Jim Belushi Recalls Conversations He Had With Chris Farley Asking Him to Stop Using Drugs

Jim Belushi tried to prevent Chris Farley from taking drugs before his death. The comedian shared his memories of his conversations with the late Saturday Night Live star on the Dec. 14 episode of David Spade and Dana Carvey’s podcast Fly on the Wall, in which he encouraged Farley to stop using drugs after the death of his brother John Belushi. According to Jim, 68, he “felt a special connection” to Farley since “he had such a special connection, and desire, and love, for my brother John. “When he would see me, he would light up, and I’d be like, ‘Chris, I’m not John,’” Jim recalled. He said Farley would often rave about John, but he was worried, primarily since Farley used drugs in those days. “I said, ‘You got to stop chasing him, Chris. He’s gone. He’s gone,’” the actor recounted, adding that Farley would answer, “‘I know, I know. But I love him so much. He was so good.’” He continued, “I said, ‘Chris, you can’t follow John. You can’t follow his track. The guy did drugs. He’s dead. You can’t follow him with the drugs to find out who he was.’”

As a cautionary tale, Jim even told Farley about his brief experimentation with drugs after his brother’s death to convince him to stay away from them. “I did it myself right after John died. I kind of increased my intake to try to get close to what John must have been feeling. And then one day I go, ‘What the f— am I doing?’ And then I just cleaned up and stopped,” he said. “But I told him that story, too, and I said, ‘You’ve got to stop. You got to f— stop, Chris.’ … and I just kept repeating it. “It wasn’t very successful,” Jim added. “Addiction is an obsessive behavior, and it just extended into obsessing about John.” Spade, 58, added his thoughts about Farley’s obsession with John, commenting, “I think he saw himself growing up going, ‘Oh, there’s a guy like me, and he’s from Chicago.’ And he would always talk about [it]… And he’d bob his head like [Dan] Aykroyd,” he explained. “I said, ‘You’re as good as Belushi’ toward the end. I said, ‘I sound crazy, but as great as he was, you’re up there, dude.’”

“And the truth was, he was great. And again, cutting it short for a crowd that could’ve seen a lot more,” Spade added. “And you’re right, there’s no telling him no. And if you say it too much, we would have problems because he goes away from people that do that, and that’s just normal for addicts.” Jim agreed with Spade’s comment, saying, “That’s normal addictive behavior. Even John, in the end, Danny [Aykroyd] said something very interesting, and that was when John died, the people that were around him, Danny didn’t know any of those people. None of them. So you know, addicts kind of create a community that will support them, that will indulge them in what they want and do.” On March 5, 1982, John was found dead at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. A lethal combination of cocaine and heroin was found in his system. He was 33 years old. A drug overdose tragically claimed Farley’s life on Dec. 18, 1997, at age 33. He was best known for appearing on five seasons of SNL from 1990 to 1995. Apart from Jim, Adam Sandler, Conan O’Brien, Bo Derek, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, and Jon Lovitz also participated in the podcast to honor Farley.