![]() I heard the word “gear jammer” in a Johnny Cash song and it said that was a nickname for a truck driver. Then, I started noticing that rock started to filter in at the truck stops because it was a whole new younger generation of people who were truckers. People who were truck drivers, if it was the ‘50s or 60s, the early ‘70s, 99 percent of the people who drove trucks were listening to country music. We were jamming on it and I said, “Man, if we can come up with some lyrics for this and a title, we might have something.” Now, during that time, I started noticing as we were traveling at night, we’d stop into truck stops and I noticed the world had changed. I always say the best songs are the ones that happened fast. It was something that was like lightning in a bottle. How quickly did it develop into that kind of song? Would you test songs out live back in the day? Because " Gear Jammer" is a barn burner. Watch George Thorogood and the Destroyer's 'Bad to the Bone' Video I actually wanted him to do it, but he didn’t have a record label at the time, unfortunately. I thought it would have been right up his alley. ![]() I thought it would have been a great song for Bo Diddley. So what I did was something that says, “Well, it’s got a familiar ring to it.” It’s kind of been done. If I had known Joan had done that song, I never would have done “Bad to the Bone.” I would have said, “It’s been done!” You know, “Bad Reputation,” “Bad to the Bone,” boom, boom, boom, it’s all the same. I just found out recently that Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Joan Jett came up with a song in 1980 called “Bad Reputation.” Now, I’m certainly glad I found that out after “Bad to the Bone” came out. So that was the struggle to find something that would stand out. You come up with a title and you say, “Oh, no, the Jefferson Airplane already did that.” Okay, how about this title? “Ah, the Kinks already did that.” Everybody already did everything! Everything had been done at that point. I wanted it to be kind of a bluesy Bo Diddley thing, something like that. The tremendous catalog of rock at that point was monstrous. You know, “Purple Haze,” and all of that. “Rock'n Me” or “Jumpin’ Jack Flash’” or “ Stairway to Heaven.” I could go on and on and on. I mean, look at some of the great rock songs that had come out between that time. When I was putting together that song, which was 1981-1982, rock had been around for 30 years. Well, you’ve got to understand something. Those two acts were very inspirational in saying that sometimes it doesn’t even have to be something you wrote, but it helps. I thought, “Well, Georgie boy, you’d better write something that has that reaction, or 15 years from now, they’re going to be saying, whatever happened to that Thorogood guy? Wasn’t he good at doing Chuck Berry or something?” So I said, “Well, you’d better come up with something here to hang your hat on. Geils played, the intro to “ Love Stinks,” it had such a great response. As soon as Keith Richards hit the opening licks to “ Honky Tonk Women” or “ Start Me Up,” there would be a tremendous response. I was doing some shows with the Rolling Stones and the J. There, you’ve got David Geffen’s endorsement.” So we said, “Well, maybe we should put that on the next record!” I thought, “Well, you’re off to the races. He said, “George, it’s my job to know things like that.” So that was the first one. I said, “That’s correct.” He said, “Well, if they’re anything like ‘ Bone,’ you’ll do alright.” Then he said, “Oh, by the way, I’m David Geffen.” I said, “Well, how did you know I was doing that?” – because I was only doing it in soundchecks. He said, “George, I heard you’re writing songs now,” which I wasn’t doing before. He was kind of a chatterbox and a little bit shorter than me. ![]() ![]() Before I went on stage, a gentleman came up to speak with me. We had a show to do in New Orleans with the Rolling Stones and the Neville Brothers. During that tour, I was working on a song. We were doing this thing called the 50/50 Tour. What do you remember about the first song you ever wrote? Thorogood joined us recently to discuss how some of the songs featured in The Original George Thorogood came together. In June, they link up with Sammy Hagar for a summer run. George Thorogood and the Destroyers also have a year full of tour dates that will carry them overseas and back again. The collection brings together 14 of his favorite self-penned songs, including a stack of hits, but also plenty of deeper cuts. Seeds were planted for The Original George Thorogood, which arrives on April 15. I just got tired of doing that in interviews, trying to set people straight." "Now, we checked out our albums and there are lots and lots of original songs. "A lot of people think that’s entirely what defines George Thorogood," he tells UCR. But Thorogood felt pigeonholed as someone who only did covers, despite having a large catalog of originals.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |