Summary
[Crystal Zevon] says the impetus for the book came from [Warren Zevon] himself. During the couple's marriage, they made plans for her to write his story, but she dropped the idea after they split up. "In the first week after his [cancer] diagnosis," Crystal recalls, "[Warren] asked if I would come out and care for him when it got rough. He asked Carl Hiaasen [mystery writer and the couple's friend] why I should want to do that, after all those years." Hiaasen suggested that Crystal wanted to write the long-meditated book. "The week before [Warren] died, he called me up and said, 7ou're going to do this, right?'" she recalls. "He said, Tou're going to have to tell the whole truth, even the ugly parts, 'cause that's the excitable boy who wrote those excitable songs.'"
Some of the reminiscences come from celebrities who were Zevon's friends, such as Hiaasen, Stephen King and actor Billy Bob Thornton. Others come from "roadies, girlfriends, family. Practically no one refused an interview with me," Crystal says. "Some of my favorite people to talk to were the roadies, who saw [Warren] day in and day out," she continues. "They saw him in fury and frustration if the sound wasn't right, but also in quiet, contemplative times."Some of Crystal's discoveries were disturbing. In the years after their divorce, "Warren became addicted to sex, and I knew it but had no idea of the scope of it," she says. "He had women that he loved and cared about, but that was separate from satisfying his prurient needs. It was like dropping in at a supermarket for a carton of milk." The liaisons were described in "cold detail" in the rocker's journals, she explains.See the full content of this document
Extract
A New Book Recalls the Highs and Lows of Warren Zevon
"I got to be Jim Morrison a lot longer than he did," rocker Warren Zevon once said. The classically trained singer-songwriter packed a lot of living into his 56 years. He penned and performed dark, witty, politically aware songs such as "Excitable Boy" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money." He was a...
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