What does Dan Aykroyd get up to when he’s not busting ghosts or living out his evil twin persona Elwood Blues? Make vodka, of course. The Canadian comic and musician is the co-founder of Crystal Head vodka – a brand born out of his desire for a pure, additive-free spirit. “I felt a lot of vodkas have over-viscosity; I didn’t like that,” says Aykroyd. “We had a number-one record with Briefcase Full of Blues, we had a number-one single with our cover of “Soul Man”, a number-one TV show with Saturday Night Live, we had a number-one movie with Ghostbusters, so I wanted to do a number-one vodka.”
Australia, Aykroyd tells us, is one of Crystal Head’s top five markets, which is why he’s in town to thank the nation for its support. “It’s battle speed here getting the word of gratitude out to Australians for how they’ve embraced my product,” he says. “People really got the vodka – they just understood it.”
Aykroyd’s Australian tour has seen him spruik the vodka in Sydney through media appearances, bottle signings and a dinner and surprise blues performance last night at The Star casino. On 14 October he heads to Melbourne to spread the love.
As for his down time, Aykroyd tells us he hasn’t got much, but if he did he’d love nothing more than to “get into a car and drive out into the desert at a hundred miles an hour and go to Alice Springs”. We checked in at The Star last night to catch some of the action.
The food The Star’s Sokyo was the backdrop for the evening, with standout dishes being snapper sashimi with paper-thin slivers of onion and a delicate yuzu honey sauce, and caramelised fillets of miso-dressed cod made fresh with a cucumber salad.
The drink Crystal Head vodka – and lots of it. We took ours in the form of dangerously strong Martinis and a Punch in the Head: an ironically refreshing combination of vodka, grapefruit juice and lots of ice.
We loved Watching Aykroyd work the stage, Elwood Blues Ray-Bans and all.
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