New Buffalo

Since 1976, George Thorogood and The Destroyers have sold over 15 million albums, built a catalog of classic hits, and played more than 8,000 ferocious live shows.  They broke records with their 50 Dates/50 States Tour, delivered landmark performances at Live Aid and on SNL, and became mainstays of radio, MTV and stages worldwide for more than two generations.  Through it all, they’ve remained one of the most consistent – and consistently passionate – progenitors of blues-based rock in pop culture history.

For the past 45 years, it’s been very good to be George Thorogood and The Destroyers.  And in 2021, their Good To Be Bad Tour: 45 Years Of Rock will prove why like never before.

For Thorogood and his longtime band – Jeff Simon (drums, percussion), Bill Blough (bass guitar), Jim Suhler (rhythm guitar) and Buddy Leach (saxophone) – the power to rock audiences has been both battle cry and creed from the beginning.  “Since I was 17,” George says, “all I wanted to do was see how far I could go with my guitar, putting my own spin on music I loved.”  After a few hard years as a solo acoustic performer – a period he would revisit with his acclaimed 2017 album Party Of One – George added a drummer and bass player to form the electric trio he called The Destroyers.  Built around Thorogood’s fiery guitar skills, explosive performance style and a blistering take on blues rarities, the band began to gain a devout following at college parties around their native Wilmington, Delaware.  It was at one of their earliest shows that Thorogood had his live performance epiphany.  “It wasn’t about the amount of people we drew, but rather the impression we made,” he explains.  “I asked myself, ‘Are we reaching them? Do they want more?’ And from the very first set we knew that we had something special.”

Thorogood & The Destroyers indeed remain unstoppable.  In the past few years alone, the band released a top-selling limited edition 7” single for Record Store Day and saw the re-issues of their legendary Bad To The Bone, Born To Be Bad and Greatest Hits: 30 Years Of Rock albums on 180-gram colored vinyl.  Thorogood himself received the 2018 B.B. King Award from The Montreal International Jazz Festival, and his solo debut Party Of One – which critics called “brilliant” (Spin), “electrifying” (Guitar Player) and “chock full of classics” (Music Connection) – became George’s fastest-selling disc in over 20 years.  And in 2020, Epiphone created the George Thorogood ‘White Fang’ ES-125TDC premier signature model guitar, while Craft Recordings released George Thorogood & The Destroyers Live In Boston 1982: The Complete Concert that Classic Rock says “may well be one of the great live albums, entirely superb and a master class in live performance.”

It’s live on tour that George & The Destroyers continues to flip the switch nightly, delivering what The Toledo Blade calls “a gut-bustin’, guitar-wailin’, face-meltin’, fiery-tempoed, take-no-prisoners, good old-fashioned lunch-bucket rock & roll show” that includes their signature hits “Get A Haircut”, “I Drink Alone”, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Move It On Over”, “Who Do You Love” and the definitive badass anthem “Bad To The Bone”, along with several surprises.  “George has been honing the set list since our bar band days,” explains 43-year Destroyer bassist Bill Blough.  “It’s been a constant evolution to make it all killer, no filler.  We hear our walk-on song, the lights go down, and something still inherently clicks the second we step on stage.  We feel the audience’s energy and the show just explodes.”

More information on George Thorogood and The Destroyers can be found at www.georgethorogood.com.   

Total Request Night featuring Chad Clifford and Friends. It's a request only night - submit your favorite songs and hear them live at Kankakee Live.

Chris Behre was born in New Rochelle, N.Y. because of his father’s work was raised in Brussels Belgium until age 10, then moved to South Bend. He had begun playing guitar at age 8, writing songs by 11, inspired by the amazing music of the 60’s and 70’s, especially the singer/songwriters. He has played live from age 15, and educated at Berklee College Of Music While in school, sang an original song at the famous Berklee Performance Center.

Dokken exploded out of the boiling hard rock and heavy metal scene in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.  “Breaking the Chains,” with its catchy title track, then set the stage for Dokken to become the most dominant creative and commercial force in the world of Melodic Hard Rock for the following years.  Such classic albums as “Tooth and Nail,” “Under Lock and Key,” and “Back for the Attack” all became multi-platinum selling smashes and the live “Beast from the East” went gold in Europe and Japan.  Songs like “Alone Again,” “Just Got Lucky,” “Into the Fire,” “In My Dreams,” “Unchain the Night,” “Dream Warriors,” “Burning like a Flame,” and “Heaven Sent” are still nowadays regarded among the genre’s finest.

The band hit stadium status in 1988 by playing in front of over one million fans in just five weeks.  It seemed Dokken was on the verge of superstardom, but like so many other bands that have come before and after them, Dokken broke up his group in 1989.

In 1994, the legendary A&R man John Kalodner offered Dokken a recording contract on the condition the group had to be original members.  The band released the appropriately titled “Dysfunctional” in 1995 selling 450,000 copies, which by the mid '90s was considered by industry standards very respectable.  Just as they were on the verge of releasing a second single, filming a video, starting a world tour and “taking it all the way,” as Don Dokken puts it, the baggage from their past reared its ugly head, and again the group began to unravel.  Soon after guitarist George Lynch left the group.

In October 2016, the original members of Dokken reunited for a brief sold out tour of Japan, playing in several arenas.  The current Dokken lineup includes Don Dokken on vocals, BJ Zampa on drums, Jon Levin on guitar, and Chris McCarvill on bass.  More information on Dokken is available at:  https://dokken.net.

George Lynch helped lead Dokken to stardom with his guitar and songwriting, which made him one of the most influential guitarists in modern music.  In 1989, he left Dokken and formed his own band Lynch Mob.  In just three years, Lynch Mob released two records and launched two worldwide tours.  In the following years, George reunited with Dokken, played with Lynch Mob, and started a career as a solo artist.  George formally retired the name of Lynch Mob in 2020, and has since rebranded his power trio as George Lynch & The Electric Freedom Band.  George Lynch is also a prolific recording artist completing records with many notable musicians and creating collector’s art guitars under his Mr. Scary Guitars Brand.  More information on George Lynch and Lynch Mob is available at https://georgelynch.com.

Former On Air Radio Personality, current voice over and production specialist. "From Hip Hop, Rock to Pop and everything else in between. He'll sting ya with the hits! Mixing and blending the songs you know and love best for a good vibes only night.