George Thorogood

PRIME – February 2015 “Destroyers” frontman on writing, playing and staying true to the music By Debbie Gardner debbieg@thereminder.com George Thorogood hadn’t played a note when he picked up his first guitar at age 16. That fact, according the band bio on www.georgethorogood.com, “Didn’t matter. I’d learn to do all that soon enough.” Having that guitar in his hands felt right, and for a kid from Wilmington, Delaware, who has referred to himself as a “live rock performer” for more than four decades, it was the start of a remarkable career. Thorogood and his longtime “Destroyers” bandmates – Jeff Simon on drums, Bill Blough on bass, Jim Suhler on guitar and Buddy Leach on sax – have literally lived the Blues life. From a hand-to-mouth career as a Boston-based club band touring the Northeast in the 1970s to their big break with the self-titled album, “George Thorogood and the Destroyers” produced by the Cambridge-based independent label Rounder Records in 1977, Thorogood and his boys have always been a band on the fringes of the rock scene. But that hasn’t stopped their music from becoming the anthem for many in the boomer generation. From Thorogood’s signature songs – “Bad to the Bone” and “I Drink Alone” – to the band’s covers of classic blues songs such as “Move It On Over” and “Who do You Love,” this group’s mix of blues and rock has garnered their 20-plus albums two platinum and six gold nods. On March 3, Thorogood and The Destroyers bring their 2015 “Badder Than Ever” tour to The Colonial in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for a one-night stand. PRIME caught up with Thorogood from his west coast studio for a quick chat in early January. Here’s what he had to say about being “Badder Than Ever.” Q: You’ve been at this since the ‘70s. How do you keep rockin’ after 40 years? “This is what I’ve been gearing up to do since I was 16 years old; [rockin’] is what I’ve been about my whole life. I get old but it doesn’t get old… what I do… [and] I’m fortunate to have the songs and the catalog. I remember seeing a sign advertising “Fleetwood Mac The Hit Songs” tour; what else are they going to do? No promoter ever says ‘I want Aerosmith to go on tour and I don’t want them to play any of their hits.’ If [audiences] want to hear ‘Bad to the Bone’ for the next 40 years, that’s OK. I have no problem with that. Some artists do. Q: Did you really try to get someone else to record one of your best-known hits, “Bad to the Bone?” “I tried a couple of people. One of the artists I got some bad heat from was Muddy Waters [blues artist McKinley Morganfield]. A quote from his manager went, ‘That’s one of the most ludicrous things I’ve ever heard. Muddy Waters would never record a blues song written by a white guy.’ I also tried Bo Diddley. He liked it, but didn’t have a record deal at the time. Most of the songs I’ve written, I had other artists in mind. I wanted the lead singer of Steppenwolf to perform ‘Born to Be Bad;’ I wrote “Oklahoma Sweetheart ‘ with Merle Haggard in mind. I’m the last of the guys who’s always going to be the guy outside the candy shop window looking in. But things have a way of working out, don’t they?” Q: What will your concert at The Colonial be like for fans? “Our plan is to satisfy; no one will be disappointed. People want to hear ‘Bad to the Bone,’ ‘One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer’ – that’ why I recorded those songs to begin with. It will be the greatest rock experience of their existence. Why else do it?