"If You Don't Start Drinkin' (I'm Gonna Leave)" is a rock song by American blues rock band George Thorogood and the Destroyers, released in January 1991 as the lead single from their album Boogie People by EMI America.
[4] The song describes a man trying to get his wife to start drinking alcohol with him, threatening to leave her if she does not.
[6] The song was released as the lead single from their eighth studio album Boogie People.
[9][10][11] Following the single's release, Stephanine Lesky, an executive director at the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Council in Orange County, New York called for radio stations in New York to not play the song, claiming it promoted abuse and drinking and driving.
"[13] Thorogood has said that he was afraid the song would be controversial, and that he brought it up to EMI America, but they ended up releasing it anyway.