Tuesday, Aug. 11, 1998 | 9:44 a.m.
It must be contagious -- or, at the very least, genetic.
James Belushi has the blues -- rather, a penchant for wailing Chicago-style blues music. He could have picked it up from any number of places.
It could have been during high school, when the actor -- who has appeared in the movies "About Last Night," "The Principal," "K-9," "Jingle All the Way" and "Gang Related," among others -- performed in musicals and the school choir.
Maybe he contracted it in the early '80s, while singing and dancing on Broadway in "The Pirates of Penzance."
It's more likely, though, that he inherited his love of the musical genre from his late older brother, comedic genius John Belushi, half of the legendary "Blues Brothers" comedy/dance/song/movie duo with Dan Aykroyd.
"I became a fan of it when most people became a fan of it, when the 'Blues Brothers' made it known," Belushi says.
A big fan.
Four years ago Belushi, who is part owner with Aykroyd in the House of Blues nightclub chain, hooked up with the Los Angeles outlet's house band, the Sacred Hearts, to play gigs there, as well as for corporate parties and fund-raisers.
The group, officially called Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts, released its first CD, "36-22-36," earlier this year and performs Saturday at the Rio.
The 12-member band of accomplished players -- individually they've worked with such musical giants as Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Etta James, Buddy Guy and Smokey Robinson -- has also performed at the House of Blues' in Orlando, Fla., and Chicago, and at "Fan Fest '98" in San Antonio, Texas, among other places.
A longtime singer, Belushi was urged to join the band by Aykroyd, who also wanted him for the "Brother Z" slot in the Blues Brothers Band, which also performs at the nightclub and at fund-raising events. The group recently donated $150,000 to the John Belushi Scholarship Fund.
"So I started singing with (The Sacred Hearts) and all of a sudden we started getting all of these gigs," Belushi, who performs with both bands, recalls.
"It's so joyful. It just accesses this passion, this joyful place in my body," he says of singing, comparing it to the excitement of dancing. "All of a sudden, your body is going and you're lost ... in the moment. That's the feeling I get onstage with this band. We just have so much fun."
For the band, Saturday's performance kicks off a two-week tour of small venues throughout the country. Belushi is "excited" about the outing, figuring the experience will compare to the time he spent touring with "The Pirates of Penzance." "You travel with the crew ... and you put on a show every night. You sing and you dance and you have fun."
Gary Dretzka, senior entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune, can attest to the group's "high energy." The Los Angeles-based writer has interviewed Belushi and the Sacred Hearts and sat in on a few of its rehearsals.
"They try to go out there and have a lot of fun and inspire the crowd to have some fun behind them," Dretzka says. "It's just guys who are out there having fun, who are competent musicians, who love the music."
A 12-track disc, "36-22-36" took about three months to complete as a result of Belushi having to divide his time between recording sessions and working on the set of his short-lived ABC-TV series "Total Security."
He did have time to pen one song for the disc, "Smokin' Blues," an in-your-face rebuttal to those who frown upon one of Belushi's other "passions" -- cigar smoking:
"Don't ya get it / Might as well admit it / Ain't no way I'm gonna choose, you're gonna lose / and I'll be smokin' all alone in my house of blues."
Two years ago, Belushi opened a cigar shop in Southern California which caught the eye of fellow actor Chuck Norris, who bought him out. Now the pair co-owns Lone Wolf Cigars, a trio of stores in Dallas, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, Calif.
"You have to section off a piece of time to have a cigar," Belushi explains, "and that time is a time that you kind of enjoy" the company of friends.
He says that television producer Michael Mann "told me a long time ago, he said, 'Just do things you feel passionate about,' and I just love cigars and smoking them.' "
"Total Security," in which Belushi portrayed a private detective, premiered -- and quickly faded into TV history -- last fall. Nevertheless, the "scheduling conflict" its filming posed is also the reason why he could not reprise his brother's famous role in the flick "Blues Brothers: 2000."
"It would have been fun," Belushi says about the part that got away ("Roseanne" alum Dan Goodman co-starred in his place). "I love (working) with Danny (Aykroyd) and having fun."
Belushi knows, however, that obvious comparisons between he and his brother, who died in 1982 of a drug overdose, would have been made.
"I don't really think about it," he says. "It's something for journalists to contemplate."
But he'd be lying if he said his sibling had no effect on his acting and singing careers. Both had stints as part of "Saturday Night Live's" ensemble cast.
"He had an impact on many careers," he says. "All of us who are actors watched John. It was like watching Jackie Gleason: this is a classic actor who is going down in history."
Still, he says, "he never gave me advice, so his influence (on me) was bascially, 'You've got to do it on your own.' That's been good. It's made me own every move; it's made me be responsible."
Also featured on the disc is the blues standard "Born in Chicago" (a tune that John Belushi included in his act), which Belushi re-worked to give a nod to his brother:
"My second friend went down when he was 33 years of age / There's one thing I can say about Johnny Boy: he made the front page."
"Jim is a different person than John. They don't have the same schtick," Dretzka explains of the siblings' singing and performance styles.
"John would go out there and do summersaults and he'd do anything for a goof, just like 'The Blues Brothers' movie. Jim is more controlled than that," he says. "He plays music straight, whereas John would put on a show for the crowd.
"Jim, as far as I know, doesn't put the (black porkpie) hat on, the sunglasses, and tries to play off that 'Blues Brothers' image. I'm pretty sure he just wears his regular street clothes and goes out there with his harmonica and just tries to make music."
He's made music for audiences that have included some pretty heavy-hitters. Belushi and his band performed for Bill Clinton and Al Gore when they visited the L.A. House of Blues.
"I don't think I hit a single note right," he recalls. "It was the kind of feeling, like an out-of-body thing, where you're having a conversation with yourself, like, 'Am I standing here? Is that really him? I can't believe I'm doing this. Who got me into this?' "
Darned if he knows.
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