For more than half a century, Jimmy Buffett made people happy.
It’s almost impossible to listen to one of Buffett’s songs and not end up with a smile on your face; you want to sing along, to join the fun.
At his concerts (as many as 250 a year), people did just that, shouting out the refrains (“salt, salt, salt”) and reciting the well-memorized lyrics. They not only liked Jimmy Buffett’s music, they wanted to join Jimmy Buffett’s life. He was authentic, the real thing. He led the life his Parrotheads dreamed about.
And why not? Jimmy Buffett seemed to have it all – the boats (lots of boats), the planes (ditto), the houses (one more time), even the friends. Jimmy Buffett was friends with legendary investor Warren Buffett (no relation) and he invested, and reinvested, in Warren’s Berkshire Hathaway. Jimmy also took Warren’s financial advice about his own business, eventually building a financial empire that included music, stores, resorts and merchandise of all shapes and flavors (Margaritaville Jammin’ Jerk Shrimp, Margaritaville Margarita Mix, LandShark lager). Not long ago, Forbes put Jimmy Buffett’s net worth at about one billion dollars.
Above all, Jimmy Buffet had his family. He met Jane Slagsvol when he was playing for drinks at the Chart Room Bar in Key West in 1972; she was visiting on spring break from the University of South Carolina. They were married in 1977 and the Eagles played at their wedding. (Buffett had been the opening act at Eagles’ concerts there.)
Over the years, they had two daughters and a son. When Buffett died last week from an aggressive form of skin cancer, they all were with him at their home in Sag Harbor, New York, along with the family’s six dogs. He was 76.
Jimmy Buffett was born on Christmas day in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was raised in Mobile, Alabama. Both his parents had professional jobs at the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company there. Buffett was drawn to the water (he loved to surf) and to boats; his grandfather was a sailing ship captain from Newfoundland who moved to the U.S. and taught young Jimmy celestial navigation. (Buffett later wrote, “I’m just a son of a son of a sailor. The sea’s in my veins, my tradition remains. I’m just glad I don’t live in a trailer.”)
Buffett started college at Auburn, but that didn’t work out. He then headed to the University of Southern Mississippi and learned to play the guitar when he realized that a fraternity brother who played well ended up with all the girls. Buffett graduated in 1969 and moved to New Orleans, playing in the French Quarter six nights a week.
Wanting to learn the music business, he moved to Nashville after a year, wrote for Billboard magazine, and recorded his first album, “Down To Earth.” It sold 324 copies.
By 1971, Buffett was living with a musician friend in Miami’s Coconut Grove, when they decided, on a whim, to go down to Key West. Buffett liked it so much he settled there. Buffett recorded his first album “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean” (he had a life-long fondness for wordplay) two years later and used the proceeds to buy his first boat. When he accountant protested, Buffett replied that he had no idea how long this music thing would last, and if he ran into financial difficulty he could always live on the boat.
In 1975, Buffett formed his Coral Reefer Band, and two years later recorded the hit album “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” with the life-changing hit “Margaritaville.” Buffett says he wrote it in six minutes.
But the sudden fame changed Key West; the idea of Margaritaville drew tourists. Key West was no longer a laid-back, fishing and drug-running little town. In “A Pirate Looks at Forty,” he sang, “I’ve done a bit of smuggling and I’ve run my share of grass.”
Buffett cleaned up his act and moved from Key West, leasing his apartment to Hunter Thompson, to Aspen and then to St. Barts; he ended up having houses there and in Palm Beach and Sag Harbor and New York.
And he became a serial boat owner. Over the years, the boats included a Cheoy Lee 33 sailboat named Euphoria, a 50-foot Pacific Seacraft named Drifter, a Herreshoff Alerion, a Sparkman & Stephens Morris 36, a Delta 124-foot motoryacht, a 50-foot motorsailer designed by Ted Fontaine, and a 42-foot Rybovich fishing boat. Just a few years ago Buffett built a custom 42-foot power cat, a collaboration of Freeman and Merritt builders. (He named it Mango, after his song, “Last Mango in Paris.”)
At one point, Buffett also had a Nordhavn 62 (pictured). On the company’s website, Dan Streech, the Nordhavn president, wrote a tribute to Buffett, saying, “He showed us how to lead a lifestyle of fun and adventure and music, embodying everything the boating lifestyle is all about.” Streech said that in the ‘80s and ‘90s he would have Jimmy Buffett parties at his house and then everyone would drive to a Buffett concert together.
Streech wrote that in 1998 Buffett appeared at the Nordhavn office and bought a Nordhavn 62, christening it Continental Drifter. Then Streech and Nordhavn salesman Larry Gieselman spent two days on the boat with Buffett in Florida. “They were two days I will never forget,” Streech said.
Over the years, Buffett also owned a fleet of planes, flying his own Dassault Falcon 900 jet to concerts. But he also had a Cessna Citation and a Grumman Albatross, among others. On August 25, 1994, he crashed his Grumman Widgeon seaplane taking off from Madaket Harbor in Nantucket. He swam back to shore with minor injuries.
As he got older, Buffett would occasionally just show up unannounced at a music venue. Not long ago he just appeared at the Margaritaville bar he had opened in Key West in the mid-’80s and played for three-and-half hours, telling stories between songs. The audience loved it. Buffett played his last gig in Key West in February.
Read more at http://jimmybuffett.com and turn up the volume and listen to the video below:
