In the early '70s, not terribly long before becoming a proper "name" in his own right, Zevon toured with both Don and Phil Everly - not with The Everly Brothers but independently, as it was during a period when the sibling were taking a shot at solo careers - and for a brief period he also ended up staying at Phil's place. (Now there's a sitcom we'd like to see...) It was during that brief window when the eldest Everly provided the title to Zevon's signature song.

"I was living with him, because I was in one sort of trouble or another, and he told my wife (Crystal) and I we were welcome," Zevon recalled in a 1995 interview with Goldmine. "Well, they both said, 'You can move in with us,' Don in an apartment and Phil in his house, so we were staying in Phil's guest house. And he said, 'I'm working on this solo album. Why don't you guys write a song for me? Write a dance song. Like.. 'Werewolves Of London.' That's exactly what he said. I just said, 'O-kaayy...' And I was over at Roy Marinell's house, and Roy started playing the figure. And Waddy walked in and said, 'What are you guys doing?' And I said, 'We're doing the 'Werewolves of London.' And Waddy, without batting an eye, said, 'You mean, 'Aah-Ooh! Werewolves Of London'?' And we said, 'That's right.' And he sat down and we wrote it in 20 minutes. But it was entirely instigated by Philip."

The song's lyrical inspiration, meanwhile, came from Zevon attempting to pay tribute to a man who brought a great dear or fear and loathing into all our lives: as Uncut wrote in 2002, "Werewolves of London" was "a jaunty tune about lycanthropic mayhem intended as a homage to his hero and eventual friend, Hunter S. Thompson."