mactastic
Sep 3, 2003, 10:39 AM
Link (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=17004)
We're about to lose a wonderfully talented musician, and he has taken his opportunity to put together one last albumn for people to enjoy. I've been listening to this guy for a while now, and will miss his crazy style. It takes a lot of courage to die so publicly.
Warren Zevon is sitting at a table in a Hollywood hotel cafe, patiently waiting for someone to bring him a menu. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes seep by. "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."
In late August, Zevon went to a cardiologist, complaining of shortness of breath. He left with a death sentence: diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare, inoperable cancer that had ravaged his lungs and invaded his liver. Zevon's doctors initially gave him three months to live but later backed off from a specific figure. Zevon professes not to care about the numbers except, he cracks drily, "in line at the market: 'Excuse me, I have terminal cancer. Can you help her with her coupons? Can we speed this up a little?'
Zevon discusses his fate with the same mix of the earnest and profane. So do good friends such as Hunter S. Thompson and humorist Dave Barry, and Zevon appreciates it. "I told Hunter I might have to break open a bottle of absinthe," says Zevon, who has been sober for two decades. "He said, 'Are you sure you want to launch yourself into some orgiastic debauch only to find out the bastards are wrong, like they always are?' " Barry threatened to lead a posse of Zevon's literary buddies for a visit. "We just want closure," Barry wrote. "Then when you fall asleep, we're gonna go through your meds."
Even Dylan couldn't resist a jibe when he hugged Zevon backstage before Dylan's October 17th concert in Los Angeles. Zevon's co-manager Brigette Barr, who was there, says Dylan ribbed Zevon about using Neil Young to play harmonica on an old album track. "Dylan said, 'How come you didn't ask me?' " Barr recalls, laughing.
But the sweetest shock of all, she says, came during the show. When Dylan sang Zevon's songs "Accidentally Like a Martyr" and "Mutineer," "people got up around our table -- and applauded Warren."
Lawyers Guns and Money is one of my favorites of his.
We're about to lose a wonderfully talented musician, and he has taken his opportunity to put together one last albumn for people to enjoy. I've been listening to this guy for a while now, and will miss his crazy style. It takes a lot of courage to die so publicly.
Warren Zevon is sitting at a table in a Hollywood hotel cafe, patiently waiting for someone to bring him a menu. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes seep by. "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."
In late August, Zevon went to a cardiologist, complaining of shortness of breath. He left with a death sentence: diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare, inoperable cancer that had ravaged his lungs and invaded his liver. Zevon's doctors initially gave him three months to live but later backed off from a specific figure. Zevon professes not to care about the numbers except, he cracks drily, "in line at the market: 'Excuse me, I have terminal cancer. Can you help her with her coupons? Can we speed this up a little?'
Zevon discusses his fate with the same mix of the earnest and profane. So do good friends such as Hunter S. Thompson and humorist Dave Barry, and Zevon appreciates it. "I told Hunter I might have to break open a bottle of absinthe," says Zevon, who has been sober for two decades. "He said, 'Are you sure you want to launch yourself into some orgiastic debauch only to find out the bastards are wrong, like they always are?' " Barry threatened to lead a posse of Zevon's literary buddies for a visit. "We just want closure," Barry wrote. "Then when you fall asleep, we're gonna go through your meds."
Even Dylan couldn't resist a jibe when he hugged Zevon backstage before Dylan's October 17th concert in Los Angeles. Zevon's co-manager Brigette Barr, who was there, says Dylan ribbed Zevon about using Neil Young to play harmonica on an old album track. "Dylan said, 'How come you didn't ask me?' " Barr recalls, laughing.
But the sweetest shock of all, she says, came during the show. When Dylan sang Zevon's songs "Accidentally Like a Martyr" and "Mutineer," "people got up around our table -- and applauded Warren."
Lawyers Guns and Money is one of my favorites of his.
