GEORGE THOROGOOD gets bad to the bone in Houston on 3/13/08:

 George Thorogood has a theory. "In any field, especially the arts, there are always two things genius and very clever. There's no in-between. You're either a genius or very clever. I'm going to throw out two names at you. John Lennon genius, right? And Mick Jagger. Very clever. See what I'm saying? I'll give you another example. Einstein genius. And George Thorogood very clever. Yet what about the people who think Thorogood is a genius in his own way? "OK, I'm a genius at being very clever," he says with a hearty laugh. Thorogood loves quips almost as much as he loves the blues, so here's another: "Let's put it this way. Dylan has a Rolls Royce dealership. I have a used Chevy dealership. But I'm in the business. You got it? That's all I wanted from this thing. A gig, man. And I got a gig."

Thorogood and his band the Destroyers have held that gig for more than 30 years. And he's not about to let go now. The Destroyers fought their way to the top. They came out of Delaware in the '70s as a jarringly high-energy bunch (also featuring drummer Jeff Simon and bassist Billy Blough) whose raucous, slide guitar-stoked, blues-rock takes on tunes by Chuck Berry, Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley and others helped land them a contract with Cambridge's Rounder Records. They had moved to Boston and cut their teeth in the city's blues circuit before their second album for Rounder, "Move It On Over," struck big with the title track, an amped-up cover of a Hank Williams tune. They added a saxophonist (Hank Carter) and further fame came in the '80s through a signing to EMI Records, which released a series of gold records by the band. These included 1982's "Bad to the Bone" (the title track is Thorogood's best-known composition and its video became a staple on MTV) and 1988's "Born to Be Bad," with the swaggering hit, "You Talk Too Much." The '90s saw more hitmaking with 1993's "Get a Haircut," from the album, "Haircut." And albums followed into the new millennium with 2003?s Ride "Til I Die" The Destroyers have expanded through the years they now include not only Simon and Blough, but guitarist Jim Suhler (a Texan who was brought aboard in 1999) and saxophonist Buddy Leach, who joined in 2003. The new album, "Hard Stuff," is a keep-the-faith effort with covers of tracks by John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, and Fats Domino.

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS MONKEY BEAT.

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