George Thorogood Talks His Time in Boston and Being the Last of a Blues Class

It’s never, ever boring interviewing George Thorogood. Back when I was a budding journalist and would interview the bluesman from Delaware, I could never keep up. He was too quick; like his mind was able to hold the current train of thought while at the same time it barrelled down the track six towns ahead.

A decade and change since we last chatted, I was ready. This time it was for a Vanyaland 617 Q&A ahead of tonight’s solo show at The Wilbur.

Out of the gate, I tried to good-naturedly troll Thorogood on our Zoom call with my Phillies throwback jersey – he’s a big-time Mets fan you see – but it was all to no avail. He was faster, already prepared with a J. Geils t-shirt for this kid checking in from Boston. What followed was the 74-year-old addressing all my questions smart [being the last of today’s blues players who was there to see all the originals] and silly [“Have you ever in your life sat down and had in succession one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer?”].

When we ended, I went a little deeper on the standard acknowledgment of taking the time out of his day, etc. to thank him for giving me some of the best interviews of my career. It’s just facts. Check out the interview at Vanyaland and below the lyric video to my long favorite song from George Thorogood & The Destroyers, “Gear Jammer.”