Margaritaville Online, the social game from Jimmy Buffett that many of you have already been playing via the Buffett Beta Club, will be released to the general public on January 18th.

Along with the public release will come cross-platform support for iPhone and iPad. Up until now the game has only been playable through Facebook.

“The Margaritaville laidback state of mind is inherently social, and THQ (the game developer) has captured the spirit of that lifestyle in this game,” said Buffett. “With Margaritaville Online, fans across the globe can party together any time and any place.”

Developed by Exploding Barrel Games, the 3D open world features tropical environments and a full catalog of Buffett’s music. Players can create their own island resort, play mini-games and interact with characters from Buffett’s songs and literary works including Captain Tony and Joe Merchant. They’ll even be able to create their own band.

An ad in Sunday’s Dallas Morning News confirms that Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band will perform at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas (northern suburb of Dallas) on Saturday, May 22nd.

Tickets go on sale Monday, February 22nd at 10 am CT through TicketMaster.

There is usually a TicketMaster presale for the Frisco shows. If there is one, it’ll likely start mid-week and we’ll get you the password when we know it.

Find Frisco area hotels here.

Jimmy Buffett attended last Sunday’s NFC Championship game in New Orleans between the Saints and the Minnesota Vikings, but before the teams took the field he donned a Sean Payton hat and performed in the parking lot with the Creole String Beans:

Local Y’at jukebox band the Creole String Beans were playing a tailgate party last Sunday afternoon on the back of a beat-up flatbed truck for the Down Undas tailgating club. While the band was on a break, a car drove up, delivering New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival producer Quint Davis and Who Dat fan Jimmy Buffett to the party.

“They join the party, partake in beer, oysters, and revelry,” said Rob Savoy, the Creole String Beans’ bassist and national contract manager for JazzFest. “Buffett sees one of the guys hosting the party wearing one of those visors with the furry hair sticking out of the top that make you look like Sean Payton. He knows he has to have one. He asks Doc Macina (organizer and King of the Down Undas) for the hat. Doc says he’ll give it to him if he sings a song. Buffett tells him this is the best deal he’ll ever get in his life.”

Buffett climbed up onto the flatbed and discussed possible covers with the band. They settled on the Frankie Ford classic, “Sea Cruise.”

“He added special lyrics of ‘Who Dat’ and ‘Drew Brees,'” Savoy said. “Overall he rocked it, the crowd went wild and swelled to triple its original size. The official oyster shucker, Shukah Khan, offered him a raw oyster between verses. He borrowed a guitar and said, “‘Margaritaville’ in D.”

What was an intimate crowd of long-time Saints fans and friends swiftly swelled into a sea of people, all singing along to Buffett’s signature tune as cars whizzed by overhead. After the song finished he smiled, high fived the band members and went back to the party.

An aviation departure procedure out of Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) in West Palm Beach, Florida has been named after Jimmy Buffett, and includes waypoints with his name and related words.

The BUFIT ONE Departure, as it’s called, is used for standardizing routes for aircraft taking off from Palm Beach and departing to the south. Obviously this is a route that Jimmy himself is likely to take often.

The procedure calls for flying to waypoints with the names JIMEY, BUFIT, FINNS, PYRUT, and UTLEY (referring to Michael Utley, Jimmy’s long-time keyboard player). Aviation waypoints are five letters long, hence the funny spellings.

Buffett has kept his airplanes at Palm Beach International for several years. Learn more about Jimmy’s flying and see his airplanes here.

The taping for the CMT Crossroads episode pairing Jimmy Buffett and the Zac Brown Band is tonight at The Factory in Franklin, TN (just outside of Nashville). The two bands rehearsed on Tuesday night.

The audience is invitation-only, and the episode will air sometime in March.