Courtesy Randy Ho - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Would I rather be the critics’ choice or the people’s choice?” he said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before his concert Nov. 9 at City Springs’ Byers Theatre in Sandy Springs. (Tickets available starting at $66.35 at citysprings.com.) “The people are the real critics. They’re it!”

Thorogood is credited with conjuring up one of the catchiest riffs of the 1980s on the song “Bad to the Bone.” It was heard in movies like Stephen King’s ‘Christine,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “The Parent Trap,” “Problem Child” and “Major Payne,” to name a few. TV shows such as “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Family Matters” and “Married... With Children” used it. Rudy Giuliani, for better or worse, sang it on “The Masked Singer” earlier this year.

“We actually turned down 90% of the requests” to use the song in commercials, film and TV, he said. “We’ve only said yes maybe 10%. of the time.”

Thorogood still loves to play “Bad to the Bone” live and actually got some love from Billboard magazine’s staff two weeks ago. They released the top 100 best pop songs that never made the Billboard Hot 100. No. 91? “Bad to the Bone.”

How Billboard spun it: “The riff that launched a thousand beer commercials, and the growling, cocky-as-hell vocal that made a white blues rocker an improbable star of the synth-pop era.”

Thorogood has always taken pride in his band’s live show, which he has honed over five-plus decades, thousands of guitar pics and buckets of sweat. “We just played our butts off, then came back the next night,” he said.

He has no qualms about playing fan favorites, no questions asked. “We put a poll out every six months on our website to see what the response is and we work from there,” he said.

Thorogood ― who was inspired as a youth by both blues legend Robert Johnson and country star Hank Williams ― said touring is a thing he will keep doing based on the three d’s: demand, delivery and desire.

“If the demand is there, if the desire is there, the question is, can we still deliver?” he said. “I don’t want to get to the point where I’m not delivering. I don’t want them reacting just to see me and I’m not moving them.”

Over the years in Atlanta, he and his band Destroyers have performed at the Fox Theatre (1985), Chastain Park (1992), Lakewood Amphitheatre (1999), Variety Playhouse (2010) and Atlanta Symphony Hall (2016). He also has clear memories of a 1980 gig at the long-closed Midtown venue Rosie’s Cantina.

“That was a fantastic venue,” Thorogood said. “(Wrestling legend) Dusty Rhodes used to jam there!”

And by the way, George Thorogood is his real name, not a stage name.

“I met Rodney Dangerfield one time in the 1980s,” he said. “Then I met him again a year and a half later. He said, ‘You still have that name?’ He changed his name from Jacob Cohen for show business. He thought mine was made up.”

Thorogood said it’s a Scandinavian name stemming from the god of Thor that eventually made it to England. His family changed it first to Thoroughgood but when his grandparents migrated to the United States, they went back to Thorogood.

IF YOU GO

George Thorogood and the Destroyers, 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7. $60.35-$92.65. Byers Theatre at Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, 1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs. citysprings.com

BY WALTER TUNIS CONTRIBUTING MUSIC COLUMNIST

At 73, is George Thorogood still bad to the bone? Lexington is about to find out. BY WALTER TUNIS CONTRIBUTING MUSIC COLUMNIST NOVEMBER 06, 2023 6:00 AM

Wasting no time in getting to the crux of a conversation, George Thorogood did away with requisite introductions and greetings. There was no ‘Hello’ or “How ya’ doin’?” as the veteran rock ‘n’ roll roots merchant, the “Bad to the Bone” boogie-man, opened the interview. He instead opted for a question of his own. “What do you want to know that you don’t know already?” The greeting isn’t rude, just practical. With a devotion to blues, boogie, folk-country tradition and all things rock ‘n roll that began in high school and a recording/performance alliance with his Destroyers band a mere month away from its 50-year anniversary, Thorogood assumes his fans know who he is and what he does.

Pondering a half-century milestone, though, was not part of the plan at first for the guitarist/bandleader, who returns to the Lexington Opera House for a Nov. 7 concert. During the band’s early years, the primary goal was simply survival. “Fifty years, I don’t know about that,” Thorogood said. “You don’t even know if you’re going to live that long. With the world of music back then, there was no way you could have predicted this.” HANK WILLIAMS, BO DIDDLEY AND THOROGOOD “When we started, there was no MTV. There was no Sirius radio. There was no classic rock radio. There was no American casino rock at that time. All these different avenues, House of Blues and what have you, popped up and were created over the last 25 or 30 years, which has allowed me to make a living. So, no, I never would have thought that back then because we didn’t know what the future was. We thought we would be in small, quality venues, of course. But we didn’t know it would expand like this.”

