60 Fun Facts About Jimmy Buffett

In which Gulf Coast town was Jimmy Buffett born in 1946?

Pascagoula, Mississippi. The family soon moved along the coast to Mobile, Alabama, where his father worked at a shipyard, so Buffett grew up a state away from his birthplace.

Jimmy Buffett shared his birthday with which holiday?

Christmas Day. Born on 25 December 1946, he went on to record two holiday albums of his own, Christmas Island and, twenty years later, 'Tis the SeaSon.

Buffett flunked out of which university after a single year in 1966?

Auburn. He enrolled that autumn at a Mississippi junior college instead, and later said he had stayed in higher education to keep out of the Vietnam draft.

What subject was Buffett's 1969 bachelor's degree in?

History. He finished the degree at the University of Southern Mississippi, singing on street corners at weekends to help pay his way through college.

As a Nashville editorial assistant, Buffett was first to report the breakup of which bluegrass act?

Flatt and Scruggs. Buffett broke the story as a reporter for Billboard magazine; the duo parted in 1969, when Earl Scruggs left to play with his sons in the Earl Scruggs Revue.

How many copies did Buffett's 1970 debut album sell?

A few hundred. Down to Earth is usually said to have sold 324 copies, and his label then said it had lost the master tapes of the follow-up, which turned up again only once he was a star.

A 1971 busking expedition persuaded Buffett to move, in spring 1972, to which town?

Key West. Country singer Jerry Jeff Walker drove him down from Miami in a 1947 Packard, and Buffett decided he had found his new home.

Which 1973 album was Buffett's first for the ABC/Dunhill label?

A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. The title is a shrimpy spoof of Marty Robbins's 1957 hit 'A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)', and Buffett cut the record in Nashville.

Which 1974 song, written for his future wife, was Buffett's first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100?

Come Monday. He wrote it on the road in 1973, missing Jane, and the single swapped the album's 'Hush Puppies' line for 'hiking shoes'.

Why was Buffett ejected from his courtside seat at an NBA game in 2001?

Swearing at the officials. The referee had no idea who he was, and when Heat coach Pat Riley asked whether he had never been a Parrothead, the official took it as an insult.

The Coral Reefer Band's name puns on coral reefs and which meaning of 'reefer'?

Marijuana. Buffett made the joke official in 2019, when he licensed the name Coral Reefer to a line of cannabis products that launched in Florida.

'Margaritaville' first appeared on which 1977 album?

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. Buffett started the song in Austin, Texas, where a margarita eased his hangover before a flight, and finished it once he was back home in Florida.

In 'Margaritaville', some people claim a woman is to blame, but who does the narrator finally say is at fault?

Himself. The first chorus insists it's nobody's fault and the second admits it could be his, before the last one owns up; the single reached No. 8 on the Hot 100.

Buffett claimed he wrote most of 'Margaritaville' in about how long?

Six minutes, by his usual telling, though he once said five. He thought of it as just another song for the album, and it became his only top-ten hit on the Hot 100.

Which hall of fame inducted 'Margaritaville' in 2016?

Grammy Hall of Fame. The 1977 single went in among the 2016 inductees, although Buffett's own Grammy record amounted to two nominations, both for country collaborations recorded decades later.

Which mishap, by producer Norbert Putnam's account, helped inspire 'Margaritaville'?

He lost a flip-flop on the way home, then cut his foot on a pop top and found no salt for his drink. Putnam told him it was a terrible idea for a song, and changed his mind days later.

Buffett dreamed up 'Cheeseburger in Paradise' after a rough sail ended at which of the British Virgin Islands?

Tortola. The ice had melted and the crew were down to canned food and peanut butter when they limped into Road Town, where a marina bar sold him the burger he had been picturing.

Which Mexican beer sponsored Buffett's tours long before he launched LandShark Lager?

Corona. Buffett pitched for the sponsorship in 1984, and the brewer went on to borrow his beach-bum image for its advertising as its sales climbed.

Which 1979 album contained both 'Fins' and its own title track?

Volcano. Buffett recorded it on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, beneath the then-dormant Soufrière Hills volcano that gave the album its name and erupted for real in 1995.

Which restaurant chain's bid to trademark 'Margaritaville' did Buffett fight off in the 1980s?

Chi-Chi's. A song title can't be trademarked, so his lawyers argued instead that the name had become synonymous with Buffett.

Which 1985 album became the best seller of Buffett's career?

