Recently North Carolina passed into law a “religious freedom” bill that essentially legalizes discrimination against the LGBT community. Several corporations, sports leagues, and entertainers have criticized the legislation. Paypal canceled plans to expand its campus in Charlotte and Bruce Springsteen canceled a show in the state because of the law.

Jimmy Buffett has two shows scheduled in North Carolina later this month. He released a statement this morning criticizing the “stupid law” but saying that the shows will go on:

As a traveling musician for 40 years, I played many shows years ago, in many states where you could go to prison for 20 years for smoking a joint. It was a stupid law based on stupid assumptions. Time has fortunately reversed a lot of that way of thinking. But now another stupid law, based on stupid assumptions, has sprung up like kudzu in North Carolina, where we are scheduled to play shows next week in Raleigh and Charlotte.

North Carolina was there for me as a performer in the early days and I have always felt a loyalty to fans there that goes deep. Rightly so, a lot of people are reacting to the stupid law. I happen to believe that the majority of our fans in North Carolina feel the way I do about that law. I am lucky enough to have found a job in the business of fun. These shows were booked and sold out long before the governor signed that stupid law. I am not going to let stupidity or bigotry trump fun for my loyal fans this year. We will be playing in Raleigh and Charlotte next week.

That said, as for the future of shows in North Carolina, it would definitely depend on whether that stupid law is repealed. That is up to the good people of North Carolina and there are many, and I am confident that they will see that the right thing will be done. As Forrest said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

Fins Up,
Jimmy Buffett

The Mississippi State House has already passed a bill to name the Pascagoula beach after Jimmy Buffett, and now the State Senate has followed suit:

Now, a bill moving through the state legislature combines George’s love of Buffett and the beach. The measure would rename the three-mile stretch of sand in Pascagoula “Buffett Beach”.

City leaders say the move would put Pascagoula on the tourism map.

“I want them to Google “Buffett Beach” and for Pascagoula to pop up on the map, and for us to be on Google Earth and everybody say, ‘Oh man, we need to go check that out.’ That would be really exciting for us,” said Steinberger.

Many agree renaming the beach just blocks from Buffett’s childhood home would be a fitting tribute to a native son who never forgot his roots.

“I think it’d be awesome. I think it would be great for the town,” said Laurie Lambard of Pascagoula.

If the bill becomes law, the city hopes to hold the dedication ceremony on May 6, 2017. May 6 is “Jimmy Buffett Day” in Pascagoula, and also his parents’ wedding anniversary.

In an interview in Men’s Journal, Jimmy Buffett reminisces on his good friend, the late Jim Harrison.

On Sunday Jim Harrison, the brash, uncompromising author of more than 30 books passed away while writing at his cabin in Patagonia, Arizona. Lifelong friend Jimmy Buffett, who first met Harrison in the 1970s, remembers the good times.

On Hearing of His Death

The first thing that I did when I learned that he died, I went out and jumped on my paddleboard and paddled out to jump in the water — just started swimming around. I had to go jump in the water to try to make sense of it all. When something like that happens, you just start thinking about so much, because we did so much together, you know. You’re just hoping that you can remember the best things about somebody that good.

On the Making of the Documentary Tarpon

There are so many funny things we did that people never knew about. One time, we worked on this Tarpon movie together, a fishing documentary from the ‘70s. Basically, we had no fucking idea what we were doing at the time, starting with the script. [Director] Guy de la Valdene had all the money and sent a crew that was all French. I speak French now, but I didn’t at the time, so there was a huge communication issue. So we’re in the Keys and taking out boats with [poet] Richard Brautigan and [novelist] Tom McGuane. It really captured the Key West of the ‘70s. It’s sort of a treasure today.

But we didn’t really get paid for it. I wrote the music and Harrison was going to do the narration. And so, they said they’d give us a ticket and we could live at Guy’s family’s castle on the outskirts of Paris, and we’d work in town. So I told Guy, I said, “Don’t call me before you’re down to, like, six hours of footage, because I really can’t do anything until it’s down to that.” When we arrive, the house looks like a castle or something out of a movie, with a boat and everything. Jim had to go in earlier than us to work on narration, and came back out to the castle in the afternoon and he went, “Jesus Christ, you’re not going to believe this.” And I said, “What?” And he said, “Well they got it wrong, they don’t speak fucking English. They thought you said 60 hours!” And I went, “What?!” He said, “Yeah, they said, ‘Jimmy said call us when we’re down to 60 hours.’ ” And I went, “Holy shit.”

Read the full interview at Men’s Journal.

Jimmy Buffett and his wife Jane were once again spotted at the Vanity Fair Oscars party on Sunday:

photo AFP / Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez

The Buffetts attended last year and in 2013 too.

Just a few months after a bridge in Pascagoula was named for Jimmy Buffett, the Mississippi state House is working to name a stretch of beach after the native son:

Mississippi legislators are working to name a Gulf Coast beach for the native son who wrote and sang “Margaritaville.”

Representatives voted 119-1 on Monday to pass House Bill 886, which would designate a sandy stretch in Pascagoula as Buffett Beach.

The beach-naming bill moves to the state Senate for more debate.