Jordan zevon

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

The Dirty Life and Times of Warren ZevonBy Crystal Zevon

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright © 2008Crystal Zevon
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780060763497

Chapter One

Wild Age

You've seen him leaning on the streetlight
Listening to some song inside
You've seen him standing by the highway
Trying to hitch a ride
Well, they tried so hard to hold him
Heaven knows how hard they tried
But he's made up his mind
He's the restless kind

He's the wild age

Warren's father, William Rubin Zivotofsky, was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1903. His father, Rubin, left for New York in 1905, and the Zivotofskys of Ukraine became the Zevons of Brooklyn.

Of his childhood, there was only one story Willie Zevon told when asked:

William "Stumpy" Zevon: Life was shit. We were poor, and it was either too hot or too cold. There was never enough room to move around in, and never enough food to eat. My best memory is one birthday. I was around ten, and my father came home with a cucumber. We never tasted a cucumber, and he took out his knife and divided it up. We each got a slice.

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

Biography of Warren Zevon

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon is a biography and oral history of the rock musician Warren Zevon compiled by his ex-wife Crystal Zevon and published May 2007 by Ecco Books.[1]

The book is an unflinching look at Zevon's "high times and hard ways" and contains many admiring reflections on Zevon's work from his famous musical peers, alongside some unsavory revelations. Included are details about Zevon's abusive behavior toward his ex-wife and children in the 1970s, his many sexual dalliances and his return to drinking and drug use after his diagnosis of incurable cancer. Extensive use is made of excerpts from Zevon's private journals, which are concerned largely with his sexual partners, music industry worries and his relationships with his children, Jordan and Ariel.[2]

The book is interspersed with interviews conducted with 87 friends, lovers and collaborators, including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Stephen King, Billy

Ex-wife on life with Warren Zevon

Crystal Zevon, Warren's ex-wife, wrote his biography, "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" and published it in 2007. It's a difficult read, unflinching and at times tawdry and degrading. Yes, there's Warren's genius.

But the book is filled with booze, drugs and lots of unhealthy relationships. What it's not, though, is the vengeful work of a spurned ex.

Though Warren and Crystal were divorced, they remained friends. She was his confidant in good times and bad. I spoke with her last month by phone from her Vermont home.

Q: What was your goal in writing the book?

A: My goal was to tell his story truthfully, which is what he asked me to do. I talked to him before he died, and he made me promise that I would tell the whole truth, even the "awful ugly parts," as he put it. It was a challenge. There are other people who are alive and are involved in that truth. It was not easy. For me, personally, it exorcised a lot of demons and allowed me to have a pretty clear and clean relationship with Warren, with his memory and his spirit. There was a purging, which w

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