Warren Zevon

Though he came out of the '70s Southern California scene and was championed by Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon's music is far more dark and sardonic than that background would suggest. The quintessential troubadour-with-an-attitude, he's sung about guns, death, and cattle disease (seriously) with a biting sense of humour and a musicality that's attributable to his early classical training. He's probably the only rocker who studied with Stravinsky. He blazed away through the '80s and '90s, doing some of his best work at the turn of the century, but he was cut down by cancer in 2003, leaving behind the album THE WIND as his farewell.

• pop rock
• singer songwriter
• 1970s
• 1980s