All you have to know is Paul McCartney came to serenade Jimmy on his deathbed. Jimmy knew everybody, and everybody loved him.
Now when my mother died, my older sister said she wanted “She did it all” on her tombstone. Jimmy Buffett truly did it all. When I think of his time on Earth I feel inadequate. Talk about eating up life… It’s very sad he was cut down short, and I’m sure there was more he wanted to do, but when it comes to living life to the fullest, I know no one who has done that to the extent of Jimmy Buffett. NO ONE! And I know a lot of people.
And a lot of them were at the Hollywood Bowl last night. And a lot of them I do not know, but Jimmy did. It was the movers and shakers of Hollywood, there to pay tribute to an entertainer. Sure, Jimmy was smart, and educated, but he built his success out of thin air. From cogitation. He followed in no footsteps. He even created his own community. We hear about fan bases, but Jimmy’s was the apotheosis, once you were in the club, once you were a Parrothead, you never left. Some even went to live in Margaritaville retirement communities. And if you read the story in “The New Yorker,” it sounds pretty appealing:
“Retirement the Margaritaville Way – At the active-living community for Jimmy Buffett enthusiasts, it’s five o’clock everywhere.”: https://rb.gy/olq4vv
Jimmy wasn’t selling raw hedonism. Not mindless fun. But middle class fun. You work hard so you can let go after work, go sailing on the weekend. Not only did Jimmy’s fans love his music, they wanted to BE Jimmy Buffett!
And Jimmy may have crashed a few airplanes, but he was not featured in the gossip columns, was not all over TMZ. Jimmy was reasonable, like you and me, but not like you and me.
Now the MC was Mac McAnally. Whom I discovered via his 1983 Geffen album “Nothin’ But the Truth.” And it was. And it made me a fan. But Mac was happier playing second fiddle to Jimmy Buffett than being the main draw. But last night, Mac was in charge, he did the intros, he drove the music, with his Alabama/Mississippi perspective, just like James William Buffett himself. You see the south has a long tradition of storytelling, and Mac fits right into that tradition.
So what we had here was the Coral Reefer Band, both by itself and with special guests.
Now the special guest I wanted to see most was Kenny Chesney, who followed in Jimmy’s footsteps, who took up the mantle of the pirate in the islands. Now if you’re a Chesney fan, you know one of his absolute best songs, my favorite of his, is “Back Where I Come From,” which was written by Mac McAnally:
“That’s where I come from
I’m an old Tennessean
Well I’m proud as anyone
That’s where I come from”
That’s where Jimmy went to make it, Nashville, to break through in the music business. And it took him a while to find his groove, but ultimately he had a hit with “Come Monday.” Which Brandi Carlile knocked out of the park last night.
Now the other song I needed to hear was “Son of a Son of a Sailor,” last night performed by Eric Church:
“Where it all ends I can’t fathom my friend
If I knew I might toss out my anchor
So I cruise along always searchin’ for songs
Not a lawyer a thief or a banker”
Jimmy became a billionaire his own way. He didn’t do what all his contemporaries did. He didn’t sell out. And it was the lawyers, the thieves and the bankers who came to his shows to experience the life they could have lived, if only they were willing to take a risky path.
Now not all of us can write songs. But that does not mean the path to fame is ever easy. Harrison Ford was a carpenter before he became Han Solo, a cultural icon. He testified. He talked about how cool Jimmy was, how he was inspired to get his ear pierced after lunch with the man, back when male piercings were a statement, not de rigueur.
And Don Johnson spoke of being invited to dinner at Jimmy’s house in Snowmass, with Jack Nicholson, the Eagles and a ton of cocaine. Yes, we’re old enough to own our past lives, our faux pas, we lived through it, it was a different era.
But not all the stars were on stage. Larry David was there, and left early, just as you’d expect him to.
But Les Moonves and Julie Chen did not, they stayed until the very end. I mean what else has Les got to do? Then again, even the punters don’t stay until the end in Los Angeles, I mean you’ve got to beat the traffic, right?
And David Zaslav, the most hated man in Hollywood, came dressed down to the point where you almost thought it wasn’t him.
Eddy Cue was recognizable from all the Apple presentations.
Bob Iger…it was kind of astounding that this was the guy in the news every day, running the Disney empire, involved not only in movies and TV, but theme parks and politics, wrestling with Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida. Wearing a sweater, he oozed no airs. Nobody did. Because that’s not who Jimmy Buffett was. He was the anti-tie, an emblem of doing it your own way.
Now James Taylor and Dolly Parton spoke via video. But Jane Fonda was there live, as were John McEnroe and Judd Apatow. It wasn’t like an awards show, people spoke off the cuff, made jokes, it was loose, just like a Jimmy Buffett show.
That’s what it was.
