George Thorogood & The Destroyers

George Thorogood plays the blues like somebody left the gas pedal taped to the floor. Born on February 24, 1950, the musician, singer and songwriter leads the Destroyers (the Delaware Destroyers, if you want the full name), and their self-titled 1977 album shows what they're about: raw, stomping, high-octane boogie-blues with no interest in sanding off the rough edges.

That record carries "House Rent Blues/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer", and it's typical of the way Thorogood has kept older American songs in circulation, from "Move It on Over" to "Who Do You Love?". He writes his own, too: "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Alone" turned his sound into a fixture of rock radio across the '80s.

The Destroyers have seen a few changes over the years, with Jeff Simon, Bill Blough, Jim Suhler and Buddy Leach in the current band and Ron Smith, Hank Carter and Steve Chrismar among those who came before. Together they've put out more than 20 albums, two of them Platinum and six Gold, and sold 15 million records around the world. They've never stopped touring hard, and in 2024 they marked 50 years on stage.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.