At the Rio Olympics last summer, he gyrated on stage with a troupe of samba dancers, while one Norwegian reporter recited a rap that he had composed in the Jamaican's honour.
One wondered how London would raise the bar, short of arranging a grand entrance out of a red telephone box or giving him his own guard of Beefeaters. Naturally, we need not have worried.
By the end of a captivating hour, he was striking his patented 'Lightning Bolt' pose alongside his parents, while glittery streamers exploded from cannons and fell at his feet.
On Saturday night, Bolt lines up at London's Olympic Park, where he savoured glory in 2012 after running the second fastest 100m in history, with not even a trace of apprehension that he could be beatable.
He has been far from convincing this season, dipping under 10 seconds for the first time in 2017 in Monaco 12 days ago, but nobody matches Bolt for preternatural self-assurance that it will be alright on the night.
Asked if he would script the perfect ending, with one more gold to bookend nine years of peerless feats, he replied: "Without a doubt. If I show up at a championship, you know that I'm ready to go."
If his performance here at the Brewery, a cavernous corporate barn in the City, was any gauge, Bolt's send-off this weekend should be the one he deserves.
He was in free-wheeling mood, mischievously baiting his chief rival, Canada's Andre de Grasse, and talking unusually emotively about how his friend Germaine Mason, who died in a motorbike accident earlier this year, would serve as his inspiration to finish his incomparable career with a flourish.
Quite simply, Bolt adores London. It is where he defied all doubters by successfully defending his Olympic title, and where he chose to toast his treble of Rio sprint triumphs last year, with an exotic array of dusk-'til-dawn antics in the nightspots of the West End.
Short of kicking back in the soothing, sultry air of Sherwood Content, his home village deep in the Jamaican rainforest, this is the place where he feels most at ease.
"Along with Beijing in 2008, these are the best crowds I've ever seen," he said. "In 2012, London came out even for the morning sessions. I've never seen that before."
Bolt casts one glance at his opposition here and is unperturbed by what he sees.
About De Grasse, the 22-year-old from Toronto who ran a heavily wind-assisted 9.69 in Stockholm in June, he was cold, even dismissive.
Invited to describe their relationship, he shrugged: "I see him around, I say hi. I don't have his number or anything."
There was an intriguing undercurrent of tension, too, as Bolt appeared to accuse De Grasse of not showing him due respect. He had been pressed on which sprinter could be the next 100m star, but snapped: "I'm not going down that road. The last guy I said would be great disrespected me, so I'm not going to say. I'll leave it to whoever shows up."
He declined to be more specific, but the shadow of suspicion fell most naturally on De Grasse.
Since their good-natured back-and-forth in Rio, where Bolt did a 'catch me if you can' finger-wag at his pursuer after a close 200m semi-final between them, the dynamic has taken a sourer turn.
Stuart McMillan, De Grasse's coach, claimed his protégé had been "booted out" of the Diamond League event in Monaco due to the leading man's desire to cherry-pick his opponents - an allegation strenuously denied by Bolt's management.
According to Bolt, his most powerful impetus sprang not from the challenge of an ambitious young pretender but from the shattering loss of Mason, a former British high jumper and one of his inner circle, in a crash near Kingston airport.
Bolt was pictured weeping openly at Mason's funeral and did not train for three weeks as coach Glen Mills allowed him space to grieve.
"It was a rough time," he reflected. "I've never had somebody pass away who was that close to me. Eventually, the net of people around me said, 'We know it's hard, but you need to get back training.
"Germaine would have wanted it. He was looking forward to seeing your last race, to see you compete, to finish off your legacy. That helped me to get back. Now I really want to do it for him, for his family, for those who supported me through the hard times."
Watching Bolt head towards this sunset is a profound wrench, as he leaves behind achievements that stand alone. Of the 30 quickest times recorded over 100m, only nine of them - all Bolt's - belong to an athlete not banned for a doping violation.
It is a stark reminder of the void into which athletics plunges beyond Saturday.
"After the Russian scandal, I didn't think it could get any worse, but I believe it's moving in the right direction now," Bolt said. "I hope that the athletes concerned understand that if they don't stop what they're doing, the sport will die."
The video tributes flowed in from the most disparate voices: from Idris Elba to Cara Delevingne, Samuel L Jackson to Virat Kohli, Bolt disciples all.
He regarded the adulation with the diffident charm that has always leavened his more grandiose public statements.
"I never knew, for instance, that I would break three world records at a single championship," he explained.
"I had no idea. All I wanted, growing up, was to be a 200m Olympic champion. There are no words to describe what I've done since. I'm just really proud of myself."
Bolt is offering, in his choice of footwear for the London Stadium track, a fitting throwback to where it all began.
One shoe is gold, out of deference to the golden boy, and the other is purple, the colour of Falmouth's William Knibb High School, his alma mater in Jamaica.
Soon enough, they will be propelling their jet-heeled owner over the line one last time, en route to his rightful place among the immortals.
