Warren Zevon: 10 Years Gone

10 years ago this week, Warren Zevon – the bespectacled, piano-bashing cynic of L.A.’s late-’70s Gomorrah – departed this world. During his heyday, he was the oddball on David Geffen’s Asylum label, somehow managing to be both part of the laid-back California scene and be one step outside it. His albums – from the masterful Warren Zevon (1976) to his swansong The Wind (2003) – are full of cinematic songs and savage stories delivered with the irreverent wit of Randy Newman and the melodic chops of Jackson Browne. Zevon's canny ability to marry the serious with humorous was evident outside his music too. Dying of cancer, Zevon appeared on The Late Show hosted by his friend David Letterman. When asked if he had gained any knowledge by staring death in the face, Zevon cracked a sneaky smile and simply said: “Enjoy every sandwich.”

Watch him live on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1976, in the video for his one and only hit, Werewolves Of London (1978), appearing on The Larry Sanders Show in 1993 and in his final interview with Letterman in 2002: