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MPAC presents George Thorogood & The Destroyers

originally published: 09/06/2025

(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) presents George Thorogood & The Destroyers on Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 7:30pm. The band has been a staple on rock radio for 50 years. Canyon Lights will open the night. Limited tickets remain.

Over the past year alone, George Thorogood & The Destroyers have been honored by The Recording Academy’s GRAMMY Museum and The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Legends of Rock exhibit, and delivered triumphant performances at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival as well as on a top-selling U.S. summer 2024 tour with John Fogerty. Meanwhile, Thorogood became the first entertainer in history to receive The University of Delaware’s Medal of Distinction ‘for significant cultural contributions to society’, along with the official renaming of a campus passageway near the site of Thorogood’s December 1st, 1973, debut performance as ‘Thorogood Alley’.

This was, after all, a celebration of George Thorogood & The Destroyers’ 50th Anniversary. And in a five decade career also fueled by 8,000+ live shows, more than 15 million albums sold, and a global reputation as “the band that plays hot enough to melt the polar icecaps” (Rolling Stone), “one of the 5 best acts left out of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame” (WNBF Binghamton), and “a snarling embodiment of blues rock’s renegade spirit” (Classic Rock), where can “one of the most iconic bands in rock history” (Rapid City Journal) possibly go from here?

“That’s all pretty good for the first 50 years,” George Thorogood says with a laugh. “But we keep working harder, digging deeper and playing stronger. Now it’s time to go back out there and do some serious rockin’.” For George Thorogood & The Destroyers, serious rockin’ will always be what they do best. And for 2025, The Baddest Show On Earth Tour will bring the guitar-slinging, amp-blasting, roof-shaking rock party like never before.

Tickets range from $58-$110 and are available for purchase online. Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) is located at 100 South Street in Morristown, New Jersey.




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For Thorogood and longtime Destroyers Jeff Simon (drums), Bill Blough (bass), Jim Suhler (guitar) and Buddy Leach (saxophone), the key has always been the power and honesty that defines great rock & roll. And much like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin brough the blues back to America in a new form, Thorogood has always recognized that rock & roll comes from blues, country, R&B and beyond.

It’s how he’s reverently reinvented songs like ‘One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer’, ‘Move It On Over’ and ‘Who Do You Love?’ and made them his own. It’s why he’s been inducted into the Mississippi Music Project Hall of Fame, received The B.B. King Award from The Montreal International Jazz Festival, and performed at The Grand Ole Opry. It’s how the hits he’s written – including ‘I Drink Alone’, ‘Gear Jammer’ and the ultimate badass anthem ‘Bad To The Bone’ – became rock radio classics that the band still proudly plays for cheering audiences around the world.

But most of all, it’s because The Baddest Show On Earth Tour personifies a career defined by equal parts fun, ferocity and one-of-a-kind take-no-prisoners rock & roll soul.

Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, presents a wide range of programs that entertain, enrich, and educate the diverse population of the region and enhance the economic vitality of Northern New Jersey.  Mayo Performing Arts Center was named 2016 Outstanding Historic Theatre by the League of Historic American Theatres, and is ranked in the top 50 mid-sized performing arts centers by Pollstar Magazine.

The 2025-2026 season is made possible, in part, by a grant the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as support received from the F.M. Kirby Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and numerous corporations, foundations and individuals.




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