George Thorogood Biography

George Thorogood was born in 1950 in Wilmington, Delaware.  In the 1970’s, Thorogood played semi-professional baseball before turning his career direction towards music. He created the band the Destroyers, alongside musicians Michael Lenn, Ron Smith, and Jeff Simon and moved to Boston. George Thorogood and the Destroyers became regulars on the club circuit, and within a year of recording their first demo, they landed a recording contract with Rounder Records.

George Thorogood & the Destroyers was released in 1997. The band followed up with Move It On Over in 1978, which rose to the top of the charts, eventually going gold. Better Then the Rest came next in 1979, and for the next decade George Thorogood & the Destroyers released a series of albums: More George Thorogood & the Destroyers (1980), Bad to the Bone (1982), Maverick (1985), Nadine (1986), Born to Be Bad and (1988.) Although the band’s popularity began to decline in the 1990’s, Thorogood continued to draw crowds and released an additional three albums: Boogie People (1991), Haircut (1993), Rockin’ My Life Away (1997.) Ultimately, George Thorogood & the Destroyers became best known for the hit singles “Bad to the Bone,” “Move it On Over,” and “House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.”

In the new millennium, George Thorogood & the Destroyers released four more studio albums: Ride ‘Til I Die (2003), The Hard Stuff (2006), The Dirty Dozen (2009), and 2120 South Michigan Ave. (2011.) George Thorogood & the Destroyers continue with the current lineup of Thorogood, Jeff Simon, Billy Blough, Jim Suhler, and Buddy Leach. To date, they have sold more than fifteen million albums worldwide and released sixteen studio albums, two of them platinum and two of them gold. George Thorogood & the Destroyers continue to perform and tour.