I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Life and Times of Warren Zevon

By Crystal Zevon

When Warren Zevon died in 2003, he left behind a rich catalog of dark, witty rock 'n' roll classics, including "Lawyers, Guns and Money," "Excitable Boy," and the immortal "Werewolves of London." He also left behind a fanatical cult following and veritable rock opera of drugs, women, celebrity, genius, and epic bad behavior. As Warren once said, "I got to be Jim Morrison a lot longer than he did."

Narrated by his former wife and longtime co-conspirator, Crystal Zevon, this intimate and unusual oral history draws on interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Stephen King, Bonnie Raitt, and numerous others who fell under Warren's mischievous spell. Told in the words and images of the friends, lovers, and legends who knew him best, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead captures Warren Zevon in all his turbulent glory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061744990

Crystal Zevon

Crystal Zevon is Warren Zevon's former wife and lifelong friend. She lives in Vermont near her daughter, son-in-law, and twin grandsons.

Reviews for I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

[buttsy1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this difficult to read, but ultimately quite interesting and revealing.Zevon was a musical genius who was clearly a disturbed pain in the ass. An extraordinary musical career, mirrored by an absolute fuck-up mess of a private life. To his credit, he made amends with some people later in life, after he sobered up.

[grahzny · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lot of wild stories along with some ugliness -- Zevon was a severe alcoholic. He was also just sort of a freak. And a genius. I found myself singing his songs all while reading this.

It's not something I'd recommend to anyone but a Zevon fan, but it's an intriguing peek into an era and one of the most unique and creative songwriters and performers of rock and roll.

[lukegoldstein · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I began this book with a prejudice going both ways. I am a huge fan of his music and was excited to find out more about who he was, but my brother, also a fan, sent me the book after reading it himself and said that he had a hard time enjoying the music now after reading about what a mean, abusive maniac this man could be. So i turned the first page with a small amount of fear that my pedestal for this musical genius would be destroyed. In all honesty he had a large number of faults and dealt with many things poorly, but in the end I was pleased to find that my respect for the man and his legacy had not lessened. In fact it grew more to the point that I am building my collection of his entire discography. He was a treasure to the music world and he will be missed.

[ozzieslim · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed some of Warren Zevon's music but I didn't realize just how much of it and how many artists that I love, that he was connected with. But that's not why this book received five stars. The book is written in a series of anecdotal paragraphs from different people in Zevon's life. In some cases, one story will be told from the different perspectives of all the people involved in a story. This more personal form of story telling makes you feel the more immediate impact of what was happening. This was a great time period in rock and roll in Los Angeles. It was the 1970's and the big players like Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young etc. are all there making an appearance.History is littered with tortured geniuses. Zevon is one of those. Rather than looking at someone through the long lens of time, this is a look at the immediate ramifications of someone who was brilliant but tortured. The impact of his behavior and actions was huge and left indelible marks on the people in his life: collaborators, children, wives and lovers and friends.Zevon was a raging alcoholic and although he was able to write music and lyrics during these periods, he was ill equipped to handle almost any other aspect of his life. To that end, we see all the people in his life, although often damaged by his actions, creating a scenario in which they both enabled the alcoholism and enabled the work to continue.To that end, this book isn't for everyone. The behavior of Zevon was at turns tragic, hilarious and selfish. Throughout the book I wondered why those who really cared and loved the man, allowed him to treat them the way that he did while rarely calling him on it. This might be the result of genius: one is afraid to touch any aspect of it for fear that changing one thing will change the nature of the work. Readers will be surprised at how much of the work they recognize and realize that like many genius's throughout history, Zevon's work will most likely come to be appreciated more in death than it ever was in life. He was respected and revered by artists who reached greater commercial success and this made him frustrated. He was a mess but oh, what a gloriously talented mess. Easily one of the best rock biographies I have read. Worth any amount of time and money spent on it and you will end up looking for Zevon's work and appreciating it more than you ever thought possible.

[sharrona_4 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Great subject, but mediocre writing and editing made it a chore to read. The pictures were the best part!

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this book in May of 2007.This biography covers the late singer-songwriter's wild life, including his childhood and youth as the only child of a Jewish gangster father and a long-suffering Mormon mother, his alcohol-soaked days as a influential musician in the Los Angeles music scene, and his untimely death from lung cancer at the age of 56.I don’t know much about his music, but Warren Zevon was a man with deep problems–a bad friend, negligent father, wife beater, hard-core porn addict and a very serious substance abuser. And yet, he had lots of well-known friends (Carl Hiaassen, Billy Bob Thorton, and Bruce Springsteen, among others) who vouch for what a great guy he was sometimes, what great parties they had back in the 1970s, etc. This oral history compiled by Zevon’s ex-wife kept me reading, but Zevon does not emerge as a admirable man.

