Exclusive: George Thorogood on becoming a New York Mets fan & more

With over 15 million albums sold worldwide, George Thorogood has been a successful musician for over 40 years. As the leader of George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Thorogood has been the singer and songwriter behind many blues-rock classics, including "Bad To The Bone," "I Drink Alone" and "If You Don't Start Drinkin' (I'm Gonna Leave)," beyond recording definitive rock-centric versions of "Move It On Over," "Who Do You Love?" and "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer."

Thorogood continues to record new music -- his latest full-length is 2017's Party Of One -- and hit the road regularly. That touring regularly benefits the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, to whom Thorogood presented a substantial check to before his September 25, 2019, headlining concert at New York City's Town Hall.

Last year I had the pleasure of interviewing George Thorogood by phone, as partially published by Sportskeeda. Within that chat, I had uncovered that Thorogood -- a native of Delaware -- was a fan of Major League Baseball's New York Mets. When asked if Thorogood had attended a game at Citi Field in the recent past, he had responded: "No, they have been winning too much for me lately. They are starting to lose their charm."

Well, the 2019 MLB season didn't give New York Mets fans much to cheer about, and team manager Mickey Callaway got the long-expected ax on October 3rd. In turn, when speaking with Thorogood about his on-going work with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on October 9th, I threw in a few Mets-related questions; both transcribed highlights and full embedded audio of the interview are shown below.

On where his fandom of the New York Mets came from:

George Thorogood: Well, they lost all the time. Every team I was on as a kid, in Little League, lost all the time. I started getting into baseball in '62 when the Mets came around, and you know the 1962 Mets set the all-time record that still stands for the most losses in a season: 120. And the Yankees won the World Championship and the Mets outdrew the Yankees that year. So what do you think of that?

Darren, it's because most people in the world can relate to losers more than they can winners. Because most people are not champions like Mickey Mantle was probably more people like [Ed] Kranepool or [Art] Shamsky or Mookie Wilson than Joe DiMaggio. I just struggled to be a mediocre player, just a regular guy, so the Mets were a natural attraction to me.

On whether the popular "Destroyers" baseball-type jersey of George Thorogood & The Destroyers is related to his Mets or overall baseball fandom:

George Thorogood: No, not really. Someone else came up with that, it wasn't my idea. It just stuck over the years, so I don't know.

On if he has any last words for the kids:

George Thorogood: Uh, yeah, don't grow up to be like me.

Tour dates and other information on George Thorogood & The Destroyers can be found online at www.georgethorogood.com.