Judith Jacklin Belushi - Belushi: A Biography

BELUSHI

A Biography

by

JUDITH BELUSHI PISANO

and TANNER COLBY

For Dan and Juanita Payne

For Frank and Nancy Colby

For proving that loving guidance

and encouragement really

do make a difference.

MITCH GLAZER:

He was a force of nature.

MICHAEL ODONOGHUE:

He was a Gypsy king.

DAN AYKROYD:

He was the only man I could ever dance with.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

by Dan Aykroyd

There has been wave upon wave of revisionist history published since the original years of Saturday Night Live, all of it with varying degrees of accuracy. You can be sure that, of all the books written on the subject, this is the one that comes closest to the truth.

Judy Belushi Pisano has collected here the personal memories of dozens of Johns close friends. I was one of the closest. When John and I met in Toronto in 1973, we bonded instantaneously. I knew that this was someone who understood me and someone whom I understood. From that moment began one of the great partnerships of the century. John would do anything for his friends, and it was that loyalty and that bond that he prized above all else. He didnt care about money at all. He never had but a crumpled wad of bills on him at any given time. Never carried a wallet or any form of ID, and he didnt have to. His word was good, and his handshake was honored anywhere he went. He talked his way into the White House and across the Canadian border with nothing but a smile. All the doors of the continent were open to him. He was Americas Guest.

And as such, John was a magnet, a lightning rod, a charismatic emissary of generosity and goodwill. To qualify for his friendshipand it was extraordinary once you had ithe had to respect you. You had to have some kind of talent or ability that he could relate to, or you had to be a genuinely good person in a way that he could perceive. It is no accident that the friends and associates he gathered around him are today many of the most successful and talented artists in America. To understand Johns relationships with those around him is to understand the man himself, and that is what Judy shows to us here.

As I have said before, ours was a full friendship, no dimension of it unexplored except the sexual one. John and I shared bunk beds backstage at Saturday Night Live. We shared the blood brotherhood of Jake and Elwood Blues. We shared many a late night discussing our dreams and ambitions. And yet, page after page, I was staggered by the things this book reveals outside of my own knowledge of John and his life. This is not just a standard show-business biography of John Belushi the actor and celebrity. This is personal and powerful storytelling that brings to life all the fun and excitement of hanging out with the Squazerbeam, which was the private name by which Mitch Glazer and I knew him.

Johns death brought an early end to our partnership, but Ive been fortunate to have that collaboration continue with Judy. During the years that we all spent together, she was far more than just Johns partner in marriage. She was the Blues Sister, a full creative partner in all of our film, television, and book endeavors. Together with Tanner Colby, the writer who has helped her recollect the highs and lows Johns life, Judy has given us a human, intimate, and frankly surprising new perspective on this charismatic actor, comedian, rock star, movie star, and man who, to me, defined the American Hero.

Dan Aykroyd

John Belushis partner, 1973-1982

New York City

July 2005

INTRODUCTION

by Judith Belushi Pisano

John and I took a trip to Europe that included a memorable stop in Paris, a three-hour layover between planes during which we made a whirlwind tour of the city. Reps from Johns record company quickly drove us past some of the major sightsthe Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, McDonalds, all the postcard icons. As we raced back to the airport John turned to me and, with his classic Bogart impersonation, said, Well, sweetheart...well always have Paris. Thus ended our brief affair with the City of Lights. At the time, we just took it for granted that life moved that fast.

The life that John and I had was not normal. I couldnt say what normal is, but I know its not what we had. I can say, however, that our time together was pretty damn great. John opened up my world. His inquisitive approach to things transformed much of what I see and how I see it, even to this day. He took me down many roads I might otherwise have blindly passed by. Ultimately, he showed me how strong I can be.

The fact that John died from a drug overdose left me riddled with guilt. To keep busy, and as some form of penance, I created projects for myself, things I thought he would like. I started a charitable foundation in his name. I produced a Saturday Night Live: Best of Belushi video, an MTV special and a video tribute that played on the first anniversary of his death. Along the way, I videotaped interviews with friends, family and coworkers, with the intention of putting together a biography. But at the same time I was also working to put the past behind me, to move forward. Eventually, both the interviews and my plans for using them fell deeper and deeper into storage, where they sat gathering dust, for the next twenty years.

Life moved on. In the intervening decades, Ive had the good fortune to remarry, to a man who brings me great joy and new life lessons. My family now includes my husband Victor, three beautiful, spirited stepdaughters and a son who is, as his name Lucas portends, a bearer of light. That I found love again is remarkable. That I am a mother is both a delight and a wonder.

So why now am I diverting my energies to another John project? Basically it was a convergence of elements. Because I needed to finish what I started, and Im lucky enough to have the support of my family to do so. Because the gods put a string of events in my path that led to Tanner Colby, who poked around the crumbling cardboard boxes in our basement and saw the potential for a great book. And because I once mistakenly gave the key to Johns story to the wrong person, and this was a chance to get it right.

No book could capture all that was John Belushi; he was way too big for a nutshell and pretty unwieldy for a book. But with a little help from his friends and contemporariesan extraordinary group of talented, perceptive individualsTanner and I have painted a portrait that holds a mirror up not only to John but also to a unique time in the history of American comedy and entertainment. In many ways, Johns story is the story of that generation.

To complete the work I began so long ago, we conducted over a hundred new interviews. The sheer volume of remembrances provided a daunting palette from which to work, well over ten times the amount of material distilled here. John packed so much into his relatively short life that most people still have a hard time putting his story in the context of a man who lived only thirty-three years. It was a challenge to keep a focused story line that honestly explored the many facets of his personality, talents, fears and flaws. John was full of contradictions. While he was troubled and his death was tragic, his life was exhilarating, inspiring, sometimes infuriating, often exhausting and yet always full of laughter, love, joy and good old-fashioned fun. We tried to find the same balance here.