Interview by Michael O’Hearn

Photographs by Claire Sachse

Fans of the 1980 movie “Blues Brothers” with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi might have noticed the Bluesmobile cruising around the Foothills lately, or maybe parked at the Columbus Waffle House on a Friday night. Who are these black suited, fedora sportin’, sunglasses wearing duo, you’ve asked yourself. They’re tribute actors from Newcastle, Indiana, second cousins by marriage, who have recently relocated to our area because they, like the original Blues Brothers, are “on a mission from God.” At the Grover Mill Industries building in Lynn, N.C., the Blues Brothers (a.k.a. Curtis Blankenship and Ronnie Overton) pulled in with their iconic customized squad car for a photo shoot, and to talk about their passion for the film and why they became tribute actors in homage to Jake and Elwood Blues.

Q: What is your favorite piece of Blues Brothers memorabilia?

Answer:  Jake: The license plate on the front of the car with the numbers BDR529. That is iconic to the original movie because it was on the ’74 Monaco. This is a souvenir that you can buy at different places like the Confederate flag. This is something that you can purchase. They are hard to find, they are a bit elusive. You go to the House of Blues and you can usually find them, however to find the ones that are embossed is the real trick, where the letters and numbers are raised from the plate. I did bump it into a fence to scar it up and make it look authentic.

Jake continues: My favorite piece of the Blues Brothers would have to be the album “Briefcase Full of Blues,” however on another album, I believe it was “The Best of the Blues Brothers,” when they’re on the stage and there is a red, pink-ish backdrop screen behind them that’s actually a movie screen and there’s a stage light that shines on Elwood. As far as what I own personally, it would be the birth certificate of John Belushi. He died on March 5, 1982.

Q: Have you ever had the chance to met Dan Aykroyd or John Belushi?

Answer:  Jake: Not John Belushi, because I was 17 when he died. There’s some interesting parallels, and let’s just say that time will bring things up. I do this and I pay tribute to a man who I consider an inspiration. The way I look at it is that he challenges us to see humor in our every day lives and in music. A lot of people tend to be too serious.

Q: How do people tend to react when they see you walk into Waffle House or drive into a parking lot?

Answer:  Jake: People will be standing up.

Elwood: We sometimes can’t go 40 or 50 steps without people swarming us.

Jake: There have been a couple of times where I thought, ‘Boy, it would be nice to have a couple of black shirts with us.’ Most towns that we go into are large cities and some events have a bunch of people. We can’t walk more than 10 to 15 feet at a time without being asked for autographs. At multilane intersections, people stop to get our autographs. They don’t step out of their vehicles or care about the horns. They just want their photos.

Elwood: We went to Chicago where they actually filmed the Blue Brothers movie and we tried to get pictures of Joey in prison. We had to take 10 to 15 takes because people were coming up.

Jake: We had the pleasure of speaking to a gentleman who lives by the Joliet Prison right down the street on the corner where they set up the cameras where the Bluesmobile was coming to pick up Belushi. Those people still live in that house, and a guy heard about it and came flying down and said you’ve got to come up to the house. ‘I’ve been waiting to see you guys,’ he said, and I thought, ‘That doesn’t make any sense,’ and the guy was like, ‘Well, you’re the doubles for the movies right?’

Q: Do you two believe you are “on a mission from God?”

Answer: Jake: Yes. It’s all about smiles and memories, and awareness to our emergency services, our police departments, local authorities as well as disadvantaged children and the homeless. The number one thing that, being prior military, that embarrasses me about being an American is how many homeless we have. There’s great wealth here.

The uniforms are not our enemies. It says ‘serve and protect’ and a lot of that has gotten lost along the way. They are doing deeds that our military boys are doing overseas. I think it’s a crime that we do not recognize our local authorities the same as we do with the Purple Hearts and the same that we do with our military. They’re doing the military action on our homefront, and they are the ones who go into domestic situations sometimes not knowing what’s going on and the next moment they are taking fire just as heavy as our boys overseas.

Q: What makes the Blues Brothers such a timeless classic?

Answer:  Jake: I think they really keyed on something in a big way in this being a mission from God. There are two things that I think a lot of people overlook. The mission from God was to save an orphanage. The St. Helen’s of the Sacred Shroud orphanage. That, in itself, is profound. Secondly, in the church with Rev. Cleatus, which we know is James Brown, he’s standing there and the light shines through and he’s seen the light. There’s a lot of people that construe that as, and it’s part of being in the Bible belt, the light from the salvation of God but no, it was the light of the band. It’s about the musicians, the band, the Blues Brothers and putting the band back together to save the orphanage. It’s a no-brainer.

Elwood: The thing about the Blues Brothers, especially with the people who are in their 30s and on up, and you know how money is right now, they may not be able to go and actually see performances. And he has a like a 94 percent resemblance to Belushi himself, so I mean, we’ve flown around and it’s enjoyable just seeing the looks some people have on their faces. We like what we do.

Want to catch a show or hire these guys for a special orphanage-saving performance? Or, get this, have them conduct a wedding ceremony? Visit jakecblue.com to follow and contact them. Or, if you’re in the mood for waffles and a little late night singing, head to the Columbus Waffle House on a Friday night.