BMI Exclusive: Steve Cropper on Joining the Blues Brothers Band

On the eve of being named a BMI Icon at the 2018 BMI Country Awards, the legendary guitarist/songwriter opened up to BMI’S Jody Williams about his origins, working with Otis Redding, his time with Booker T. & the MGs and much more. Here is he discussing his time in the legendary Blues Brothers Band with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd.
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Celebrating over 76 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®) is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in nearly 13 million musical works created and owned by more than 800,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The Company negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. In 1939, BMI created a groundbreaking open-door policy becoming the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today, the musical compositions in BMI's repertoire, from chart toppers to perennial favorites, span all genres of music and are consistently among the most-performed hits of the year.

[@markbreaux6613]

My Favorite Movie since I was 5 years old! Long Live the Blues Brothers! 😎👍😎✌

[@stevekelly3138]

The Blues Brothers concert in Philly is in my top 3 of all time. Kansas opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd at Capitol Theatre, Bruce Springsteen at a 300 seat club on LBI & the Blues Brothers at Robin Hood Dell in Philly. Belushi & Ackroyd were one show & the band was a complete show in themselves. The tightest 13 players I've ever heard live.

[@KountryCuz1]

One of my All time Favor Movies love the Blues Brothers !!!!!!!!!!!!

[@mikemanne8112]

Amazing story, obout the BLUES brothers, & steve cropper on guitar, the R/B King.

[@bobabooey285]

I can only imagine the movies D.A & J.B. would have made together

[@rongwynne3824]

There are a million stories in the naked city.

[@nemo227]

WOW!

[@50Willyswagon]

Saw Steve with Dave Mason in a small theater in OKC The "Tower Theater"

[@bobabooey285]

Nice!

[@jackcl]

Like 5 👍👍👍👍👍

[@JohnOhkumaThiel]

I was a musician long before I started acting professionally. I'm shocked the studio wanted to use actors instead of musicians. It's not a huge transition from performing as a musician to acting, but the other way round would be a disaster if you had a cast of actors trying to act like musicians or acting like they're playing the instruments when they're not. There's way more technical stuff to playing an instrument in a band, or even appearing to, then there is to acting. Sure, acting you need to know filmmaking, the environment on set that you're working in, how the sausage is made, but people get cast usually according to skills they already have. I'm a real photographer for example, so I get cast as one a lot. I know how to handle various guns, can drive stick, I'm a cycling geek with all my own equipment, a telescope astronomer, and other skills have got me cast many times. As much as possible we want the real deal, cops playing cops, real nurses playing nurses, and so on. I did a show where I played a convict in prison; I have no idea what that's like but did my best to at least look the part; well most of the background actors had no acting experience at all; they were actual convicts who had been to prison. So the whole thing looked absolutely real; we even shot it in a real former prison. You could not make that movie without actual musicians. It would look ridiculous. It would bomb.

[@HariSeldon913]

Probably isn't overly difficult to find actors who are also musicians. Perfect example is Murphy Dunne. When Paul Schaeffer was unable to do the movie, Murphy had been acting for 10 years and also a professional musician and composer. Where using the real band really worked out is that the studio wanted to use extras and extras generally don't get to speak. Had Akyroyd caved, the band would have just been background figures when they played instead of being real characters with real personalities. And yes, that would have indeed killed the movie.

[@JohnOhkumaThiel]

@@HariSeldon913 : Some actors are musicians, but not enough for a movie like this. Most actors went straight into acting. Particularly good actors, including background, it's their second or third career. So they were cops, soldiers, lawyers, and so on. You're cherry picking examples. You couldn't find enough actors who also had musician experience at the level required for this film. Other good examples are 'The Wiz' and that opening scene from 'La La Land.' Those people had to be musicians and dancers first before acting. Also think about the movie as a whole. There are a lot of great musical performances which could only be done by musicians, but most of the film is good old fashion filmmaking.

[@Larry-Art179]

Danny is Dan Aykroyd

[@maximummusicdj1975]

Paul Schaeffer had more to do with putting together the band. Steve Martin did not