They were an odd pair of kindred spirits. The wise-cracking, deadpan king of late-night television, and the wild-man, iconoclastic rocker. Yet based on their mutual attraction to the absurd and ironic, David Letterman and Warren Zevon found an easy chemistry whenever Zevon appeared on Letterman’s show, which was quite often through the years.
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On October 30, 2002, with the shadow of his impending death looming, Zevon made one last appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman. And it made for one of the most memorable moments at the intersection of music and television, one that managed to be both uplifting and heartbreaking all at once.
Dave and Warren, the Early Years
David Letterman became infatuated with Warren Zevon’s music, ironically (there’s that irony again) as Zevon’s career star was starting to fall off the heights it reached with his late ’70s albums. Zevon first appeared as a musical guest in 1982. Letterman liked Zevon so much he would ask him to fill in as bandleader on several occasions when Paul Shaffer was off.
Those guest spots in the ’90s (a decade during which Letterman moved his show from NBC to CBS and took the prime 11:30 p.m. late-night TV spot) helped Zevon stay in the public eye at a time when his record sales cratered. Zevon even had Letterman do a humorous guest vocal on “Hit Somebody,” a hilarious tale of a hockey goon.
A few months after that song was released on the album My Ride’s Here, Zevon was diagnosed with terminal mesothelioma. He set out to record one more album with a host of rock-star fans helping him out. But he also wanted to make one more appearance on The Late Show with his old buddy.
Warren Takes Center Stage
To Letterman’s credit, he made sure Zevon would be honored in a way few other guests of his could boast. He devoted the entire episode the night before Halloween (fitting for the creator of “Werewolves of London”) to Zevon. No other guests would appear.
After opening the show with the usual monologue and Top-10 list, Letterman brought Zevon out. The two didn’t beat around the bush, but they also didn’t turn the show into a Barbara Walters cry-a-thon. It just came off like two old friends talking about the situation, with Zevon earning most of the laughs from his audience with his dry humor.
When asked by Letterman about some advice he might give to people based on what he’d learned from his tragic scenario, Zevon famously said they should “enjoy every sandwich.” The phrase would eventually be used as the title to a posthumous tribute album.
Play It All Night Long
Once the chat was over, Zevon headed over the join Paul Shaffer and the band to end the show with a kind of mini-concert. He started with the elegiac “Mutineer,” then swerved into the epic “Genius.” Except for the occasional vocal hiccup, it was difficult to locate any sickness in Zevon as he performed, especially when he closed out with “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,” one of Letterman’s favorite songs.
Letterman and Zevon embraced after the song, with Letterman repeating Zevon’s advice to “enjoy every sandwich” back to him. After the show, Letterman went to Zevon’s dressing room, something he didn’t do with other guests. Zevon gifted the host with a guitar, at which point Letterman burst into tears.
Warren Zevon managed to beat most predictions and live for almost another year, finally succumbing to his disease on September 7, 2003. That was long enough to see the release of The Wind, his final album. But for much of the world, the farewell he said on The Late Show was the one that truly hit the heart bone, especially because it took place in the presence of his most famous die-hard fan.
Photo by Barbara Nitke/CBS via Getty Images
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