Jimmy Buffett
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Jimmy Buffett History
James William Buffett was born on December 25, 1946 in Pascogoula, MS (Jackson County Memorial Hospital). He is the son of Mary Loriane (Peets) and James Delaney Buffett Jr., a naval architect, who often took Buffett on sailing trips. Jimmy Buffett is indeed "the son of the son of a sailor”. As Jimmy describes in his book, "The Captain and the Kid", his grandfather was a sea captain. When Jimmy was just a boy, the family moved to Mobile, AL where he attended Catholic St. Ignatius grade school, and later, boys only McGill-Toolen Institute. In 1964, the young Buffett went on to Auburn University where he learned to play the guitar. Jimmy then went on to study journalism as a brother of Kappa Sigma fraternity at the University of Southern Mississippi where he started a small band and graduated with a B.S.in history in 1969. 
After college, Jimmy moved to the French Quarter New Orleans where he played with the band "Upstairs Alliance".
In 1970, he married Margie Washichek and moved on to Nashville hoping to make it big in the country music scene.
There, he worked as the Nashville correspondent for Billboard magazine, allowing him to make many industry contacts.
He also appeared regularly in cover band "The Now Generation" which credits him on two of their releases: "Come Together" and "Hits Are Our Business".
Under a recording contract with Barnaby Records, Jimmy released his (poorly produced) debut album, "Down to Earth" (1970) containing "The Christian?", a socially conscious song.
In 1971, Jimmy's first marriage, broke up.
Then, the master tapes for Jimmy's second album, "High Cumberland Jubilee" were "misplaced" (Barnaby later found and released it when after Jimmy became popular).
Frustrated, Jimmy moved on to Key West, FL, where he gradually evolved his Gulf Coast tropical folk-rock style and associations with smugglers.
Buffett soon signed on with ABC-Dunhill Records (MCA), went back to Nashville, and achieved moderate sales with his second album release, "White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean" (1973). Now widely acclaimed as his finest release, it features the humorous song "Why Don't We Get Drunk?" and several songs about his misdemeanors like "The Great Filling Station Holdup" and "Peanut Butter Conspiracy". Jimmy used all the profits from the album to buy his boat, The Euphoria, and sail away to the Caribbean. 
About his "A1A" (1974) album, named after the beach-front hiway in Key West, Buffett says, "I never planned to make a whole series of albums about Key West. It was a natural process."
Buffett also wrote the score for, and played in a movie about cattle rustlers scripted by Tom McGuane called "Rancho Deluxe" (++++).
McGuane, Buffett's brother-in-law, describes his style as "at the curious hinterland where Hank Williams and Xavier Cugat meet”.
As Buffett went on to achieve notoriety, his softer side was revealed in "Living and Dying in 3/4 Time" (1974) and from it, his first Top 30 singles chart entry "Come Monday,".
With "Margaritaville" (1974), and his first Top Ten song of the same name, Buffett really began to get some well deserved attention.
Forming the Coral Reefer Band in 1975 Jimmy released "Havana Daydreamin" (1976) followed by "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" (1977).
It really let his easy-going Gulf Coast beach bum persona show through and he soon became a real pop star.
Jimmy married his second wife, Jane Slagsvol from Columbia, South Carolina, on August 27, 1977. Jimmy says that she "over the years, has been and remains, the ultimate riddle in the sand." While they were separated for a long 9 years, they have since reunited. They have two daughters Savannah Jane Buffett (born June 1st, 1979), Sarah Delaney Buffett (born April 1st, 1992), and a son Cameron Marley Buffett (adopted). 
Buffett received his first CMA Award nomination in 1977 when he was nominated for Single of the Year for "Margaritaville."
By the '80s, Jimmy Buffett's yearly album releases had stopped going gold.
So, he hit the road, even briefly trying the country market again.
In 1981, Mac McAnally began writing songs with Buffett.
The growing throngs of fans, that he calls Parrotheads, helped to give his concerts a Mardi Gras-like atmosphere and soon his yearly tours were rapdidly sold out.
