We remember Jimmy Buffett by looking back at the interview we did with him in 2020 after he dropped his first album in 27 years. Jimmy Buffett talked about writing his song "Margaritaville”, his country collaborations and if he’d ever go into his own restaurants and not give them a heads up.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We had the chance to interview Jimmy Buffett a couple
of years ago. And I've met Jimmy Bufet before and
I'm a casual fan. I've seen him perform a couple
of times. But Eddie is I mean, you're a diehard
Jimmy Buffet fan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Since I was in high school, like a friend of
mine gave me a CD. I listened to it. I'm like, God,
this guy is speaking to me. Every song on that CD,
and it's the greatest hits one. It's called Jimmy Buffett's
Songs you know by heart, and you listen to it
from top to bottom, it's like, oh my gosh, this
is the life I want to live.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It opens with like Cheeseburger and Paradise, where you're like, yeah,
who doesn't love cheeseburgers, and then closes with like Volcano.
It's like just a beach song of like I don't know,
I don't know, and it's just so Jamaica sounding like
I just dude. I The thing about Jimmy Buffett was
like it just took you. As soon as you listen
to a song, it took you to another place, took
you out of whatever you were, it took you to
(00:47):
a beach somewhere with a drink in your hand.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
And you love beaches and drinks and hands.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I do so all those things.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Those things. Jimmy Buffett passed away of skin cancer.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, which was pretty crazy there, not ironically.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
I mean, well, I means in the sun a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Anytime you saw a picture of him, he was on
a boat, fishing in the sun, surfing that kind of thing.
So yeah, I guess you know what's crazy is no
one knew that he had skin camper. He kept it
secret for I think four years. They were saying, I
think a close few friends of the family knew, but
he didn't.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
And apparently that was just his style.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
He's like, it wasn't going to burden all his fans
and tell him like, hey, I got cancer.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I'm going to go pretty soon.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Did it make you sad when he died? Absolutely weird? Huh?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Did somebody you never knew that? Somebody it feels like,
you know, die and it makes you feel sad.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
When you know so much about their life, you know,
I mean anything they fed you, I don't, you know.
I grew up and realized that Obviously, that's not how
Jimmy lived his life.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Every day.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
He was an entertainer, He was a businessman. He started
the Marguerite de Ville brand, you know, like he had
how many hotels and resorts, Like, he worked a lot.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
He didn't just chill on the beach and drink.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
And so I think I realized that when I got older,
but it was still just cool too. And I loved
falling on Instagram because on Instagram he was always riding
a bike somewhere or on an island somewhere, on a boat,
and so that was really cool. And so when you
learn all that stuff about a person, and read so
much about a person and read the stories, and then
from other artists that have hung out with him, you
(02:28):
read their stories, you really feel like you know that person.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
So when you lose them, you're like, oh man, we
lost a good one.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
And he was still putting out music today, still write
same vibe, same vibe, a little older.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Obviously.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
The thing about Jimmy is like he would always write
about his time, you know, is like if he's seventy
years old, he's writing about medicare you know he was
twenty he was writing about hooking up with chicks.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
It's like our show.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Honestly, I mean we we have not on our show
done what consultants traditionally want a show to do where
they identify an age group and this is your target audience.
I've always felt like my target audience are people that
I talked to that because I'm talking about my life,
our lives, what we're going through, I'm not gonna fake it, right,
And so you know, we used to be on that
(03:14):
younger Okay you're eighteen, twenty four, Okay, now you're twenty five.
So but I just I never purposefully changed. I just
changed as a person, and so my work changed with it.
It sounds like that's what Jimmy Buffet did too.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, And you know, and now after you pass, you
start seeing the people that are kind of honoring him
on Instagram, and you see, like, man, he hung out
with Don Johnson all the time, he hung out Amy Vice,
Miami Vice, like just people. Paul McCartney wrote this thing
about him, how he was just a really good friend
of Paul McCartney. And you think, like Jimmy Buffett was
a simple dude. Yeah he's a rich guy, but he
was a guy from Louisiana, you know at Alabama.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
He's from the South. Yeah, he's from the South. I
thought he was from some island. I never heard of that.