Songs You Know by Heart. It kept selling for twenty years and was certified seven-times platinum in 2005, though none of his 1980s studio albums had climbed above No. 30 on the chart.

Which Coral Reefer Band member, better known as another famous rock group's bassist, coined 'Parrot Head'?

Timothy B. Schmit. At a 1985 show at an Ohio amusement park he looked out at a sea of Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats and gave Buffett's returning fans their name.

The first Parrothead club was founded in 1989 in which city?

Atlanta. Scott Nickerson started the club so that concert friends could meet between Buffett's once-a-year shows there, then went on to found Parrot Heads in Paradise, the umbrella body for clubs everywhere.

The nickname 'Parrot Heads' for Buffett's fans was a play on the name for which band's followers?

The Grateful Dead. Buffett had been teasing a 1985 crowd for coming back show after show like Deadheads, and the joke name stuck and grew into an international network of fan clubs.

The first business called Margaritaville with a link to Buffett opened in 1984 in which Alabama beach town?

Gulf Shores. A friend of Buffett's was behind it; the Margaritaville store that opened in Florida the following year is the one that grew into the chain.

Buffett sang 'Mack the Knife' with which crooner on the 1994 album Duets II?

Frank Sinatra. The pair never shared a studio: guests added their parts to vocals he had already recorded with the orchestra, on what proved to be his last studio album.

Buffett's 2003 duet 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' was recorded with which country star?

Alan Jackson. He had been looking for a song to record with Buffett, and this one already asked 'What would Jimmy Buffett do?' just before the guest's part begins.

In 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere', which rum cocktail does the narrator ask the bartender to pour?

A Hurricane. The New Orleans favourite is ordered 'tall and strong' by a man who has decided not to go back to work, in a song that won writers Jim 'Moose' Brown and Don Rollins a Grammy.

Which 2004 album became Buffett's only No. 1 on the Billboard 200?

License to Chill. His first chart-topping album came from the country music he had failed at in Nashville three decades earlier: it is a set of country duets, most of them covers.

Buffett's 1998 memoir is built around a family trip he took to celebrate what?

His 50th birthday. He flew his family around the Caribbean and South America by seaplane, and the logbook he kept on the way became A Pirate Looks at Fifty.

Buffett co-wrote the children's books The Jolly Mon and Trouble Dolls with which family member?

His daughter Savannah. She was only eight when the first of them, The Jolly Mon, came out in 1988, and the pair recorded themselves reading it aloud for the tape sold with the book.

Buffett turned which Caribbean novel into a stage musical in 1997?

Don't Stop the Carnival. Herman Wouk turned his own book into the script while Buffett supplied the songs, and the show ran for only six weeks in Miami.

Buffett bought into a Florida minor-league baseball team in 1989 alongside which comic actor?

Bill Murray. The two bought shares in the Miami Miracle, kept them when the club was sold and moved to Fort Myers, and Buffett stayed a part-owner for 25 years.

Buffett co-produced, scored and acted in the 2006 film of which Carl Hiaasen novel?

Hoot. Its story of children saving a colony of burrowing owls from a developer matched his conservation causes, and he took the part of their science teacher, Mr. Ryan.

Buffett launched the Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain in 2002 with which steakhouse company?

Outback Steakhouse. Its parent company paid Buffett for the song's name and opened the restaurants; Luby's bought the chain in 2012, and the last one closed in 2020.

Buffett founded Margaritaville Records in 1992 with distribution through which major label?

MCA. It was already the label he recorded for, having absorbed his old label ABC years earlier; he later went fully independent with his own Mailboat Records.

Which brewer partnered with Buffett in 2006 to make LandShark Lager?

Anheuser-Busch. The lager takes its name from the land sharks of Buffett's song 'Fins', and for the 2009 season the Miami Dolphins' stadium carried the beer's name.

Latitude Margaritaville, the $1 billion retirement community Buffett announced in 2017, is near which city?

Built with the Minto Group, the 3,900-home village put the beach-bum brand into the 55-plus market.

On 25 August 1994 Buffett crashed his Grumman Widgeon seaplane off which island?

Nantucket. His seaplane, Lady of the Waters, nosed over on take-off in Madaket Harbor; Buffett swam clear with minor injuries and retold the day in his memoir.

Who shot at Buffett's seaplane in 1996, the mix-up he retold in the song 'Jamaica Mistaica'?

Jamaican police. They wrongly suspected the plane of running drugs; U2's Bono and his family were among the passengers, and the Jamaican government later apologised.

