By Jeb
Wright
George
Thorogood has made a career out of being born to be bad. Now
pushing 60, with a Doctorate in Blues Archeology, Lonesome
George has released a new album titled The Dirty Dozen.
The album features George’s take on six recently discovered
blues nuggets, three long out of print Thorogood jams and three
fan favorites thrown in for good measure.
Always a
smooth talker with a wide-toothed grin, Thorogood is a bundle of
fun to chat with. His knowledge of the blues is impressive and
his desire to be the life of the party is as strong today as it
was when he was playing smoky clubs back in Delaware. While he
may claim he would rather join the party then be the center of
attention, one does not have to be around George long to figure
out that just the opposite is true.
In this
interview, George discusses his new album, his upcoming tour
with Johnny Lang and how he stays up and ready rock night after
night. We also talk guitars and discover why his cheap 125 is
special to him and how he keeps the semi-hollow guitar from
feeding back on the big stage.
Jeb:
You're the Blues Archaeologist and this new album has only six
new songs and six songs that have already been released. What's
the matter, George? Are you running out of places to dig up
blues songs?
George:
We had a couple more but we just didn't have the time and money
to get it done. Capitol said not to worry about it. They said
they would pull out some songs that are no longer available on
CD. I am just about out of tunes that have energy. I want to
join the party that I have been playing for the last thirty-five
years. I have been slaving away to get these tunes into the
consciousness of Western Civilization. I am tired of thinking. I
am tired of sound checks and song lists. I have been doing this
since I was in eleventh grade. It is time to put it away and say
that I did my part. If there are any obscure songs out there
that I didn't do then let Johnny Lang or Joe Bonamassa do them.
As Rod Stewart said, "I put in my time."
Jeb:
You have a song by John Estes. I am not familiar with Sleepy
John Estes.
George:
"Drop Down Mama" is his song. I didn't know it was his tune. I
have heard a million people do it. I heard our band jamming on
this tune; they were actually jamming on it every day. I asked
them, "What song is that you are jamming on every day?" They
said, "It is nothing. It is just a jam we do." One day, in
Texas, I just walked up and started singing those lyrics and it
fit like a glove. I said, "This is great, we've got another tune
and it is a tune that doesn't sound just like 'Dust My Broom.'"
It sounds like a mix of the Allman Brothers, Elvin Bishop and
Johnny Winter.
Jeb:
The CD says Side 1 and Side 2. The new releases are on side one
and the previously released songs are on side two. Was that your
idea?
George:
Do you like that idea?
Jeb:
I think it is kind of cool.
George:
Then it was my idea [laughter].
Jeb:
I should have seen that coming.
George:
If it is successful then it is my idea.
Jeb:
Did you choose the Side 2 songs or did the record company just
slap them on?
George:
I suggested a couple of them and then a couple of them they
suggested. The odd thing is that both party’s suggestions were
the same songs. That shows that you are working with the right
people. I insisted that "Howlin' For My Baby" be on there.
Jeb:
There are not many Howlin' Wolf songs that suck.
George:
My wife is a huge Howlin' Wolf fan. She said, very accurately
and very matter of fact, "Howlin' Wolf works for you." She is
right. I don't have a voice like that guy in Journey. I have a
gruff, gutbucket type voice. Nobody does his songs because
nobody has those kind of chops. I first heard of him in 1965 and
I got really into him in 1967. Every band that I have been in
has said, "Let's do some Wolf. George, you be the singer." You
have to find the right tunes, too. You can't just play
"Smokestack Lightening" because it has been done to death.
Sometimes I will do tunes that are not Howlin' Wolf and I will
add the Howlin' Wolf vocal technique to them. The other guy I
have heard really get down on Howlin' Wolf is John Kay of
Steppenwolf. If Led Zeppelin cut "Tail Dragger," and John Kay
sang it, then that would be the thing.
Jeb:
Who did "Born Lover?"
George:
Muddy Waters.
Jeb:
I should have known that.
George:
Yeah, you should have. The lyrics sound very much like Willie
Dixon. Willie wrote for all those cats. The version we heard by
Muddy Waters was very, very slow. We decided to spark it up a
little bit and do it like Paul Butterfield. We decided to breath
life into the thing.
Jeb:
You do breath life into your music. When you go see George
Thorogood in concert you don't leave bored.
George:
You get what you pay for. You don't walk out and go, "So, where
do you want to go eat?" When it comes to the tunes, you just
know what is right is right. Picking the right songs for the
right artist is like picking the right role for the right actor.
You don't ask Woody Allen to do westerns and you don't ask Lee
Marvin to play a priest. If you are Thorogood then you do Howlin'
Wolf.
Jeb:
You play a semi-hollow body guitar. With all the volume you pump
through it, how do you keep it from continually feeding back?
