Blues Brothers 2000 picks up 18 years after The Blues Brothers, with Elwood being released from prison, this time a rather high-tech private prison rather than the old Illinois state prison depicted in the first film. He learns that his brother, Jake has died, along with their surrogate father figure Curtis, and that the orphanage the two had saved in the first film is no more; however he is told of a half brother. The "half brother" is the illegitimate son of Curtis, named Cabel "Cab" Chamberlain. Cab is a Commander in the Illinois State Police and refuses to reunite with or support Elwood, a habitual criminal.
Elwood takes a job as an announcer in a nightclub (A strip club owned by the drummer of the Blues Brothers band, Willie Hall), where he discovers that the bartender has singing talent, while getting on the bad side of the Russian mafia who have been demanding payoffs from the nightclub.