See George Thorogood and the Destroyers at The Basie Center’s Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre on Tuesday, February 18th!

George Thorogood from Wilmington Delaware is easily one of the best to ever pick up a guitar and rock. Getting started in 1973, he formed his backing band the Delaware Destroyers, which has since been shortened to “the Destroyers”, and tweaked their style until their signature blend of blues and rock and roll came to be. In 1977, George Thorogood and the Destroyers released their eponymous debut album to positive reviews. The album contained one of their biggest hits in a medley of their take on John Lee Hooker’s “House Rent Boogie” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” with the title shortened to just “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”. Also on the album was the band’s reworkings of other songs including Ellas McDaniel’s “Ride On Josephine” and the traditional song “John Hardy”. At the end of the following year, George Thorogood and the Destroyers released their second album, which had two more of the group’s largest hits in their versions of Hank Williams’ “Move It On Over”, which is also the name of the album, and Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?”. The group would release two more albums before releasing Bad to the Bone in 1982. The title track of the album would be Thorogood and company’s first big hit that wasn’t a cover, as well as their biggest hit to date. The follow up to Bad to the Bone, 1985’s Maverick featured another one of George Thorogood and the Destroyer’s big radio hits in “I Drink Alone”. The group would continue to release albums, with 1993’s Haircut containing his most successful song on the charts “Get a Haircut” which peaked at number 2 on the mainstream rock charts. His most recent album, Party of One released in 2017, is his 17^th release and George Thorogood’s first album to not feature the Destroyers. 2024 marked the official 50^th anniversary of the group, and they have been celebrating on tour since, with the party continuing into 2025 with their “The Baddest Show On Earth” tour. Tickets are available Friday at thebasie.org.