With Bob Graham, then governor of Florida, Buffett co-founded which conservation group in 1981?

Save the Manatee Club. It began as the Save the Manatee Committee, which Buffett chaired at Graham's request before it grew into a nonprofit in its own right.

Radio Margaritaville, online-only from 1998, moved to which satellite service in 2005?

Sirius. Three years later the company merged with its rival XM, the tempting wrong answer here, which made the station a SiriusXM channel.

Buffett died in September 2023 of complications from which rare cancer?

Merkel-cell carcinoma. He lived with the rare skin cancer for four years, keeping the diagnosis private and carrying on touring until a few months before his death.

Buffett entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024 with which award?

Musical Excellence. The Hall credited him with creating his own 'Gulf and Western' blend of country and Caribbean sounds, though the honour came a year after his death.

Which posthumous Buffett album takes its title from his grandfather's phrase for a nap?

Equal Strain on All Parts. It came out two months after his death, with Paul McCartney playing bass on a song inspired by a remark McCartney's wife made at a dinner party.

On the Hawaii Five-0 reboot, Buffett had a recurring role as which character?

Frank Bama, a helicopter pilot. Buffett had used the name before: Frank Bama is the seaplane pilot at the centre of his 1992 novel Where Is Joe Merchant?, and he played the television version in seven episodes.

In which 2015 blockbuster does Buffett cameo, running for his life with two margaritas?

Jurassic World. The film's theme park has a Margaritaville of its own, and Buffett, an old collaborator of the producer, flees it clutching the drinks when the dinosaurs get loose.

Which band played at Buffett's 1977 wedding to Jane Slagsvol in Aspen, Colorado?

The Eagles. Buffett had opened for them two summers earlier and told his band that was the group to become; years later they asked him to give their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech.

Buffett's 2010 collaboration 'Knee Deep' was with which group?

Zac Brown Band. Co-writer Wyatt Durrette had been a Buffett fan since childhood, so the band brought in the man its beach song was channelling, and the single went to No. 1 on the country chart.

Buffett's final full concert, on 6 May 2023, was at Snapdragon Stadium in which city?

San Diego. He closed the night with Crosby, Stills & Nash's 'Southern Cross', and after it made only two unannounced guest spots at bandmates' shows before his death that September.

Florida named which coastal highway the Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway in 2024?

State Road A1A. The beach road along the state's Atlantic shore had already lent its name to his 1974 album A1A, so the legislature gave the whole length of it to him in return.

Which of Buffett's 'Big Eight' concert staples did he credit to the pen name Marvin Gardens?

Why Don't We Get Drunk. He cut the bawdy send-up of country love songs in one take as a joke and kept his name off the credit, and it became a jukebox favourite.

Buffett's 1974 song 'A Pirate Looks at Forty' was written about what kind of man?

A drug smuggler. Buffett modelled him on Phil Clark, a colourful friend from his first years in Florida who, nearing forty, feared that his line of work was dying out.

Buffett named his 1999 live album after which three days, his preferred nights for playing concerts?

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. By then he played only 20 to 30 nights a year and avoided back-to-back shows, and the album was the first release on his Mailboat label.

In which Long Island village was the waterfront home where Buffett died in 2023?

Sag Harbor. He died at home there on the night of 1 September, in the words of his family's statement 'surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs'.

Buffett's first award in three decades of recording came in 2003 from which body?

The Country Music Association. It named 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' its Vocal Event of the Year, soon after the same duet had given him his first No. 1 on the country chart.

Despite his Miami Dolphins tie-ins, Buffett was a devoted fan of which NFL team, whose first home game he attended in 1967?

New Orleans Saints. When the league suspended coach Sean Payton in 2012, Buffett wore a 'Free Sean Payton' shirt at a New Orleans concert and put the coach on bongos with the band.

What did investor Warren Buffett, who was no relation, call his friend Jimmy Buffett?

Cousin Jimmy. Jimmy called him 'Uncle Warren' in return, and the pair once took a DNA test together to check; it found no family link.

Who gave the speech inducting Jimmy Buffett into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024?

James Taylor. Buffett knew the ritual from the other side: back in 1998 he had been the one giving an induction speech, for a band he had once opened for.

Jimmy Buffett's two shows in September 2005 opened which historic ballpark to pop concerts?

Wrigley Field. Buffett's Labor Day weekend shows were the first of their kind at the Chicago Cubs' home, and the ballpark has opened its gates to concerts on a limited basis ever since, with ten in the summer of 2017.