Too Fast to live, too young to die, my, my. On this day in 1982, the world lost the brilliant manic comic who assumed the role of 'Joliet Jake' with fellow cast member Dan Aykroyd as his musical brother 'Elwood Blues' in Saturday Night Live skits and in the 1980 Blues Brothers movie. John Belushi died of an apparent overdose in Los Angeles.

 

The pair released the album Briefcase Full of Blues in 1978 and opened for the Grateful Dead at the last concert Bill Graham presented at Winterland in San Francisco.

 

While the Blues Brothers act was purely comedic between songs and included antics like Belushi doing cartwheels during them, the pair revered true blues players and their routines and musical performances turned many of their fans on to some great musicians they might not have discovered otherwise.

 

John's headstone is inscribed "I may be gone, but rock n roll lives on."

 

Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on March 5 include...

 

1952 Alan Clark of Dire Straits born.

1965 Kinks release Kinda Kinks.

1965 The Rolling Stones and The Hollies open a UK tour at the Regal Theatre in London.

1969 Creem Magazine's first issue gets published.

1970 Red Hot Chili Peppers John Frusciante born.

1971 Led Zeppelin does Stairway to Heaven live for the first time at the Ulster Hall in Belfast, Ireland on the opening night of a UK tour.

1971 Badfinger opens its first US tour in Toledo, Ohio.

1973 Jimi Hendrix manager Michael Jeffrey is killed in Spanish airliner crash.

1985 3,000 radio stations play We Are The World simultaneously.

1994 Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane & Starship gets arrested after waving a gun at police responding to a domestic dispute at her California home.

1984 David Gilmour releases About Face.

1986 Steve Earle releases Guitar Town.

2002 The Osbourne's premiers on MTV.