When Thorogood’s initial records with the Destroyers began gaining traction with rock radio stations around the country in the late 1970s, the industry was being overtaken by the punk revolution – a rebellion against lofty, over-produced records in favor of scrappier, coarser and more immediate rock music. Thorogood had all the attitude of a punk rocker, but his music was inseparably bound to tradition. He was a proud disciple of such stylistic journeymen as Hank Williams, Bo Diddley, Elmore James, Chuck Berry and Willie Dixon. His 1978 sophomore album, “Move It On Over,” sported youthful, high octane guitar re-wirings of tunes by all of those giants. The thrill of discovery, Thorogood said, came as much from the song as the sound or style that first gave it life.

“First of all, we’ve got to like the tune. It doesn’t have much to do with the kind of style it is. I love Hank Williams. So people are like, ‘Oh, so you like country music.’ Well, I don’t know what you call what he does. He’s not a country artist because he came from the city. He came from Montgomery, Alabama. He’s a city guy. If I hear certain reggae tunes I love and I could play them, I would play those, too. If I could play ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ on my guitar, I’d do it. When we pick certain songs, we’re thinking, ‘Well, I just happen to like this tune, so let’s see how it works.’ Then we play it and if a live audience digs it, we stay with it.” THE SONG THAT MADE HIM A STAR The same kind of thinking went into Thorogood’s own songwriting. The title track to his 1982 album “Bad to the Bone” became a major radio hit, a jovial ode to the blues and boogie grinds of Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley. The tune’s accompanying music video (which featured Diddley) then introduced Thorogood to audiences of MTV, the cable music network then in its infancy. Topping it all was the song’s appearance in numerous hit movies from the 1980s. Among them: “Lethal Weapon,” “Bull Durham,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “The Color of Money” and “Christine.”

In short, “Bad to the Bone” became not only Thorogood’s biggest hit, but an anthem to the roots-savvy grooves his music was born out of as well as the attitude — yes, the punkish attitude — that fortified it. “Well, we had the attitude before we ever played a note of music,” Thorogood said, erupting into laughter. “That came first. That had to come first. Jerry Lee Lewis was a wild one before he ever touched the piano. Keith Richards was from the other side of the tracks before he ever touched a guitar. So with certain people, it’s attitude first and then it just comes out of them in whatever they happen to do.

“(Marlon) Brando was such a natural. He just rebelled against authority naturally. He hated it. He went to boarding school and something just rubbed him the wrong way. Somehow, that just came out in his work. You can see it and feel it. The attitude is always there first. Then comes the other stuff. It doesn’t go the other way around. It’s not, ‘Well, now that I learned the guitar, I’m going to learn to be a bad ass.’ No, no, no, no, no. Keith Richards was a bad ass to begin with. People tell me, ‘Well, your guitar playing is kind of dirty and nasty and it’s borderline punk rock. And I’m, ‘No, I was a nasty little (expletive) even before I played.” BACK ON TOUR AFTER HEALTH SCARE Thorogood is now 73, so being bad to the bone brings with it some staying power. Still, real life occasionally intervenes. Last spring, a month’s worth of North American concerts were canceled due to what his website announced only as “a very serious medical condition that will require immediate surgery and quite of few weeks of recuperation and healing.” Thorogood didn’t stay on the sidelines long, though. He has been touring steadily again since late July.

”Things are in a good place right now because I’m not in the hospital and I’m not in the joint. Everything else is a bonus.” GEORGE THOROGOOD AND THE DESTROYERS When: Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short. Tickets: $60.50-$80.50 through ticketmaster.com.

Congratulations to the Boogie People Fan of the Month for November 2023, Christopher H! Learn more about Christopher below!

Where are you from?: Gaithersburg MD

How many years have you been a fan?: Since 1977

What is your favorite George Thorogood song: Gear Jammer 

How many times have you seen George Thorogood live? What was your favorite show? 1 Capital Center - Largo MD

What’s one thing that sets you apart from other George Thorogood fans?: Love for Rock N Roll

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