Rejoice parrotheads! After banning tailgating last year, Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia reversed course and announced today that they are lifting the ban:

Jiffy Lube Live, which is owned and operated by concert promotion colossus Live Nation, says that the decision was inspired by their patrons’ unhappiness over the ban.

“Fan feedback is critical to help improve our operations and create the best possible concert experience for our fans,” Matt Rogers, the venue’s general manager, said in an email. “The decision was made after listening to our fans and doing our due diligence.”

Rogers says that meant researching the tailgating policies of more than 30 sports arenas and concert venues across the country to find out what works and what doesn’t.

“With the new policy and guidelines, we want nothing more than to work with our fans to create a safe and friendly “pre-concert” environment,” he said.

So here are the rules. Grills will now be allowed. Tents and canopies will still be forbidden. Driving aisles must be kept clear of chairs and tables. And members of the Prince William County police, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and Jiffy Lube Live staff will continue to enforce a ban on open alcohol containers in the parking lot. Underage drinking will also be targeted aggressively, Rogers said.

“Jiffy Lube [Live] coordinated with us in making this policy change and we feel that their operational plan will create a safe and manageable environment in the parking lot,” said Maj. Stephen Hudson, Assistant Chief of the Prince William County police in an email.

Jiffy Lube Live (formerly Nissan Pavilion) outside of Washington, DC has been an annual stop for Jimmy Buffett for years.

American Songwriter has an interesting interview with Coral Reefer and reining CMA Musician of the Year Mac McAnally:

You’re known as a great storyteller, both lyrically and in your live show. Was there any particular writer or performer coming up that inspired you to be the storyteller you’re known as today?

I’m sure that I was a sponge and was influenced by almost everything I heard musically. But the storytelling probably comes from two places. First the church. My mother was the piano player at church when I was young and we were always going to Baptist “association,” which was like a preaching competition with endless sermons over a two or three day period. I was very young and probably would have chosen to be elsewhere but I did take note of what did and did not work for the men, and a woman or two, in the pulpit. Secondly and probably a more direct influence were the old guys who sat on the “gossip bench” at the courthouse downtown and whittled and told stories. I was told not to hang around these guys and sat at their feet and listened to them for a big chunk of my early time. The new live CD is a response to years of being asked to record the stories that accompany the songs.

You’ve had cuts by Alabama, Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett and many others. Do you have a song that was particularly hard to let go of?

When I wrote “Back Where I Come From” I thought that it was a hit, but also that it said something that I personally wanted to be the first to say. As a publisher I knew I was devaluing the copyright by singing it myself instead of passing it onto better and bigger singers, but I did it anyway. One of many of my classically bad business choices, but thankfully Kenny Chesney was kind enough to bail me out and cut it again. Thanks again KC.

Read the full interview here.

And be sure to pick up Mac’s new album Live in Muscle Shoals.

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It seems like we just did this a short time ago… but nope, another year has come and gone and this one saw some big stories in Margaritaville.

Here’s our annual roundup of the biggest Buffett headlines of the year.

January

• Tour dates began to leak out and get confirmed, earlier than in years past
• Buffett plays Australia for the first time in several years
• After a nasty fall off the stage in Australia, Buffett is hospitalized for head and arm injuries
• Jimmy cancels show in New Zealand to focus on recovering

February

• Buffett’s featured on the 2011 New Orleans Jazz Fest poster
• Kenny Chesney joins Jimmy at the Everglades Benefit show in Palm Beach, FL
• Charlie Sheen melts down in front of the world, but manages to mention “A Pirate Looks at Forty” in an interview: “Rock bottom? That’s a fishing term. Doesn’t Jimmy Buffett sing ‘down to rock bottom again?’ Love me some Jimmy Buffett. Yeah man, pirate looks at forty.”

