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episode date - September 7, 2003
The following is a special update to an article published last week on AHN, sadly, it is now an obituary.
Last August when he was diagnosed with a progressive state of cancer and given three months to live, Warren Zevon vowed to continue making music. During this time many people mentally paid their last respects to this incredible person -- the artist included -- as we collectively numbed ourselves for the inevitable news.
And now, sadly, it has come.
Zevon died yesterday, September 7th, at the age of 56 -- 13 months after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Wire reports indicate he died peacfully at home in Los Angeles, failing to wake after taking a nap.
I remember watching him on that special Letterman appearance last fall - a virtual living wake if there was one - thinking how does he have the courage to face his fate? He even went as far as to introduce his own form of gallows humor in discussing his terminal condition; ``I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years, it was one of those phobias that didn't pay off,' he said to break the 5 foot thick ice.
Well where others may have said a fond farewell, this person decided to grab life by the cojones and squeeze out every last bit of his final days on this earth. The result? Well how about three albums. In a time where today's artists seem to be taxed to the max in generating one album in maybe three or four years -- this guy clearly is working to live. His first two efforts released shortly after his diagnosis -- Life'll Kill Ya and My Ride's Here -- were in many ways a continuation of his tongue in cheek persona. His new release -- The Wind -- is filled with unusually upbeat compositions. That point is further punctuated in his cover of Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Instead of delivering it with soulful resignation, he sings it as if he is spitting into the wind, rather than being carried away by it. Clearly his tongue is still in its old familiar place, and listening to him can only make you wonder if we too will have this type of courage when we are told to walk in his shoes.
But now, all we can do is look at the man's life with sincere reverence and respect for how he chose to leave -- on his own terms, working to the end. After spending 18 years as a partying madman, he spent the last 18 clean and sober -- getting close to his family and enjoying his children as a true father would.
He will be missed, he will be remembered, as he has now finally passed through Heaven's door.
Accidentally, like a martyr, he came on the scene
his visions of stardom fueled and funneled his dream
Over a score of years he ranted and raved
and tore a wild streak through the towns where he stayed
Face with an addiction he learned how to beat
he then settled in, became a family man, and made promises he'd keep
Alas his poor poor body did not fare him well,
as his killer snuck up from within and rang the death knell
But with that same wry sense and pathos that made him his own,
he worked, fought, and lived -- and ultimately took the longer way home.
So now he is part of the greatest rock 'n roll band,
and yet fittingly he's probably
sitting at the keyboards,
with a smile and a sandwich in his hand.
-- Patrick Macri for AHN
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