“Enjoy every sandwich”
~ Warren Zevon 1947-2003
After we finished rehearsing ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’ for WMMR’s Morning Zoo at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, Warren Zevon asked me if I would go to the music store with him to buy his new CD, ‘Transverse City’. I thought it was odd he had to buy his own music, but I accepted his invitation, and came to find out Mr. Zevon had to give the CD to his back-up band, ‘The Riverdogs’, ASAP, so they could learn the songs for an upcoming tour.
I thought to myself, “I’m a huge Warren Zevon fan and can’t believe I get to hang out with this mythical songwriting legend and perhaps experience some of his outlaw iconoclasm, up close.” I wish I had a bar-hopping, fight-starting, wise-cracking Zevon story for you, but I don’t. The Warren Zevon I met was a polite, quiet guy with a wry sense of humor, not the rye-soaked Excitable Boy you’d expect from his songs.
Behind the counter of the music store in A.C. was an uninterested, gum-snappin’ 22 year-old girl and behind HER was a big poster of a stoic, airbrushed Warren Zevon. Warren looked up at the poster of him and then at me and asked the girl if she had the new Warren Zevon album, ‘Transverse City’. She said, “Who? What?” He shook his head, sighed, pointed to his poster and said, “Him. ‘Transverse City’.” She says, I have no idea who or what that is.” Zevon gave me a slow Jack Benny-like head turn with a smirk, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I piped up, trying to help, and said to the hapless clerk, “You know the song ‘Werewolves Of London’, right?” Without hesitation she says, “I HATE that song! That is like the WORST song, ever.” I was embarrassed for Warren, but he takes a beat and says, “I find myself hating that song, too, at times… and I have to play it every night.” The girl says, “Are you in a Warren Zevon cover band?” And Warren replies, “Some nights.”
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