a long lens shot. Two takes, three takes. And I say, Walter, I got this idea for a line at the end of this. And I tell him the line. And he just stares at me. And I walk, can I try it? He goes, oh, all right, well, the cameras are still up. All right, get a lot of your system. I run up the stairs, put my gun to the head, this guy. And I give him their line. Their line is, you know, don't worry, I'm a professional. And I look at him, I go, what?

You know, you look a lot like Hagler. I lost money on Hagler. Okay. Come down. Walter goes, okay, you feel better now you got out of your system? Just totally humiliated me. Yeah, Walter, thanks a lot. Thanks a lot. Two days later, he comes. He goes, hey, you know, I saw that Hagler line in Daly's. It was pretty funny. It was okay. It was okay. Great.

Cut to, it's in every trailer of the movie. Every trailer. One take, one little ad-lib. So you never, I mean, Salvador, we ad-libbed.

About last night, look at that one little scene we did. Dan, Dan, Dan, who said it first? Did you tell her you love her, Dan? Well, I don't know. Oh, Dan. Say before you came or after you came. No, that's the one. That was the bit that's not in the movie. It is in the movie. No, it is not before you came or after you came. I promise you it's not. I will put $20...

The bit, the bit Jim. Okay. We got a bet going. We, we got to try to find this out. To the elevator scene. Who said it first? I did. Oh, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan. Was it before he came or after?

That was it. That is, you're right. I owe you $20. All right. Oh, man. We have a thing in the show we do where I ask the...

Remember in Vanity Fair, they used to have the Proust questionnaire at the back page. It was like, what is your finest extravagance? No, I've been reading Mad Magazine at the back. They'd say, who are you going to rob tonight? Do they have the Mad Magazine version? No, I made it. We're going to do our version. Okay. Yeah, so this is the...

The Proust questionnaire slash the lowdown. By the way, it might be my least favorite pun on my name ever.

Oh, the lowdown. It's so lazy. It's such low, excuse me. Well, why don't we do my version of bullshit? Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Do you have, like when they write articles about you, is there a headline that they always do? It's hard to do a play on the name Belushi. But I've seen the lowdown. It's like, really? There's been 700 fucking articles. Really? Yeah.

And so, you know what? I'm taking it back. Take it back in the words and own it. A word can't hurt you anymore when you own it. That's right. Right? That's what they tell me. You know, so I'm taking back the lowdown for myself. Okay, what's the lowdown? So the lowdown is, first of all, Rolling Stones or Beatles? Oh, Rolling Stones. Rolling Stones. Why? Why?

Well, I think the Beatles were brilliant, and I think John Lennon was the genius of all time, and George Harrison, too. But the edginess and the rack of the stones, I dig. Right. It's more uplifting. It's more performance-orientated. I like it. I like that. That's a Sophie's choice for me, for sure. Yeah, right? All right. Okay. What's the worst review you've ever gotten?

I remember mine. See, you clearly haven't gotten many of them because I remember them like they're yesterday. And usually they are from yesterday. I remember one that hurt me was when Danny and I did a new album we played in a club and some guy said it was like karaoke blues.

Now it would do it. Yeah, that was pretty shit. My favorite was I was on a – this is in the days when you had to do an actual press tour. Yeah, yeah. Like you didn't just sit and have the media. You like went around the country schlepping. Yeah. Two days in Chicago, two days in Boston, two days in Austin, two days in Dallas, two days in San Francisco and talk about your movie on the local shows and all that. Yeah, yeah. And it was me and Andrew McCarthy and we were on tour for a movie we did called Class. Yeah.

That was fun. It's a fun little movie. And I remembered that I knew the reviews were going to come out. And I was in the airport. And I ran to the newsstand to get Newsweek. This is back when all those magazines were really a big deal. And I went to see. I wasn't sure if it was in this issue of Newsweek or the upcoming issue or if I'd missed it. So I go to the table of contents. And it says, movies reviewed. There it is. Class. It says, class, a vile concoction. Page 28.

