An oldie but goodie

I've had this one for a long time and just keep forgetting to post it. Some of you may have already seen it, but for those that haven't, here it is...

---

10/08/00
Move it on over
‘Deleware Destroyer’
calls Plattsburgh home

By ROBIN CAUDELL
Staff Writer

PLATTSBURGH — Bill Blough scoped out Ronnie’s Michigan along Route 3 in West Plattsburgh.

He secured his long blond hair in a blue elastic. Ronnie’s struck him as the kind of place not regularly patronized by a man with flowing locks, a Mid-Atlantic accent and dressed head-to-toe in black.

Blough, a Delaware native and Westchester transplant, crossed Ronnie’s threshold. This was a rite of passage.

Since he moved to the North Country more than a year ago, he’s seen advertisements for michigans. He wondered what the hype was about.

Waitress Peggy Rabideau enlightened him.

"It’s a hotdog on a bun with meatsauce and mustard, with or without," she said.

"With or without what?" Blough asked.

"Onions. You like onions?"

"Yeah, I like onions. Give me one."

Rabideau placed the michigan before him, watching as Blough took a bite.

"Not bad." He took another bite. "This is good."

When he finished, Blough scanned the menu and asked for recommendations. He got another michigan.

"I think he’s a musician," Rabideau said to her colleagues Molly Zappelloni and Kim Mousseau. "Are you a musician?"

"Yes, I am."

"What band do you play in?"

"George Thorogood and The Destroyers."

"I don’t know them."

"Do you know the song ‘Bad to the Bone?’"

"No. Sorry. Do you, Molly, Kim?"

"Yes," Mousseau said.

"How does it go?"

"I won’t sing it," Mousseau said.

"You sing it," Rabideau said to Blough.

"I don’t sing. You don’t want me to sing. Those puppies (hotdogs) wouldn’t be any good."

Now, the word was out in West Plattsburgh. Blough, bassist for George Thorogood and The Destroyers, has been living in Plattsburgh. Amazing.

Why he lived in Plattsburgh balanced on the tip of Rabideau’s tongue.

The reason is simple, even romantic. Blough’s significant (to-remain-nameless) other took a local job, and he moved with her. End of story.

Now that he’d tasted michigans, Blough was game to try poutine. But not today.

After working out, running errands and eating michigans, he was stopping at Darwood Associates to see stockbroker Jeff Rendinaro, front man in Zip City, a local blues band.

"They made room for me in their band," Blough said.

At a recent gig at City Market, Rendinaro convinced Blough to bring his upright bass, even though it was raining.

"He said, ‘Don’t worry. We’re covered.’ I just got it repaired. I hadn’t played it in 20 years. When I got through, my fingers were bleeding."

When they are not touring, Blough and Jeff Simon, Destroyer drummer, have always backed other bands and done session work.

Before this hiatus, Blough and his bandmates funked it up with "the Godfather of Soul" James Brown at the House of Blues in Los Angeles.

While there, after a morning run, Blough was sweating and bent over waiting for an elevator when the door opened and sparkling, rhinestone-edged boots caught his eye.

His eyes scanned up. He looked into the face of Little Richard. "Good golly Miss Molly ..."

"He lives in the hotel. He said, ‘Ozzy come on in here.’ I’ve been mistaken several times for Ozzy (Osborne), especially when I wear the little glasses and am dressed in black. I said, ‘No man, you don’t want me in there.’ He said, ‘No, Ozzy come on... ’"

As a Destroyer, Blough has met and played with just about everybody, including The Rolling Stones, J. Giles Band, ZZ Top, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Steve Miller.

In his estimation, the Internet and online music markets have changed the industry.

"There’s a resurgent interest in a lot of older bands for market places looking for content. They’re seeking out older, established bands, and the music market, like everything in popular culture, is cyclical.

"We’ve been very fortunate. We started in the ’70s and now span two generations."

Although Blough’s father ran away and joined the circus as a barrel racer, he wasn’t happy when his son, in high school, started down a musician’s uncertain path.

Blough switched from playing guitar to bass because there were few bassists.

His first bass was a red, Gibson EBO copy. He and his peers, influenced by the Beatles and the Stones, taught each other.

After graduation, his band broke up. He backed various musicians and played with a blues band that performed at the same clubs as The Delaware Destroyers, originally George Thorogood (guitar), Ron Smith (rhythm guitar) and Simon.

"The Destroyers were founded in 1973 and played at a party at the University of Delaware. It was their first gig. I happened to be there ... crashed the party ... free beer and women ..."

He saw The Destroyers at another party in ’75.

"I asked if I could sit in. They said, "No.’ I said, ‘Oh.’

"I saw them again and asked if I can sit in. They said, ‘No.’"

Meanwhile, guitarist Ron Smith quit, and Thorogood called up Blough and asked him to join the band. Blough said no.

Thorogood and Blough went back and forth for seven or eight months. In the spring of ’76, Thorogood wore him down.

"I said ‘OK, let’s give it a shot.’ I started rehearsing with him in his house in Delaware. The first gig was the Fourth of July weekend in ’76 in Philadelphia at J.C. Dobbs."

In 1975, The Destroyers had recorded their self-titled first album with Rounder Records.

"They (Rounder) wanted to hear what the band sounded like with a bass player. They said, ‘This is good.’ They wanted me to put my bass on existing tracks, so the first record was made in two stages."

The band played little clubs from Baltimore to Boston in support of the album. A release party was held in Cambridge.

"George had a Lake Placid friend, who moved to the Bay area," Blough said. "George spent a lot of time in Lake Placid, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish."

Thorogood’s friend, a union organizer, booked gigs for the band when the album was getting heavy airplay there. Several weeks of work turned into several months as things snowballed.

"We were busy all the time. We were a trio, until we got our sax player (Hank "Hurricane" Carter) in 1980."

The Destroyers knew they were the right mix when they walked into a bar and Thorogood ordered a bourbon, Blough ordered a scotch and Simon ordered a beer.

"It was totally coincidental. When it happened, we all looked at each other."

Jim Suhler is the newest Destroyer, with a year and a half under his guitar strap.

"I’m very fortunate that I met up with the right people, and our career took off when it did," Blough said.

Robin Caudell can be reached by
e-mail: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com