[poetontheone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This readable "oral biography" gives a panoramic and fairly thorough portrait of Warren Zevon, built by contributions from those who knew him. As Warren himself requested of his former wife Crystal, who edited this book, we see all of the good and the bad, and yes, the ugly of a troubled but incredibly gifted man. This biography does not fall prey to rock star cliches, because Warren was nothing if not original. This is an important document of one of America's greatest and most under-appreciated songwriters. With this book, we get some of the stories behind the songs, and we see that Zevon was a flesh and blood man with many flaws and a massive amount of genius. If you are devoted to this man's music, you will find something worthwhile in reading this biography.

[mhgatti · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Interesting history for Zevon fans, but the writing is horrible. R-rated stories written on a 4th-grade level. Couldn't finish the book, despite my love of Zevon.

[datrappert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating and truly harrowing story of a deeply disturbed man told by his ex-wife, friends, and ex-friends. The brutal honesty is very jarring, but that is apparently the way Warren Zevon wanted his story told. One thing I can definitely say after reading it: I would not have wanted to live his life, even if you take away the tragic ending. The good thing is that reading this made me re-examine a lot of his older music, and I am finding more and more exceptional songs to go along with the ones I already loved. I think the best way to listen to his music is randomly. I'm not sure he made a great album, other than Excitable Boy. But he certainly had a lot of great songs.

[figre · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Let me give you one example of everything that is wrong with this incredible book. On page 426 of its 431 pages there is a picture of Warren’s daughter (Ariel) and her groom on their wedding day. Warren was already died, and there is no reference to the wedding in the book - discussion of their engagement and the birth of his grandchildren - but nothing about the wedding. Far too often, Warren’s ex-wife Crystal (the only person he ever married) decides that things in her life and things in their daughter’s life are important to the telling of Warren’s story when they are not.Wait, I have to give you another example of this imbalance. Lots of discussion of Warren’s alcoholism (definitely an important part of who he is), pages of discussion on Crystal’s alcoholism (starting to wonder why I care, this was all after they had split and really didn’t have that much to do with Warren), and pages of discussion on Ariel’s alcoholism (a bit more important – definite effect on Warren). Then, there is a one-sentence line about Jordan (Warren’s son from an earlier relationship) talking to Warren about being an alcoholic. That’s all she wrote – no impact, no nothing. Come on, why isn’t there more Jordan and less Crystal and Ariel? Rule #1 – people who really knew the subject shouldn’t write biographies, even those hiding behind the sobriquet of “oral biographies.”And I really dislike oral biographies. This is only the second I’ve read (the first being about two months ago – Gonzo – about Hunter S. Thompson.) But, they strike me as the cheap way to rush out an insufficient biography. They hide behind the ruse of “we’ll just put together the quotes to tell the story” and refuse to accept responsibility for the conclusions that are drawn. No, Mr. or Mrs. Author, you did not write the book, you only edited it. But you DID edit it.But, the previous is a lot of warning about what is a fantastic voyage through the person that was Warren Zevon. For anyone who enjoys Warren’s music, for anyone who has an interest in the life that could lead to this music, and even for those who want a little insight into “how did he come up with that song”, this book fits the bill. Go ahead and ignore when the former Mrs. Zevon goes off on her pet stories, and don’t worry that she was the wrong one to edit this book – it has the goods. These are the stories of how close he came, of how the Excitable Boy became that way, and of how a genius songwriter comes to the end of a life filled with fame and little money. And this is a book that is hard to put down - Warren was one weird dude. Of course, that makes sense; such weirdly brilliant songs do not come from Charlie Milquetoast.In fact, the information is so good, the subject so compelling, it almost reaches five-star level, coming close to overcoming all the problems inherent with a wife writing an oral biography. (So close to five stars, you want to cry for what could have been, but you’re too excited about what is here.) And, in its own twisted way, it is inspiring. (Now, what did I do with that idea for a song about a fifty-year-old who fell in love with a twenty-year-old stripper?)

[selfcallednowhere · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Everything you ever wanted to know about WZ but were afraid to ask, or things you didn't want to know but are still, um, interesting. Described by the Onion AV Club as "aimed squarely at cultists and fanatics," probably accurately. But if you felt that description, absolutely check it out.

[nicholaspayne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As unflattering as it needs to be to commmunicate the story, but without reveling in Zevon's excesses and without selling his talent and charm short.

[addict_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When Warren Zevon died in 2003, he left behind both a fanatical cult following and a rich catalog of dark, witty rock-n-roll classics that includes "Lawyers, Guns, and Money," "Excitable Boy," and the immortal "Werewolves of London." He also left a trove of misadventures and anecdotes, a veritable rock opera of drugs, women, celebrity, high times, and hard ways. As Warren once said, "I got to be Jim Morrison a lot longer than he did." I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is an intimate and unusual oral history of one of our most original and distinctive rock-and-roll antiheroes. Narrated by his former wife and longtime co-conspirator, Crystal Zevon, the book draws on over eighty interviews with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Stephen King, Billy Bob Thornton, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and countless others who came under his mischievous spell. The result is a raucous and moving tale of love and obsession, creative genius and epic bad behavior. Told in the words and images of the friends, lovers, and legends who knew him best, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead captures Warren Zevon in all his turbulent glory.