George Thorogood still Bad to the Bone with life
By Herb Meeker
News Report Staff
Courtesy - Effingham & Teautopolis News Report
Interviewing legendary rocker George Thorogood means you better be ready to shift gears.
But once you get used to his humor – when asked about the weather during his West Coast leg of his 40th anniversary concert tour, he deadpanned he could not divulge his location due to government security measures -- you get some insight into the guy who wrote the iconic blues-heavy rock hit “Bad to the Bone” and redefined blues hits like “Who Do You Love?” and “One Bourdon, One Scotch, One Beer” with a driving rock beat.
Thorogood and his band, The Destroyers, roll into Effingham next week at the Effingham Performance Center. During a phone interview, Thorogood explained how he came up with the phrase of the hit that cut to the bone for rock fans more than 30 years ago.
“Was the saying, ‘Bad to the Bone,’ ever out of our culture? It was a common phrase like ‘Born to Be Wild’ or ‘Born to Run.’ It’s too obvious to ignore. Someone has to do it so why not me,” Thorogood said when asked what inspired him to write that song.
When asked if it is a thrill to hear ‘Bad to the Bone’ playing a few minutes into one of best sci-fi movies ever, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” Thorogood jokes, “Well, my agent, my bankers and my manager love it!”
Artists who inspired him are two English guys named Mick and Keith of the Rolling Stones and John Lennon for not letting Rock and Roll die.
George Thorogood still Bad To The Bone
By Quentin Young
Courtesy - Boulder Daily Camera
The ’80s were a good time for mainstream blues guitar. For star power, you had Eric Clapton. For firepower, Stevie Ray Vaughan. For showmanship, you had ZZ Top. For style, Robert Cray.
But if straight-up, snarling blues rock was more your thing, you had George Thorogood.
His most famous song is about how bad to the bone he is, and his other greatest hits are drinking anthems. His voice sounds like someone revving a Harley, and his approach to slide guitar is akin to what a lumberjack does with a chainsaw.
George Thorogood and his band, The Destroyers, are celebrating 40 years of making music with a 2014 tour, including an Oct. 2 stop at the Boulder Theater. (Rogers & Cowan / Courtesy photo)
This kind of cool doesn’t grow old, and you don’t grow out of it. Thorogood, a road warrior from his early days, is traveling with his band, The Destroyers, in their “40 Years Strong” tour, with a stop planned for Thursday, Oct. 2, at the Boulder Theater. The Destroyers played their first show on Dec. 1, 1973, and they’re celebrating 40 years of performing by performing at venues throughout the country.
Breakneck blues - George Thorogood is definitely not slowing down
Courtesy BoulderWeekly.com
But back when he first started playing in the early ’70s, Thorogood wasn’t really sure rock would even be around this long, let alone any contributions he might make to the genre.
“It wasn’t just me,” he says. “At that time everyone thought rock might die. The Beatles broke up, Jimi Hendrix just died, Janis Joplin just died.”
And who was left? James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, whom Thorogood respects, but says are definitely not rock. Even the mighty Led Zeppelin was going soft back then.
“‘Stairway to Heaven’ was a gentle song,” he says.
The music world was shifting toward soft rock, and Thorogood just wanted to be a part of heavy or hard music before it went away. So Thorogood, who at the time was a semi-professional baseball player in the now-defunct Roberto Clemente league, picked up the guitar, cranked his amp and went to town.
But when he did, it wasn’t just his being neither Lennon nor Dylan that pushed Thorogood toward the blues.
“Life is tough,” says Thorogood. “How many times does your team win the world series? Overall, blues is something everyone can relate to in some way.”
In the early days, George Thorogood and the Destroyers (most of whom were other players on Thorogood’s team) only performed when baseball wasn’t in season. But in those down months, he and his bandmates channeled that universality toward writing songs with staying power. Iconic hits like “Bad to the Bone,” weren’t just written to reach a broad 
audience; Thorogood says they were written to “last forever.”
“Here I am 40 years later, so I must be doing something right,” he says.
And Thorogood says that playing to a different audience every night keeps those songs from getting stale for the band as well.
“We never get tired of them,” he says.
And the biggest proof he isn’t just blowing smoke out of those so-bad bones of his is that Thorogood and company are still touring.
Read more: Breakneck blues - George Thorogood is definitely not slowing down
George Thorogood's "Tuesday Night Rock Party"
George Thorogood & The Destroyers w/ Trampled Under Foot
Courtesy - BamMagazine.comMagazine.com
Sept. 23, 2014
The Fillmore, San Francisco
“I get high off the music and the people,” George Thorogood announced before he played his encore Tuesday at The Fillmore. “That’s the real thing.”
In the crowd, the feeling seemed mutual. Thorogood and his Destroyers – whose Tuesday show was part of the blues rock group’s 40th anniversary tour – didn’t really need to put on a show (their sheer presence was clearly enough to enchant their fans), so it was especially nice that they did.
Their openers, Kansas City’s blues family band Trampled Under Foot, played a tight and rousing five-song set with a headliner’s confidence (rather than an opener’s defiance). They concluded with two entirely just covers – first The Beatles’ “Oh! Darling,” then their Led Zeppelin namesake, which featured The Destroyers’ Jim Suhler on rhythm guitar.
Thorogood arrived onstage in bandanna and sunglasses, which didn’t make it past the first song, but their spirit did. The set was abundant – to popular delight – with Thorogood’s long-practiced tongue flutters, benignly lewd grins, and hip-centric moves (though these were scaled back and modified for age).
If not for some odd choices in background video graphics, you’d hardly guess the band was 40 years old.