Jimmy Visits Jazz Fest

NOLA.com reports that Jimmy Buffett swung by the New Orleans Jazz Fest on Friday, making a beeline for gumbo:

After parking his golf cart on the dirt track behind the Jazz & Heritage Stage, Buffett and a friend made a beeline for Food Area II. Once there, he walked right up to the Prejean’s Restaurant booth and ordered two cups of pheasant, quail and Andouille sausage gumbo.

His culinary choice shouldn’t come as a surprise: Buffett’s 1999 album “Beach House on the Moon” contained a song called, “I Will Play for Gumbo.”

And he could certainly afford the $7 price tag: When he performed at Jazz Fest in 2011, he made enough to buy about 80,000 servings.

His affection for New Orleans in general and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival specifically is well-documented. He performs every few years with his Coral Reefer Band. In 2012, he played an acoustic set as a last-minute fill-in for an ailing Eddie Vedder.

Buffett is one of the most popular acts in the contemporary era of Jazz Fest; tens of thousands of his Parrotheads fill the field in front of the Acura Stage whenever he plays. But on Friday, in a baseball cap, sunglasses, shorts and a white polo shirt, he was able to navigate the festival grounds anonymously. Shari Menard, who sold him the gumbo at the Prejean’s booth — and provided covers for the steaming Styrofoam cups of dark roux — had no idea who he was. “I was totally shocked,” she said, when later informed by a reporter.

Read the full story here.