Warren Zevon’s ex-wife to sign book in Bangor Biography chronicles life of sardonic songwriter

Before his death in 2003, songwriter Warren Zevon asked his ex-wife and longtime companion Crystal Zevon to write his biography, warts and all.

“He said to tell the whole truth,” said Zevon, who will give a talk and be available to sign her book at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at Borders Books & Music in Bangor. “But I didn’t want to write a traditional biography, and try to interpret the things he did or said. I wanted to let the reader do that.”

So Zevon began interviewing people who had known the famed songwriter throughout his life and career as a musician. Those interviews with Warren’s family and friends, such as Jackson Browne, Stephen King, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Bob Thornton and Mitch Albom, form the basis of “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon,” published this month by HarperCollins.

Zevon tells the story of a troubled but brilliant musician and writer, who navigated a stormy life of substance abuse, rock ‘n’ roll celebrity, romantic perils and later terminal illness. Through it all, he wrote and recorded the darkly comic, literate songs that made him a star, such as the sly classic “Werewolves of London,” the anthemic “Excitable Boy” and the storytelling ballad “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.”

“It’s not always a pretty picture,” said Zevon. “Some of his diehard fans have taken exception, but most are very supportive. I got a letter from a guy in California who’s a recovering alcoholic, who said, ‘I’d never heard of Warren, but I bought the book and I couldn’t put it down. The story is so much my own.'”

In addition to the interviews, Zevon quotes extensively from Warren’s personal journals – a process that was both painful and helpful to her in the months and years after his death.

“That was the hardest part, when I was alone with the journals. I isolated myself for a few weeks with his journals and a big magnifying glass,” she said. “To go back and relive that was painful, but at the same time, I think I probably did come to terms with it in a way I never had before.”

One of the core stories of the book is Warren’s lifelong battle with alcoholism. Zevon spares no detail in describing the years that he spent under the influence, and the process of getting sober.

“I knew it wasn’t that he wanted to do that. He was under the control of various substances,” she said. “He had a mind that just never quit. He was a genius, and he really deserves to be recognized as such. I think having a mind like that is a huge burden.”

But “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” is still a rock bio, so despite carrying with it some very serious cautionary tales, it’s packed full of highly entertaining stories of rock n’ roll excess, as well as plenty of the cynical humor for which Warren Zevon was so famous.

“Warren was an avid reader. His house was like a library, and he read a lot of bios,” she said. “He saw the trauma, the drama, the frustrations and torment of creative geniuses, and he felt like after he was gone that should be a part of his legacy. People should know his story.”