Warren Zevon in Rolling Stone

A very good article in a recent Rolling Stone; worth reading the whole thing:

Warren Zevon's Last Words: Facing terminal cancer, he's writing his own epitaph [Rolling Stone]

Since his diagnosis, Zevon has been writing and recording what he knows will be his last album... He enjoys being in charge of his own epitaph. He's already got a title song for the album: "My Dirty Life and Times." A gold-plated list of pals has lined up to help out, including Ry Cooder, Don Henley, Dwight Yoakam and Bob Dylan... "I always thought old age would be a good subject for rock & roll," Zevon claims. "If you thought Neil Young and I were mad about being young, wait till you hear how mad we are about being old and decrepit."

[asked about his father] "Even on the brink of extinction, I prefer to get as little as possible into that family lore." But Zevon fondly remembers his father's last words -- "Never look back" -- and other favorite motto -- "Fuck everybody."

"I don't remember stardom with any longing," Zevon says. "It was a brief opportunity to be rude: 'Fire that opening act. I don't like the way he looked at me.' My success was a fluke. I was a folk singer who accidentally had one big hit."

Zevon's impulse now, in his final songs, is to send messages to those he is leaving behind. "If I can let someone know what I felt about them," he says, putting the irony to one side, "that's more important than passing off some bullshit insight I've had about living on the planet."

That's one hell of a guy.