Only he owned and only he lived on.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
His story was crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
He came to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
He was a journalist major, I believe, and he came
to Nashville to write for Billboard magazine.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
What.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, he moved to Nashville to write for Billboard magazine.
He wrote for them for like a couple of years.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
First of all, I don't know he lived in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
His first record label, his first records were here in
Nashville is country music. He was chasing country music. Then
he did a couple to write about it, just to
do country, to be a country artist.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So then he was writing about it just to make
some money while he was also pursuing it.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
He was yeah, he oh, he would write for Billboard.
It was just a you know, like a job, just
a job. We're working for Billboard and still writing music.
That's where he became friends with Jerry Jeff Walker here
in Nashville, and they would write songs and then got
a record deal. He'd made two albums in that deal.
The records were terrible. They weren't good at all.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
What were they sounding like?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
This pretty generic country country in nineteen seventies country like
Nashville sound type stuff. Totally yeah, and not what Jimmy
Buffett sounds like at all. And so then he goes
over to Florida, I think for like a trip over
in Key West, falls in, loves with it and says,
you know what, I'm just gonna move over there. See
what happens. So he goes over there, meets a bunch
of people, starts writing about them their life, and that's
(05:05):
kind of how he got the whole beach vibe.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
And then he's beach Willie Nelson.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I failed here, had a little had a little little bump,
but then went back home or went somewhere else to
when to screw it.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I'm just gonna go back and do it.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And then found his own niche when he decided to
do it his own way.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
That's it, Jimmy Buffett, Rest in peace.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I thought we played this interview back and I would
never have done this interview without Eddie.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
I knew Eddie wanted to hop in and I thought
it was cool.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I appreciate here you go. Here on the Bobbycast. It's
us talking with Jimmy Buffett.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
This is the Bobby Cast. Jimmy, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So I had a good week.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Where are you right now?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I am in my studio in sag Harbor, New York.
I just got back from California, but that's where I've
been for three months, sitting it now.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You know you're playing the Opry on June twenty seventh,
and I host that TV show.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
I played The Opry a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I producing the TV show as well, and I was
very excited to know a couple of weeks ago that
you had come on. Had to keep it quiet, which
is a big deal for me to keep something quiet,
because not what I'm paid to do is keep things quiet.
So how long ago did you decide or did you
get the call to play the Grand Ole Opry?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what about. There's
a long history because once upon a time, when I
was a struggling songwriter in Nashville, I had to get
a real job and it wound up being for Billboard
magazine and I was working for the editor named Bill
Williams at that time, and he took me down because
at that point in time was when they started the
Friday Night Opry, So I covered the Opry for Billboard
(06:36):
back in like nineteen seventy one. So, and then when
they did the Johnny Cash Show from the Ryman, my
wife at the time was the assistant tele coordinator, so
I got to go to all those shows. So I've
had a long desire to play it. The only time
I ever played the Ramen was once with Jenny Lewis.
And then when this way when the pandemic came and
(06:59):
Mac called me and said that they'd been doing these
shows and I saw the one the Dents and Marty
and I think Brad Paisley did. I just I love
what they were doing, and they reached out to him
and I said, I'd be honored to do it. So
that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, Jimmy will be making his Grand Ole Opry debut
June twenty seventh, and Brad Paisley, mc mckinnelly and Jimmy Buffett, congratulations.
By the way, your record number two on the Billboard
two hundred. Lady Gotgay was the only person to beat you.
I don't know if you heard from her, but she
was talking a lot of crap.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Jimmy. Uh, you know, I met at one time. I've
always liked what she does because you know, she's a
real player and a real singer. You know, that came
up through bars, and you know, I think we have
that in common. People that do that seemed to be
able to do okay. And she couldn't have been nicer
when I met her briefly. And so yeah, I like
(07:50):
being number two the Layer. Yeah, but I'm number one country.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You know, I think a lot of people don't realize
or maybe they don't remember that you've had two number
one songs on the country charts, specifically with Alan Jackson
and Zach Brownband.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
How did those collaborations come together?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
You know, it was it was again, you know, all
that time spent. You know, it was obvious to a
lot of people that you know that Nashville went to
the beach about ten years ago, and I guess I
was kind of the guide. And you know when when
country music went to the beach, everybody kind of was
wanting to check in, and uh, you know, Alan called
(08:29):
me and at that time he was being managed by
Howard Kaufman, who was my manager as well, and I
was again honored. I thought, yeah, this would be fun
to do, you know, because I wouldn't. I haven't had
a lot of big radio hits, I think two point
one in forty years, but we managed to do okay.
