Otis Day has some words of wisdom for entertainers that come too late to help Ron Isley, Wesley Snipes and Lauryn Hill. If you're up on celebrity news, you already know what Isley, Snipes and Hill have in common, but Day's reminder in this Q&A is good information for every American citizen.
I met the frontman for Otis Day and the Knights, the fictional band in "Animal House" which went on to play real gigs, last month when MyPillow.com CEO's Mike Lindell married one of his company's executives, Dallas Yocum.
Otis sang "Shout" and "Shama Lama Ding Dong" at the wedding reception and was a big hit with people who were not guests of the marriage ceremony, as you can see on my startribune.com/video. There is also a little surprise after the video credit.
Otis is a character, and he's played a lot of them, too, as his movie credits also include: "Halls of Anger," "D.C. Cab," "Which Way is Up?" "Sparkle," "Thank God It's Friday," "Star Chamber" and "Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings."
Otis is proud of the last one. "I was with Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones and Richard Pryor, and I won an Image Award as Best Supporting Actor [playing] a deaf-mute," he said. "Wow, ain't that crazy?"
Q What's the craziest place you've ever found a groupie?
A My God. One time we were on a tour, I had my tour bus. These guys would just throw women on the bus with me and tell me to take off with [their] girlfriends. And talking about, Yeah Otis, we love you. You can have them. I said, "Let me tell you something. Any man [does] that to my daughter, I'm gonna kill him." That's all that's going on. They started laughing. Then one time a lady was in my room, she was with some other people, and she went into the bathroom. She was gone for a loooooooong time. She had passed out and we couldn't open the door. I had to call the people to take the door off the hinges. She was drunk as a drunk.
Q "Animal House" star John Belushi lived fast on hard drugs and died early, but what did you think of him?