After 35 years of playing trademark boogie and blues, George Thorogood [ tickets ] has no thoughts about making any changes to his image, style or music. His last two albums--2006's "The Hard Stuff" and last summer's "The Dirty Dozen"--have been balls-to-the-wall, hard-charging boogie efforts, reminders of his earliest albums from the 1970s when the Delaware Destroyers seemed to be the lone practitioners of a gritty art form rooted in the earliest days of rock 'n' roll.

With original drummer Jeff Simon still in the band, Thorogood, bassist Bill Blough, guitarist Jim Suhler and saxophonist Buddy Leach started a North American tour Feb. 26 in Bakersfield, CA, that runs through June 5 in Montreal. And guess what? It's still a collection of rough-and-tumble boogie blues tunes such as "Bad to the Bone," "Madison Blues, "Move it On Over" and "Ride On Josephine," as well as songs that closely resemble them. As Thorogood says: "There are only so many ways you can deliver a cheeseburger."

The current show, Thorogood said when the tour was announced, would be a combination of fan favorites and "George's favorites." Now that the tour has started, it sounds like the fans' choices are paramount, an issue he discussed along with his take on recording, his acting potential and Bob Dylan.

LiveDaily: How do you distinguish between a "George favorite" and a "fan favorite"?

George Thorogood: You go out and play the song and if nobody claps, it's out. Everybody applauds, you keep it in the show. It's a very simple process.

But there must be songs that you want to get behind that perhaps the audience does not know that well.

We have always selected material 100 percent for entertainment purposes. We happen to like all the songs we record, but [on stage] these are the ones people pay money for. It's a very conscious decision. We're not about to go into "Bridge Over Troubled Water" or pay tribute to Miles Davis.

From day one--and I have been going to see you since "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" was a brand new record--your fans know what they're getting. Does it feel like it changes from your perspective?

It's organized chaos now. It got out of hand for awhile there, too many people throwing bottles and ladies didn't want to come to our shows anymore. You know, it's fun to go to WWF wrestling, but you don't expect to fight.

After all these years, it feels like we're back to where we were in the late 1970s. Nobody was playing John Lee Hooker or Bo Diddley and you stood out as unique, then there were a few blues-rock acts to crop up in the '80s and now it's back to you guys being the torch carriers for this music.

It was because of the Allman Brothers and Johnny Winter that I learned heavy blues with slide guitar. It wasn't a strange or even different idea at the time. When I was young and first picked up the guitar, it was all about The Allman Brothers Band, The Elvin Bishop Band, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Little Feat, Canned Heat. It didn't dawn on me to go to Bill Graham's house and ask him to put us on a bill, so by the time we got established, Duane was dead, the J. Geils Band was playing more commercial stuff, Steve Miller had stopped playing blues. I was left holding the blues-boogie bag. So lots of newcomers, people who had not grown up with those bands, were saying, "What's this?"

All the bands you mentioned had some stylistic changes after they had hits, but you have never abandoned the music that inspired you in the '70s. Your music is more "Who Do You Love" than "Bad to the Bone." What has driven that attitude over the decades?

When we did "Ride 'Til I Die" (recorded in 2002, released in 2003), I pretty much felt used up. I was getting kinda tired and the idea of laying out another boogie album felt old. I was eager to get to the stage where Eric Clapton and John Fogerty and Rod Stewart were--you paid your dues and now you can just play the catalog. I didn't want to be Rod Stewart and start recording show tunes--are there any show tunes left for him to record?--but I know that you have to keep the profile going by making new records. I was chafing at the bit to just play the songs that had made the legacy. But new albums keep the live show going even though there's not much room for new songs.

How do you work "Dirty Dozen" songs into the show?

It just lets people know you're still with it. When we made "Get a Haircut" (in 1993), I knew would make it (into the set). I knew that one would make noise.

What was the impetus for "Dirty Dozen"?

"Dirty Dozen" was a very weird experience. We went into the studio and we weren't sure if we had a deal, but there were people interested. When we were half way done, we had no deal. We had six songs. Capitol came in and rescued us and said, "Let's put some fan favorites on there with the new ones." There's no real mystery with "Dirty Dozen."

How so?

We're so obvious that critics and people who think too hard about it don't get it. It's a Three Stooges skit, a cold Bud and a cheeseburger. The best bourbon followed by the coldest beer. It's not pheasant under glass or filet mignon, but it's still on the menu.

You recorded Dylan's "Drifter's Escape" in a straightforward, acoustic style but there don't seem to be any examples in which you have taken a non-blues tune and applied a boogie style to it.

Tried, but not with very good results. You're damned if you do that as much as you're damned if you don't. If I take "Mr. Tambourine Man" and turn it into a rockin' tune, some people will ask why don't I stick with what I know. Of course, others tell you that you have started to repeat yourself.

There must be something you want to do, some musician you have yet to appear with.

Bob (Dylan) has the best guitarist in the world in Charlie [Sexton], so no need for me there. Maybe I could play maracas. Actually, I'm waiting for De Niro to call. I know all the lines. I want to make a movie with Jeff Bridges: "The Return of Lebowski." Or we can make "Crazier Heart" and play car washes instead of bowling alleys.

Have you ever acted?

Nope. People like Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Paul Muni could play anything. I want to play character roles. That's what I should be doing.