So you know, it was great meeting those those kids
(08:50):
and kids at that time like Alan and Zach who
you know, it kind of followed me. Everybody kind of
starts out, you know, emulating somebody else. I loved the
Gordon Lightfoot and uh and Merle Haggard, you know, and uh,
you try to emulate and then find your own self.
So I felt the honor that people have come of
thought that much of it. And so that's that happened.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
We're talking with Jimmy Buffer right now.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You know, you talked about living in Nashville back in
the day, which a lot of people may not even
know or even associate you with Nashville. But were you
back and who was kind of emerging as a big
country artist when you were living here?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Well, again, I was. I was covering the covering, uh,
the whole scene for a billboard and I also at
that time it was like, uh, you know, God, I
guess uh people on charged them were like I remember
Lynn Lynn Anderson had Rose Garden. That was a big one.
And I got to hang out with Glenn Uh, Billy
(09:44):
Sheryl and Uh and Glenn Lyn's husband who wrote and
Uh and also left you. Brazail cut one of my
songs back then, Railroad and Lay. That's the first time
I ever got cut in Nashal and wayl and Jenny's
that he went to Paris, and those about the only
two songs I ever got cut in that day when
I was trying so, you know, and it was kind
(10:06):
of pre outlaw, but still I'd go to the operay.
But I always always loved shows of Little Jimmy, Dickens,
Fair and young those kind of people, and of course
Dollie you know, and so yeah, that was what was
going on at the time. And then I also got
to cover muscle shows and Memphis and what was going
on and making so I was covering, you know, when
(10:26):
all that was kind of exploding out of the South
at that time. I covered that too.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Did you ever think in some bizarro world that you
would have been just a great reporter and you would have,
you know, maybe been dragged out of music to just
cover the hot beats?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, that's not what I wanted to do, Bobby. It was.
It was a temporary job. I answered an ad in
the Nashville Banner and it said report it won and
need a journalism degree. And I said, aha, I have
a journalism degree. And I answered the ad and it
was Billboard magazine. So I got to tell you the
one thing about it. Though, working there and working for
Bill Williams, who is a great influence on me, I
(11:04):
learned very very early what really the music business was about,
and you had to be a little bit careful. And
so learning of music business from the side of covering,
I think gave me a gave me cover later to
figure things out.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, all right, we're on with Jimmy Buffer right now.
I'm gonna bring I wanna bring Eddie on. Who is
your biggest fan. He's my best friend. And whenever we
you know, we're playing a comedy band together, but when
we're playing real songs, it's always a Buffet song. Jimmy,
I'm gonna and listen, Jimmy, I love you, but I sometimes.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
I'm like Eddie. Enough with the Jimmy Buffett. But here
this is Eddie. I'd like to introduce you guys Eddie's
I had to Jimmy, I love I love.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Those people to drive other people crazy because they love
my music so much. Hey Eddie, what's up?
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Hey? Jimmy big fan.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I'm a parent head, of course, I've been since high
school because of my buddy Brian Wagner. His parents introduced
me to your music and I've been a fan ever since.
But you know, I lived in Austin and what and
what people like to do from their hometowns is always
make up stories of like yeah, yeah, yeah, Jimmy Buffett
wrote Margaritaville here and I want to hear it from
the horse's mouth, like where did you write Margaritaville? Was
(12:07):
it in Austin? And also they said you wrote it
while you were standing at a friend's house. Who was
that friend?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Well, I did, Yeah, it happened in Austin. I was
playing a club at that time called the Castle Creek,
and that was where Jerry Jeff had gotten me to Austin.
