In September 2003, Warren Zevon died in Los Angeles, closing a career that had spanned rock music, folk rock, blues rock, and hard rock. He had been born on January 24, 1947, in Chicago, and by the time of his death on September 7, 2003, he had worked as a singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, composer, and recording artist across several decades of American music.

Zevon attended McLane High School and Fairfax High School before establishing himself in the music world. He worked in English and took on multiple roles — performing, composing, and recording — that together defined his output as a musician. His work touched on rock music in several of its forms, from folk rock and blues rock through to hard rock, and he operated across all of those genres as both an instrumentalist and a vocalist.

Among his notable works are "Werewolves of London" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money," two songs that remain directly associated with his name. Both are credited to him as a songwriter and composer, and both represent the kind of work he produced as a recording artist. He was a United States citizen who built his catalog working in the English language, and those two songs are the most concrete anchors to his output that his recorded legacy provides.

Zevon died in Los Angeles on September 7, 2003, having been born in Chicago fifty-six years earlier. He had attended school in California, and it was in Los Angeles that his life ended. As a guitarist and pianist as well as a singer-songwriter, he brought multiple skills to his work as a recording artist and composer. "Werewolves of London" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money" stand as the two works most directly tied to his name in the record of what he made.