I guess its kinda silly, but the Blues Brothers were a huge influence on me. I think I first saw the film on cable around '82 or 83 - so I would have been about 9-10. I don't recall having to sneak around to watch it, so my folks must have turned the other cheek on the questionable content because they knew I liked music so much (I find myself thinking about these things now that I have kids
). I probably didn't understand what Illinois Nazis were, or why Princess Leia wanted to waste Elwood with a bazooka- but I understood the music! And that was probably my first exposure to soul/R&B - aside from a few LPs my dad had, like Rags to Rufus and Innervisions. It's funny to think an SNL spinoff could be so influential, compared to stuff like "
Superstar" or "
It's Pat!"
There was some great music in there, and it made Duck Dunn one of my early bass idols.