{"id":50954,"date":"2025-11-05T16:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/watch-warren-zevons-final-live-performance-on-an-emotional-letterman\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:46:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:46:48","slug":"watch-warren-zevons-final-live-performance-on-an-emotional-letterman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/05\/watch-warren-zevons-final-live-performance-on-an-emotional-letterman\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Warren Zevon&#8217;s Final Live Performance on an Emotional Letterman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tA grave injustice will finally be rectified on Saturday evening when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/warren-zevon\/\" id=\"auto-tag_warren-zevon\" data-tag=\"warren-zevon\">Warren Zevon<\/a> is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even though he\u2019s been eligible for more than 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSadly, Zevon isn\u2019t around to enjoy it. He died from an inoperable form of lung cancer on September 7, 2003. But the prior October, when he knew his time was very limited, he booked an appearance on <em>Late Show With David Letterman <\/em>so that he could say goodbye to his fans, and play for them one last time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tLetterman was a huge Zevon fan and he\u2019d featured the singer on his show dozens of times, often subbing him in for Paul Shaffer when the bandleader was busy with other projects. On this night, he was the only guest. \u201cAs you know,\u201d Zevon said. \u201cYou\u2019ve been the best friend my music has ever had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThis was one of the most emotional Letterman broadcasts ever, but Zevon did his best to keep things light. \u201cI might have made a tactical error by not going to a physician for 20 years,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a form of lung cancer that spread. It means you better get your dry cleaning done on special.\u201d He also talked about his in-progress album <em>The Wind<\/em>, which came out the following August. \u201cThey certainly don\u2019t discourage you from doing whatever you want,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like bed rest and a lot of water will straighten you out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Warren Zevon&#039;s Final &quot;Late Show&quot; Appearance | Letterman\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/giTi8KWSZl4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tZevon had no plans to tour at this point, so he knew that his live renditions of \u201cMutineer,\u201d \u201cGenius\u201d and \u201cRoland the Headless Gunner\u201d (played at Letterman\u2019s request) would probably be his final public performances. Many in the audience probably had trouble maintaining their composure, but Zevon never wavered. He was absolutely brilliant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cAfter the show, it was heartbreaking \u2014 he was in his dressing room,\u201d Letterman told <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> in 2008. \u201cWe were talking and this and that. Here\u2019s a guy who had months to live and we\u2019re making small talk. And as we\u2019re talking, he\u2019s taking his guitar strap and hooking it, wrapping it around, then he puts the guitar into the case and he flips the snaps on the case and says, \u2018Here, I want you to have this, take good care of it.\u2019 And I just started sobbing. He was giving me the guitar that he always used on the show. I felt like, \u2018I can\u2019t be in this movie, I didn\u2019t get my lines.\u2019 That was very tough.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tContrary to the predictions of many doctors, Zevon lived another 11 months after his <em>Letterman<\/em> appearance, long enough to witness the birth of his grandchild and see <em>The Wind<\/em> get released to rapturous reviews.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOn this same night, Bob Dylan covered \u201cMutineer\u201d during a gig in St. Paul, Minnesota. He\u2019d been playing Zevon songs the entire month, sometimes playing three of them a night. His cover of \u201cMutineer\u201d appeared on <em>Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon<\/em>, a tribute album that came out in 2004. The title was taken from an offhand comment the singer made during his final Letterman appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/flashback-warren-zevon-says-goodbye-on-letterman-193719\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A grave injustice will finally be rectified on Saturday evening when Warren Zevon is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, even&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":50955,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}