His live album release, Feeding Frenzy (1990), went straight to gold. And, the voluminous "Boats Beaches Bars & Ballads" (1992), soon became one of the best-selling boxed sets ever. In the mid-‘90s, now on his custom imprint, Margaritaville released through Island records, he released a whole series of Top 10 albums. When Jimmy Buffett made and released "Fruitcakes" (1994) it was one of his fastest-selling records. On a roll, it was followed in by "Barometer Soup" (1995), "Banana Wind" (1996), Christmas Island (1996) and by "Don't Stop The Carnival" (1998). He later worked with playwright Herman Wouk to adapt his "Carnival" release into a musical called "Don't Stop the Carnival". Jimmy started his own record label, Mailboat, in 1999. 
With over three decades as one of the nation’s top touring acts, over thirty albums (see below), and two hit singles, "Margaritaville" and "Come Monday", Jimmy Buffett never had never charted a No. 1 single or won a major music award..
Then, Buffett and Alan Jackson opened the 2003 CMA Awards in Nashville with their “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and went on to win that group's Vocal Event of the Year award.
Jimmy noted, “It was about 31 years ago that I came to this town to pursue my musical madness, and I've never won anything for anything, and it's great to do it here.”.
A country collaboration from the "License to Chill" (2004) CD on RCA Records Nashville, has spawned a top ten country single, a remake of Hank Williams’ “Hey, Good Lookin’” with vocals by Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith and George Strait.
Jimmy and his family currently reside in Palm Beach, FL. Jimmy has several other residences including an apartment in New Orleans, a ranch near Orlando, and a house on Long Island, where he shows up often to support local charities. He made a cool $900k when he sold his house in Key West, but still maintains a recording studio there. He is a founder of Friends of Florida, an environmental group dedicated to preserving the Florida ecostructure. Jimmy is also chairman of the Save the Manatee club (500 N. Maitland Ave. Maitland, FL 32751 1-800-432-JOIN or www.savethemanatee.org). 
Jimmy has authored three number one best sellers including "Tales From Margaritaville" and "Where Is Joe Merchant?" that both spent over seven months on the New York Times Best Seller fiction list.
He became the sixth author in that list's history to reach number one on both the fiction and non-fiction lists when his "A Pirate Looks At Fifty".
(The other five authors who have accomplished this are Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Styron, Irving Wallace and Dr. Seuss.)
His latest works include childrens books co-authored with his daughters and another that is scheduled for November 2004 release.
Buffett has appeared in several major motion pictures including "Congo" and "FM" (see below for more).
An experienced seaplane pilot, Buffett now owns a Dassault Falcon 900ex jet.
Jimmy's "Hemisphere Dancer", a Grumman HU-16 Albatross in which Jimmy was shot at, as told in the song "Jamacia Mistaka" on "Banana Wind" (1996), is now on display in Orlando, FL.Jimmy Buffett has expanded his influence into clothing lines, nightclubs, and restaurants. He also runs Radio Margaritaville, a free-form, 24-hour Internet radio station. Jimmy launched his Margaritaville line of clothes and opened the first of his Margaritaville clubs in Key West. He continues to play to sold-out stadiums across America every year and has managed to keep the same summer job for 40 years. But, the basis of the business empire that keeps him on the Fortune magazine list of highest-earning entertainers is his music. 
Jimmy's songs, which he describes as "90 percent autobiographical", continue to reflect his laid back Key West beach bum image.
In reality, as you probably have gathered, Jimmy is a hard working, hard partying, accomplished businessman, with tons of talent and ambition.
You'd be hard pressed to find someone who works this hard, and still quips "I love my job!"
Jimmy Buffett Trivia top of page
Buffett sings backing vocals on the song "The Greeks Don't Want no Freeks" on the Eagle's "Long Run". His humorous "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw?" was written under the pseudonym of Marvin Gardens, who made imaginary appearances at Buffett's one-man concerts. Jimmy is a regular visitor to the Caribbean island of Saint Barts, where he is rumored to have written his hit song, "Cheeseburger in Paradise.". One of Jimmy's favorite sayings is "Bubbles Up!" It saved his life when he crashed a seaplane off of Long Island. He had been through the flight survival training course at Little Creek Nav Air Station in Norfolk, and this was the last thing he remembered before blacking out after the crash. He saw which way the bubbles were going ("bubbles up"), followed them, and survived the crash.
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