Buffett Makes Surprise Appearance at Mac McAnally Show

Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally had a show in Portsmouth, Rhode Island on Sunday evening and Jimmy Buffett made a surprise appearance where he performed six songs.

From the Providence Journal

The singer-songwriter made an impromptu appearance at Sunset Cove on Sunday afternoon, bringing the crowd to its feet screaming when he appeared on stage.

A video of the concert posted to Facebook shows Mac McAnally, the advertised headliner for the show and longtime member of The Coral Reefer Band, in the middle of singing “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere,” and when he gets to the lyric “At a moment like this, I can’t help but wonder what would Jimmy Buffett do,” Buffett himself showed up with an answer.

“How ‘bout I play it for you,” he said, picking up a guitar.

At the end of the song, Buffett, who was briefly hospitalized in Boston in May and had to postpone a show, said “well, it is good to see an audience, let me tell you that.”

Buffett went on to play for about 45 minutes, according to Arsenault.

Why Jimmy Buffett was there
At this point, you’ve got to be wondering how they pulled whole thing off. Here’s the story.

McAnally is a friend of Sunset Cove owner Mike MacFarlane. He played at Sunset Cove back in 2019, and over a February lunch in Key West, MacFarlane asked if McAnally would come back to play at Sunset Cove again this summer.

The stars aligned so McAnally could come on July 2, which also just so happened to be MacFarlane’s 50th birthday.

In addition to “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” Buffett played six songs on stage. One of them was “A Pirate Looks at Forty” – which he changed to 50 in a nod to MacFarlane’s big celebration.