After 40 years on the road George Thorogood loves travelling
north of the border
George Thorogood and the Destroyers are headed back to Ottawa this time to perform in Southam Hall in the National Arts Centre.
Photograph by: Handout photo , Universal Music Enterprises
After four decades on the road, George Thorogood has more than his fair share of memories at his calloused fingertips.
“I used to play Ottawa quite a bit. We played at a club called Barrymore’s, we couldn’t knock it down,” he said. “We gave it our best shot but Canadians are tough.”
Thorogood, who has achieved “legend” status along with his band The Destroyers, because of songs like Who Do You Love, first crossed into Canada in 1978.
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George Thorogood in concert
Where: Southam Hall, National Arts Centre
When: May 16 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: Start at $67, nac-cna.ca
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“Our first Canadian experience was the El Mocambo in Toronto. The reception for our band in Canada then, it was just ridiculous. I had really never experienced anything like it.
“Next we went to a club in Montreal. Those were the days when clubs would bring in a second show and a second audience. After our set about a third of the people wouldn’t leave. There was a line around the block outside for the second show and this crowd wouldn’t leave. Security told them ‘You are going to leave’ and they wouldn’t and they almost started to get violent. They can sure get riled up in that French Canadian area.
“Finally they came down and got me to come up and talk to these people, I said ‘I don’t know how to speak French Canadian’.” But he did it anyway.
“I told them we were appearing the next day but they still wouldn’t go. They said forget it, here’s the money.”
For Thorogood that was eye-opening. In those days, he says, the band was a three-piece with no road manager or equipment manager.
“We hit Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal that was about it at first. Then we started to expand and now we go coast to coast from Victoria to Halifax — 4,000 miles, it’s a big country.
“You drive through those Rocky Mountains at night, if we could have taken everybody on the planet through those mountains in 1939, no war. Quebec City one of most beautiful cities I’ve seen.”
Thorogood says he has a theory about the appeal of his brand of southern blues rock, north of the 49th.
“I can think of one thing that might have something to do with it. Canadians like beer. People who watch this band are beer drinkers. It’s like in Australia, people drink a beer instead of orange juice. In your country, beer is a religion. If you sing a song like One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer we’re gonna fall into open arms.”
If Canadians love Thorogood, the feeling is mutual.
“Let’s face it, we are a glorified blues rock bar band that just got bigger. We just expanded as the world’s dirtiest bar band. There are arena bands. And there are people you go to see in concerts like Joni Mitchell. Or you go to see a big orchestra like the Boston Philharmonic and then you’ve got your bar bands. It’s no big mystery.”
Of course there are a lot of hard miles in 40 years on the road.
“If it was easy everybody would be doing it. I asked Chuck Berry about that, of all people. He winked at me and said ‘George, you got to eat right’.
“My father said to me, ‘George whenever you get a chance to get out of work take it.’ ”