Wadi Wachtel cut his teeth as an LA session player years before becoming the go-to guitarist for artists like Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, and Keith Richards. In 1972 he was hired there to play guitar for the Everly Brothers. stories we can tell Release an album and then go on tour.
He was hired by Warren Zevon, the keyboardist and guitarist behind such 1970s hits as “Werewolf of London,” “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” and Linda Ronstadt’s “Hasten Down the Wind.” At the time, Zevon was just a struggling session player. As Wachtel explains, he and Zevon didn’t hit it off at first.
“We quickly became like water and oil,” he says.
In addition to working on songs for the album, Wachtel rehearsed the Everlys’ set list in preparation for the tour. Wachtel knew the songs, but Zevon turned out to be the taskmaster.
I was sitting there thinking, this guy already doesn’t like me, and he’s not playing right. This doesn’t work at all. ”
—Wadi Quail
“He said, ‘We’ll play this song, so you play it.’ And I said, ‘You can skip that step and we’ll just play it, because I know these songs.'” He said, ‘No, we’ll play it exactly as we say.’
When they reached “Walk Right Back,” the Everlys’ 1961 number 7 was hot 100 When it hit, Wachtel noticed that Zevon was not voicing the piano chords correctly.
“I’m sitting there thinking, This person already doesn’t like me and isn’t playing right. There’s something wrong with the vocalizations he’s making on the piano. This doesn’t work at all.
“So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it this way, but you’re doing it wrong.’ And the Everlys’ longtime bassist tells Warren, ‘He’s right.’
“We’ve always been like that with each other.”
Despite some initial problems, Wachtel said he was encouraged by working with Zevon.
“Every night we would get together after the show and go to someone’s hotel room and play and sing all night. It was so great and I learned so much about the blues from Warren. Aside from his great songwriting, he also knew a lot about the blues and would play Robert Johnson songs and sing songs I had never heard.
“That was a real learning experience for me, when he said, ‘Oh yeah, this is what I wrote,’ and played me ‘Frank and Jesse James.'” The song would become a story-driven masterpiece that would lead to Zevon’s 1976 self-titled album. “And I thought, ‘Where did that come from?’
Before long, the Everlys began to wonder where their band went after each night’s show.
“One night, Phil Everly said, ‘What’s going on here at night? What are you guys doing?’ I said, ‘We’ve been playing all night.’ You should come.” ”
When I was a kid I saw them on TV and they were sitting on the floor singing country songs. ”
—Wadi Quail
Phil came one night, followed by Don the next day.
“The next thing you know, the Everly Brothers are sitting on the floor in your hotel room, and everyone’s drinking and smoking. You can’t see, the room is filled with smoke. And the Everly Brothers are singing in your hotel room.
“It was more than a dream come true. I admired them from the moment I saw them on TV as a kid. And there they were, sitting on the floor singing country songs.”
A few years later, in 1977, the guitarist and keyboardist reunited. exciting boyZevon’s 1978 breakthrough album. This time, however, the two were well into their careers and got along like old friends. In addition to playing guitar and synthesizers and providing backing and harmony vocals, Wachtel co-produced the album with Jackson Browne, a friend who supported Zevon’s career.
He also had a co-writing credit on the album’s big hit, “Werewolves of London,” on which he collaborated with Zevon and Fleetwood Mac’s rhythm tandem of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.
![Warren Zevon - The Werewolf of London (Official Music Video) [HD] - YouTube](https://yasbou.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/1776714879_795_The-next-thing-I-knew-the-Everly-Brothers-were-sitting.jpg)
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“Jackson brought me in to co-produce.” exciting boy“When I was working with Warren, we had this understanding,” Wachtel says. That was exactly my gig because I got to hear how the band should interpret his songs. I could hear how the song progressed.
“There were no written parts or anything. I played guitar, Warren played piano, Bob Glaub or Lee Sklar played bass. And on drums we had Russell Kunkel, Rick Marotta, Jeff Porcaro and Jim Keltner, so we used every drummer in town.”
“There was quite a bit of leeway.” exciting boy. I was able to try out some multiple tracks just by setting it up. For example, at the beginning of the solo in “Johnny Strikes Up the Band,” three different songs make up the melody, but the notes sound like they’re ringing together, something that wouldn’t be possible in a normal performance. So sometimes things like that happen.
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“A great moment was when we did ‘Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.’ The ending of that song was a specifically written section. I arrived at the studio with Russell Kunkel and Bob Glaub before Warren and said, ‘Don’t worry about the rest of the song.’ You can just read on.
Warren jumped off the piano bench and said: Oh, pay these guys double the money! They really know their business. ”
—Wadi Quail
“Let’s work on this ending now because we want to surprise Warren when we get to this ending. “Patty Hearst heard Roland’s Thompson gun go off and bought it.”
“So we learned that part and did it over and over again.”
When it came time to record with Zevon, the takes went off without a hitch. Zevon was impressed by the band’s successful completion of what he thought was their first attempt at a difficult ending.
“Warren jumped off the piano bench and said, ‘What?! Pay these guys double the money! They really know what they’re doing.'”
Obviously, Zevon knew about him. As Wachtel points out, the keyboardist was also a guitarist who entrusted his beloved Modulus Blackknife electric guitar to David Letterman shortly before his death in 2002, giving him a sense of where and how to use the instrument. The songs that particularly left an impression on me are: exciting boy Track “The Envoy”.
“Usually he would play the rhythm with me on the piano and me on the guitar,” Wachtel says. “On ‘The Envoy,’ Warren looked at me and said, ‘Can I play the guitar solo on this?’ I said, “Yes, of course.”
“And it’s great. It’s a really melodic, structured section. It’s beautiful.”
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