George Thorogood took a different path on his most recent album.
Party of One, a solo, mostly acoustic blues collection, has turned into his fastest seller in 20 years. He taps into artists who've influenced him from Hank Williams to John Lee Hooker.
He says the project developed after he was looking to do "something different."
"'What haven't you done yet?' I said, 'Well, I've never done a solo acoustic record. Or a solo record period.' I've been playing with a band for so long... now I realized why I stopped playing solo and went to play with a band. So we started digging around and our producer said, 'They don't have to be straight blues songs. And they don't necessarily have to be acostic songs, just playing alone. Pick artists who have influenced you over the time. So we got a Dylan song. Then we got a Johnny Cash song. Got a John Hammond song. And a Howlin' Wolf song."
The "Bad to the Bone" icon was in New York, where he and his band The Destroyers performed a cancer benefit show.
Thorogood talked about why he does benefit shows for the the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society:
"I don't really look at it as charity; I just look at it as something that's a necessity. That's the word I like to use. People would say, 'Why would you do this?' And I would say, 'Well, why not? Don't you want to help?' There's not enough research for, or something. Don't you want to help? Don't we all? So it just boils down to that. You don't really have to make anybody more aware of these things, cancer, leukemia, everybody's aware of it. I just don't think there's enough being done. Because, it it was, people wouldn't be sick all the time."