[10][11] The Chicago musician James Pobiega, who goes by the stage name "Little Howlin' Wolf", claimed that he wrote "Bad to the Bone" and that Thorogood stole it from him.

[14] Although the single was not widely popular upon its initial release, its music video made recurrent appearances on MTV, created a year before.

[15] The video intercuts a live performance by Thorogood and his band with footage of him entering a pool hall and challenging Bo Diddley[6][7] to a game.

Word of the challenge quickly spreads throughout the neighborhood, and a spectator brings pool player Willie Mosconi from an adjoining boxing gym where he is watching a fight.

He grins and flicks ashes onto the floor from a cigar he has been smoking throughout the game, causing just enough of a disturbance to sink the ball, and the children gathered outside the pool hall celebrate his victory.