Dan Aykroyd on His Spooky Brush With Britney Spears & His ‘Family of Spiritualists’

If there is one thing about Dan Aykroyd, it’s he ain’t afraid of no ghosts. In fact the star behind iconic roles from Ghostbusters to Coneheads loves looking into the peculiar, odd, and potentially otherworldly. This makes the veteran actor the perfect host of The UnBelievable, which returns to History Channel for Season 3 on November 7. 

Each episode tackles the “strangest-but-true stories in human history” through recreations, archival footage, and talking heads. The premiere “Strange Sightings” brings tales of sinister clowns plaguing neighborhoods and “America’s Most Haunted Highway” among other jaw-dropping occurrences. 

Here Aykroyd breaks down what’s to come on the show and opens up about his spooky brush with Britney Spears and spiritualists in his own family. 

I made the mistake of watching the premiere episode late at night. The clowns freaked me out. And living in Central Florida, the I-4 highway story got me. 

Dan Aykroyd: That was one of my favorites. I had heard about the I-4 highway story before the researchers proposed it for the show. I thought, “wow, this is a real thing.” People I had spoken to many years ago told me this story.  As for the clowns, I still don’t know, man. The fact there was this rumor in suburban America, and these clowns were appearing everywhere. That’s a great story. Very haunting, very eerie, very creepy. 

How is it for you to see the popularity of the series as the number of episodes was expanded from one season to the next? 

I knew based on the quality of the research, with History Channel and our guest commentators and the way they put together footage, just the completeness of it all, that we would have a quality product and people would like it. Every type of human being is interested in this type of content that defies rational and explanation and truly blows minds and drops jaws. That was exciting. There isn’t a person on the planet not interested in an anomalous weather event or story of survival or strange deaths or strange fates or technology. All of which are unbelievable. Everyone loves that. 

Then it’s just the opportunity to find things myself, and also present this in an entertaining and informative and educational way. A lot of this has to do with history. A lot of these events are historical. So to be able to stimulate the scientific stories we do. This is the big bonus of being a part of it. I think my approach to this connects with the audience  and that’s why they like it because I’m one of them. Basically I’m with the audience, I can’t believe it either sometimes. I mean the guy had his head cut off. The woman survived a 17,000-foot fall. It’s me shaking my head, but it happened. It’s true. It’s unbelievable. I’m with you in not believing, but I can give you the facts that it is true. You have to walk away knowing that we do the best research. 

History Channel/Luis Mora

It also really takes someone like yourself with an open mind. Have you always had this open mind or did it grow with experiences? 

I come from a family of spiritualists. My great grandfather was a researcher. My dad has a history of ghosts book out there he wrote a few years ago. You can get it on Amazon. It’s about mediumship and seances. The Aykroyds had a family medium in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. He was a locomotive mechanic. He worked in the city and came up to my great grandfather one day and said, “I understand you are interested in research. I think I have a gift.” His name was Walter Ashurst, and he was a talented medium. It’s all in the book there. 

He was able to reach two personalities that have gone before. He spoke in different languages, took different poses of posture for people he was channeling. He was the real thing as far as mediums go. My family was steeped in that. When I was a kid, I read the magazines and the American Psychological Research journals and my great grandfather’s writing. My mind has always been open to it. And as I’ve gone through life, I’ve confirmed in many instances of the reality of the invisible world coming into the visible world and where the supernatural is quite natural and the paranormal is quite normal if you look at it from that view. 

Have you experienced anything on set at work over the years? 

I’ll tell you this story. We were shooting this show called Out There. It was a bit like this, an anthology show where I interviewed people informally Larry King-style interviews. We were shooting in New York. This is so wild, this story. It’s perfect for the Enquirer or Globe or one of those. It is unbelievable, but it really happened. We were doing an episode on UFOs, and I had just interviewed Steven Greer, and I was about to interview Stephen Bassett, the two experiencers and researchers. I went out for a cigarette and went out on 42nd and 8th Avenue. I lit my cigarette and looked to my right and saw a black Ford with two guys standing there in long denim coats and black t-shirts and had black hair. They were both tall. I couldn’t make out their faces. Immediately, when I see a Ford black [Crown Victoria], I immediately see what’s on the plate. Is it a Fed or what? I just looked and focused on the car, and it didn’t register. It was just pixelated in my vision. 

