Photo By: David Dobson

George Thorogood – George Thorogood and the Destroyers

By: Lori Smerilson Carson

Music makes the world go around and when you know it’s your destiny, you end up writing and

recording world-wide recognized songs. That is of course, if you’re Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter George

Thorogood. It all started in 1973 when this extraordinarily talented musician teamed up with Drummer

Jeff Simon to become The Destroyers, which then led to releasing their debut album GEORGE

THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS in 1977. Now decades later, they are still going strong with

GEORGE THOROGOOD and THE DESTROYERS Live in Boston 1982: The complete concert released in

2020, and THE ORIGINAL GEORGE THOROGOOD released in 2022. Thorogood, Simon and bandmates

Bassist Bill Blough, Guitarist Jim Suhler, and Saxophonist Buddy Leach are currently hitting the road with

their Bad All Over the World – 50 Years of Rock Tour, and Ohio and Pittsburgh fans will have the

opportunity to experience this amazing show on October 21st at The Palace Theatre.

Catching up with Thorogood just prior to the start of their tour, he revealed some details about the new

show, their music, past experiences and what fans can look forward to.

On Tour: Hello George. How are you?

George Thorogood: Bad to the bone!

On Tour: That’s perfect! How did this Bad All Over the World – 50 Years of Rock Tour come about and

what can fans look forward to?

Thorogood: Well, there’s at least one or two songs that are still in the line-up after fifty years (he

laughed). There’s two of ‘em that just won’t seem to go away. We started the band around the song

“One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”. That was the song that kicked off the whole thing. It’s still in

demand today. We figured from day one, we knew we had a winner. So, we’ll keep that one in the line-up.

On Tour: So, fans can look forward to a lot of songs from The Destroyers catalogue including your solo

album (PARTY OF ONE released in 2017)?

Thorogood: There’s not time for that kind of thing, Lori. We’re real limited amount of time. We’re in for

seventy-five to ninety minutes and you can’t cram fifty years of material into ninety minutes. That’s just

not possible, for any band. So, we have to be very selective and at the same time keep in mind, number

one in mind, what the fans are paying money to hear. That’s number one, and some of them, can we

still play ‘em and I don’t mean just be able to play them, but be able to play them really good. You don’t

want to go out there without putting your best foot forward. You know what I’m saying?

On Tour: Yes. I know it will be an awesome show. Another thing about this tour, and I’m so sorry for

your loss, but it’s wonderful that funds will be put toward a memorial for your wife. The Marla

Thorogood Memorial Fund for Ovarian Cancer Research in alliance with Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Thorogood: Yeah, we’re involved with that.

On Tour: How did that come to be?

Thorogood: Well actually, my daughter set it up. It’s her project. She did that. We were recently in

Nashville doing a fundraiser, and she accepted an award and gave a nice speech. Hopefully we’ll raise

some money. I would like to just get a general fund for all cancers. I mean, as my daughter once put it,

it’s an epidemic. It’s just as common as getting a cold nowadays. That’s just how bad it is. Every buck

helps, Lori!

On Tour: It definitely does! So, funds are going toward research for cures and that type of thing? Is that

your goal?

Thorogood: Yeah. I mean, it’s every disease. Isn’t that the goal? To get the planet as healthy as possible

and keep it healthy.

On Tour: True. Being on tour is rigorous. Is there anything in particular you guys do to stay healthy?

Many musicians have work out routines.

Thorogood: Get yourself on a horizontal position as often as possible.

On Tour: I know you all started in 1973. What inspired you to become a musician? How did you know

that this was what you wanted to do?

Thorogood: Well, for one thing, I can’t do anything else. I have no education outside of high school. I had

no other interests. The only thing I knew anything about, and even that was limited. My parents came to

me after I was out of high school a couple years and just said, “when are you gonna do this? You know

you can’t work” and they were right. I’m not adapt to those kinds of things. Performing on a band stand

and music and all that just came very natural to me. They said, “all you have to do is learn how to play

music” (he laughed). Like, that was an afterthought. “You got the other part of it covered.” So, it was a

no brainer for me from day one.

On Tour: Did you take formal lessons?

Thorogood: Nah, not really. No. It’s the style. You take formal lessons when you’re studying at the

Berklee School of Jazz or The Juilliard School of Music or something like that. There’s no school for

playing like Jimi Hendrix or Robert Johnson. You just do it. We call it informal schooling.

On Tour: It works, right?

Thorogood: Well, I’m still making a living at so, I don’t know.

On Tour: You (and The Destroyers) have released a total of over twenty plus albums, two that went

Platinum and six Gold. You’ve sold over fifteen million records worldwide. What would you say is the

secret to your success?

