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September 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 29/09/2010 11:00 PM Page 24 24 Dan Aykroyd's crystal skull vodka Spirit of the ages lives on in Dan Aykroyd's crystal skull vodka By Nick Lees, edmontonjournal.com If Dan Aykroyd's great-grandfather Samuel Aykroyd hadn't been a mystic, it's doubtful whether the actor would have been in Edmonton on Thursday talking about vodka. Spiritualism was a huge interest of Samuel, a dentist. "All that stuff was hanging around the old farmhouse I grew up in, so I was steeped in it," says Aykroyd, born and raised in Ottawa, an original cast member of Saturday Night Live and an originator, with John Belushi, of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters. "Instead of Life magazines and old National Geographics, there were American and British parapsychology journals." tequila and is in a wine partnership with Niagara lights were spotted in the skies when the two It was a given that when Aykroyd Cellars. But he says the Patron XO is the star of hijacked aircraft crashed into the Twin Towers. decided to become involved in vodka, the bottle the show. "Any advanced species watching our would be different. "It's cafe-infused and is on fire in the most advanced aircraft fly into our most "I commissioned my friend and nightclubs in the U.S.," he says. "My dad Peter advanced architecture wouldn't want anything internationally known American landscape is 88 years old and pours Patron XO on his to do with us except to observe us as painter and portrait artist John Alexander to cereal. experimental subjects," he says. design and create an anatomically correct glass "It must be good. He published A He has his feet firmly on the ground rendering of a human head," says Aykroyd. History of Ghosts last year and is working on when it comes to helping others and is "Our head is based on the 13 crystal skulls that his fourth book." fundraising to house first responders who want have been found all over the planet, and as Aykroyd, married with three daughters, to return to post-hurricane New Orleans. legend goes, each was carved from a single says music came to him easily: his RCMP staff- "Nurses, firefighters and police on the front quartz crystal." sergeant grandfather played the harmonica, his lines went off to other cities," he says. "Some The actor says there are seven in man's grandmother the piano and his father the alto people won't return until there is security." possession and several bear no discernible tool sax. Aykroyd, whose films have grossed marks. "I picked up the harp when I was a kid in nearly $1 billion at box offices around the "We believe they were handed down to high school and educated myself to blues," he world, describes himself as a capitalist/ be polished from one generation to the next," he says. " The Blues Brothers worked because we socialist. says. "Some might have taken hundreds or took our limited skills and made them work in "There's nothing wrong with thousands of years. front of great musicians and used the greatest accumulating wealth," he says. "Look at people "The Aztec, Mayan and Navajo cultures material in the world, the African-American such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who have said that the heads had enlightening and healing songbook." put their fortunes back in the hands of the powers." It was Aykroyd who educated John people. The vodka was a bit of a fun hobby Belushi, a heavy-metal fan, to the finer points of "No one is going to take their money when it began and the anticipated sales were blues music. into the vault with them. Most will do 5,000 bottles. But when the Liquor Control The pair were kindred spirits and something enormously positive." [] Board of Ontario banned the bottles, saying it Aykroyd says in 1982, he was writing a line for was worried about binge-drinking by younger Belushi in Ghostbusters when he had a call from adults, it assured sales through the rest of his agent saying his friend had died. Canada. "It was a beautiful March day and I hit The image of a human skull is the street running," he says. "The papers on the commonly associated with death, said the newsstand already had, 'Belushi dead at 43.' LCBO. This was especially problematic when "I had to reach John's wife Judy and tell there are concerns around binge-drinking by her before she heard it on the news or from a young adults, which unfortunately in some stranger." cases resulted in alcohol poisoning. The character Slimer in Ghostbusters "We have just produced one million was the ghost of John Belushi, says Aykroyd. bottles of Crystal Head Vodka and I am here on The comedians' humour benefited from a gratitude tour to thank Albertans," says the British absurdists, such as Spike Milligan, Aykroyd, a naturalized American who maintains the old British Carry On movies and comedy Canadian roots as a resident of Sydenham, Ont. programs on CBC and BBC. The vodka, selling in Edmonton for "There were also those great American $52.99 plus tax, is unencumbered by additives TV shows back in the 1960s, such as I Love such as glycol, sugar or citrus oil, and is often Lucy and Sgt. Bilko," he says. "There was also used to smooth and sweeten other brands. the New York humour, Yiddish and in the "The smoothness in our vodka comes vernacular." naturally," says Aykroyd. "It's crisp and bone- Critics have said Aykroyd and Belushi dry, with a hint of vanilla." had the skills to have been in the Monty Python The vodka is manufactured in shows. "I feel very honoured by that," says the Newfoundland and is quadruple-distilled and actor. "They had a big influence on us." filtered through Herkimer diamond crystals. Aykroyd is not afraid to say that three Aykroyd also has interests in Patron