His little creative tool for art, he’s getting rid of it to get high. It’s the sadness of the verse in “ Carmelita,” about him selling his typewriter, You can’t really understand that until you’re like in your forties. The older you get, the more you identify with the depths of the human condition they write about, where you might not have understood the emotions as a younger, inexperienced person. With Zevon and Bukowski, it’s also like the writings of Jack Kerouac, where you grow up alongside the words, and the music. people would probably really enjoy having that moment. I like the idea that I’m not trying to make it all about me, representing the songs really well - L.A. I’d like to do what we’re doing tonight, maybe add another five songs, and do something at the Troubadour, maybe have a couple guests. Maybe we’ll release this if I don’t fuck it up too bad. We’re going to record tonight, a multitrack recording. Rebels & Renegades Fest Debuts With Cody Jinks, a Warren Zevon Tribute, and No Genres Allowedĭo you think you’d ever record an album of Zevon songs? But, for lyrical inspiration, I brought this book of Bukowski poems. In my mind, it was a very Zevon musical thing. As I was writing a song for it, I was trying to find lyrics for it. Well, we just finished the and I had this vision for the record to kind of go down the Linda Ronstadt route a little bit, musically and sonically. Brandi Carlile and I produced a Tanya Tucker record. It’s funny, because there’s an overlap here. Which is also what we love about Bukowski, where he can explain something in four words, which might take a different writer maybe two pages to do. Lyrically, he can chop a whole forest down with one word - it’s amazing. The chords and things, it’s all very simple, but it’s so artistic and biting. There’s a lot of overlaps with my own life, and I just have such an admiration for the simplicity of his songwriting. With Zevon, I didn’t realize it until I learned all these songs we were rehearsing, was how similar his vocal range and his style logically, the keys he’s choosing, is very much a lot like myself…. What really surprised you in diving deep into Zevon musically? Also, I’d like to add there are two camps with Zevon - those who are obsessed with him, and those who have yet to listen to him. There’s 15 Zevon songs - we’re covering a lot of stuff. ![]() I threw in three of my own songs because I know there’s going to be some confused people here who didn’t know. It’s just a one-off right now, but we’re filming with the intention of maybe bringing it to L.A. I’d been teaching myself a lot, so that’ll make this fun and exciting… So, we put together this band just for, and we’re calling it the Werewolves of Los Angeles. And I’d really like to woodshed at the piano so much more. I’ve been touring and playing piano with Brandi Carlile for two years in her band. ![]() And when my wife, Misty, said, I was like, “You know what? That’s exactly what I’m looking to do.” I just had been playing the self-titled Zevon record, and it had become such a huge part of me over the last three or four years. And I was going through this period of really getting into Linda Ronstadt, Peter Asher, all this L.A. But, in the last four years, I went really deep into his whole catalog. We caught up with Jennings - who recently oversaw the release of a new sneaker dedicated to his father Waylon Jennings - before he took his seat behind the keyboard to talk all things Zevon.įor a lot of folks, myself included, Zevon is a musical god. Among the highlights: a rousing take on Zevon’s 1978 tale of desperation, “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” which premieres on Rolling Stone. to Jennings.ĭuring last week’s inaugural Rebels & Renegades Music Festival in Monterey, six hours north of Jennings’ home, he indulged his affinity for Zevon, putting together a band - the Werewolves of Los Angeles - to play a set devoted to the eccentric songwriter who died from cancer in 2003. He can be alternately fueled by the literary madness of Charles Bukowski and the musical explorations of Warren Zevon, two characters who represent the many layers of L.A. And it’s those figures that inspire Jennings’ creativity, both onstage and in the studio. The City of Angels remains an endless well of unique, once-in-a-lifetime characters - whether glorious or depraved, righteous or demonic - for the Grammy-winning producer. At age 43, Shooter Jennings has called Los Angeles home for over half of his life.
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