George Thorogood on Bands, Booze and BASEBALL (and MORE baseball!)

George Thorogood is a rock star. Bad to the bone and all that guitar hero stuff. BUT, he'd rather talk about Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson. Lou Gehrig and Yogi Berra. And you better not call baseball a SPORT, because (according to George) it's NOT a sport! It's a freakin' GAME! Plus, George tells us the FOUR things every band needs on the road. He'ss a ball-buster and a BLAST!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Stroking Gunner. Wow, Hello,there is this georget A Good. Hey,
I think one of you guys needsa little more coffee and uh,
you know, a little less sleep, you know, dude, I'll tell
you what. And you know you'vebeen on the road doing this. I
think you know the value of coffee. And yeah, when you when you

(00:23):
work in radio, sometimes you needthat stiff cup of coffee. Well,
there's the same things you got tohave when you're traveling in a rock band.
I don't know about other bands.You always gotta have. You gotta
have coffee, sunglasses, Jack Daniels, and duct tape. I had.
I had no idea it was soeasy to be in a band. But

(00:44):
yeah, that's that's good. That'sthat's it, man. That's all you
have to pack right there. Youcan forget your guitar, just don't forget
the duct tape. Oh I loveit. Well, you're you're hearing that
wonderful voice of a rock legend,George A Good. And you know,
it's a big year. We've beendoing radio here in Indye for over thirty
five years. And congratulations, I'mthe accomplishment of the Big five zero for

(01:08):
you and the Destroyers out yeah,it's only half a century, George.
What's the matter. It's okay.Hey, you're you're still upright. You're
still holding the car guitar, youstill have the slide guitar. You're bringing
it to indies. So we're happy. I'd say life is good. Oh
okay, I'm happy for you.All right. So we're gonna see George

(01:30):
Stregod and the Destroyers along with thegin Blossoms. It's going to be middle
like Carb day. Have you everbeen to an Indianapolis five hundred? George?
No, you're gonna like it?Are you a gearhead at all?
I don't like cars? You don'tlike cars or due, there's one kind
of car like it's long and it'sblack, and it's got a bar in

(01:53):
the back and a guy. Yeahthat's my that's my kind of car.
Brother, Oh my god. Youknow it's so funny because we were talking
to Nick Mason of Pink Floyd onetime, and you know, he's a
big racer. He used to raceagainst Steve McQueen and the the Monti Carlo
Race and this kind of thing.We said, what do you have more

(02:13):
of cars or guitar kits or guitarkids drum kits. He said he's got
more cars than drum kits. SoI guess we could ask you how many
guitars do you bring with you onthe road. I think I bring about
four, maybe five? Yeah,four or five is about that's all you
need? Really, I mean,especially are you doing You don't want to

(02:34):
get too technical here, but aresome of your guitars that are on stage?
First of all, are they allbeing used? But are some of
them tuned into some drop tuning forsome of the blues that you do exactly?
And we have we have a backupreach unit, so you have to
check what our guitar check. Ithink I think I have four or five
the most, maybe six, Idon't even know. I don't think I
have that many. Travel light remembersomething fellas, He who travels light travels

(02:59):
fast. It's right, that's right, gig. Well, I was looking
at your schedule, man. You'regoing show to show to show right now,
and then it ends up ending upat at the Internatlis Motor Speedway on
Friday the twenty fourth, or CARBDay, where you're gonta love Carb Dave.
If you've not been in the track, CARB Day's about as big a
party as the Indianapolis five hundred itself. So it's a little more I don't

(03:21):
want to say it's a little moreleisurely, but all attention is on the
track on the race day itself,and the attention is all on the party
and all on whose stage on carbday. That's what people are there for,
to drink and just have a greattime. I think I'm going to
start something like that. I knewthat was forfu. I'm going to start
something called the Limousine five. They'regonna be all limousine dude. I'll tell

(03:44):
you what, you could probably getthat done. I mean, Roger Penske
is looking for any reason to getpeople out to the speedway, and all
of them are only going to havewomen drivers there. It is, right.
How about it that don't attract someattention? Oh hell, absolutely hell.
You know, if you're going todo the if you're going to do

(04:04):
the Limousine five hundred, you needto do it over, not at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but do itover at the speed Rome, which is
around the corner from there, overon the east side of Indianapolis. It's
a smaller track, but they havea figure eight George Thorow Good and his
limousine five hundred figure eight style.Is that all you do in Indianapolis and

(04:26):
Indiana's drive cars? Don't you havelibraries? Yeah? You know, is
that all you do? Really?Yeah? I mean all we have is
cars, corn and basketballs. That'sall you'll find here, George. In
the month of May, that's allthere is. In the month of May.
You're You're completely drenched with motorsports.And I mean it's the state that

(04:50):
gave us Donnie Ball game God Maddiclely, Yeah, gave us, uh it
gave us James Dean you got it, Academy Award winner and back her who
I love I love her. Youmentioned Steve McQueen. Of course, David
Letterman from Indiana beg you anybody outroth, but sometimes we don't claim him.

