Jim Belushi 'begged' Chris Farley to stop using drugs before death

Jim Belushi shared how he attempted to keep Chris Farley away from drugs before his tragic death.

In a two-part tribute on Fly on the Wall podcast by David Spade and Dana Carvey, Jim shared about his conversation with the actor where he pushed the late Saturday Night Live star to end his drug usage after losing his own brother John Belushi from an overdose.

He also spoke of his "special connection" to him as "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 added that Chris often spoke praises about his brother, something which he admitted worried him as the late star was using drugs at the time.

"I said, 'You got to stop chasing him, Chris. He's gone. He's gone,'" he recalled, adding that Farley would reply, "'I know, I know. But I love him so much. He was so good.'"

Jim 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.'"

Jim even shared his own cautionary tale of using drugs for a short while after his brother’s death.

"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---ing stop, Chris.' ... and I just kept repeating it."

"It wasn't very successful," Jim somberly added. "Addiction is an obsessive behavior, and it just extended into obsessing about John."

"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 continued. "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."