GT&D: Billboard Magazine 2005 "Top Blues Artist" and "Top Blues Album"

Can't find any sources for this other than this one...not even on Billboard's site, but it's big news!

With the new album and tour heating up, the band’s career retrospective GEORGE THOROGOOD: 30 YEARS OF ROCK has been certified Gold by the R.I.A.A. and was just named the #1 top Blues Album of the year by Billboard magazine, which also crowned the band the #1 Top Blues Artist of 2005. Featuring hits from throughout the brash and iconic Destroyers’ illustrious 30 years in the music business, the album has been a chart fixture since its May 18, 2004 release, holding the #1 spot for 42 weeks in 2005, and it’s still #1 on the current Blues chart.

read full press release here

Acoustic on VH1 Classic

VH1 Classic invited friends such as Amy Grant, Richard Marx, Brian Setzer, The Smithereens, George Thorogood and John Waite to its studio to perform acoustic renditions of their favorite holiday songs. The performances will be presented in the "VH1 Classic Acoustic Holiday Concert." Songs include:

* The Brian Setzer Orchestra - 18-member band performs "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" and "Sleigh Ride"
* The Smithereens - "Blue Christmas"
* George Thorogood - "Merry Christmas Baby"
* John Waite - "All I Want For Christmas"
* Amy Grant - "Christmas Can't Be Very Far Away"
* Richard Marx - "Santa Claus Is Back In Town"

The VH1 Classic Holiday Acoustic Performances Show will air Friday,
December 24 at 6 PM, 10 PM and 2 AM and Saturday, December 25 at 6 AM, 10 AM,
2 PM, 6 PM and 10 PM.

* all times ET/PT

George Thorogood & the Destroyers teams with the Stevens Family to rock Indy

-- view official press release here --

Top Fuel driver Tim Gibson and Stevens Family Racing have teamed with rocker George Thorogood for the 49th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. The team will debut a special paint scheme for the race promoting the release of Thorogood's 11th studio album, "Ride 'Til I Die."

"This is a great opportunity for the Stevens Family," said team owner Dave Stevens. "George Thorogood & the Destroyers are rock-and-roll legends and to have them associated with our team at the biggest race of the year is an honor."

The partnership was coordinated through Knockout Talent, Inc., who also has successfully partnered major recording stars Meat Loaf, Zakk Wylde, and Motley Crue with NHRA Drag Racing in 2003.
Tim Gibson's George Thorogood & the Destroyers
Top Fuel dragster.

The dragster's paint scheme will promote the next single from the album, "American Made," with a patriotic red, white, and blue design. Racing Champions will produce a die-cast collectible of the car.

"Drag racing and rock and roll are a natural fit," said Stevens. "Both are fast, exciting, and wildly popular. To have the opportunity to promote one of our favorite bands is the chance of a lifetime. Plus, the exposure will help in our quest to find a marketing partner for the 2004 season."

From the day they began playing their rough and tumble blues-based rock in Wilmington, Del., Thorogood and his cohorts have made a point to keep their music basic and fun. Twenty-five years later, with the release of "Ride 'Til I Die," they're justifiably proud of having done just that, although this time around they've added some new wrinkles that even die-hard fans will find both surprising and intriguing.

"I'm having a better time now than ever before," Thorogood said. "I may be 50, but I'm still kickin' it and don't even want to think about stopping."

Gibson PR from July 22, 1998

George Thorogood is living his teenage dream--building a bridge from blues to rock with his ES-125 and a growl. Traveling from his Delaware working-class neighborhood to living on the streets of San Francisco in search of John Lee Hooker, Thorogood has been banging out blues-rock for more than twenty years. "You name me one person born after 1945 who doesn't dream for one day being a rock'n'roll star with a guitar in their hand," Thorogood said in a recent interview in Blues Revue.

Thorogood and the Destroyers will perform at the Gibson Guitar Festival-Newport Saturday, July 25.

Along that road, Thorogood and his band, the Delaware Destroyers have introduced his peers and a new generation of rockers to the songs blues greats Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Hooker, and even Hank Willims Sr. His 1978 recordings of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" and Williams'' "Move It On Over" earned him gold records. His 1982 release of the anthem "Bad To the Bone" topped the charts nationwide and fueled an ongoing resurgence of contemporary blues-rock.

Thorogood exclusively plays old Gibson ES-125 guitars. "It's the single cutaway with double P-90 pickups," he said. He uses three ES-125's on stage--two set up for slide work and one for fingered chords and lead. Like one of his heroes, Muddy Waters, THorogood uses a copper slide cut out of plumbing stock. "I saw Muddy do it and that was it," he said. His strings are heavy, .12 to .56. And like another of his heroes, he uses plastic picks on his thumb, index, and middle finger. "I mostly only use the thumb and first finger, but maybe someday I'll use al 10 fingers like Mississippi John Hurt."

How many does he own? "Not enough," he deadpans.

view press release