Warren Zevon is the final 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee who made it in via the traditional balloting process (more on the rest tomorrow).

Zevon is best known (to me, anyway) as the writer/performer of the excellent ‘Werewolves of London.’ It’s hard for me to hear this song without picturing Tom Cruise peacocking around a pool table in Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money.

That song appeared on Zevon’s third album, 1978’s Excitable Boy, by far his most successful release. That was one of 12 albums he released between 1970 and his death in 2003. Zevon’s final album, 2003’s The Wind, was recorded after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and released just two weeks before he died.

Though he wasn’t a major hitmaker, Zevon had a big impact on the California music scene in the 70s. He collaborated with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac, and the Eagles. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie appear on ‘Werewolves of London’ while Ronstadt recorded several of his songs on her own albums.

Zevon is a great example of an artist who made it into the Rock Hall not because of major success or outsized influence, but because he was a beloved and respected artist among the community of songwriters and performers who came up with him.

Reading about his life and music makes me want to dive into his catalog and appreciate him for more than just this one iconic track.