March

• Mac McAnally is honored with the 2011 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts
• Most of the spring and summer tour is confirmed in March with tickets going on sale later in the month
• Buffett trademarks “Tiger Blood” for a vodka energy drink. To date, nothing has been done with the trademark
• At the annual SXSW technology festival, Jimmy helps demo StageIt, a service that lets artists broadcast live shows from anywhere and earn money from the viewers.
• Jimmy performs at the Key West wedding of Fred Troxel and Rita Brown
• Lance Armstrong tweets as Jimmy plays an impromptu show at Baz Bar on St. Barths.

April

• Final approval is received for a Margaritaville Casino in Biloxi
• The Welcome to Fin Land Tour kicked off April 16th in Tampa
• April 16th was officially designated Jimmy Buffett Day in Florida, per a resolution in the state house
• Jimmy plays a fundraiser at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum

May

• Buffett returns to the iconic New Orleans Jazz Fest
• Landshark Bar & Grill opens in Myrtle Beach
• The annual Frisco, TX show is capped off with “Livingston’s Gone To Texas,” played for the first time in over 30 years
• Jimmy reveals that he’s come across some unreleased tunes from the 60’s and 70’s and will put them out in a project dubbed “Buried Treasure”
• Kenny Chesney makes a surprise appearance at Jimmy’s Nashville show on May 28th. They played “Come Monday” and “Back Where I Come From” together

June

• In early June, Buffett attended the 40th annual NYPD Foundation Gala
• Jimmy and the Zac Brown Band win CMT Performance of the Year at the CMT Music Awards for their performance of Margaritaville on CMT Crossroads
• The duet “Knee Deep” with the Zac Brown Band is released to country radio and a music video is shot in Mexico

July

• Buffett attends the final space shuttle launch and plays a private show for shuttle workers
• Savannah Jane Buffett, Jimmy’s daughter, launches clothing line
• Jimmy plays Cuyahoga Falls outside of Cleveland for the first time since 2004

August

• “Knee Deep” becomes Jimmy’s second number one song when it reaches the top of the chart in early August
• Jimmy throws a 60th birthday party for his wife Jane. Guests included Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart, Richard Gere, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, and James Taylor
• The Bristow, Virginia concert is postponed due to Hurricane Irene
• Jimmy opens for Ilo at his Stephen Talkhouse show on Long Island. Bill and Hillary Clinton were in attendance
• With Hurricane Irene still whipping up waves, Jimmy rescued a surfer off Montauk

September

• A line of Margaritaville Coffee is announced
• Jimmy releases a live version of the Volcano album, with all tracks recorded at shows from the Welcome to Fin Land Tour
• It’s become an annual tradition… Buffett plays a show in Paris in late September

October

• A 15,000 sq. ft. Margaritaville gaming area opens in the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas
• The Las Vegas Margaritaville breaks the record for the world’s largest margarita
• Buffett performs in Phoenix for the first time since 2009 and Denver for the first time since 2004

November

• Jimmy performs at Meeting of the Minds in Key West for the first time in several years
• Margaritaville Online enters beta testing with several thousand parrothead testers invited to start playing the game before it’s released to the general public
• Mac McAnally wins CMA Musician of the Year for the fourth year in a row
• Another Margaritaville Casino wins approval, this one in Bossier City, Louisiana
• Jimmy Buffett guest stars on an episode of the CBS show Hawaii Five-0

December

• Along with his sisters, Jimmy donates a boat to the University of Southern Mississippi
• Jimmy and Jane are honored with the 2011 Child Advocacy Award at the annual Child Mind Gala
• Longtime Coral Reefer Ralph MacDonald dies after a battle with cancer
• On December 25th, Jimmy celebrated his 65th birthday

What do you think was the biggest Buffett story of 2011?

And now that you’ve read through this year, take a trip down memory lane and view our Year in Reviews from previous years:

• 2010
• 2009
• 2008

Jimmy Buffett made an impromptu appearance at Baz Bar on St. Barths Monday night, playing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

photo by @tgeisenheimer

Watch a video of the performance from stbartslive.com