Get-well wishes go out to homeboy George Thorogood, who announced the cancellation of the first month of his 50th-anniversary tour due to “a very serious medical condition that will require immediate surgery and quite a few weeks of recouperation [sic] and healing.” The 73-year-old blues guitarist’s reps told the News Journal he’s aiming to be ready for gigs scheduled in July.
Early in his career George didn’t write many of his own songs because he didn’t have to. He could, and usually did, drive local audiences into a frenzy just by roasting old blues chestnuts over the fire of his slide guitar. His best-known song, “Bad to the Bone,” an extended riff on Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy,” is a soundtrack staple, but it was never a hit on any chart.
“I Drink Alone” gets licensed a lot less often, but the song from the 1985 LP “Maverick” was Thorogood’s only single to reach the Billboard charts — No. 13 on Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks.