I thought, “are those guys looking at me?” I took a drag of a cigarette, turned back and the phone rang. It’s Britney Spears. “Hi Dan, I’m doing SNL and I’d like you to come on the show with me and do some writing.” I’m on the phone and take another drag. I said, “that would be cool.” I look back and that car is gone. Those guys are gone. That is in two seconds. They did not pass me and go to 8th Avenue. They did not make a turn. I watched all the way down 42nd and 7th Avenue to see black car. They vanished. I go inside after saying yes to Saturday Night Live. I saw that and thought that was weird. My producer Robert Weiss walked up to me and said the show was canceled. We’re not doing the interview with Bassett…They told us to pack up and get out of the studio.  They were doing the UFO show and it looked like it was canceled. But it was down to two strange guys, one black car.

Sounds like you need to do a story on this story and revisit that one. 

True. That was a real thing that was happening. I’m not lying. Why would I lie about that? 

History Channel/Luis Mora

What can you tell us about the themes to come this season? 

The human survival stories are quite spectacular. We had a guy cutting logs in his backyard and the chainsaw blade bounced off the log and twisted and turned and basically almost decapitated him. It cut off, really half of his neck. He got to the hospital where they sewed it back on. That was really an amazing story. There was a guy who was skydiving, and he landed without the parachute in a mound of fire ants. That mound cushioned his fall, but then he is in a mound of fire ants. He survived a crash landing in sky diving but landing a mound of fire ants. Unbelievably he did survive. 

I love the story of the boy scout who built a nuclear reactor. He got a radioactive isotope chip somewhere and built a nuclear reactor in his basement. It was about the size of a coffee can. He was charged by the federal government, but he subsequently did die from radiation burns. That was an amazing story. Some of the inventions people come up with. There was also this sinkhole that was a mile long and swallowed up the earth around it. There is a gas main they also hit where they thought they would have a gusher. Well, it was too strong to control. I think it has been 10 or 15 years with this continuous spurt of gas in the air. I love the meteorological stories and weather stories and geophysical stories that are unbelievable as anyone can imagine with human behavior or invention. 

We’re in the age of AI in Hollywood, but I would think it may have an impact on this line of work. Does this make the job more difficult when you’re trying to decipher what is authentic? 

I think there is so much research done on all the stories we are doing. There are previous research that backs it up with our own team. I don’t think we are in too much danger there of AI giving us subjects and finding out they are not true. I think AI can help us with graphics. I think it can help us with the depictions. It can also help with research. It’s just up to our researchers to research if it’s accurate. It will also be able to help completely generate me as a host. They can pay my estate and my family. 

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You’ve had such a big career. What’s your mindset in terms of the projects you choose and how you still stay busy? 

On the artistic side, I have a concert coming and that will be a beautiful reunion with my band. I just had one in Chicago in July. I’m still doing concerts with Jimmy [Belushi], John’s brother, with a spectacular band. We do songs you don’t hear on the radio. We’re fully into the African-American songbook with R&B and rock ‘n’ roll and jump swing. I’d say we have one of the Top 10 R&B revues in the world. I’m doing that. I also have my vodka where there are no additives. We’re in 80 countries and sold millions of bottles based on the fact we have no glyceride, no sugar, no lemoning in there. I think it’s 70 calories per shot. We have a spectacular following. That occupies quite a bit of my time. I do have to travel quite a bit for that, but it’s enjoyable. I love going to warehouses and signing bottles. That’s fun. I get to travel to places like Lansdale, Pennsylvania where I get to have lunch at the Sumneytown Tavern. Check that out for you folks in Pennsylvania. In 1762 it was established. It serves Crystal Head and is so full of history and has a great cuisine. Vodka has enabled me the ability to visit cool taverns and bars and restaurants like that and sell a product I’m proud of. 

Anything cooking on the acting side? 

Acting I’m not doing too much. It’s more of the vodka sales now. I’m a humble beverage alcohol salesman who can drink in moderation. Then I have a career where I’m still playing [as part of the Blues Brothers]. Of course, I love hosting this show. Right now, that’s all the acting I think the public can consume of me. 

The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd Season 3 premiere, November 7, 9/8c, History Channel