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.

Even if you don’t know who Jesse Winchester is, as a Buffett fan you’ve likely heard at least one of his songs. In Buffett’s long career, he’s recorded six of Winchester’s songs: Rhumba Man, L’air De La Louisiane, Defying Gravity, Biloxi, Nothing But a Breeze, and I Wave Bye Bye. In the liner notes of the box set Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads, Buffett said “like a solid relief pitcher, Jesse Winchester is a source of songs I return to again and again. ”

Winchester died at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday morning after battling cancer. He was 69.

When Buffett played the concert for the Gulf Coast in 2010, Winchester joined Buffett on stage to sing “Rhumba Man,” “Mississippi You’re On My Mind,” and “Biloxi.”

A year after that, in 2011, Jesse was told he had esophageal cancer. He stopped in the middle of a tour and began radiation treatments, followed by surgery. Immediately, Buffett and Elvis Costello agreed that it would be a good idea to put together a tribute album as a show of support.

At Christmas of 2011 Buffett wrote to Jesse and told him the album was coming, a gift from a whole bunch of grateful musicians and songwriters to a master. Jesse expressed his gratitude and had some good news of his own. He had beat the odds – after treatment and surgery the doctors had told him he was cancer free.

Winchester’s cancer returned in February, this time in his bladder and was inoperable.

Download the tribute album Quiet About It at iTunes.

Read more about Jesse Winchester’s life here.

Sports radio personality Dan Patrick was interviewing Warren Buffett about his $1 billion March Madness challenge, when Jimmy called in to chat too.

It’s a fun discussion, with Jimmy even mentioning that he now has a ticket aboard Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceship.

BuffettWorld would like to wish Jimmy Buffett a very happy 67th birthday today!

Born December 25th, 1946 to James Delaney Buffett and Mary Loraine, Jimmy shares his birthday with Humphrey Bogart, Sir Isaac Newton, Barbara Mandrell, Sissy Spacek, and Karl Rove.

Happy birthday Jimmy and Merry Christmas everyone!

As you probably know, Jimmy Buffett has long had an affinity with flying and space. On his new album Songs From St. Somewhere is the song The Rocket That Grandpa Rode, written about an encounter with Neil Armstrong’s family on the day of the final space shuttle launch.

Neil’s son relayed the following about the meeting:

As recalled by Rick Armstrong, one of the moonwalker’s two sons, he and his children were seated in the very last row of the bus. As they were driven past the voluminous Vehicle Assembly Building, he remarked something along the lines of “that’s where the rocket that grandpa rode was put together.”

Hearing this, the man seated in front of Armstrong and his family turned around and replied, “That sounds like a good idea for a song,” Rick Armstrong recounted in an e-mail to collectSPACE.

The exchange led to introductions, and Jimmy Buffett met the Armstrongs.

Buffett remembers it similarly, as told during the Radio Margaritaville album preview special for Songs From St. Somewhere:

Behind us there was this quiet couple and a couple of kids sitting there with their iPads like kids on a bus ride with a bunch of boring adults saying “when we gonna get there dad?” Then the dad says when we get there we’re going to go to the museum, we’re gonna go look at the shuttle, then we’re going to go see the rocket that grandpa rode. And I went “that is some kind of statement. The rocket that grandpa rode.” I was thinking “who could this be?” I snuck a look back and on the nametag was ‘Armstrong.’ It wasn’t Neil. It was his son and grandson.

We went through the tour and saw the Atlas rocket on display and the Apollo rockets, and when we got off the bus I introduced myself and said “you know there aren’t many people who could say that line you said to your son. You may see that line again. Is that ok?” And he said “sure.” So I can’t wait for the Armstrong family to hear that song.

In the album special, Jimmy added “I’m going into space, by the way. Before I’m done here.”

Read the full lyrics to “The Rocket That Grandpa Rode” and what Jimmy had to say about the song during the album special here.