I did not want to thread jack the other thread, but I just wanted to mention how lucky...

Paul Shaffer has been to get the Letterman gig.

The guy looks like he has a great time, all the time when he did Letterman. It’s insane to think about all the amazing artists he has played with over the years.

 

Had a decent run at SNL. Didn't realize Belushi dropped him from the Blues Brothers band (movie version). Got his start doing music for a Toronto production of Godspell featuring (get this) Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin - well before SCTV.

 

He was great in Spinal Tap

 

He also drove Canadian pop sensation Robin Sparkles to obsessive behavior, leading to the birth of grunge music in Canada.

 

I read somewhere, possibly the Miller and Shales oral history, that he was dropped because he worked on Gilda Radner's Broadway show.

 

I wasn't aware of that either. The Blues Brothers had an incredible band on the Briefcase Full of Blues album and Shafer certainly wasn't out of place there

 

I so wanted to kick him in the ass.

 

He fucked up the timing.

 

Me, three. Dan Ackroyd may not have been much of a vocalist but he could blow a pretty mean harp.

 

I had all three albums. They were a mini-who's who of electric blues.

 

Back in the late 80s, the ground-breaking ceremony for the Pyramid Arena, "The Big Dig," was attended by as many celebrities as the Memphis glitterati could get. Aykroyd was there along with most of the original band. A nun approached him with matching pairs of sunglasses and asked if he would pose for a picture with her. I can't remember if it was for the local RC hospital or another charity, but the tagline was, "We're on a mission from God." Good on him for doing it. Sorry to say I can't find it online.

Edit: A friend who was there says it's one of those stories that could have happened that way, but they suspect it was another part of Memphis Hoodoo apocrypha. She wants it to be true. So do I.