(05:11):
Yeah, that's true. Larry Birdgoes to that saying that's like,
uh, you know, that's likesaying, well, you know, I
mean he's you know, it's it'snot it's not the easiest place to be,
but you know, he's a he'sa homespun, home grown boy.
You know, I can understand that. You know, it's uh, that's
who Lowry is you know what Imean? Some people are dying, dying

(05:33):
to get the hell out of theirhome state, and some people were dying
to get back into it. George, you're a big sports fan of all
the professional sports, hockey, baseball, NFL. It's baseball for you.
Is that correct? I don't followsports. Oh I thought you're a baseball
guy. Baseball is and sports.Baseball is a game. Oh there you
go. Okay, explain that.Then baseball is a game like any other

(05:55):
not unlike any other game. It'sthe only game in the world where the
defense holds the ball. In footballand basketball, hockey and soccer and all
those, you take the game tothem. Baseball is not like that.
You don't take the game of theopponent. You wait for the opponent to

(06:15):
make a mistake, like you're doin boxing or you're doing chests. Baseball
is not a sport. It's agame. Wow. I mean athletes,
athletes play basketball, athletes play football. Baseball players aren't baseball players not athletes.
Got it, Babe Ruth was notathletes. Googie Barrow was not an
athlete. He's a baseball player.He got it. We got it.

(06:38):
And this is what I want toask, though, do you like the
new baseball? Do you like everythingupper nineties, three digits, home runs,
your strikeouts? How do you liketoday's baseball? I don't like today's
baseball at all. They ruined thegame. They had something that was absolutely
perfect. You know. It's likea well, beautiful woman with beautiful hair,
and they say, oh, Iwould love you to come into my

(06:59):
beauty parlor so I can change yourhair. If I could do your hair,
I go, why would you Whywould you want to play it?
Change something is perfect? I meanthey have a hurry up speed now in
baseball. They hurry up the game. You know the game? Oh yeah,
and and fred Lynne's lovely wife Natalieand I who have long conversation about
this, who both degree? Hesaid, speeding up baseball is like trying

(07:19):
to speed up sex. Right,Well, I go to a lot of
who wants to speed up your birthday? Or speed up Christmas Day? You
know what I'm saying. I mean, why would you want to Why would
you want to hurry something that you'rein love with? It doesn't make anything
else to me. I go toa lot of Major League Baseball games that

(07:42):
that pitch clock. People say,they love it, but if you get
up to go to the bathroom,you miss a whole inning. I mean
it, really, there's the theidea of an afternoon at the ballpark because
is over. Now. That's becausethey're not baseball fans. They don't understand
that the game of baseball, everything is part of the game, just
like a chess game. When thewhen the manager comes out to talk to

(08:03):
the picture, it's part of theaction. That's what people don't get.
Americans want action, action, action, and more action. But what they
don't get is that it's action.When the guy steps out of the batter's
box and scratches his ass, anempire tells him, gets back in the
box, and then if the cutyour costs time out to go talk to
the pitcher. It's all part ofthe game. That's what they have been

(08:24):
taught from day one. They haven'tunderstood that the picture turns, he looks
at first base and looks the guyback to first. He doesn't throw the
ball over there. He looks backto first. Then the first base coach
comes over and pats the guy,and he asks and says, don't take
too big a league. This guy'sgot a great move. See, you
got to be a baseball fan tounderstand baseball, and you got too many
people that are sports fans quote unquotegoing to watch baseball? What go watch

(08:48):
Go watch football, Go watch hockey, go watch basketball, stay out in
the ballpark. Ye, thank youvery much. Baseball is too long.
It takes too long. Well,oh god, It's like someone would say,
Oh, my husband's not a greatlover. He takes too long.
So give me give me a baseballhero for little George Thuragod. When I

(09:13):
when I was this is gonna factclicheis but when I when I was a
boy, my hero was Henry Eron, I thought he was everybody. You
know. I would go to schooland they say, who's your favorite big
league player? And I go,Hank Aaron And people go, no,
we mean big league players. That'show unknown he was. His greatness was
like it's great. It was sonatural that he didn't notice until it was

(09:37):
gone, Like a beautiful sunny day. That was Henry ra at the plate.
He was poetry in motion when hegot that swing going. And he
used to ask him, how comehe's not more outspoken about what he does
or things. In the sixties whenthey were there were black athletes being outspoken
about social things, you know,civil rights. And asked Aaron, he

(09:58):
said, I let my bat domy talking, and his bat talked loud.
Yeah. And you know the greatthing about Hank Aaron, I mean
he had all those home runs,never had fifty home runs in a season.
He was steady, he was reliable, like Louke Gereck, Louke greg
never had fifty home runs. Youknow. Grek was like just like Aaron,
steady, steady, steady and steady. And that's what managers want,

