Singled Out: Grimelda's George Thorogood

Keavin Wiggins | 11-21-2022

Grimelda (formally known as The Faps) recently released their new single and video, "George Thorogood," and to celebrate we asked Blair Colwell to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

Since we released this single we've had a lot of people asking us why George. He's really just a random pick from the many prototypes of older rock dudes who occupy that space in the hearts of old alcoholics in their 50s and 60s. It could have been Stevie Ray Vaughn or Jeff Buckley or Steve Miller or any famous-not-too-famous rocker.

We're from small rural communities so we're not above playing those places on tour - places where you'll hear this type of rock. But our sound is typically very different from that. Like extremely removed from traditional blues rock. So when you're in a dive bar in some small prairie town on a Tuesday you'll have some idiot yelling to play the Eagles or whatever. We usually make a big mess of things to finish our set and one night in such a bar, I ran out into the crowd and yelled "I'm George Thorogood!" over and over while Skyler and our friend Jason made a bunch of unrehearsed noise. Some guy after the show was pretty blasted and talking to us so we just introduced ourselves as George Thorogood. That was a long tour and we were definitely more than a little loopy from the road, but the joke stuck. Five years later and now it's our biggest hit.

The song is pretty stylistically different from a lot of our other material, but still contains our energy and sense of humour. The repeating drum fill of a classic rock star outro is hilarious to us. All the guitar parts are hijacked from other songs - some more obvious than others. This was intentional and meant to be a commentary on the rampant stealing throughout music history, of which rock 'n roll is especially guilty. As much as we're being critical of rockism, we're also leaning into how fun music is and embracing tropes that work... whether perceived as wholly original and authentic or mainstream cookie-cutter party tunes. Most people will probably get the implied tongue-in-cheek satire but if they don't then that's okay, too. It's just rock 'n roll.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the band here