Watch: Bruce Willis, Lester Butler & The Red Devils jam on Japan TV 1991

Bruce Willis brought “the toughest blues band in L.A.” on his promotional tour of Japan for the film “The Last Boy Scout” 34 years ago this month.

This never-before-published video of The Red Devils backing Willis on the song “Checkin’ Up On My Baby” is this year’s Black Friday video exclusive from NoFightin.com. The video comes from a private collector, and features Lester Butler, Dave Lee Bartel, Zach Zunis and Stephen Hodges.

Willis was a guest on “Oshare 30-30” (“Club 30-30”), a half-hour talk show in Japan, with hosts Ichiro Furutachi and Yasuko Agawa (and, apparently, the “legendary” intrepreter Natsuko Toda, who is known as “The Subtitle Queen”). This episode was broadcast live on Nov. 14, 1991.

Sure, Willis talks up the band, and even tries to set up the lovely (and single) singer-actress Agawa with one of the musicians. But the biggest takeaway is the reminder of what a charismatic, charming and exciting star Bruce Willis was in 1991.

And at the tail end of 1991, he was a star knocked back on his heels: He’d had some notable flops, with “Bonfire of The Vanities” and “Hudson Hawk” being particularly egregious. Meanwhile, as Willis mentions in the interview, his wife at the time, Demi Moore, was in between career-high classics “Ghost” and “A Few Good Men.”

All of which makes The Red Devils’ participation in this program so fascinating. Willis needed a movie hit, not another booking for his band. He probably didn’t need to spend a minute-30 playing harp with his blues band on this talk show. In fact, Bruce took a backseat to Lester, who led the band, sang and played harp. Bruce took his cues from Butler, with a servicable solo at the song’s end.

This video stands as a curio of the one of the brightest capital-letter MOVIE STARS of the 1990s.

Watch: Black Friday videos on NoFightin.com

---

BLACK FRIDAY DEALS: Check out the hot designs in the No Fightin’ Threadless store!