HOME NEWS TOUR
BIOGRAPHY AVIATION INCIDENTS CONTACT JIMMY
ALBUMS SONGS CHART HISTORY TRIBUTE BANDS
SET LISTS FORUM ABOUT CONTACT ☰

Sign up for our newsletter to get Tour Dates and News in your inbox!

Tributes Pour in for Jimmy

September 5th, 2023

Since news of Jimmy’s death on Friday, tributes from other artists, musicians, celebrities, and politicians have been pouring in.

Read through the remembrances below:

Tagged in Personal/Family, Related Artists

Buffett Anonymously Donated Two Airplanes Last Year to Alabama Museum

September 4th, 2023

In 2022, Jimmy Buffett made an anonymous donation of two of his airplanes to the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.

USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park is thankful to have received a generous donation of two aircraft made by the legendary singer and Mobile native, Jimmy Buffett. When the aircraft first arrived at the park, in 2022, Buffett wished to remain an anonymous donor. As the world mourns his passing, we are pleased to finally be able to share his generous contributions to the park. The Grumman Goose and Boeing Stearman are both on display in the Medal of Honor Aircraft Pavilion. Visitors will see a wreath and an iconic Hawaiian-styled shirt that has been placed by the Grumman Goose in honor of Buffett.

From WKRG:

Park Officials say Buffett’s camp contacted the Battleship Park Foundation in 2022 about donating the planes anonymously. The planes shipped in pieces and reassembled at the Medal of Honor Pavillion. They were publicly displayed while the donor remained private. It was a tough secret to keep.

“Now, the folks involved here, as we’re doing this project to not just say proudly, yes, guess what we have… Jimmy Buffett’s planes!” said Chairman of the USS Alabama Commission Terry Ankerson. He also went to school with Buffett at McGill-Toolen.

“He’ll always be part of Mobile. And this is one of those steps where Jimmy Buffett is part of Battleship Park,” said Ankerson. Officials with Battleship Memorial Park managed to keep Jimmy Buffett’s name under wraps for more than a year. They had planned on making a public announcement earlier this year. They say Buffett kept delaying it until time ran out. In retrospect, they realized the delays were due to Buffett’s declining health.

Read more about Jimmy and his passion for flying here.

You can see the Stearman in the music video for “Trip Around the Sun,” a duet with Martina McBride:

Tagged in Aviation, Personal/Family

Buffett’s Cause of Death Revealed to be Skin Cancer

September 4th, 2023

In a full statement on his website, it has been revealed that Jimmy Buffett died after fighting Merkel Cell Skin Cancer for four years.

Merkel Cell Skin Cancer is a rare type of skin cancer that usually appears as a flesh-colored or bluish-red nodule, according to the Mayo Clinic. Merkel cell carcinoma tends to grow fast and can spread quickly to other parts of the body.

The full statement:

The beloved singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett passed away at his home in Sag Harbor, Long Island on Friday September 1, 2023 surrounded by family and friends. Buffett, 76, had been fighting Merkel Cell Skin Cancer for four years. He continued to perform during treatment, playing his last show, a surprise appearance in Rhode Island, in early July.

With a recording career that spanned more than fifty years and included hits such as “Margaritaville,” “Come Monday,” and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” Buffett was one of the most successful performers in popular music. He filled arenas with fans who called themselves “Parrot Heads,” and popularized a signature blend of folk, country and Caribbean music with lyrics that often reflected Buffett’s world travels. A pilot and a sailor, Buffett wrote songs about his plane being shot at by Jamaican police (“Jamaica Mistaica”), getting lost in the Sahara Desert (“Buffet Hotel”) and smugglers he had known around the Florida Gulf Coast (“A Pirate Looks at 40”).

Although he was best known for upbeat party songs (others include “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and “Fins”) Buffett first achieved notoriety for thoughtful ballads that showed the influence of Texas songwriters such as Jerry Jeff Walker and Canadian Gordon Lightfoot.

Bob Dylan praised lesser-known Buffett compositions “He Went to Paris” and “Death of an Unpopular Poet” – songs that reflected the observational, storytelling skills Buffett developed in his early career as a journalist for Billboard magazine.

Buffett had a second career as a successful author. He was one of a handful of writers who had number one best-sellers on both the fiction and non-fiction lists of the New York Times Book Review.

He had a third career as an entrepreneur, building a diversified lifestyle brand business, including Margaritaville hotels, restaurants, and retirement communities, along with sidelines such as Land Shark beer. Buffett’s branding and business acumen made him one of the most financially successful musicians of all time.

James William Buffett was born on Christmas, 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi and grew up in Alabama. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1969. He credited early years playing and singing in the streets and bars of New Orleans with shaping his dedication to connecting with his audience and giving the customers a good show. Buffett had little patience with performers who took themselves too seriously. He liked to say that the job of singing for a living was descended from the profession of court jester.

Buffett is survived by his wife of 46 years, Jane (Slagsvol) Buffett, his daughters Savannah Jane (Joshua) and Sarah Delaney, his son Cameron Marley (Lara), his grandson Marley Ray and devoted pack of dogs Lola, Kingston, Pepper, Rosie, Ajax and Kody. Also survived by his Montana sister, Laurie Buffett McGuane (Tom), their children Heather Hume, Anne Buffett McGuane, Maggie McGuane and Thomas McGuane IV; his Alabama sister, Lucy Buffett and daughters Mara Delaney Buffett O’Dwyer and Melanie Leigh Buffett; and many more wonderful cousins, nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Jimmy Buffett’s Foundation Singing for Change, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute or MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Tagged in Personal/Family

Jimmy Buffett Passes Away at 76

September 2nd, 2023

Jimmy Buffett passed away on the evening of Friday, September 1st at the age of 76. According to a statement on his website, he died peacefully surrounded by his family and friends. He’s survived by his wife Jane, daughters Savannah and Sarah, and son Cameron.

Jimmy was hospitalized in September of last year and took the rest of the year off from touring. He was hospitalized again this Spring and was forced to cancel tour dates.

If you’d like to share your thoughts and memories about Jimmy, you can leave a comment on our Facebook page.

Update: TMZ reports that Buffett was diagnosed with skin cancer 4 years ago and died after it progressed into Lymphoma.

Tagged in Personal/Family

Jimmy Buffett and Tom McGuane Talk Key West in Telluride Film ‘All That Is Sacred’

September 1st, 2023

Jimmy Buffett and his brother-in-law Tom McGuane appear in a new film called ‘All That Is Sacred’ that is being shown at the Telluride Film Festival this week.

Did the Algonquin round table somehow spiritually relocate itself in the early 1970s to Key West, Florida? The idea that the small, remote island city was a hotbed for one of the last great counterculture arts scenes — particularly for prose writers, but also with some music mixed in — is the focus of a new short film about the Key West scene of 50 years ago, “All That Is Sacred.” The 34-minute movie, which stars the famous novelist Tom McGuane and writer-musician Jimmy Buffett, has its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend.

Read more at Variety.

Tagged in Movies, Personal/Family
« Previous Page — Next Page »