Songfacts®:

• A huge fan of blues music, Thorogood often sings about drinking, a common theme in the genre. One of his most popular songs is a cover of "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," originally recorded by Amos Milburn in the '50s and popularized by John Lee Hooker in the '60s.
  
  Drinking is generally a social activity, but in this song Thorogood takes a self-deprecating approach, explaining that he prefers drinking alone. The song takes a humorous tone, with the names of drinks garnishing the lyric with double meanings. For instance, he is drinking with his good buddy Wiser (Budweiser), his pals Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam, and the Walker brothers: Blackie and Red (Johnny Walker Black label and Red label). The only family member who will drink with him is his dear old granddad (Old Grand Dad whiskey).
• He's pretty convincing, but George Thorogood is playing a character in this song. He's not one to crack a beer in the morning and drink all day.
  
  "I Drink Alone" is a comedy song," he told the Syracuse Post-Standard. "It's supposed to be funny. People didn't always get it."
• Most of George Thorogood's songs - particularly his early ones - are covers, often of old blues tunes. This worked well for him in the '70s when he made the lion's share of his living on tour, but when radio (and even MTV) started playing his songs, it helped to have a few hits he wrote himself so he could glean royalties. "I Drink Alone" is one of these self-written songs; "Bad To The Bone" is another.
• George Thorogood made a video for this song where he rides his motorcycle to an out-of-the-way watering hole and starts drinking alone. At the end, a pretty lady joins him, so he gets up and leaves, telling her, "I drink alone."
  
  Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone" video got a lot of play on MTV, but this one wasn't appropriate for their audience of teenage boys.
• By 1985, when he released this song, Thorogood was a big enough deal that he earned an invitation to Live Aid - he performed on the Philadelphia stage after The Beach Boys and before Simple Minds. Instead of playing "I Drink Alone," his current single, he brought up two blues legends to perform with him: Bo Diddley on "Who Do You Love?" and Albert Collins on "Madison Blues."
• This appears in the 2005 movie North Country and in the 2012 Nurse Jackie episode "Kettle-Kettle-Black-Black."