George Thorogood Photo: David Dobson
American rock band George Thorogood & The Destroyers are best known for their 1977 cover of 'One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer' and the original 1982 hit 'Bad to the Bone'.
As they prepare for two NZ shows this May, The Destroyers' 74-year-old frontman is rocking as hard as ever… and contemplating a tattoo of a kiwi.
Thorogood told Saturday Morning's Susie Ferguson that he and The Destroyers discovered their special gift for popularising old songs when the dance floor went bananas at their first-ever gig in 1973.
As an aspiring teenage guitarist in the era ofJeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix - "the greatest guitar players ever" - Thorogood said his chances of becoming a professional musician, let alone a highly successful one, seemed slim at best but he had to give it a go.
"I couldn't sing, I couldn't write a song. But I got people's attention playing the guitar. I got some attention there. I said 'If you have a road to success this is going to be it'."
At the time, Thorogood said music was all that he and his friends thought about.
"We didn't think about girls, we didn't think about sports, we didn't think about politics, nothing, nothing but the music. Music, music, music, That was all there was.
"All of us had it in our mind that we were going to get involved and make it in the music industry in one way or another."
Back in December 1973 when George Thorogood & The Destroyers played their first-ever gig at the University of Delaware, Thorogood said the band knew from the crowd's reaction that they were on to something.
"The whole dance floor just went bananas. I said 'We've got something going here'."
"If we stick with this thing we'll get better at it and we pick the right tunes I think we can survive," drummer Jeff Simon predicted.
From the outset the band's "whole purpose" was bringing to life old songs that audiences would really dig, Thorogood said.
"We rarely selected a song for our own personal purposes. No, no, no. We selected them for the fans or fans we might have someday. That's been our MO ever since day one."
George Thorogood Photo: Supplied
The ability to take a little-known song, put a twist on it, refine it a little bit and make it popular was Thorogood's proudest achievement.
In the '70s, he and the Destroyers found success covering 'Move It On Over' (Hank Williams) and 'Who Do You Love?' (Bo Diddley), and Thorogood says only just beat singer Linda Ronstadt to 'One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer' (Rudy Toombs).
"I was thinking these are obscure tunes but I better make a move on them or somebody else might grab them and I'll be left at the dock.
"If Ronstadt had got a hold of 'One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer' and done it in a higher key or whatever she would have blown me right out of the water."
George Thorogood in the 1980s. Photo: Mark Mander / Rounder Records
Looking back to his younger days, Thorogood was proud to have met The Rolling Stones before they were famous - even managing to appear "very casual" with drummer Charlie Watts' request for his autograph - and been personally selected by Bob Dylan as a support act.
"I can always say 'No matter what happens, Bob Dylan sent for me. And I can look at someone and say 'Who sent for you?'"
Fifty-two years after their first gig, George Thorogood & The Destroyers still give their utmost every time they hit the stage, he said.
"I don't want anybody to come see our band and say 'Wow, you should have seen him 20 years ago, he was really something'. No, no, no, I want to outdo what I did last night."
On previous visits to New Zealand, Thorogood had been intrigued - and somewhat inspired - by the number of tattooed bodies.
"Every time I go down there I try to get up the nerve to get one… maybe a kiwi."
ZZ Top and George Thorogood & The Destroyers 2025 tour dates:
Saturday 17 May - Spark Arena, Auckland
Sunday 18 May - TSB Arena, Wellington
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