If you ever went to see Jimmy Buffett, you know the crowd didn’t sit in reverence. Some people stood throughout (three, unfortunately, in my line of vision). Others talked, others drank. Going to see Jimmy was like going to see the Dead, but unlike Garcia, Buffett was truly Captain Trips. Well, Garcia took you on mind trips, Buffett truly inspired you to journey…to everywhere there was a body of water, not only to relax, but to participate. Jimmy was a man of action. As Will Arnett said, Jimmy was either coming or going, always in motion.
Now there were some left field appearances. Snoop Dogg doing “Gin and Juice.” But it worked because of the vibe. As did Pitbull’s Miami party shtick. Although Pitbull knew Jimmy, told him he’d written the song “Thank God & Jimmy Buffett,” which he performed with Jon Bon Jovi last night.
And it wasn’t only the stars of the moving picture business there last night. Jimmy’s good friend Tom Freston was in attendance, the two were confronted by kidnappers in Africa, fame meant nothing there, and John Sykes and Allen Grubman, who had the chutzpah to tell those in front of him to sit down, which I did not. And, of course, Irving Azoff, who was Jimmy’s manager, then label head, then manager once again.
Jackson Browne played Bob Dylan’s favorite Buffett tune, “He Went to Paris,” but had to stop because he forgot to put in his in-ears. It was that kind of night, loose, mistakes were forgiven, after all, aren’t we all human?
It was a light evening. When most of these tribute shows are somewhat somber. It was a party. And Jimmy would have loved it. Before the show I thought it was sad that he was not there to experience it, but as you were watching you felt that Jimmy was the victor, everybody on stage was subservient to him, because he’d won the game of life in a way they hadn’t.
Except of course for Paul McCartney. As Solters said, he was the reason we were all here, doing this. And that’s true. Beatlemania was a real thing. Everybody picked up guitars, was glued to the radio, spoke with English accents. The only equivalent in my lifetime was the internet, and that was inert, tech, ones and zeros, whereas the Beatles were positively alive and human. Your heart still jumps when you see Paul. I mean he’s right in front of me, alive, still here?
Yes, and he sat at the piano and played “Let It Be,” after the Eagles performed a trio of songs, much heavier, with more gravitas than what had come before, which is what made them so great, they took it to the limit in both the city and the country, all over the world, and last night they paid fealty to the true boy of summer.
And then there was Mac McAnally’s story about performing for the Navy and the Admiral saying if Jimmy ever wanted anything…
Well, what Jimmy wanted was to be dropped from a helicopter in thirty feet of water.
Like I said, Jimmy wanted to do it all. And everybody there last night was just in his wake. He was accessible, and joked and played and there for advice, or comfort… Carlile talked about fishing tips, I think it was Kelly Slater who went on a hike with him.
Or maybe it was Jack Johnson, who sang Jimmy’s greatest song, “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”
“Mother, mother ocean, I have heard your call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall”
It was mentioned that Jimmy always had big dreams, and just waited for his feet to be able to take him there.
“I’ve done a bit of smugglin’, and I’ve run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami but I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to last”
It was the seventies. We were all getting high. Not from the refined stuff you get at the cannabis shop, but from the pot dealer, who was not evil like the heroin dealer, usually just a guy you knew, or someone else knew… Then again, there were the big smugglers. They all got arrested, back when we thought marijuana was never gonna be legal.
And that’s the rock lifestyle. You make the money and you spend it. You’re not creating generational wealth. Jimmy had planes… It was only that he was so successful that he ended up so rich.
And every career extension was on brand. Jimmy had an identity. And the music was true to that.
“I go for younger women, lived with several a while
Though I ran ’em away, they’d come back one day
Still could manage to smile
Just takes a while, just takes a while”
When I met Jimmy he was separated from Jane. And, as a matter of fact, he was with a younger woman. But in one of the great love stories, Jimmy and Jane got back together. And were equal partners, seems like Jane got almost as many kudos as Jimmy last night.
Margaritaville is a state of mind. You can be in Alaska in the middle of winter and be in Margaritavile. You’ve just got to let go of your preconceptions, jump into the mental river and go with the flow. Oh, you’re allowed to steer, but if you don’t jump in you’ll never experience what Jimmy did, what we all want to, which is to have new experiences, meet new people, growing all the time.
Jimmy’s one of the few people whose business empire, whose brand extensions, might outlive his music. Margaritaville in all its manifestations, shows no sign of slowing down. It’s kind of like Elvis, not only with pure devotion to the star, but inspiration to take action and find your own way, never forgetting to have fun.
That was the essence of last night, fun. And that’s why Jimmy would have loved it so much. We’re only here for a short while. If you can’t make friends, get high and go on adventures, you’re missing out. You take one step, then another, adjusting along the way. You never know who you’ll meet, you never know what will happen next. But you will know that it’s so f*cking great to be alive. Take that risk now, check items off that bucket list now, that’s Jimmy Buffett’s ultimate message.
If you’re having fun, Jimmy has won. That’s what he did, pursued his dreams, followed his muse, wherever the fun would take him. And not only did it make him rich, it inspired millions of others to wake up and follow him. You can’t ask for more from life.
