Courtesy InTheStudio.net

Coincidentally or intentionally, the thirty-fifth anniversary of George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ most popular song and album, August 1982’s Bad to the Bone,  falls on the release of Thorogood’s earthy roots-and-branches new album Party of One . As you will hear below, George Thorogood never ceases to surprise in casual conversation, with an unguarded frankness that is refreshing in today’s “spin doctor Special Olympics”. For instance, I have interviewed literally hundreds of the greatest rock musicians, but George Thorogood is the only one who told me that he was planning to be a professional comedian, not a musician. And at the time of that 1978 second release Move It on Over , George actually delayed his tour because he was playing professional baseball, albeit an abbreviated season. But when he finally took his three-piece outfit on the road that year, nobody tore it up live on stage better than this guy, and Thorogood proved it time and again, most successfully in the studio with 1982’s Bad to the Bone.

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Courtesy The BluesPowR Blog

George Thorogood certainly isn’t the first rocker to make an album of all blues and roots music (see, for example, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Gary Hoey, and this recent announcement from Black Stone Cherry), nor is he really the last you might expect to do so, considering the success he’s had over the years with his covers of songs like John Lee Hooker’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?”, and Elmore James’ “Madison Blues”. But what might surprise some about Thorogood’s brand-new album is that he chose to record the project in the same manner in which he’s made it known he likes to drink: alone.

The first solo album of Thorogood’s more than 40-year career, Party of One marks a true back-to-the-roots approach for the singer and guitarist who has sold some 15 million albums worldwide and performed more than 8,000 live shows, not only in that Thorogood began his career as a solo acoustic musician, but also in both his return to Rounder Records, the label on which Thorogood first signed back in 1976 and recorded his first three hit albums, and reunion with producer Jim Gaines (John Lee Hooker, Luther Allison, Stevie Ray Vaughan), who produced several of Thorogood’s earlier albums.

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Courtesy The Missourian

Courtesy American Songwriter

George Thorogood’s most famous song might be a legendarily boastful anthem (“Bad To The Bone”), but the reality is another story. In a recent interview with American Songwriter, he was unfailingly humble and self-effacing, talking far more about the artists he covers on his new solo album Party Of One than about his own talents. But don’t fall for the aw-shucks bit; this is a record that only a charismatic performer and interpreter could pull off, considering the wide range of material included, from humanistic folk to forlorn country to lascivious blues. Here are some of the highlights of the conversation.

What made you decide that now was the right time not just for a solo record, but also for a deep dive into the types of music that inspired you when you were just starting out?

Well, first of all, I’m a realist. At this point, I hadn’t put out any real product in six years and that’s a long time in this business to try and keep your profile up. And I looked back on all the records that we did and said to myself, “What’s something that you haven’t done?” And there was a demand for it from Rounder and it was something that we were talking about for years to do. The timing was just right. Since I haven’t written “Bridge Over Troubled Water” yet, I gotta put out something. This seemed to make sense.

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