Not one to end a party early, Jimmy Buffett’s last words to his family at his home in New York were, “Have fun.”
Singer-songwriter, folk troubadour, and son of a son of a sailor, Buffett succumbed on Sept. 1 to an aggressive form of skin cancer. His legacy is vast: business success, environmental conservation, and a devoted fandom that embraced and lived Buffett’s vision of la dolce vita: a beach, a drink, and a song.
EX-HOUSE INTEL CHAIRMAN MIKE ROGERS LAUNCHES RUN FOR SENATE IN MICHIGAN
James William Buffett was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, though he would later suggest his true home was Key West, Florida, which he found years later after struggling as a songwriter in cities such as Nashville, Tennessee, and Chicago, Illinois. He picked up his first instrument, a trombone, in elementary school but learned to play the guitar as a freshman at Auburn University on the promise that the guitar was more attractive to women.
The guitar was so successful, Buffett ultimately failed out of Auburn to pursue music part time while attending community college and working in Gulf Coast shipyards. After school, he played for tourists in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Nashville, and eventually, tired of failing to catch the eye of music bigwigs in Music City, took up a friend’s offer to crash on a sofa in Key West, where he played for drinks, partied with Truman Capote, and met his second wife, Jane Slagsvol, with whom Buffett would share a nearly 50-year marriage.
Beginning with his first album, recorded in Key West, Buffett became one of the bestselling singer-songwriters of all time, selling about 20 million albums. At the time of his death, Buffett was working on his 31st record, and his last live performance, in early 2023, capped off 47 years of touring, beginning as the opening act for the Eagles in the late 1970s.
His signature hit, “Margaritaville,” reportedly written while Buffett was sitting in traffic on the seven-mile bridge out to his Florida island home after a night at an Austin, Texas, taco joint, is now in the Grammy Hall of Fame and spawned a massive corporate juggernaut; Buffett’s net worth upon his death is estimated to be $1 billion.
Buffett was, of course, not just a singer, though his “Big 8” songs with the Coral Reefer Band — “Come Monday,” “Volcano,” “Fins,” “A Pirate Looks at Forty,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Why Don’t We Get Drunk (And Screw),” and “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” in addition to “Margaritaville” — are iconic. By the time of his death, Buffett had dabbled in everything from beer to Broadway, amassing a Margaritaville empire that now includes restaurants, resorts, retirement villages, signature spirits, a casino, a radio station, a line of blenders, and a record company, as well as a line of cannabis (though Buffett maintained that he’d quit smoking marijuana in 2017) and a cruise ship. The Margaritaville parent corporation drew in $2.2 billion in revenue in 2022 alone.
He spent much of his earned wealth doing good: Buffett founded Save the Manatees and was a keen environmentalist, often lobbying for endangered species and bankrolling efforts to improve habitats in his adopted home of Florida. He played benefit concerts, and in 2010, after an earthquake devastated Haiti, Buffett flew supplies to the island in his seaplane.
Buffett is, perhaps most importantly, the founder and decorator of a rich, imaginary-but-legendary paradise, which has drawn, over the last five decades, a legion of fans who enthusiastically embrace Buffett’s vision of a more peaceful, warmer, beachier world. There are now millions of “Parrotheads” worldwide, living life through the pirates, sailors, and island characters that color Buffett’s songs, characters that Buffett often claimed to have encountered firsthand, given that he lived precisely the lifestyle he wrote about. “Come Monday” was about his blossoming romance with his then-girlfriend Jane. The “One Particular Harbor” is in French Micronesia. The “Cheeseburger in Paradise” was eaten at a bar in Key West. And Buffett lived through his own “Jamaica Mistaica” when Jamaican authorities, mistaking him for a drug runner, shot at Buffett’s seaplane as he and U2 musician Bono tried to land near the island on the hunt for jerk chicken.
Buffett died “surrounded by his family, friends, music, and dogs,” according to a short statement released by his family. He leaves behind his wife, Jane, two daughters, Savannah and Sarah Delaney, and son Cameron.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Emily Zanotti is a writer and editor living in Nashville, Tennessee.
