“I came to finish paying my bill:” MTV – Music Television Presents Warren Zevon

Over at the Oxford American, I wrote about Warren Zevon’s 1982 MTV concert film, the strange tug of his magnetic songwriting and the casualties of his checkered life. Best of all, I roped in the amazing singer/songwriter Amy Rigby for an account of her time on tour with the man! Check it out if it sounds like the kind of thing you’d be into.

Let’s set aside questions of whether we can continue to enjoy an artist after his many transgressions. Warren Zevon isn’t just over the line. Warren Zevon obliterates the line. A destructive alcoholic and drug abuser, cruelly insensitive to friends and family, unrepentantly narcissistic. A wife beater and neglectful father. Consider him canceled. Now reconsider him. After a million blown chances, here he is again. Rail thin with no rope left and few fucks to give: Warren strikes up the band.