George Thorogood scratches Robert Johnson and Elmore James off his bucket list

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      I’ve always enjoy asking guitar heroes which players they’d most like to jam with if they could pick anyone, living or dead. And the last one I interviewed, George Thorogood, had a pretty interesting bucket list.

      “Well you can’t jam with Robert Johnson ’cause he didn’t need anybody,” replied the 64-year-old blues-rocker, who plays the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver May 2 and 3. "And I can’t jam with Elmore James because he plays slide guitar like me! You know, I already jammed with Muddy Waters, and I already jammed with John Lee Hooker. I already jammed with Hound Dog Taylor and John Hammond and all the others–[Charlie] Musselwhite and [Paul] Butterfield and all those people.

      “So I can’t really think of anybody. I guess the one blues guy I’d like to jam with is Bob Dylan. He’s a blues guy, you know–listen to a lot of his lyrics, they’re very bluesy, right? I’d like to do a blues song with him. We could write a song together–let him write it and me play slide.

      “He’s about the only cat left, man. I’d like to play a rock song with Paul McCartney and a blues song or a country song with Bob Dylan. Aim high!”

      For more from Thorogood--including how he originally wanted Muddy Waters to record "Bad to the Bone"--see the story in this week's issue of the Georgia Straight. Read it on paper for that old-school boogie-blues vibe.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      how how how how

      Apr 27, 2014 at 2:05pm

      did he ever get anyone to listen . We need more innovators and players of there own tunes , not loud white guys .

      Bad to the bone

      May 3, 2014 at 2:19pm

      great show at the hard rock...the crowd loved it. George never pretended to be an innovator.