
Zevon has prepared for this crossroads for thirty years, on more than a dozen albums. I gave him the verses, and he loved it: ‘We’ve got something!'”Īnd the original line? “He has to take these painkillers,” Calderón explains, “so he was saying, ‘I’m as numb as a statue, so beg, borrow or steal some feelings for me.'” Then he called me while he was walking to the video store, because he can’t drive anymore. Calderón describes a recent evening when he and Zevon nailed a new song on their cell phones: “He’d given me a line out of a conversation the other day, so I wrote a few verses. He’s already got a title song for the album: “My Dirty Life and Times.” A gold-plated list of pals has lined up to help out, including Ry Cooder, Don Henley, Dwight Yoakam and Bob Dylan, who is playing Zevon covers nightly on his current tour. He enjoys being in charge of his own epitaph. “I’ll probably wake up tomorrow, too,” he declares optimistically.
#Warren zevon hasten down the wind live full
Dressed in loose gray pants and a wool sport coat, with a full head of dirty-yellow hair and a strong smile, Zevon does not look sick or dying, only a little tired - and that’s because he was up late the night before, working on his music. “But the nature of destiny is that I’m alive today,” Zevon says cheerfully after that menu finally arrives.

Can you help her with her coupons? Can we speed this up a little?’

Zevon professes not to care about the numbers except, he cracks drily, “in line at the market: ‘Excuse me, I have terminal cancer.

Zevon’s doctors initially gave him three months to live but later backed off from a specific figure. He left with a death sentence: diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare, inoperable cancer that had ravaged his lungs and invaded his liver. In late August, Zevon went to a cardiologist, complaining of shortness of breath. “At a time like this,” he says with an arched eyebrow and a low, rumbling laugh, “you really get the feeling of time marching on.” It includes the poignant "Keep Me in Your Heart," a cranky "Disorder in the House" and a remake of Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door.Warren Zevon is sitting at a table in a Hollywood hotel cafe, patiently waiting for someone to bring him a menu. In his final months, he summoned the energy to complete a last album, "The Wind," released in August. His compositional style reflected a number of genres, from hard-driving rock to folk, as well as classical, polka and other influences. Bad Example," "The Hula Hula Boys" and "Gorilla You're a Desperado." The latter told the tale of a Los Angeles Zoo ape who escapes by locking a yuppie in his place and going off to live in the man's apartment, only to end up depressed and divorced. His song list contained some straight-out comedy as well, including "Mr. Not that all of his music was dark and violent. Other admirers included Bob Dylan, whom Zevon cited as one of his principal songwriting influences and who performed on his 1987 album "Sentimental Hygiene." Still another was Bruce Springsteen, who co-wrote "Jeannie Needs a Shooter," Zevon's tale of a lover shot to death by a woman's jealous father. It's a safe, kind of cheerful way of dealing with that issue." "The knowledge of death and fear of death informs my existence. "I always like to have violent lyrics and violent music," Zevon told The Associated Press in 1990. Jesse Ventura and "Late Show" host David Letterman. They cemented Zevon's reputation as one of rock music's most politically incorrect lyricists, giving him a lifelong cult following that included gonzo journalist Hunter S.

His next two albums, 1976's "Warren Zevon" and 1978's "Excitable Boy," followed those songs with darkly humorous tales of prom-date rapists headless, gun-toting soldiers of fortune and werewolves who drank pina coladas at singles bars and were particular about their hair.
