b. 31 December 1952, Wilmington, Delaware, USA. White blues guitarist George Thorogood first became interested in music, notably Chicago blues, when he saw John Paul Hammond performing in 1970. Three years later he formed the Destroyers in Delaware before moving them to Boston, where they backed visiting blues stars. The Destroyers comprised Thorogood (guitar), Michael Lenn (bass) and Jeff Simon (drums). School friend Ron Smith played guitar on-and-off to complete the quartet. In 1974 they recorded some demos that were released later. They made their first album in 1975 after blues fanatic John Forward spotted them playing at Joe’s Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and put them in touch with the folk label Rounder Records. The album was not released immediately, as Blough replaced Lenn and his bass parts had to be added. It was eventually released in 1978 (on Sonet Records in the UK) and the single ‘Move It On Over’ was Rounder’s first release. Smith left in 1980 and was replaced by saxophonist Hank Carter.
Thorogood, a former semi-professional baseball player, took time away from music that season to play, but by 1981 was back in the fold as the band opened for the Rolling Stones at several of their American gigs. The venues were unfamiliar to Thorogood as he customarily shunned large arenas in favour of smaller clubs, even going to the extent of playing under false names to prevent the smaller venues becoming overcrowded. After three albums with Rounder they signed to Capitol Records and continued to record throughout the 80s and 90s and into the new millennium. In 1985, Thorogood and the Destroyers appeared at Live Aid playing with blues legend Albert Collins. The present day Destroyers has original drummer Simon, together with Hank Carter (saxophone/keyboards) and Bill Blough (bass).
