We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.

Dan Aykroyd is nestled in the corner of a row of tables at the front of the Indigo Ballroom at the Bayfront Hilton. It’s only the first day of San Diego Comic Con, but over 2,000 seats are packed. I have to leverage my press pass just to find an open spot in the back. Aykroyd is in grand form, fielding questions about the new Blues Brothers graphic novel from Z2 that hits shelves on Oct. 7.

No matter how you feel about the Blues Brothers, there is an aggressive joy to the room. You enter, you holler. That’s it. It’s the kind of hot shit call-and-response that has kept megachurches in the black since the Reagan era. Only this is nerd gospel. The creators of the book include Luke Pisano (grandson of John Belushi), James Werner, Felipe Sobreiro, and Stella Aykroyd. “I’ve heard it said that working with your kids can be one of the greatest joys a man can have,” Aykroyd says, “And having worked with Stella on this book, now I know that’s true.” The crowd melts.

The open Q&A is moderated by Z2 head Josh Bernstein, who manages an assembly line of touching tributes. Bernstein and fans gush about everything from car crashes to Carrie Fisher. Aykroyd straightens up for the latter: “She was a committed professional and one of the wittiest people you could ever meet. To me, she was a loving person. I mean, we almost got married.” The room buzzes. “We got blood tests and everything. We had a beautiful romance, but that ended when the movie ended. Then she went back to Paul Simon.”

At the back of the hall, I’m sweating, loading batteries into a Sony BX700. The point of this piece is to write about side projects from a famous person. In Aykroyd’s case, you could fill an entire column from his business ventures alone. He was the man who brought Patrón to Canada, spreading little bottles of Mexican magic across the northern fjords. He co-founded the House of Blues, all of which were gobbled up by Live Nation in 2006. Aykroyd has personally funded exploratory research into extraterrestrial studies for decades, to the delight of haters and believers alike. He’s rarely spotted in public without a glass skull in hand or on his chest, pushing his own global brand of vodka that is as kosher as it is corny.

By the time he hits the press room, he’s a little bit stoned, but he has every right to be; the man is dressed in full Elwood Blues regalia, and I’m here to hit him with questions about Dragnet and Tupac Shakur.

“City Of Crime (Dragnet Rap)” With Tom Hanks (1987)

Dragnet seemed to kick off a period of law enforcement in your own life. You’ve been sworn in as a reserve officer twice already.

DAN AYKROYD: Cops loved Blues Brothers, and they love Dragnet, too. My grandfather on my mother’s side of the family, Ed Gougeon, was a royal Canadian Mountie police staff sergeant. So I had a Mountie for a grandpa. I’ve always had profound respect for first responders.

How comfortable were you with the rapping in “City Of Crime”?

AYKROYD: My brother Peter wrote that, may he rest in party. [Hums main theme.] It was his idea. I thought, “This is great.” And in fact, it helped open the movie. They had surveys that asked people why they came to the movie, and they said that they had seen the video and it looked like fun. It was a beautiful piece of music and some fun choreography.

Paula Abdul created those dance moves the year before she broke out as a pop star. That must have been wild.

AYKROYD: Yes. She was the best. Back then that’s how you sold a movie, on MTV. And you did an associate video, and my brother did a solid job on that, it’s a cool little track. Joe Friday rapping is worth the price of admission. I’m grateful for Hanks, he had the moves. He held up that movie and made it work.

Putting Digital Underground’s “Same Song” In Nothing But Trouble (1991)

You performed with Digital Underground in Nothing But Trouble. Can you tell us how that came about?

AYKROYD: I wrote that scene in where the judge plays the organ with the rap band. And he kills the coke dealers and he saves the rappers. Wasn’t that a fun scene?

It’s nuts. Did you have any inkling that 2Pac would later go on to become an icon?

AYKROYD: I didn’t know then, no. I didn’t know who he was. Shock G, of course, was a star at the time. He was a delight to collaborate with. I said I want that Hammond B3 to sting, and he wrote the figures, and I learned to mime them.

Seems like you put in a ton of work on that film.

AYKROYD: I wrote the film and I was the director, and it ended my directing career. Not sorry, really, that I relinquished the director’s career; you have to take out a year of your life just to do it. I had so many other little rackets going on, as I still do.

Between the booze empire and your royalties, I’d say you’ve come out okay.

