Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett (born December 25, 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi) is an American singer and songwriter, best known for his "island escapism" lifestyle and music including hits such as "Margaritaville." He has a rabid, but genial, cult following known as "Parrotheads." They call the youngest members "Parakeets."

Career

Buffett grew up in Mobile, Alabama, where he attended McGill-Toolen Catholic High School and first began playing guitar. He continued playing during his college years at Auburn University and the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1969. Later that year, he married his first wife, Margie Washichek, at Spring Hill College in Mobile. Buffett began his official musical career in Nashville during the late 1960s as a country artist, and recorded his first album, Down to Earth in 1970. He then moved to Key West and began establishing the easy-going beach bum persona for which he is known.

Buffett's second album was A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean , now acclaimed as his best though it achieved only moderate sales. Havana Daydreamin' appeared in 1976, followed by 1977's Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, which featured the breakthrough hit song, Margaritaville.

During the 1980s, Buffett made far more money off his tours than albums, and he became known as a popular concert draw. He released a series of albums during the following twenty years, primarily to his devoted audience, as well as branching into writing and merchandising of various kinds. Two of the more unusual albums were "Christmas Island", a collection of holiday songs and "Parakeets", a collection of Buffett songs sung by children and containing "cleaned-up" lyrics (like "a cold root beer" instead of "a cold draft beer")

In 2003, he partnered with Alan Jackson for the number one country hit "It's Five O'clock Somewhere," his first number one spot on the country charts.

Buffett released a new album called License to Chill on July 13 2004. The album sold 238,600 copies in its first week of release according to Nielsen SoundScan. Buffett topped the U.S. pop albums chart for the first time in his three-decade career.

Some longtime fans feel that Buffett has alienated them by abandoning his traditional Gulf and Western sound for a more commercial and thus mainstream act.

Buffett owns the "Margaritaville" and "Cheeseburger In Paradise" restaurants. He makes an estimated 30-40 million dollars a year between his restaurants, album sales, and tours.

Discography

Writing

Buffett's writing has placed him in good company. Jimmy has written three No. 1 best sellers. Tales From Margaritaville and Where Is Joe Merchant? both spent over seven months on the New York Times Best Seller fiction list. His book, A Pirate Looks At Fifty went straight to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller non-fiction list, making him the sixth author in that list's history to have reached #1 on both the fiction and non-fiction lists. The other five authors who have accomplished this are Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Styron, Irving Wallace and Dr. Seuss. He also co-wrote two children's books, Jolly Mon and Trouble Dolls with his eldest daughter Savannah Jane Buffett.

His latest book titled A Salty Piece of Land was released on November 30, 2004, and included a CD single of the same title.

Trivia

He is a regular visitor to the Caribbean island of Saint Barts and other islands where he gets inspiration for many of his songs and some of the characters in his books.

A pilot, Jimmy Buffett owns several planes including a Grumman HU-16 "Albatross". That plane is currently parked next to his Margaritaville restaurant in Orlando, Florida. Previously it could sometimes be seen on the ramp at Princess Juliana International Airport (IATA indentifier SXM ) in nearby Sint Maarten while he was is in the area.

Buffett has been instrumental in the work of the Save the Manatee Foundation.

He is a distant cousin to legendary investor Warren Buffett.

He harbors a well-known love for baseball, and has been part-owner in two minor league teams: the Fort Myers Miracle and the Madison Black Wolf . Buffett also made a cameo appearance in the movie Cobb.

While in Jamaica on January 16 1996, Buffett's plane was shot at by Jamaican police. The plane, named the "Hemisphere Dancer", had been carrying Buffett, U2's Bono, and Island Records producer Chris Blackwell. Police suspected it was smuggling drugs. No one was hurt although there were a few bullet holes in the plane. This event was memorialized in a Buffett song called "Jamaica Mistaica." Buffett now owns several restaurants in Jamaica, in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Negril, where the "Jamaica Mistaica" incident took place.

Buffett was hired to sing for the Tyco CEO at his party in Sardinia, Italy . The local news showed a video of him singing at the extravagant Roman toga party. Horatio Sanz impersonated Buffett on SNL after the incident, alleging he "smoked dope with Hulk Hogan."

External links

• Official Jimmy Buffett Web Site
• Launch's artist page on Buffett
• The IMDb entry on Buffett
• Great Chords Compilation