George Thorogood & The Destroyers will take the stage at 8 p.m. April 6 at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, to show the Central Coast what they’ve been up to since they entered the music scene more than 30 years ago.

Thorogood has come a long way from his days as a young musician struggling to make it big.

“Don’t remind me,” Thorogood said in a March 23 interview with the Santa Maria Times. “I don’t ever want to go back there.”

He said he remembered a little song, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” that he just couldn’t get released. It sat on the shelf for 18 months, he said, the worst 18 months of his life, while he begged his label to release it before somebody else got the chance.

“We’ll just record another song,” he recalled his management saying.

“You’re crazy,” he responded. “Everybody needs a signature song to break.”

Indeed. “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” was released in 1977 on Thorogood’s first album, “George Thorogood & The Destroyers,” which launched his career.

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Funny, he said, all these years later, 75 percent of the requests he gets are from his first two albums. “Now I’m a genius, right?” he laughed in his characteristic deep, gritty voice.

Has Thorogood changed much through the years?

“I hope so,” he said. “I’ve put on a few pounds.”

We’ll see for ourselves when Thorogood and the band take the Chumash stage next Friday in the first stop on their 2007 tour, which will wind up in August.

So will he play the old hits?

“If that’s what you want,” he said.

“I saw Chuck Berry do that once,” he said, remembering Berry walk onto the stage and announce: “Here I am. What do you want to hear?”

Thorogood said he’s not quite ready to do that yet, but maybe he’ll try it someday.

For now, he said, he knows people come to hear his signature songs, and he knows that a 90-minute concert allows him just enough time to do his greatest hits.

As for his favorites, he said they pretty much mimic what the audience likes the best.

Thorogood said he put out about half of his songs purely for business reasons, knowing they would sell. The other half have a personal meaning. But he knows his work is for entertainment purposes.

“It’s not that deep,” he said. “It’s entertainment. Period.”

And that’s good because Thorogood’s music has been used in all kinds of ways that he probably never intended when he originally recorded it.

Take “Bad to the Bone,” the title track on Thorogood’s 1982 album, which initially became a hit because of its memorable video on MTV, and is still one of the most heavily licensed songs for commercials, television shows and movies.

“What was the world doing before ‘Bad to the Bone?’” he laughed.

Thorogood is also known for 1988’s “Born to Be Bad” album, 1993’s “Haircut”, 2003’s “Ride ‘Til I Die” and 2006’s “Hard Stuff.”

In 2004, his “Greatest Hits: 30 Years of Rock” compilation maintained the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s blues chart for 60 weeks and won the magazine’s award for blues record of the year.

Thorogood’s business prowess is evident not only in the ongoing success of his albums, but also in a continuously growing fan base.

“Every now and then we do get a bit of fan mail,” said Thorogood, recalling a couple of recent letters.

One was from an 18-year old admirer in Minnesota, the other from a wheelchair-bound 72-year-old in Maryland.

“You’d swear they were from the same person,” he said.

COMING SOON:

The Chumash Casino Resort is preparing to host several all-star acts:

George Thorogood, Friday, April 6, 8 p.m.

Jo Dee Messina, Friday, April 13, 8 p.m.

Jamie Foxx, Thursday, April 19, 8 p.m.

ZZ Top, Thursday, April 26, 8 p.m.

Willie Nelson, Thursday, May 3, 8 p.m.

Dick Fox’s Golden Boys: Fabian, Frankie Avalon & Bobby Rydell, Thursday, May 11, 8 p.m.

Tickets for all events can be purchased by calling (800) 585-3737 or online at www.chumashcasino.com.

Emily Welly can be reached at 739-2220 or ewelly@santamaria times.com.