Vile concoction. A vile concoction. And then when I... You're beating me already. I never got the word vile. And then when I opened it, it had the first usage of a word I've come to embrace and love. Debacle. Geez. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, I remember that one. All right, let's see. I got some other good ones I wanted to ask you here. Oh, okay.

What's your favorite workout? Boxing. Boxing? Mm-hmm. Do you wear headgear? You must, headgear, right? No, I do pad work and- Speed bag? Speed bag and a big bag. Have you done like the Peloton or anything like that?

Do you know what the Peloton is? So it's that bike with the screen on it that you can... Oh, yeah. I saw commercials for that. No, I don't do that. Oh, it's got the famous commercial they got in trouble for. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a beautiful looking machine, though. I'm obsessed with it. Yeah, it's quite a machine. I'm obsessed with the Peloton. I get on and I like, you know, bicycle through Machu Picchu. Yeah, I have one of those bikes, but it's not that.

I'll do the pyramids, Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu, man. That's a walk. Listen to that thing. Kobe or MJ? I'm a Chicago boy, so MJ. I think MJ. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you ever meet MJ? Oh, yeah. I saw him at the end.

of the first championship game at the Forum. Really? Yes. It was 11 rows up, and there was Dustin Hoffman, Spike Lee. Everybody was sitting around, Warren Beatty, Nicholson. Everybody was there on the floor, and I'm like 11 rows up. And they won, and the floor was empty, except for me and kid in play. Ha ha ha!

And we were jumping up and down on the floor because everyone else lost was Chicago one in L.A., right? And I just beluched my way into the dressing room, right? You beluched your way in? I beluched my way in. It's a verb at times. At times. But it was so crowded, I couldn't breathe. And I kind of pushed up against the door, and it was into the bathroom in the locker room.

I was catching my breath, and I turned, and Michael and his father were walking out toward the crowd. I sat behind his father at that game. And it was just me and Michael and his father walking.

And he recognized me. I forget that people recognize me, right? And he goes, Belushi! And he put his arm around me and gave me a little knuckle in the head, right? And he goes, I bet they're going crazy in Chicago! And I went, yeah, Michael, let's go! And he, like, pulled me into the crowd. It was, like, the worriedest moment. Oh, my God. That's so amazing. Because all the championships after that, that locker room was empty. Yeah. It was just a team. And it was.

But this was the real championship, the first one. He was just... There was nothing like watching Michael. Yeah, he was super cool. He was... It was like...

I don't even know how to put it. I tried to describe it to people. It was like watching Michael Jackson at his peak where they had an aura. They moved. It was like not watching. I think it's unfair to compare Jordan to other athletes because he transcended that in person. And by the way, we didn't really, in Chicago, really didn't have ownership of him. Really? He was everybody's player. You know what I mean? He was beyond...

Like a Chicago bull. He was just like the greatest. He was the world's. Yeah. He is still. I mean, I was magic. Johnson used to have a really big charity game for his charity every summer in LA and everyone showed because it was his magic. And when magic was everybody showed, no matter who you were, you showed and you played. And I coached one year and I had on my Michael,

Mark Jackson, Clyde Drexler. It was insane. I think the final score, honestly, was like 240. Ha ha!

to, to 230, 30 was insane. But I'll, but what I'll never forget is we're winding down and I always wanted to do the 22nd timeout. Cause I thought it was a cool. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. It's just a cool thing to touch your shoulders like that. And, um, and I'm going to have my hair slicked back like Pat Riley. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was in a suit and I figured, you know, it's the end of the game. I got to do something. So I called the 22nd timeout and, um,

And I remember our team was down by like four points and everybody was laughing and joking, having fun. It was all at the end. And Michael was deadly serious. And Michael looks at Magic and Magic like laughing and talking. Oh, no. He's competitive. And he goes, hey, hey, hey, do you want to fucking win this thing?

And I was like, what? Man, literally didn't even know what he was talking about. And then it slowly dawned on him. And then everybody got really like, got their shit together. And they went on and like went on a run. But I also, it was the first time Michael ever shot a free throw with his eyes closed. It was during that game. And then he, of course, debuted it about two weeks later in the NBA. That was, we couldn't believe it.

