Wowjust wowone of the most ridiculous responses I've ever read in my life. Apparently people who live in Illinois aren't allowed to leave their homes.
I don't know if Belushi had ever actually been there, but he was a member of Second City. Generally, if you weren't doing well at Second City, you would be demoted to the touring company. The touring company definitely would have performed somewhere in the Quad Cities. I'm going to take an educated guess that it was an inside joke within Second City that Moline/Rock Island was a crappy place to be from or visit.
Clearly he and Aykroyd had some sort of inside jokes about it. The Blues Brothers were originally from Rock Island. Their backstory is that the orphanage they grew up in was there. However, this is not well known because city officials wouldn't let them film the movie there. Apparently there is a statue in Rock Island commemorating the Blues Brothers.
Also, Aykroyd's Fred Garvin male prostitute character on SNL was from that area.
Holy hell even I've been to Davenport, IA and I live in Arizona. I'm still amazed that anyone would think a celebrity could never have been to the area. Pretty sure Cary Grant died there. Oh waitthat can't be possible because Cary Grant grew up in England. I doubt very much he could ever have been there!! pfft
The people you idolize wouldn't like you.

Yeah, because Hollywood is so much closer.
Originality needs a reboot.

Moline is 175 miles from Chicago.
I doubt very much he had ever been there.

John Belushi was born and grew up in Illinois. Maybe he had some bad experiences with that particular town.
Originality needs a reboot.