Thorogood: You can’t really pin it down to one thing. I really think that the secret to anybody’s success

in this line of work is your material. You can be the greatest musician in the world, the greatest singer,

but if you don’t have tunes or a tune that people remember, you’re gonna have a hard time getting by. I

mean, Miles Davis (III) can stand on the bandstand without knowing any of the songs or Leonard

Bernstein, and just play, but when it gets to notoriety, its signature songs. That’s really where it’s at. I

mean, even Helen Reddy said she went through thirty songs before she came up with a hit to get her

career off the ground. The Beatles were doing all covers, and George Martin encouraged them to record

“Please Please Me” which became a number one hit. So, the success of any group is basically pretty

much your catalogue, your tunes, with the exception of maybe Frank Zappa.

On Tour: Why is he the exception?

Thorogood: Because he’s a brilliant musician. He doesn’t need hits. You think of Van Morrison, you think

of “Moon Dance”. You think of “Brown Eyed Girl”. You think of “Gloria”. Look at all the signature tunes

The Stones have. One right after another. “A Boy Named Sue” is the most popular song in the world. You

take away ‘Bourbon, Scotch and Beer’, “Bad to the Bone” and Move It On Over” from Thorogood, what

do you got? Nothing (he laughed)!

On Tour: What inspired those songs? What inspires you when you write (songs like “Bad to the Bone”

and “I Drink Alone”)?

Thorogood: Well, I don’t really write so to speak. What I do is, we go after songs and try to write

something that we know will connect with our fans. I knew from day one, my voice wasn’t gonna make

anybody forget about Rod Stewart or Roger Daltrey or Beverly Sills, and my guitar playing wasn’t ever

going to catch up with Jeff Beck, not that anybody can. I knew if we was gonna make a mark, it would be

the songs that was selected, whether we wrote them or not. That’s what we go with. I said, this one will

go over with the fans. These are songs people would like to hear and I would always say this. If we don’t

record ‘Bourbon, Scotch and Beer’ somebody else will. If I don’t write “Bad to the Bone” somebody else

will. It’s so obvious, Lori. We’re nothing if we’re not obvious. I always say, we better get a hurry and

write “Bad to the Bone” because anybody can write that. Only one person can write “Like a Rolling

Stone”, ok. So, that’s really the motivation for us. Keep the tunes coming. I had a cat once, a brilliant

guitar player. We used to open for his band, and then years went by and his band started opening for us

and he was a little bit perturbed about this. He said, “Thorogood. Why am I opening for you? You know I

play better than you.” And I go well, I’ll tell you three reasons why we’re doing what we’re doing and

you’re not doing it your way. “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Bad to the Bone” and “Move It On

Over”. There’s three reasons right there. How’s that (he laughed)?

On Tour: What would you recommend to a new musician or a new band?

Thorogood: I would recommend, stay away from tobacco, fried food and stay out of Italian cars.

On Tour: That’s good advice. I read you also partner with The Leukemia Lymphoma Society and

Musically Fed to feed veterans, homeless and food insecure people nationwide. How did you get

involved?

Thorogood: Well, it’s just a natural thing. I mean, Barbara Streisand gives wings to hospitals. We all do

what we can.

On Tour: What prompted you to get involved with these particular organizations though?

Thorogood: Its necessary.

On Tour: Is there a goal that you have with helping these organizations?

Thorogood: Well, look at it this way. If you’re helping out the Cancer Society or The Leukemia

Foundation, or St Jude’s Hospital, whatever. If one of these kids walks away cancer free at the age of

nine or ten years old, maybe that kid will grow up and go to medical school and cure cancer someday.

How about that? It’s an investment for the future. I mean, that’s what it’s about, isn’t it?

On Tour: Yes, definitely. Are there going to be any new videos or anything else for fans to look forward to?

Thorogood: You never know. You keep your options open. You never know when some wild idea might

jump out of your brain, or it might be some wild idea somebody else lays on you and said, we’d like you

to do this. So, it’s all an adventure. You know what I’m saying, Lori? It’s all an adventure, and a never

ending one, I hope.

On Tour: Is there going to be new music in the future?

Thorogood: You never know. At this point, you don’t really plan something like that, it kind of happens.

When you’re starting out, you have a plan. You have a catalogue of songs you want to record and things

you want to do. You know, before Hank Williams stepped into a recording studio, he’d written fifty,

sixty, seventy songs. So, he was ready, you know what I mean? So, as time goes on, I don’t want to say

you exhaust that, but when you’re playing you used to say, well if I could just sustain what I already

have, great! If we can move on from that, even better.

On Tour: Was there anything else you want fans to know about the show?

Thorogood: It will be the most unbelievable fantastic thing they have ever experience in their existence!