Because I'm obviously sufficiently geeked out on Warren Zevon's music to have named this blog after one of his songs, I occasionally prevail upon interview subjects to share a story about WZ if I know that their lives or careers once crossed paths with his. Jill Sobule opened for Zevon on a couple of tours, and she contributed a version of "Don't Let Us Get Sick" to the "Enjoy Every Sandwich" compilation.
Sobule is in town this week, performing with John Doe at Off Broadway on Friday. My talk with her about her own music will be on STLtoday sometime soon. But here's the Zevon story...
"The thing about Warren is, I was a big fan. When the opportunity came to open up for him, I was so excited. At the same time, I heard that he could be a bear, that he could be really awful. So just the first two days on tour, I came up to him and said, you know, 'Thank you for letting me open,' and then I completely didn’t even get in his way. I went off to my own room at the club. And then he came up to me like three days later and said, 'What do I have, rabies or something?'
"After that, we ended up…it was great. He’d come out and sing on my set and I’d come out during his set. He became…I never had a mentor, and I would say that he became a mentor. He was just hysterical. He would entertain me the entire time. He was the wittiest person I knew.
"But there were some funny moments. I remember we had a bus. It seems so decadent now, but we had a big old bus, just me and him and the manager and a bus driver. We were parked outside some venue and he would be in the back of the bus, and he was watching, I think, the Playboy Channel. I got off the bus and I noticed a whole lot of people just outside, behind the bus. I was like, 'What’s going on?'
"He forgot to close the blinds. So there was like a hundred people watching porn through the window. I had to run back on the bus and scream, 'Warren! Close the blinds!' (laughs).
"When he got sick, we would have great correspondences. One day I’m going to publish them on my website. They were really kind of joyful – funny letters. As sad as the whole thing was.
"I’m always looking for a new song of his to cover. I think I’m gonna do that one that goes (sings) 'I can saw a woman in two/But you don’t wanna look in the box when I’m through/I can make love disappear/For my next trick, I’ll need a volunteer.'"
0 comments:
Post a Comment