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The crowd waits for George Thorogood and the Destroyers at Shake the Lake on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024 in Regina, SK. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

PHOTOS, VIDEO: Shake the Lake wraps up, and it was ‘Bad to the Bone’

By Nicole Garn Aug 25, 2024 | 6:37 AM

The music was loud, people were dancing, drinks were flowing and the weather mostly cooperated — and it all added up as another successful weekend at Shake the Lake.

The festival closed out with George Thorogood and the Destroyers on Saturday night at .

Frontman Thorogood joined Shack on the CKOM Morning Show to talk about the show, as well as celebrating his 50th anniversary making music.

He said there are many reasons for the longevity and success of his career.

Thorogood credits underground radio, MTV and now classic radio but there’s one group he gives a special shout-out to.

“The real thing is fan support,” he said. “If the fans support you, you’re going to last a long time. Without fan support you’re not going to last very long, and I think that’s our key ingredient.”

And the fans in Regina came through, filling the grounds at the Conexus Arts Centre.

Thorogood also credits his strong mindset. From a young age, he knew he wanted to be a performer, and said he’s had the same mindset since he was 16.

“That happens to you at a certain age and it never goes away,” he said. “I was just born to be a performer, but I didn’t know what kind of performer. Then I developed into the music scene. But the mindset of what I do is 24/7.”

For those who think they have never heard of George Thorogood and the Destroyers, their biggest hit is sure to prove you wrong.

The group released its biggest song “Bad to the Bone” in 1982.

The song has a fun backstory.

“The word in our neighbourhood was ‘bad’,” Thorogood said. “It meant groovy or it meant cool, or hip. The word ‘bad’ was used like ‘bad’ car or James Bond was ‘bad’. There was a cat (guy) in our neighbourhood that used to say, ‘bad to death’.”

But Thorogood didn’t like that phrase because death didn’t rhyme with a lot of other words.

“(We went with) ‘bad to the bone’ because bone can rhyme with a lot of things,” he said. “It’s quick and it’s a prepositional phrase, like your English teacher taught you. Like ‘gone with the wind’ or ‘born to be wild’. Those kind of things can catch on.”

And catch on it did. Thorogood did not expect the song to get as big as it did.

“We thought it would be a pretty groovy blues tune and then classic rock radio got a hold of it and ‘BOOM!’ There you have it,” he said.

Over his 50-year music career, Thorogood’s only regret is not starting sooner.

“I would have started playing guitar earlier and taken it seriously earlier,” he said. “I didn’t start playing until I was in my 20s. I didn’t know I had an inclination to that instrument.”

He offers advice for anyone wanting to learn an instrument.

“Play for fun, and then all the riches of the world will come to you,” he said.

“The more it’s fun, the more you’ll play. The more you play, the better you get at it. And the better you get at it, the more fun it gets!”

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