George Thorogood doesn't take anything for granted.

The American blues guitarist, famous for his full-throttle rock 'n' roll tunes, like One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer, is set to tour Australia at end of October, playing eight shows over 15 days on the eastern seaboard plus Melbourne and Adelaide. The tour was originally scheduled for 2021, but COVID stopped all incoming entertainers.

But he's ready to come now, even had his COVID booster shot this week.

"It's something affecting whole world, not just George Thorogood," he says in a phone interview this week. "There are not as many wearing masks, it's surging again. You gotta be careful."

He's no stranger to these shores, first visiting in 1981 for a run of shows and returning for at least a half a dozen more tours.

"I'm trying to learn how to speak Australian," he says with his dry sense of humour. "I speak American. I gotta brush up on my Australian. 'Good on ya'. 'How ya going?'. I'm still working on that.

"I didn't know when I first went there. Someone said, 'she'll be right'. I said, 'whaddaya mean she'll be right? Who is she?' And they told me, it's a saying, everything will be ok. It's groovy."

The hard-touring Thorogood has played more than 8000 live shows, crisscrossing America almost every year since he began playing with a band in 1973. The core four members of his band have been with him for almost 40 years.

It also means a consistent set list. A glimpse at setlist.fm reveals a setlist that may deviate one or two songs a night. The heart of it: Rock Party, Who Do You Love (Bo Diddley), Shot Down (The Sonics), Night Time (The Strangeloves), I Drink Alone, Gear Jammer, Get A Haircut, Bad to the Bone, and Move It On Over (Hank Williams).

Right smack in the middle of the set you'll find One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer (Amos Millburn).

"The first show we ever did, the first song we ever learned, one of the first songs we played live was One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer. And we're still playing it now. That one probably leads the pack," Thorogood says.

He makes no bones about it: the fans come to hear the hits, he says. "As years have gone on since we started, the list of fan favourites has gotten longer, and those are the ones people pay to hear so those are the ones we have to play," he says.

He's reluctant to talk about anything besides his music - not about where hangs when he's not touring ("I'm still working on that."), not about how he spends his down time ("I don't have any down time. I'm not going to live long enough to have down time. Every minute is important, and I try to make the most of it.")

He loves baseball, and indeed, he sells souvenir signed (by him) baseballs on his website. He says he doesn't follow his favourite team, the New York Mets, as closely as he used to. But he's a student of the game and its history and heroes.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware (his band began as the Delaware Destroyers, now shortened to the Destroyers), Thorogood's been playing the blues since he was a teenager. He was heavily influenced by Hound Dog Taylor, an underrated Chicago bluesman who died in 1975; Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry.

He has toured and played with the who's who of rock 'n' roll, from the Rolling Stones to Grand Funk Railroad and everybody in between. His deep voice and bone rattlin' slide guitar licks are his signature style.

While there isn't much variation in his setlist, that doesn't stop fans from coming to his shows. He aims to deliver every time.

"I do know this, whenever there is a live performance, usually with rock music more than anything, there is one moment in the show where everybody is the same age at one time. It could be very brief, but that is where it all comes together.

"All of a sudden, everybody is the same sex, everybody is the same age, everybody is the same race. That's the beauty of it. Everybody is everybody, let's put it that way."

When all is said and done, he's still doing it for the pure joy of playing music.

"I mean, once it stops being fun, it stops," he says. "The demand can be there, the delivery. But if the desire is not there, then it finishes."

George Thorogood & the Destroyers: Canberra Oct 27, Melbourne Oct 28, Sydney Oct 31, Newcastle Nov 2, Townsville Nov 4, Cairns Nov 5, Brisbane Nov 7 and Adelaide Nov 10. Tickets @ livenation.com.au