A blues-rock guitarist who draws his inspiration from Elmore James, Hound Dog Taylor, and Chuck Berry, George Thorogood never earned much respect from blues purists, but he became a popular favorite in the early ’80s through repeated exposure on FM radio and the arena rock circuit. Thorogood‘s music was always loud, simple, and direct — his riffs and licks were taken straight out of ’50s Chicago blues and rock & roll — but his formulaic approach helped him gain a rather large audience in the ’80s, when his albums regularly went gold.