Jimmy Buffett celebrated slackers earlier than the phrase existed, although he was once hardly ever one himself.
“Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville,” went the refrain to his most famed tune, which changed into a world singalong. But Buffett was once in reality an astute, formidable, competitive businessman.
A observation posted to Buffett’s official website and social media pages introduced his passing on Friday at age 76. The observation didn’t say the place Buffett died or give a purpose. He rescheduled live shows in May and said he have been hospitalized for an unspecified sickness.
Buffett built an empire based totally in large part on Caribbean-flavored pop that celebrated the Florida Keys, sunshine and nightlife. His identify changed into synonymous with a laid-back subtropical party vibe, and his enthusiasts have been referred to as Parrotheads.
But in the back of the laid-back external, Buffett was once an admitted workaholic. He expanded into novels, nightclubs and many different ventures. At one time his estimated annual source of revenue was once greater than $40 million, and his earnings assets prolonged a long way beyond a musician’s conventional trade style of album gross sales, live performance tickets and memento T-shirts.
He landed at No. 18 in Forbes’ listing of the Richest Celebrities of All Time with a web value of $1 billion.
The identify of Buffett’s most well liked tune confirmed up on eating places, clothes, booze and casinos. He changed into all for such merchandise as Landshark Lager, the Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise eating place chains, boat footwear, salsa, hummus, tortillas, dips, tequila and blenders. The Margaritaville cafe at the Las Vegas strip was once mentioned to be the highest grossing eating place within the country.
Buffett was once chairman of Margaritaville Holdings based totally in Palm Beach, Florida. He had a cafe and a on line casino in Vegas, a on line casino in Mississippi and a resort in Pensacola Beach, Florida, however the actual scope of his empire was once a secret. Margaritaville Holdings LLC did not divulge its budget, and he generally declined interview requests.
Along with hit songs, Buffett wrote best-selling novels. In 2008 he was once ranked via Vanity Fair as No. 97 on a listing of the 100 maximum influential folks on this planet, and his fan base was once wide and dependable. Even when he was once in his 60s, his live performance tickets fetched greater than $100.
“I’m now not about to express regret for being a just right businessman,” Buffett advised The Washington Post in 1998. “Too many people in music have ruined their lives because they weren’t. I’m not a great singer, and I’m only a so-so guitar player. I started running the band years ago because nobody else could, and I turned out to be good at this stuff. There’s never been any grand plan to this thing. I’m making it up as I go along. … Just trying to work the system while maintaining my ’60s anarchic soul.”
Buffett could be more intense than his songs and stage persona suggested. He was injured in 2011 when he fell face-first off the stage while performing in Australia and struck his head, knocking him unconscious. He was released from the hospital the next day.
An avid Miami Heat basketball fan, Buffett caused friction at a 2001 game when he cursed at referee Joe Forte from his courtside seat. Forte ejected him. The Heat moved Buffett and his son to another section.
When then-Heat coach Pat Riley asked Forte if he knew the man he had ejected, Forte didn’t recognize the name. He asked if Forte had ever been a Parrothead. “He thought I was insulting him. He wanted to give me a technical,” Riley mentioned.
Buffett was once born on Christmas Day, 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He as soon as mentioned he arrived within the Keys using a 1946 Packard in about 1970. He discovered his musical area of interest throughout that decade with breezy, island-influenced party tunes. The tone was once set with a well-liked tune in 1973, “Why Don’t We Get Drunk?”
He became a pop star in 1977, when “Margaritaville” cracked the Top 10. The song has provided a soundtrack to countless happy hours in the decades since.
Buffett’s 1992 collection titled “Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads” became one of the best-selling box sets ever and his annual summer concert tours with his Coral Reefer Band became major events, drawing thousands of Parrotheads who would dress up in Hawaiian shirts, leis, funny hats and other mellow party accessories. Some would follow Buffet’s tour from city to city.
“We were the social network before there was a social network on the Internet,” Buffett told the Dallas Morning News in 2012. “They had something in common; they shared things. They started dressing up because they were listening to the music. It was the common bond.”
Business success soon eclipsed record sales. According to Buffett’s website, the first Margaritaville opened in Key West, Florida, in 1987. The chain grew to 16 outlets and Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., teamed up with Buffett to develop the $700 million Margaritaville Casino & Resort in Biloxi, Mississippi, near where he was raised.
Regardless of his commercial achievements, Buffett’s legacy will be, in his words, “helping people forget their troubles for a couple of hours.”
The singer told the Baltimore Sun in 1999 that his optimistic view of life brought fans to the humor and escapism in his work. And that was okay, because there already was enough serious material in the world.
“I was the life of the party,” Buffett mentioned.