Nothing's Bad Luck

Starred review from April 22, 2019
With refreshing candor, journalist and musician Kushins traces the ups and downs of Warren Zevon’s incendiary life and music career in intimate detail. Drawing on interviews with Zevon’s family, friends, and fellow musicians, Kushins provides a year-by-year chronicle of his subject’s struggles to stay sober, write songs, and make records. Born in Chicago in 1947 to a bookie father and Mormon mother who divorced, Zevon gravitated to music in junior high and developed a love of classical music to which he would return later in life. By the time he was 20, he was writing songs prolifically and in 1976 released his first record, Warren Zevon, to critical acclaim. Zevon had been drinking heavily throughout his 30s, and in 1984 he entered rehab. A sober Zevon in 1987 released Sentimental Hygiene, which contained his humorous take on rehab in the song “Detox Mansion,” which was “a deliberate push in introducing Warren to a new generation of fans.” When Zevon was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, he worked tirelessly to finish The Wind, which was released just before he died the following year. Kushins’s energetic writing and his deep dive into Zevon’s life and music offers a rounded and complete portrait of an enigmatic musician.

May 1, 2019

In the first proper biography of Warren Zevon since his untimely death in 2003, Kushins crafts a thorough and unvarnished portrait of this legendary yet troubled musician. Zevon was a brilliant and cutting lyricist who achieved mainstream success through only a handful of songs, such as "Werewolves of London" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money." Linda Ronstadt had repeated success covering some of his early songs, but it's likely that his idiosyncratic style relegated him to the status of cult favorite. Zevon dealt with multiple addictions and obsessive-compulsive disorder throughout his life, and they are well documented here, as are a number of fierce friendships and romantic relationships that probably kept him alive during the 1970s and 1980s. Ex-wife Crystal Zevon published a forthright oral biography of Zevon in 2007 (I'll Sleep When I'm Dead), and Kushins interviewed many of the same sources for this new book. While the overall story of Zevon's life and career is given equal treatment in both works, Kushins's benefits from being a more objective overview. VERDICT An engaging and worthwhile read for Zevon's devoted fans.--Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2019
Warren Zevon had a reputation for being a tough guy, a singular artist, and an excitable boy who sang about lawyers, guns, money, and werewolves. First-time author Kushins examines Zevon's heritage as the son of a WASP mother and a Ukrainian-Jewish professional-gambler father with organized crime ties; mastery of songwriting and smooth-talking; recording career; love of the rock-and-roll lifestyle; substance and alcohol abuse issues; and a life-long phobia about doctors. Kushins captures the essence of the brooding yet wickedly witty singer. Zevon could be wildly irresponsible, his behavior erratic even on a good day, and, worse, many of his years were wasted in self-loathing. It wasn't for nothing that Zevon once told the Chicago Tribune that All my songs are really about fear. He was known, and admired, for his acerbic lyrics, but also for his lovely ballads, including his swan song, Keep Me in Your Heart. No less than the great Irish poet Paul Muldoon collaborated with him. A straightforward account, including a comprehensive discography, of Zevon's fascinating creative life cut short by mesothelioma when he was only 56.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)