BIOGRAPHY
Warren Zevon (1947-2003) was an American singer-songwriter born in Chicago, the son of a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine. As a teenager he studied modern classical music with Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft. He began his recording career as half of the folk-rock duo lyme & cybelle, whose single "Follow Me" reached #65 on the Billboard pop charts in 1966, before working in Los Angeles as a session musician and jingle writer. In 1976 Jackson Browne produced Zevon's self-titled major-label debut, and Linda Ronstadt recorded his song "Hasten Down the Wind" the same year. His 1978 album Excitable Boy, featuring "Werewolves of London," "Lawyers, Guns and Money," and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," reached #8 on the Billboard album chart and went gold. Zevon kept a cult following until his death from mesothelioma in 2003, and in 2025 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Musical Influence Award category.