I thought Zevon was talking about his music - he was kind of an ass and uncompromising about his music (said with great admiration for the man). It sounds to me like he's writing about being driven by his music and not feeling successful at it. And an argument could be made that he wasn't very successful, financially - he wrote songs that he knew were good ("perfection" - "Worked hard, but not for the money").
If the inspection booth can be likened to the studio(s) that wanted him to be a more profitable artist, then it might be that the next two lines are spoke by them ("you can believe what you want - that'll never change it" = "Warren,you can believe that it's okay to write great songs that aren't commercial successes, but it just isn't so" and "You'll have to come around eventually" = if you want to stay on our label and get paid, you'll have to write songs that are in the top 40.")
In that light, "the next best thing" that he's looking for would be songs that are written to make money (as opposed to the "best thing" - songs he'd been writing that were, and are, great, but never attained big-money status).
I thought Zevon was talking about his music - he was kind of an ass and uncompromising about his music (said with great admiration for the man). It sounds to me like he's writing about being driven by his music and not feeling successful at it. And an argument could be made that he wasn't very successful, financially - he wrote songs that he knew were good ("perfection" - "Worked hard, but not for the money").
If the inspection booth can be likened to the studio(s) that wanted him to be a more profitable artist, then it might be that the next two lines are spoke by them ("you can believe what you want - that'll never change it" = "Warren,you can believe that it's okay to write great songs that aren't commercial successes, but it just isn't so" and "You'll have to come around eventually" = if you want to stay on our label and get paid, you'll have to write songs that are in the top 40.")
In that light, "the next best thing" that he's looking for would be songs that are written to make money (as opposed to the "best thing" - songs he'd been writing that were, and are, great, but never attained big-money status).