AYKROYD: Hey, not everyone loved Nothing But Trouble when it was released, and not everyone loves it today. But Demi Moore was fantastic, she pulled it off. Chevy was funny, he’s got some really subtle, nice stuff. Candy was superior as the cop, and he did me a real favor as the bride. It’s a serviceable comedy.

U.S.A. For Africa’s “We Are The World” (1985)

Part of the lore of “We Are The World” is that you were the only comedian in the room.

AYKROYD: Some people later said, “Why is he there?” Well, ya know, I had a music recording career up to that point. The Blues Brothers did sell a quadruple-platinum record. The first one, anyway. And then the soundtrack for the movie did well, too.

Did you get to see any of the songwriting process?

AYKROYD: It was a work in progress when I arrived that afternoon. I got to see Springsteen hammering out the song. And Michael Jackson was jumping in, too. I remember a lot of waiting around and then finally gathering together and singing it. That was a beautiful night.

Got any stories from being in the studio as it happened?

AYKROYD: Quincy Jones saw me and warned me, “Now you watch out, I don’t want any Blues Brothers antics to take this over.” He was afraid I would dominate. And you know what? I could have, very easily. “Naw, naw, nawww, We are the World?…uh-this is gonna be a swing number. [Scatting like Sinatra, snapping] We are the worrrlllld, beeee-yabba-dap bum-bummm, get yerrrr hunger fixed!”

The Blues Brothers Nintendo Game (1991) & The Blues Brothers: Jukebox Adventure On Super Nintendo (1993)

The new graphic novel captures the tone of the Blues Brothers. In terms of the other adaptations, did you ever get to see any of the Nintendo games back in the day?

AYKROYD: Yes, yes. I liked them, I thought they were cool. I think we could do another game.

One of the games had you guys fighting giant snails and riding dragons. If that had been a big hit, would we have seen some kind of fantasy Blues Brothers movie?

AYKROYD: I could see an animation of it, yeah. It’s doubtful that there would be a live action Blues Brothers anything these days. Look, I don’t think we could get the original Blues Brothers made today, taking on the Klan and everything. So If we did an animated show, I would love to do it with Z2, if they want to get into that, because their depictions are really wonderful in the new graphic novel.

It seems like these adaptations are the future of the Blues Brothers.

AYKROYD: Oh, me and Jimmy [Belushi] still do shows when we can. We just did one in Chicago. If people want a live experience, I think a ride at Universal Studios would be so logical. You’d have one of those old airporter cars, like a regular Chevy or Ford or Dodge, but it would have eight doors with bench seats, so you could fit 20 people in it. Animatronic Elwood is in the driver seat and is like, “Ehhh-welcome aboard, everybody,” and you go through the ride in Chicago. You jump the swing bridge, you go under the river like Blues Brothers 2000. [Calling over to Luke Pisano] LUKE! We gotta set up a meeting with the Parks people!

Paul McCartney’s “Spies Like Us” Video At Abbey Road (1985)

What’s it like to make a music video with one of the Beatles?

AYKROYD: We hung out with Paul for the weekend. Donna [Dixon] and I visited his house. We went over for supper to his place down in Kent, with Linda. We spent an afternoon and an evening there. My daughter is named Stella because Stella McCartney ran up and Donna said, “Hello, who are you?” And she exploded with this big, bright “I’m STELLAAAAA!” And that name just hit. We thought we’d call our kid that. So we got to hang and Paul became friends with Chevy, they became quite close and are today still.

You really monkeyed with those dials at Abbey Road?

AYKROYD: Oh yeah. When we filmed at Abbey Road, you couldn’t help but think about all the music that had been done in that room. It felt good, just having Paul buy into it and support what we were doing and write the song. He had a legacy of doing spy music, having done Bond first.

Any other stray bullets from Spies Like Us?

AYKROYD: Yes! I went to the CIA headquarters to research a TV show a few years ago, and they took me up to the East Asian desk and there on the wall was a map of the Dushanbe Road from the movie. And I had several young men and women come up to me and tell me that they got into the intelligence field after seeing Spies Like Us as a kid. It just keeps on going.

Dananananaykroyd’s “Black Wax” (2009)

Speaking of UK hijinks, there was a band called Dananananaykroyd from Scotland. Have you ever heard of them?

AYKROYD: No, no.

They called themselves “fight pop.”

AYKROYD: I applaud them and I give them full license. Carry on, by all means.