George Thorogood

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, George Thorogood built in the mid-1970s a sound rooted in blues rock, boogie, and American rock’n’roll, first as a solo artist and later leading the Destroyers. Thorogood developed on the U.S. club and venue circuit with a straightforward formula based on an electric guitar often played with a slide, a gritty vocal delivery, and a repertoire mixing originals and covers of standards associated with Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, and Hank Williams. The albums George Thorogood and the Destroyers (1977), Move It On Over (1978), More George Thorogood and the Destroyers (1980), and Bad to the Bone (1982) firmly established this aesthetic—amplified blues, rhythm and blues, and the energy of a live band. Thorogood continued in the same vein with Maverick (1985) and Born to Be Bad (1988), remaining highly active in concert, including an appearance at Live Aid in 1985. His trajectory is thus tied to an electric, concentrated interpretation of the blues, conceived as much for the stage as for the record.