So much so, Thorogood is giving a portion of the proceeds from every concert on his upcoming Good To Be Bad: 45 Years of Rock tour, to leukaemia and lymphoma research.
But the 72-year-old disputes the "nice guy" image.
"That doesn’t mean I’m a nice guy. I’m not a nice guy. I’m just a bad guy with good manners," he said.
"We’ll always be the baddest band in the land. Expect our best on this tour, because that’s what you’re gonna get."
He reassured audiences he was not mellowing with age, and was still "bad to the bone" — just like his song.
"We’re still getting engagements, people booking us wanting to hear that song, so you can’t argue with that.
"It’s bringing us back to New Zealand."
Since 1976, the band has sold more than 15million albums, built a catalogue of classic hits, played more than 8000 live shows, delivered landmark performances at Live Aid and become mainstays of radio, MTV and stages worldwide for more than two generations.
Thorogood and The Destroyers are also famous for breaking records with their 50 States in 50 Dates tour in 1981.
Travelling up to 800km a day in a converted Checker Taxi that had been accessorised with sleeping space would be a Herculean task for almost any performer.
If it were not for the fact that he had a bad head cold at the start of the tour, he would have loved every second of it, he said.
"It was only 50 gigs. There’s a lot of people who go to work 50 days in a row, and if you can’t enjoy getting paid to play in a rock’n’roll band for 50 days in a row, you’ve got problems."
But that was a few decades ago and, by his own admission, he is not 30 years old any more.
This world tour would be tough, but the main thing that would get him through was still the same — his fans, he said.
"It’s the people. We always play off the exuberance or the response of the fans that come to the show.
"That’s what always gets you through it. You know, the better the response, the younger you feel.
"The audience might get older, but we feel younger.
"And at the end of the show, the audience is smiling, I don’t see any police and everyone got their money’s worth."
Thorogood and his longtime band members Jeff Simon (drums, percussion), Bill Blough (bass guitar), Jim Suhler (rhythm guitar) and Buddy Leach (saxophone) have come up with a set list that is "all killer, no filler", delivering a "gut-bustin’, guitar-wailin’, face-meltin’, fiery-tempoed, take-no-prisoners, good old-fashioned lunch-bucket rock’n’roll show" that includes their signature hits Get A Haircut, I Drink Alone, One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer, Move It On Over, Who Do You Love and the "definitive badass anthem" Bad To The Bone, along with several surprises.
The band had performed many times in New Zealand since 1981, and he was looking forward to returning, he said.
The positive responses from New Zealand audiences had drawn them back.
His Auckland (October 24), Wellington (October 22) and Christchurch (October 19) shows have sold out, and there are only a few tickets left through Live Nation for Dunedin’s show on October 20.
