Since 1976, George Thorogood and The Destroyers have sold over 15 million albums, built a catalog of classic hits, and played more than 8,000 ferocious live shows. They broke records with their 50 Dates/50 States Tour, delivered landmark performances at Live Aid and on SNL, and became mainstays of radio, MTV and stages worldwide for more than two generations. Through it all, they’ve remained one of the most consistent – and consistently passionate – progenitors of blues-based rock in pop culture history.
For the past 45 years, it’s been very good to be George Thorogood and The Destroyers. And in 2021, their Good To Be Bad Tour: 45 Years Of Rock will prove why like never before.
For Thorogood and his longtime band – Jeff Simon (drums, percussion), Bill Blough (bass guitar), Jim Suhler (rhythm guitar) and Buddy Leach (saxophone) – the power to rock audiences has been both battle cry and creed from the beginning. “Since I was 17,” George says, “all I wanted to do was see how far I could go with my guitar, putting my own spin on music I loved.” After a few hard years as a solo acoustic performer – a period he would revisit with his acclaimed 2017 album Party Of One – George added a drummer and bass player to form the electric trio he called The Destroyers. Built around Thorogood’s fiery guitar skills, explosive performance style and a blistering take on blues rarities, the band began to gain a devout following at college parties around their native Wilmington, Delaware. It was at one of their earliest shows that Thorogood had his live performance epiphany. “It wasn’t about the amount of people we drew, but rather the impression we made,” he explains. “I asked myself, ‘Are we reaching them? Do they want more?’ And from the very first set we knew that we had something special.”
Thorogood & The Destroyers indeed remain unstoppable. In the past few years alone, the band released a top-selling limited edition 7” single for Record Store Day and saw the re-issues of their legendary Bad To The Bone, Born To Be Bad and Greatest Hits: 30 Years Of Rock albums on 180-gram colored vinyl. Thorogood himself received the 2018 B.B. King Award from The Montreal International Jazz Festival, and his solo debut Party Of One – which critics called “brilliant” (Spin), “electrifying” (Guitar Player) and “chock full of classics” (Music Connection) – became George’s fastest-selling disc in over 20 years. And in 2020, Epiphone created the George Thorogood ‘White Fang’ ES-125TDC premier signature model guitar, while Craft Recordings released George Thorogood & The Destroyers Live In Boston 1982: The Complete Concert that Classic Rock says “may well be one of the great live albums, entirely superb and a master class in live performance.”
It’s live on tour that George & The Destroyers continues to flip the switch nightly, delivering what The Toledo Blade calls “a gut-bustin’, guitar-wailin’, face-meltin’, fiery-tempoed, take-no-prisoners, good old-fashioned lunch-bucket rock & roll show” that includes their signature hits “Get A Haircut”, “I Drink Alone”, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Move It On Over”, “Who Do You Love” and the definitive badass anthem “Bad To The Bone”, along with several surprises. “George has been honing the set list since our bar band days,” explains 43-year Destroyer bassist Bill Blough. “It’s been a constant evolution to make it all killer, no filler. We hear our walk-on song, the lights go down, and something still inherently clicks the second we step on stage. We feel the audience’s energy and the show just explodes.”
More information on George Thorogood and The Destroyers can be found at www.georgethorogood.com.
