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George Thorogood, whose humble beginnings playing at the University of Delaware and at Newark bars led him to worldwide fame as one of rock 'n' roll's icons, returned to Newark on Friday for a celebration of his decades-long career.
The celebration marked the 50th anniversary of Thorogood's first show, held on a small bandstand at UD's Lane Hall dormitory.
UD presented Thorogood with its highest non-academic honor, the Medal of Distinction, which is given to people who have made significant cultural, humanitarian, scientific or intellectual contributions to society or in their profession. Thorogood is the first entertainer to receive the award.
“We celebrate a rock 'n' roll and blues legend whose music has echoed for the last five decades,” said Bill Lafferty, vice chair of the UD Board of Trustees. “A native Delawarean and former semi-pro baseball player, George Thorogood isn't just a musician. He's a storyteller whose guitar speaks the language of freedom and grit and maybe a little bit of rebellion, too.”
After the formal presentation at the Green Mansion Bar on Main Street, officials unveiled a plaque honoring Thorogood near the site of the former Stone Balloon, where he played many shows. The sign designates the alley between the Washington House and Main Street Plaza as “Thorogood Alley.”
“Thank you for what you've done for Newark, putting us on the rock 'n' roll map, and what you've done concurrently for the University of Delaware,” Mayor Jerry Clifton said. “We can't say thank you enough for the contributions that you have made.”
Thorogood accepted the honors with self-deprecating humor.
“It really proves something I always knew, and that is Delaware always had questionable taste,” Thorogood quipped.
He added that he and bandmates Jeff Simon and Bill Blough were surprised to be invited to such a prestigious event.
“Jeff and Bill and I are taken aback because of all the places we weren't invited to, and all the places we were invited to leave,” he joked. “So this is more than an honor, it's a shock.”
Rock 'n' roll history
A native of Wilmington, Thorogood spent his early 20s traveling the country as an acoustic street musician. When he returned home for his sister's wedding in December 1973, Simon booked the Lane Hall gig without telling him. The two had grown up playing music together informally but had never played an official show.
Thorogood bought an electric guitar at a pawn shop, and the rest was history.
“We had the place rockin’,” Thorogood recalled in a biography posted on his website. “We must have played ‘One Bourbon’ three times. It may have been a bit unpolished and primitive, but we were connecting with the audience in a major way. From that very first show, Jeff and I knew we were onto something.”
After that show, George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers began playing gigs at Newark venues like the Stone Balloon, Deer Park Tavern and the Rathskeller, the UD-run beer hall that is now a study room in the Trabant University Center. They then expanded their reach regionally and nationally.
The band's major recording debut came in 1977 with the release of a self-titled album.
Thorogood's popularity increased in the 1980s, when the band opened for the Rolling Stones, appeared on Saturday Night Live and devised an aggressive touring schedule that included performances in all 50 states within 50 days.
His single “Bad to the Bone,” which remains his most well-known song, debuted in 1982. Other hits include “I Drink Alone” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer.”
In the '80s, he owned a house on West Chestnut Hill Road in Newark.
In 1983, while at the height of his popularity, he returned to Lane Hall to perform a surprise concert in front of 500 people to mark the band's 10th anniversary.
Thorogood and the Destroyers are now in the midst of a tour celebrating their 50th anniversary, which was delayed by a year due to Thorogood's health issues. One day after the ceremony in Newark, they are scheduled to perform at the Freeman Arts Pavilion in Selbyville.
Thorogood's contribution to Newark didn't stop at music. In the late 1970s, he built a baseball field at the corner of Casho Mill Road and Barksdale Road because the city was lacking space to play the sport. A few years later, he sold the field to the city, which renamed it Leroy Hill Park. The field is now used by Newark American Little League and Newark Charter School.
'He did a lot of good for the city'
Melissa Forsythe, owner of Rainbow Records, came to Friday's event with several of Thorogood's albums for him to autograph. The rocker's music continues to sell well at Rainbow, she said.
His impact goes even farther than that, she added.
“He's given people the reality check that it's possible to be from Delaware and do something cool,” she said.
Demitri Theodoropoulos remembers being 11 or 12 years old, playing baseball on the field Thorogood built.
“Every once in a while, he would show up and almost coach us,” Theodoropoulos said, adding that he didn't realize at the time who he was. “We had no idea; he was just this guy who showed up.”
As the owner of Wonderland Records, Theodoropoulos certainly knows who Thorogood is now.
“That blues-rock crossover, that's kind of where he is,” he said. “He's not full-on blues, and he's not pop rock. He's one of the very few crossover musicians. A lot of people learned to play guitar to his albums.”
Dave Mackenzie, the longtime engineer at the campus radio station WVUD, said Thorogood played several on-air shows to help the station when it was in its early years. He also remembered working sound for one of Thorogood's Deer Park shows in 1978.
“It was New Year's Eve, downstairs in the back room,” Mackenzie said. “It was loud, and the train came through every now and then. It was a fun night.”
Bill Stevenson, who ran the legendary Stone Balloon, recalled that when Thorogood was starting out as a solo musician, he wasn't old enough to get into the music venue.
“He used to sit out in front on the wall, play his guitar with the guitar case open and make as much as the musicians made,” Stevenson said.
Within a few years, though, Thorogood became a mainstay at the Balloon, playing some 50 shows there.
“He made Delaware famous,” Stevenson said. “Everyone in the world knows who George Thorogood is. He did a lot of good for the city.”
The fact that Thorogood was a regular at the Balloon helped Stevenson book other prominent acts.
“He brought a lot of credibility to the town,” Stevenson said. “We had Bruce Springsteen, Metallica. I couldn't have done it without him being from here. I would keep telling everyone back in the '70s and '80s, 'Well, George plays here all the time.'”
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