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If you go› What: George Thorogood› When: 9:30 tonight› Where: Coke Stage
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Thorogood TidbitGoerge Thorogood played second base on a semi-pro baseball team in the ’70s. His high school friend and drummer Jeff Simon played center field on the same team.
For George Thorogood, recording a solo album that featured just him singing and playing guitar was "like walking around in public naked, which I've never done, but you are alone and exposed. It's very difficult."
Thorogood, 67, will be performing with his band, The Destroyers, tonight at Riverbend (9:30 p.m., Coke Stage). He says he's not likely to ever record another solo album such as "Party of One," nor is he ever going to perform by himself. At least he doesn't think so.
The idea of doing a solo record is not new for him, but it just never worked out before, he says. Rounder Records pushed the idea, and it worked out. This time.
"There won't be a second," he says of the new CD, which will be released Aug. 4. It contains covers of tracks by everyone from Bob Dylan to Robert Johnson to the Rolling Stones. They are songs that mean something to Thorogood - and also ones that he could play and sing.
"Reality-wise, I couldn't just play anything," he says. "I'm not Taj Mahal or Paul McCartney, so I had to take that into consideration."
It took more than a year to record songs that worked for him, he says.
"Once I started, I didn't realize how hard it would be. I had to think about things like could I play it and does it sound good. Then I'd realize I already have a song that sounds exactly like that one."
Though the recording experience was challenging and tackling such an endeavor is still fresh, Thorogood says he's glad he did it and thinks time will make that feeling even better.
"I probably will be very happy with it in time," he says. "I really did enjoy it, but now I'm relieved that it's done. I am pleased that I finished it, though I haven't listened to much of it, to tell you the truth."
Tonight's show will be all about his 30 years of recording and playing with The Destroyers. The band's catalog includes classic rock numbers such as "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," "Bad to the Bone," "Move It on Over," I Drink Alone" and "Who Do You Love?"
Thorogood actually began his career in the early '70s as a solo performer playing acoustic music similar to blues legends like Johnson. Once he hooked up with high school friend and drummer Jeff Simon, they formed the Delaware Destroyers and began creating their own Chicago blues/rock sound.
They opened for the Rolling Stones on tour in 1981 and began earning a reputation as a hard-working, high-energy live band.
Besides Thorogood and Simon, the group features Billy Blough, Jim Suhler and Buddy Leach.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.