Relying mainly on interviews with friends, family, and fellow musicians, Kushins offers an honest, complete view of the life of this enigmatic musician from a multiplicity of angles ... While it follows chronological order and the interviews are extensive, Nothing's Bad Luck breaks away from the dry, matter-of-fact style of most biographies. Instead, it frames events in a way that add to Zevon's mystique ... Kushins has delivered a nuanced, in-depth, loving look at this complicated figure, one that helps cement him as one of the most complex and captivating musicians of our times.
Kushins is a fan, but he doesn't assume the reader is a fan. Nor is he any kind of connoisseur, measuring his knowledge against others and rating his own more substantial ... Kushins neither condescends to the reader nor annotates the songs to death, as if Zevon was Ezra Pound. On the contrary, it's refreshing to read about how some songs came to be without the clichés of artistic struggle and the baggage of meaning ... Kushin's writing is clear and serviceable, it hums along at a pleasant low idle. It's not overstuffed, but it could be leaner. There's a structural issue where he writes about something that is going to happen—a tour, a recording session—and then when the event comes along, he writes about it again in a way that always contains redundancies. And there are too many sections that end with one-sentence quasi cliffhanger sentences...out of character with the rest of the book. But he tells the story. There are illuminating details ... the book will have you pulling out records, or launching your streaming app of choice, and digging into Zevon's exceptional catalog.
In his first book, journalist Kushins relies on extensive documentation, including hundreds of interviews with Zevon's family, friends and colleagues. These give the reader an intimate, sometimes painful window into 'the conundrum of Warren Zevon.' Readers are advised to have Zevon's extensive catalogue queued up to accompany this absorbing, compelling biography.
Kushins ... has written a sympathetic but unflinching portrait of Zevon. His musical background enables him to write about Zevon’s art with authority and insight. But he does not spare the reader from the unpleasant aspects of Zevon’s alcohol- and drug-fueled behavior that placed tremendous strains on his relationships, many of which did not survive the assault ... Kushins is unsparing in his detailing of the many instances of Zevon’s excesses.
Nothing’s Bad Luck follows the format. It does what a biography of a rock star is supposed to do and what readers want. It’s also unique in part because there was no other singer/song writer/musician like Warren Zevon ... Moreover, there’s been no biographer like C. M. Kushins, a native New Yorker and a freelance journalist, who pours in this book his heart and soul, as well as his love for Zevon’s lyrics and his music. Nothing’s Bad Luck will drive Zevon fans back to his albums ... C. M. Kushins shows that Zevon was an original poet with a vivid imagination ...
Readers might make the effort to plunge into Kushins’ uncommonly empathetic biography of the man who wrote 'Send Lawyers, Guns and Money,' and much more, and who contributed to the great body of American folklore and legend.
Mr. Kushins...employs an unusual, compelling device to open Nothing’s Bad Luck ... This blending of the figurative and the literal is immediately intriguing. The structure of the rest of the book, however, conforms to standard music biography conventions ... That’s fine, just not especially inspired. Fortunately, stories of Zevon’s personal life and work make for interesting reading. The raw material throbs with wild energy ... If only Kushins’ prose reveled more in...tension and unpredictability. All too often, the presentation feels rote and cyclical ... Still Nothing’s Bad Luck does enough things well to make it worthy of recommendation, especially for those curious about why Zevon’s literary, melancholy and often darkly funny songs remain so compelling.
Kushins captures the essence of the brooding yet wickedly witty singer ... A straightforward account, including a comprehensive discography, of Zevon’s fascinating creative life cut short by mesothelioma when he was only 56.
In the first proper biography of Warren Zevon since his untimely death in 2003, Kushins crafts a thorough and unvarnished portrait of this legendary yet troubled musician ... Ex-wife Crystal Zevon published a forthright oral biography of Zevon in 2007...and Kushins interviewed many of the same sources for this new book. While the overall story of Zevon's life and career is given equal treatment in both works, Kushins's benefits from being a more objective overview ... An engaging and worthwhile read for Zevon's devoted fans.
With refreshing candor, journalist and musician Kushins traces the ups and downs of Warren Zevon’s incendiary life and music career in intimate detail ... Kushins’s energetic writing and his deep dive into Zevon’s life and music offers a rounded and complete portrait of an enigmatic musician.
