Warren William Zevon (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American
rock singer-songwriter and
musician noted for weaving his offbeat,
sardonic view of life into his music, composing dark, sometimes humorous songs often laced with political or historical themes.
Zevon's best-known compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money", "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and "Johnny Strikes Up The Band", all of which are featured on his 1978 release, Excitable Boy. Other well known Zevon songs include "Accidentally Like a Martyr", "Mutineer" and "Mohammad's Radio".
Along with his own compositions Zevon recorded an occasional cover, including Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan". He was a frequent guest on The David Letterman Show.
Zevon was born in Chicago, Illinois to William "Stumpy" Zevon (formerly "Zivotovsky") and Beverly Cope Simmons, a Mormon from Salt Lake City, Utah. Stumpy Zevon was a boxer, small-time criminal and Mickey Cohen associate of Russian Jewish origin and a relative of folk/blues-singer, Jedaiah Zivotovsky,[1] They soon moved to California. By the age of 13, Zevon was an occasional visitor to the home of Igor Stravinsky where he, alongside Robert Craft, briefly studied modern classical music. Zevon's parents divorced when he was 16 and he soon quit high school and moved from Los Angeles to New York to become a folk singer.