And I can't remember the name of the little Mexican place,
but it's not there anymore because I tried to remember it.
My my friend that took me there, we were talking
(12:34):
about it and so she took me out to the
airport because I was living in Key West and I'd
done a show the night before, and so I was
a little bit hungover, and so we went and had
some burritos in a margarita and it was hot, and
I said, damn, that was a good margarita. And I
started it there you're like wasting away or and then
(12:57):
got on a plane from Austin when back to Miami,
was driving down the Keys going home and there was
like a wreck on the seven mile bridge and the
stop traffic. And I wrote the end of it on
the seven mile Bridge and then got to Key West
and finished it and did it on stage when the
bar I was working in the next nine people seem
(13:18):
to like it. So that's that's how it actually started.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Yeah, okay, so they're not all just liars.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Then when they claimed out, oh it actually happened that way.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Yeah, hang tight. The Bobby cast will be right back.
This is the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So Jimmy, I met you a couple of times, and
it was interesting. The one time I met you, I
look over and you're you're standing behind me. We're at
a show and we were watching Jake Sshima Bukudu, the
ukulele player. And you're standing right behind me, but you're
wearing a suit, you got little glasses on. Not exactly
how I pictured Jimmy Buffett would be on the streets
(13:56):
per se. Is that what you wear when you're normally
like a Wednesday? Now what does Jimmy Buffett wear on
just a regular day?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Wait a minute, let's go back to this suit thing.
This this this guy. You know, it's weird. I can
remember a lot of stuff that's been going on, but
I'm thinking, why would I be with listening to Jake
Shimmer before a backstage somewhere in a suit? Give me
a venue, because I would have only had it on
(14:24):
for some reason.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Okay, okay, So it was not were.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Every day this is you know it.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It was Captus Cafe and Jake was coming in to
play a little show. You guys had another show. I
think you all were rehearsing your tour over by the rodeo,
is what you told me?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And say? Yeah, okay, so okay, So we were in Austin, correct,
So we were we were all we always rehearse.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Out at the fair ground, right, correct, that's what you said?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
What the hell? Would I be.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Hey, if I could interject for a second, Jimmy, I
met you in Miami at the Super Bowl. One of
my best friends is Andy Roddick, and we went back
and we were saying hello to you, and you.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
Were dressed up pretty nice to hanging out.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
So we don't mean to kill your vibe, but you
were looking pretty good then too.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
You were dressed up. All I know is there was
a lot of Hawaiian shirts going on.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So which super Bowl? Which super Bowl? The Super Bowl?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yes, the Saints, Saints over the Colts.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Oh yeah, oh god, I'll be I don't know why
I would have been in a suit him, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
We're totally blowing your cover, Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Sorry, well, I must say go okay boys every now
and then, But I do I do like to put
on a white sports coat every now. Maybe Ali in
that white sports coke mood. I don't know. Don't all
that suits, but but at the maybe I had to
make it impression on somebody at the Super Bowl game.
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Anyone else. Would you like to ask Jimmy?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
All right, Jimmy, I have one more You know A
friend of mine told me he met you one time
and he went up to you and said, Jimmy, I'm
a big fan of your music. And your response was, oh,
you're the one and so and so.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Well most of the time, like you just said, you
know that your best friend, your parents are. I always
want to thank your parents for raising y'all on this music.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That's who I want to thank, all right, Jimmy Buffett's
on with us. He just released his new album Life
on the flip side of May twenty ninth, which, by
the way, flew up the charts. It was his first
studio album in seven years. And so, why so long?
Why did you take such a break from the last
studio album to the studio I'm Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well, you know, Bobby was like other things were happening
and during that time, and it was we were on
a writing spreakers I have. We were kind of invested
in going in the direction of Broadway to do the
musical Martin Riteville, which took about five years to get up, down,
ramped up and on stage, and so that wound up
(17:00):
being more work than I thought about. And at the
time that was happening, and then when you know, when
we playlists and then music service things would come in,
and the thing, I didn't know whether albums would still
be around, to be honest, you know, And I thought,
maybe you will do a couple of songs because we
got the studio. Because the interesting thing from having done
so many albums, when you do a whole album, you
(17:23):
could as a you know, I consider the corwy for
man and me more of a performer than than than
than a radio artist, because that's what I've done all
my life. But as a performer, you do an album,
you could never put twelve new songs into the show
list and try to play them. You always had to
find out that a whatever everybody's playing on the radar
(17:44):
be what answer was telling you for a couple of
slots in it. So I just thought that we would
kind of keep if we had some songs, we go
in and record them and then put them up on playlists.