(10:20):
That's what everybody wants, something that'sreliable and dependable. And in Aaron's case
and Gerek's case, did you knowthey both had the same name, Henry
Lewis No, no, yeah,both of them had the same name,
Henry Lewis Gerreg and Henry Lewis Aaron. They both had the same name.
And their style was very similar inthere every day did the job. You
know. They had the Dodgers oneyear had a conference before in spring training

(10:48):
and Claude Austin was going over thehitters in the National League and they were
listening to it and they said,well, what do we do? What
do we do? At mate.Don't pitch Willie up inside. He doesn't
like that. He's getting brushed off. He doesn't like that. How do
we pitch him any Don't throw Hilow on outside, He'll murder you.
What about Stargel, Don't throw itlow. You could bounce it up there,
he'll hit it out of the park. What about Matthews? Don't don't

(11:09):
give Matthews anything high and inside.You're dead. What about Aaron silence?
He said, well, just makesure when he hits one out, nobody's
on base. Yeah, right,How do you pitch to him? How
you know? You don't pitch toAaron. You throw the ball and you
pray, you know. I stillthink the meanest, nastiest pitcher of all

(11:30):
time was Bob Gibson. I'll tellyou something about baseball. Nobody knows me
and Bob Costas when they traded FrankRobinson from Baltimore to from Cincinnati to Baltimore.
They had to get they had toget Frank Robinson out of the National
League. You know why, becausethey couldn't have Bob Gibson and Frank Robinson
in the same league. They weretoo bad, They were too nasty.
I would love to see the filmsof Gibson pitching against Frank Robinson. The

(11:54):
Nasal League got together and said,we got to get either Gibson or Robinson
out of the league. Does Robinsondo? He goes to Baltimore, he
wins a triple Crown, he winsthe MVP, and Baltimore wins the World
Series four games in a row.So what I'm saying they had they couldn't
deal with both of those elements inthe same league. They had to be
Gibson or Robinson. One of them'sgotta go. Got it? That is

(12:16):
That is awesome. I've never heardthat story before, but that's a great
story. You know what I'm sadabout with today's baseball. I wish,
you know, living on the Eastcoast, East Coast time, I wish
I could see more games with MikeTrout. Mike Trout is going to stay
in Anaheim his whole career, andhe's never gonna get to the World Series.

(12:37):
It's kind of a crime. Halfthe country never watches them. People
used to say Garvey will never leavethe Dodgers. Never say never in baseball.
That's the beauty of the game.Never say never. Anything can happen
at any given time. What aboutif Trout? What about if Trout gets
engaged to a beautiful woman who livesin Boston and who's a Sucks fan.

(13:00):
What's Troup gonna do? He's leavingman? Any any any anything can happen
in baseball. So don't cross offTrouts just yet. Okay, don't go
off on Trout, and definitely keepan eye on your interpreter. That's all
you need to know about, nodoubt, I do have to No,
hey, wait a minute, waita minute. You don't need an interpreter.

(13:24):
You know, a fastball from aslider, you don't need an interpreter.
You know, you don't need Youdon't need an interpreter when you know
a guy's swinging three and oh we'relaying down a but a bunt? Do
you know there's a whole generation thatdoesn't know what a bunt is? Isn't
that sad? Is that sad?Really? Is? You know what?

(13:46):
You know? What I liked aboutpeople like people like Tom Glavin, who
I missed very much, my favoriteplayer of all time, Julio Franco,
Well, what what I missed aboutpeople like Glavin? Or hers shower?
Valnzuela is because people would say I'min the major leagues, I'm a baseball
player, and then say they wouldn'tsay they say I'm a baseball player.

(14:09):
First, my position is I pitch. Glavin always look look, Gavin always
look himself as a baseball player,not a pitcher, but pitching was his
position. Firstcheiser could lay down abun. You know when year Hersteiser at
nineteen nineteen save sacrifice buns in oneyear. That's amazing you. You got
to be able to handle it abet just as good to lay down a
sacrifice bunt as you do to doa hit and run or hit it over

(14:31):
the fence. It's an art initself. But people don't pay money at
the park to see somebody but yougot it. The dance Nikob is over,
you know, and that's just sadbecause that's part of the game.
I gotta, I gotta go now, I gotta go, uh Loop Penela
and totally Rooster called me up forsome advice, and I gotta take care

(14:52):
of that today. So I gottaI gotta kiss you guys. I gotta
kiss you guys off. Okay,ye okay, no, that's okay.
We got we got so many oneliners from George thorowgood on baseball. We're
set for the rest of the years. I thank you very much. We
appreciate it. Thank you, George. Rock and Roll ever sleeps, he
just passes out there. You go, brother, Hey, well we'll see

(15:13):
it mill hardy brother,