Warren Zevon Caricature

Warren Zevon Caricature shown here on the release of his self-titled album, “Warren Zevon” in May, 1976 at age 29.
Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician. Growing up in Chicago, IL where his father worked as a bookie who handled bets and dice games for the notorious Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen.

At age 13, his family moved to Fresno, CA. where Zevon was an occasional visitor to the home of Igor Stravinsky, where he briefly studied modern classical music alongside Robert Craft. At age 16 he quit high school and moved from Los Angeles to New York City to become a folk singer.
During the early 1970s, Zevon toured regularly with the Everly Brothers as keyboard player, band leader, and musical coordinator.

In September 1975, Zevon had returned to Los Angeles, where he roomed with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, who had by now gained fame as members of Fleetwood Mac. There he collaborated with Jackson Browne, who produced and promoted Zevon’s self-titled major-label debut in 1976. Contributors to this album included Nicks, Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, members of the Eagles, Carl Wilson, Linda Ronstadt, and Bonnie Raitt. Ronstadt elected to record many of his songs, including “Hasten Down the Wind”, “Carmelita”, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, and “Mohammed’s Radio”. Zevon’s first tour, in 1977, included guest appearances in the middle of Jackson Browne concerts.

Produced by Browne, Warren Zevon (1976) was his first album to chart in the United States, peaking at No. 189. The first edition of the Rolling Stone Record Guide (published in 1979) called it a masterpiece.

Over the course of his career, Zevon made 14 studio albums. Occasionally, between 1982 and 2001, Zevon filled in for Paul Shaffer as bandleader on Late Night with David Letterman. Letterman was a huge Zevon fan.

Greatest hits: “Werewolves Of London”, “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”, “Carmelita”, “Mohammed’s Radio”, “Johnny Strikes Up The Band”, “Lawyers, Guns and Money”, “The French Inhaler”, “Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner”, “Hasten Down The Wind” and “Frank And Jesse James”.

He and the actor Billy Bob Thornton formed a close friendship, catalyzed by their common experiences with obsessive-compulsive disorder and the fact they lived in the same apartment building. One of Zevon’s compulsions was buying and hoarding identical gray Calvin Klein T-shirts.

In 2002, he began to feel dizzy and developed a chronic cough. shortly afterwards, he was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer (usually caused by exposure to asbestos).

Zevon died on September 7, 2003, aged 56, at his home in Los Angeles from the disease.