Editor: We’d like to thank Jeremy for his Bill Murray Story.
This story goes back several years. I’m pretty sure What About Bob? was already out at the time. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to have grown up on Dan Aykroyd’s property (my family lives within close proximity north of Kingston, Ontario).
One night, we went into what was then ‘Dan Aykroyd’s Ghetto House Cafe’ with The Tragically Hip, Aykroyd, and Murray. Though I was younger (17ish?), I was kind of placed on security detail.
After the party in town, we all went back to Dan’s lodge. I was just dropping off gifts, so I left my friend in the car, but Dan invited us both in to enjoy the festivities. Anyway, we kind of felt out of place in the camaraderie that was surrounding us, so we sat on one of Dan’s couches, eating and having a couple drinks, while talking amongst ourselves.
You have to understand, Dan’s couch was F’in huge. Really big. I’m sure there are people still lost in its cracks. So there we were, doing our thing, when Bill Murray grabbed one of the nearby kid-sized chairs and sat down facing my buddy Chris and I, looking just like a goofball. We talked for a little while, and then Bill asked me what I wanted to do with my life.
I mentioned something about going to school, to which his reply was:
“School sucks. It’s a waste of time and gets you nowhere. Don’t waste your life.”
Then he stood up and walked back to the party, leaving both my friend and I half dumbfounded.
Bill was an amazing guy to party with that night, an extremely kind and generous person. I’ve worked in the film biz for years and there’s a lot of assholes out there – but he can’t be classified anywhere close to those guys.