Courtesy - The Spokesman Review
Right before George Thorogood hangs up the phone, he recites to me a short, simple credo that he’s no doubt been throwing around for years: “Rock ’n’ roll never sleeps. It just passes out.”
It’s clear that Thorogood is the kind of artist who embraces and thrives on repetition and nostalgia. His work relies heavily on reheated blues licks and revved-up covers of rock and country standards, and he says that he doesn’t mind playing the same songs for crowds night after night.
“That’s why I recorded those songs to begin with,” said Thorogood, who has no doubt performed hits like “Bad to the Bone” and “I Drink Alone” thousands of times over the years. “I’ve always put songs on records and put them in a show to entertain people. It’s always been about that, as long as they’re enjoying it. If they’re getting tired of it, then I’m getting tired of it.”
The recording studio is no longer on Thorogood’s radar, however: Besides his demanding tour schedule, he recognizes that most audiences don’t want to hear new material – they want an all killer, no filler setlist – and he’s fine with that.
“Once in awhile, we’ll think about a new tune,” he said. “But we’re limited because onstage we only have a certain amount of time. I don’t have four hours to work out like Springsteen or McCartney. I can’t be experimenting or gambling with my audience. I have to deliver what they’ve paid big money to see and hear.”
Thorogood has been playing with his same backing band, the Destroyers, for the past 40 years with very few lineup changes. That’s impressive when you consider how many classic rock groups have few, if any, original members still on their rosters. The band’s current tour has been dubbed “40 Years Strong,” and if anything has changed in the last four decades, it’s not the Destroyers.
“Nixon resigned, Reagan was shot, the world has changed,” Thorogood said. “But the one thing that has been persistent over the last 40 years is that rock has survived more than anything else. … Rock ’n’ roll still rocks on steady, which means it’s the most steady force in the universe.”
Thorogood reached his creative peak in the late ’70s and early ’80s, when like-minded artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan and ZZ Top were also hitting their respective strides. “Bad to the Bone” remains his most inescapable hit – that guitar riff is going through your head right now, isn’t it? – but he also made waves with his raucous, booze-soaked interpretations of Hank Williams’ “Move It On Over,” Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?” and Amos Milburn’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.”
It’s safe to say that those songs, to listeners of a certain generation, are as closely associated to Thorogood as to the artists who originally recorded them.
If you go to a Thorogood show, you’re going to hear all those songs. You’re also, he says, going to get your money’s worth.
“If people come to a live show at $175 a whack, they wanna hear the hits,” he said. “When you go see Steve Miller, do you want to hear him jam on the blues for 40 minutes? No, you want to hear ‘Rock’n Me’ and ‘Fly Like an Eagle’ and ‘Abracadabra.’
“He knows that, and I do, too.”