Since the blog is still small, I guess I can get away with posting this… It’s just the beginning of a long interview with Steve that didn’t make it into the book. Totally unedited… if there’s interest, I might post more later. BTW, there’s a photo from the ‘96 campaign he references here in the book. If I could figure out how to upload photos, I’d post one here… my son-in-law, Ben, got the book cover up for me… eventually, I’ll figure it all out. Ciao, Crystal
CZ: Steve, can you talk about how you met Warren?
SC: I met him in ’93 when I was running for Governor. Rather forlorn attempt for Governor, more of an issues campaign, but nevertheless, I was. In the summer of ’93 there was a Young Democrats convention in Memphis for the State of TN. but it just happened to be in Memphis, and Warren was playing a club called 616. The guy that owned 616 was a political friend of mine and he told me, ‘Listen, I’ll make you a deal. You can have all the young Democrats as your guests come to the show and I’ll put them up in the balcony. They’ll be your guests and you can introduce Warren, if he’ll let you.’ I wanted to do something for the Young Democrats while they were in town. So, in retrospect, I realize he probably hadn’t sold the upper deck and it was no loss to him. He got the kids in and they bought beer and he made money and it was good for everybody. But, I said ‘fine’ and started Xeroxing things about Warren because most of the Young Democrats didn’t know who Warren was, a few of them did, but most of them didn’t. 17 to 20 year old kids. So, I was promoting Warren, ‘you’ve got to come see Warren’, Werewolves of London or whatever. And, I went backstage and my friend, Bud Chitham, who ran 616, took me back to meet Warren. At the time, I think he had Duncan working with him, and I went back and we talked for a while. Just went back stage and I started talking to him and we had a lot in common from just age to certain experiences to being of the same era, coming through the 60’s and 70’s, being somewhat on the outside – iconoclastic – and whatever else we talked about, we had things in common. I’d lived in L.A. for a while and all kind of things. We just instantly found we liked each other and had some type of a bond there. So, he said, ‘go ahead and introduce me.’ So, I went out and introduced him, ‘Warren Zevon…’ or whatever. I don’t remember from that day, I don’t think he did, to be honest, come out and do the Werewolves with him… do the walking with the Queen… walking with Senator Steve or whatever. Anyway, he was going to Nashville two days later and he’d be there for two days. He was playing a club there, I think it was called 324, 326, something. I said, ‘I’ll be up there. I’ll see you.’ And, I went up and I came in and said ‘hello’ to him and he said, ‘introduce me for the second act’.
(call waiting)
So, I thought, whatever, fine. I went out and said, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, Warren Zevon’. And he came out and afterwards I asked if he wanted to have dinner. He said ‘sure’, so I took he and my girlfriend at the time and we went to a place called Sunset Grill and had dinner and talked and spent the time. We talked about different things. I discovered he detested Andrew Lloyd Webber, who unfortunately I liked and said some good things about having seen several Webber shows, but he just thought Andrew Lloyd Webber was terrible. In retrospect, I understand where he was coming from. Every show does kind of sound alike. But, he couldn’t stand him. He goes, ‘You like Andrew Lloyd Webber?’ I go, ‘Yeah, I do.’ He didn’t understand that at all. We just had dinner and talked and he said if I ever wanted him to play for a fund raiser when I’m running for office, he’d be happy to. That was nice. I drove him back to the Loews where he was staying. A kind of bi-product of that night, there was a girl there who apparently lived in Nashville who was hanging out, and the girl turned out to be my second cousin through marriage which I had never met, didn’t know, but she came up and we had the same aunt and uncle. She through the aunt’s side, me through the uncle’s side in Chicago. That was a weird thing. And that was it. Took him back to the hotel and that was it. Really, for the next couple years, occasionally I’d get a Christmas card and I sent him a few things about me, but not much. We didn’t really talk that much after that.
I think I went up to San Francisco one time and he was playing Sam’s Club. I thought, well, I’ll go by and see Warren. I’d just met him that one time, and I went by to see him and he was just as gracious as could be. He said, ‘come on downstairs.’ Went downstairs where the blue room was, whatever you want to call it… or green room. That’s what they call it. Wasn’t much of a green room. Went downstairs and talked to him about a bunch of stuff, whatever. Saw the show and he took off and went somewhere else.
Then, I ran for Congress in ’96, he’d sent me a Christmas card or two, and he’d sent me a copy of his album… Learning to Flinch… so I called him up in ’96 and said I was running for Congress. I guess I talked to Gloria Boyce, was that her name? I talked to Gloria and asked him to come out and do a show for me. To be honest, we hadn’t had that much contact and I was a little timid about even calling. But, running for Congress, I thought I did have a chance to win, which was again, it was a mistake, but I did have a chance, which I didn’t for Governor. And I called and asked if he could come out and play a concert for me and he said ‘sure’. Good. Great. And, from then on, we were in touch… with the exception of maybe one brief period of time when he had one of his common but hard-to-understand falling outs, well, he did have one with me for about maybe 5 or 6 months… from then on, starting when he came into Memphis, that was maybe September of ’96, we were on the phone at least every other day. Except when he was in Europe.
Filed by Crystal at 10:34 pm under Book, Book interview
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