George:
I have only heard two people ask me that: J. Geils and Johnny
Winter. Johnny asked me that question for the third or fourth
time and before I could answer him he said, "Oh man, I ask you
that all the time." They finally put a block in it like a 335
guitar. You have to remember that I was playing very, very small
places when I started out. I was playing through a Princeton
amplifier, which I miked. The semi-hollow body sounded like
three guitars, especially when I played in open tuning. When I
got to the larger places, and started putting more volume over a
certain level, then I had problems. That is why I stopped doing
television. The guitars hummed underneath the lights so badly,
and at the same time, if you didn't push the guitar out at full
volume, then you get nothing out of it. It is a cheap guitar. It
is not a 335 Stereo or a Byrdland. It is a 125, which is made
for a very, very low volume. When I did television, they would
tell me that I had to turn it down. I would say, "Then I might
as well not even play at all." If you take a Chevy Nova and you
don't floor it, then it stalls out, and that is the same as how
my guitar works. We have variations now. We have a man that
works on them and gets them to where I can play in any
situation. It is a little heavier now, and I can't bounce around
as much as I want to, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
There isn't any way to control it. I used to try to do it with
my hands. If you put a clamp on it, then forget it, as you will
get nothing but feedback. We used to stuff tissue paper in it,
and we had certain spots on the stage where we wrote, "Stand
here." It was too aggravating. I tried to switch to a different
guitar but I just couldn't switch.
Jeb:
You can afford the Byrdland now.
George:
I can't play it because I thumb pick and I finger pick. I have
an arch top like an acoustic guitar. I don't flat pick like
Hendrix and those guys, or I would have switched a long time
ago. The 125 gives me an identity all my own.
Jeb:
You write songs and you rewrite songs. Do you do all of the
creative work on the semi-hollow body?
George:
Some of them I do. It is so close to being an acoustic that
there is not much of a difference. I will bang around on a
little acoustic in the hotel room and come up with something.
Other times, I will be cranking up the 125 and hit something and
just go, "Whoa. That is something that Johnny Winter hasn't done
yet."
Jeb:
Johnny Lang is playing with you this summer.
George:
We are going to have fun with that. I need a guitar virtuoso on
the show. People have the misconception that George Thorogood is
a guitar hero and I am not. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton,
Joe Bonamassa and Johnny Lang get out there and solo for hours.
Johnny Winters is the same way. I am funny. I entertain. I have
a show band. The Butterfield Band was a dynamite blues band.
The J. Geils band was a dynamite show band. We are more like
that.
Jeb:
What you may lack in skill to those guitar heroes, you make up
for in originality. When you hear a Thorogood song, you know it
is a Thorogood song.
George:
For better or for worse. They hear it and they either go, "Not
him again" and they turn it off or they go, "It is George. Turn
it up." Everybody wants a distinguished sound. When you hear Van
Morrison, you know it is him. You know it is Rod Stewart when
you hear him. You may not like him but you know it is him.
Jeb:
You have the curse or blessing of having to be on all the time.
George Carlin did a bit about everyone saying, "Have a nice
day." He said, "Maybe I have had 23 nice days in a row and I
want a shitty one." You always have to be the life of the party.
Don't you ever feel like not being the life of the party?
George:
That is a good question. Moodiness works for Van Morrison.
Mysterious, like “I would rather be somewhere else other than
where I am tonight” works for Bob Dylan. Angst works for the
grunge guys. That stuff doesn't work for George. I always wanted
to be a comic. My dream, when I was a kid, was to be a comedian.
Comics have it the toughest because no matter what is going on
in their life, they have to be able to go out there and get that
up thing going. There might be a little more pressure on the
ones that are known as the Good Time Charlie, if you know what I
mean. If I was not ‘on’ then people would go away and say, "I
saw Thorogood and he didn't smile. He wasn't into it. He wasn't
happy and he didn't make me happy." If you go see Miles Davis,
on the other hand, then you see him turn his back on the
audience for half the show and people go, "That's Miles."
Jeb:
There has to be days where last night's dinner isn't sitting
well and you have to drive in a bus for ten hours and then go,
"Hello Cleveland. Let's party." How do you do it?
George:
I am human. There are all different ways of working that out. I
stay in very close contact with my wife and daughter when I am
on the road. They always are able to lift my spirits. There is a
cat that does our merchandising and I go out and visit him. It
is impossible for him to have a bad day. He is just Mister
Sunshine. I am fortunate that I have people around me that are
not kiss ass and blow smoke up your ass all the time type
people. Your head just might not be where you need it to be but
there are ways around it. Other times you just walk out on stage
and the audience goes wild and you just go, "Ho ho!" You dig?
Jeb:
You get hit with a wall of energy . . .
George:
That is a big relief. Sometimes you need that. You may just not
have it one night, or you are in a funk, and you need that
energy. I don't think the audience has ever let me down. A lot
of times you see an act and you say, "They have never let me
down." I am the type of guy who says, "The audience never let me
down." In my case, I need that. The audience is the sixth member
of the band. Without them, there is no show. And I leave you
with that. When are you going to come see me?
Jeb:
I will check out the tour dates.
George:
You will come back and say hello to me won't you?
Jeb:
Of course.
George:
Listen…don't talk to the other guys in the band. Just make a big
fuss over me.
Jeb:
I didn't know there were any others in the band, George.
George:
That's right . . . there is nobody but George up there!
www.georgethorogood.com
