The baddest blues rock _{by Madelaine Empson}

American blues-rock legend George Thorogood and his longtime band The Destroyers have sold over 15 million albums, built a catalogue of classic hits, and played more than 8000 live shows. Next stop? New Zealand. I was lucky to spend 15 minutes laughing with the Bad To The Bone singer, who’ll shred the TSB Arena stage with The Destroyers – Jeff Simon (drums, percussion), Bill Blough, (bass), Jim Suhler (rhythm guitar), and Buddy Leach (saxophone) – on the 18^th of May as very special guests of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees ZZ Top.

Hi, George!

Not yet, but I’m working on it!

How are you this morning?

Madelaine, how are you?

Very excited to talk to you.

I like to keep women excited [laughs]. Now, what part of Downunder are we communicating from?

I’m in Wellington, New Zealand.

Oh, that’s the hip town of New Zealand! That’s a hip place. I went there a while ago: I had without a doubt the best piece of salmon I’ve ever had in my life. It was like a bag of M&Ms, it melted in my mouth.

When you come back here, are you going to try and find that salmon?

Absolutely!

In concert, how do you feel your music compares and contrasts with ZZ Top’s?

I have to tip my hat to Billy F Gibbons. Billy F Gibbons and ZZ Top, they are the ones that made it to the A-list. What I mean by that is just about everybody who picked up a guitar after 1950 started out playing blues. Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Steve Miller, and of course, Billy F Gibbons. You start there, that’s pretty much the foundation, and you keep working on it. Billy F Gibbons – he made it to the line of the classic rock level. Like Clapton, like Jeff Beck, you know what I’m sayin’? When you start off playing blues, he is one of the people, he crossed the line. For that I really respect him. And off the stage, we get along great. We’re like blood brothers. He embraced me from the first day we ever met. It was a long time ago and I’ve never forgotten that.

To me, ZZ Top and New Zealand and Australia, they are a perfect match. The style of what they make and what they play – I mean, for God’s sake, Madelaine! Aside from New Zealand, if you took the Outback of Australia, take a look at Billy F Gibbons. He’d fit right in out there [laughs]. To me, this is about as good as it’s gonna get, going Downunder, working with an act like that – especially with Billy.

The only contrast with ZZ Top and The Destroyer? He’s got the sound, I got the looks!

Do all your live shows blur and blaze into one fireball or do some scorchers stand out?

A little bit of both! Sometimes they kinda roll in and certain things stick out. New Zealand, this is really something big for us. 1981 was the first time we went Downunder and the first country we hit was, exactly, New Zealand. This is beyond special. We never thought we’d get there to begin with, let alone come back after all this time. Remember something, we went there when we didn’t have Bad To The Bone. We didn’t have I Drink Alone or Gear Jammer or Get a Haircut or any of those songs. We were a four-piece band with one song, One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. It seemed to work and we’ve been asked back.

The only thing I gotta do when I get to New Zealand, I gotta get a tattoo. Everybody’s got one. I’ve never seen one person in New Zealand who did not have a tattoo. It’s almost like owning a horse in Texas. A person without a tattoo is not part of New Zealand. So, I’m looking forward to that.

What do you think you’ll get?

I think I’ll get a little kiwi to put on my arm or something, you know?

You once said that since you were 17, all you wanted to do was see how far you could go with your guitar, putting your own spin on music that you loved. Was there a song that made you pick up the guitar, that started it all?

I wouldn’t say that it was one song, but it was a few. I worked as a solo act for a couple of years before I put a band together. The song that grabbed me, that I used to do solo that everybody went for, and I said, ‘This is the song that’s gonna do it for us’, was One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. Now, why would that song catch on? Well, it’s got a good boogie beat, and because 85 to 95 percent of the people drink. You know what I’m sayin’? It’s like writing a song about a car. Everybody does it. It caught on when I was playing alone, and the first song we ever played and learned when we put the band together was that song. It’s still popular now. I was fortunate enough to do that song. If ZZ Top had done it, or Dean Martin had done it, or Tom Waits had done it… I would’ve been left at the dock [laughs]. That was our key to get recognition.

What is your poison – bourbon, scotch, or beer?

Poison? Madelaine [shakes head]. There’s only one poison in the world that’s worth dying for, and that’s women.

[Laughs.] Looking back from then till now, which moments most jump out in your memory?

All of them. All of them.

And do you think you guys might still be ‘The Baddest’ band in the land?

Well, that’s a matter of opinion. That was the trick when I was young, that was a slang word in America. But look at it this way, Madelaine, and tell the truth. For one hour and a half, you wanna be with a guy that’s brilliant, or you wanna be with a guy that’s baaaad? You dig that?

I dig that!

But only for about an hour!

[Laughs.]

It’s been wonderful speaking with you, and as always when I go Downunder… do you people ever stop laughing? If I lived down there, I’d be in a good mood for 24 hours a day myself.

Love it – I’m trying not to laugh now! But I’ll probably just keep laughing all day after this.

Well, laughing’s what it’s all about! If you can laugh all day, you’re doing okay. Feeling good, laughing, enjoying life – that’s what it’s all about man. Listen, you keep the people laughing, and you’ll have an audience forever.

Well, you’ve got one in me.

One’s a start, I’ll take it!