“You don't rehearse for something like that,” George Thorogood says of his Live Aid set. “We just got up there and did what we do and got off.”
George Thorogood’s performance with the Destroyers was one of the guitar highlights at Live Aid, held 40 years ago today to raise funds for famine relief in Africa. His star had been rising since the 1982 release of Bad to the Bone, along with the hit single of its title track, placing him alongside Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top and the Fabulous Thunderbirds as one of the day’s key purveyors of blues rock.
And while a few other guitarists featured that day likely don’t have fond memories of their Live Aid experiences, the same can’t be said for Thorogood. The event had pleasant surprises in store for the Gibson ES-125–toting guitarist.
For that matter, we’ll argue his set was the best electric guitar moment at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium on that sunny July afternoon.
While other acts had time to prepare for their Live Aid moment, Thorogood came in cold. He was enlisted only the night before, after another group — reportedly Tears for Fears — canceled, and performed after flying in across the country, from San Francisco.
Even more impressive, he brought in two bona fide blues legends to play with him and the Destroyers: Bo Diddley and Albert Collins. They joined in on renditions of "Who Do You Love?" and "Madison Blues," respectively, with Elmore James' "The Sky Is Crying" in the middle.
The fret-burning interplay between the elder guitarists and the younger Thorogood — wearing his slide on his little finger — made for lively, raucous fun.
As it turns out, the special guests were requested by Live Aid’s organizers.
"They wanted to have some blues artists that were connected to African backgrounds," Thorogood says. "They had B.B. King playing in Holland, but they knew I had connections with people in the blues industry.
"We'd been close to Albert for years, and we knew him pretty good. It was kind of tough to line them up on such short notice, just like us, but they rose to the occasion and I think we did pretty good.”
Although he flew in from the other coast, Thorogood said the Destroyers had a home field advantage in Philly. "We were very fortunate it was being held in the Tri-State area, the Delaware Valley," he says. "We're from there, and that helped."
He was particularly happy that the band was introduced by actor George Segal, who was a friend. And meeting Jack Nicholson, who hosted the Philadelphia portion of the event, was a thrill. The actor, then in the peak years of his career, was riding high at the box office for his role in the critically acclaimed film Prizzi's Honor, released the previous month.
"I see a man walking across the stage when the curtain was drawn, and he's pointing at me, and he's walking up to me, and he's got, like, a bowling shirt on.
"He says, 'Georgie!' and I went, 'Jack? Jack Nicholson? You know who I am?' He says, 'Yeah, Georgie, I always follow the rough boys.’
"So there was that."
