Short description
When Zevon was diagnosed with cancer he asked his estranged wife Crystal Zevon to take notes for a 'no-hold-barred' oral biography and insight into the Los Angeles music scene at the top of it's game. This work presents that biography. It features an introduction by Bruce Springsteen and afterword by Carl Hiassen.
Long description
Told in the words of his musical accomplices, fellow-travelers, friends, and lovers, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is an intimate and unusual biography of fabled singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, the musical force behind such dark, witty rock-and-roll classics as Werewolves of London and Roland, the Headless Thompson Gunner. Narrated by Crystal Zevon, Zevon's former (and only) wife, it draws on interviews with Jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Emmylou Harris, Linda Rondstadt, Stevie Nicks, Lindsay Buckingham, the Everly Brothers, and a host of other denizens of Southern California's influential rock scene to tell the story of the original Excitable Boy : literary hoodlum, OCD sufferer, brilliant songwriter, and rock-and-roll icon.
Review
It's a lurid, page-turning read, filled with big successes and deep lows. -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram