The Killers Pay Tribute to Warren Zevon at Rock Hall Ceremony Using One of Zevon’s Own Guitars

The Killers paid tribute to newly-inducted Rock Hall member Warren Zevon at the 2025 induction ceremony.

Zevon was inducted by his friend, David Letterman, who described him as a "classic rock and roll" songwriter. "Oh my God, I'm surrounded by Killers, and they've captured Waddy Wachtel!" Letterman joked just before the Killers launched into "Lawyers, Guns and Money."

The Killers performed with Wachtel, a longtime collaborator of Zevon's. During the set, Killers guitarist Dave Keunig used the guitar Zevon had given to Letterman before his passing from lung cancer in 2003.

Warren Zevon's Long Path to the Rock Hall

By the time Zevon passed away, he had already been eligible for the Rock Hall for nine years. He was never nominated until 2023.

"I've respected the choices that they've made," Zevon's son, Jordan, who was in attendance for this year's induction, said of the nominating committee, back then. "It's been such a broad range of people that I kind of didn't think it would happen. I thought he was worthy of it, but it seemed like there were so many boxes they were trying to check that getting around to Dad might not have happened. It was such a grassroots thing, people rooting for it, that I was excited for them."

He continued: "There's this misconception that Dad wouldn't have cared. I think maybe, to be blunt, the later records didn't sell a million copies — that didn't mean he hated the industry. It just meant he was on the fringes because he wasn't Britney Spears. But he wouldn't have been, like, 'Who cares about that?' It'd be like, 'Hey, Johnny, hey, Ariel, guess what?' It would have been, 'It's a big deal.' It was his business. He wanted to be good at it. You want to win, you know, best plumber of the year!"