But I did this thing called the Hollywood, the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game. And it was the Hollywood, you know, they had celebrity All-Star thing. Yeah. At Wrigley or? No, at Camden Yards. Ooh, okay. And on the team was me, Flo Jo, Tom Selleck, Patrick Ewing, Bill Murray. Jesus. Michael Jordan. What? What?

And me. Right. Amazing. And so, you know, we had practice and pitching. And so I'm not a baseball player, you know. So they're warming me. I got Billy Williams coaching me. Amazing. I'm like, oh, Billy Williams. Give me some coaching. He goes, don't try to kill it. I said, that's it, Billy? That's it. So now the guy's pitching like 40-mile-an-hour balls, right? And Jordan goes, let me pitch a few to Belushi. Oh, boy. I was like, cool. This can't end well.

His eyes changed. I mean, he bent down and he was looking. He whipped that ball like next to my nose, like trying to back me off the plate. Michael, Michael, this is for charity. What are you doing? He just focused in and I was like, Michael, don't hit me with that ball.

Oh, then we played tanks. Remember that old tank animated game? Oh, yeah, of course. We were in the locker room. I was playing tanks. Oh, my God. He is. Doesn't matter if it's a game. He is 100% in. I played beach volleyball with Riley during that time, and it was just Sunday morning on the beach, Malibu. That pulls out.

Really? Really, Pat? Just out. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the real, the great ones, they can't, I don't think they can turn it off. No, no, can't turn it off. They can't turn it off. But he was a gentleman always to me. Yeah. Just the absolute, absolute greatest.

This has been so fun. Hey, man, I would just want to say, you know, to you, just on a side note here, you know, I've been watching everything you do. And you are really, really as good as I thought you were when we worked together. I thought you were a great actor back then. And you've just proved it over and over to me. There's some character work that you've done on some shows that I was going, God,

Damn it, Rob. You nailed it. Thank you. I so enjoy the bold choices you make, man, and just committed. And I just love watching you as an actor and also as a friend. But I got to say this on your show. I think you're terrific. I always thought you were terrific. And I'm glad you proved me right. Because I thought you went right. When I did that one scene with you, I was like, this motherfucker can act. I like him. Oh, God.

Well, Jimmy, I, I, I, you know, I love you. And I mean, it's, it's like we could just sit and like love on each other all day long. I mean, it's, it's so great. I, I, you know, about last night, may it like,

You know, I had, obviously, a movie career, but that one, of all the movies I've done in the 80s, and people talk about the Brat Pack and things like that, the one I always want people to see is About Last Night. Yeah, that's the one. Like, if you had that questionnaire, you'd say, what's your favorite movie? Oh, About Last Night.

It stands up. It's great. It stands up now. Love, love, commitment, relationships, it's romance. It's very sophisticated. It's really fucking funny. And you will cry your goddamn eyes out. Yeah, and it all goes back to Mamet. I mean, he's a brilliant, brilliant man. Yeah, now maybe people will go and watch it. Yeah. Wherever they would find today. Anyway, I love you, man. I love you too, man. Thank you for having me. God bless you.

So fun. Okay, I'll take my $20 back, motherfucker. In fact, you do owe him $20. I do. Hey, Sarah, I owe him $20. You can pull out $20. I know, Rob. I'm going to hold that in hand. Oh, my God. How fun was that? I knew we would have fun together, but that's... I mean, I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the phrase. The thing about John is...

He would show you his asshole first. And if you could stand the smell, then he would turn around and give you his heart. I mean, I don't know what else to say. That's really all I want to leave you with today. Let that one simmer. See you next week.

You have been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by Deventory Bryant and Delena Turman, engineered by me, Deventory Bryant, executive produced by Rob Lowe for Lowe Profile, Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Stitcher. The supervising producer is Aaron Blairt, talent producer Jennifer Sampras.

Please rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and remember to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

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