And then but I was once we got the musical
up and done, and then the road show went on
the road and unfortunately had to come off the road
when the when the pandemic started. But then there was
(18:08):
time there and I thought, you know, and Mac and
I were talking about it, he said, you know, let's go.
We may not make another album, but let's go make
for one. He was Mac mcinalen was a catalyst, and
he said, you got some really good songs here, so
let's go ahead and write some more and let's let's
do a project. And I'm and I agree with him
and Mike Utley and so you know, that was two
(18:30):
years ago. So that five years before that, it was
it was a lot of time invested in going on
the road, writing and rewriting for the Broadway show. And
and that's that's where I was.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Life on the Flipside came out May twenty ninth. That's
out right now, stream it by it. I got two
more questions for you. Question number one is you were
born on Christmas Day? How do gifts work with you?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Do?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Do they have to get you two gifts? Do the
Is it just all one one big Jimmy Day on Christmas?
Like what happens there?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Well, my other insisted that family members like my aunts
and uncles down and I had one one one family
string was in past Gagoula, Mississippi. The other was in
Gulf Court. So they all had to buy me two presents.
But knowing my family, it usually with like socks and
a rosary bead. You know, it was let's just say
(19:22):
they were not useful objects for me at the time,
but I got two of something. So but the worst
thing about it, I was the last guy in my
class to get his driver's license. So you know, that
summer of turning everybody else was sixteen. That was the
most excruciating time because everybody else was driving and you know,
(19:43):
and so it was it was that teenage thing that
I didn't have my license and I wasn't cool. So
that was the hardest thing about it.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
On with Jimmy Buffett. One final question.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Do you ever go into a Marguerite deville and just
have something to eat and not tell them it's you?
Or do you go in and try to convince them
it's you and they don't believe you.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Both of those have happened. What's happened is, yes, I've
I've tried to go in and just uh and go
in when when it was the first Margaret read when
there was only one when they first started in Key Weston,
and we had one in New Orleans before we kind
of chained out. But yeah, I go in there and
just to eat and then but people would come up,
(20:22):
and usually the one that got you was say'd look
at you and go you're not him. They didn't even
ask the question. Then he went you're not him or else,
and then I go, well, yeah, show me a driver's license.
It's like, you know, I went, wait.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
A man here, Well listen, Jimmy, congratulations on the new music,
and you know, you know been. I'll spend a little
time with you randomly at different charity events, and you've
always been super nice to a random guy that always
walked up to you, So I appreciate that, and I
appreciate the time you spent here with me and my
buddy Eddie. He's a massive fans amazing.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Thank you so much, Jimmy, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And maybe I'll see you at the opera.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Hi, Bobby, all right, Jimmy, looking forward to it, see
you soon.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
All right, Thanks, God, bye, bye pleasure.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
This has been a Bobby Cast production.
We had the chance to interview Jimmy Buffett a couple
of years ago. And I've met Jimmy Bufet before and
I'm a casual fan. I've seen him perform a couple
of times. But Eddie is I mean, you're a diehard
Jimmy Buffet fan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Since I was in high school, like a friend of
mine gave me a CD. I listened to it. I'm like, God,
this guy is speaking to me. Every song on that CD,
and it's the greatest hits one. It's called Jimmy Buffett's
Songs you know by heart, and you listen to it
from top to bottom, it's like, oh my gosh, this
is the life I want to live.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It opens with like Cheeseburger and Paradise, where you're like, yeah,
who doesn't love cheeseburgers, and then closes with like Volcano.
It's like just a beach song of like I don't know,
I don't know, and it's just so Jamaica sounding like
I just dude. I The thing about Jimmy Buffett was
like it just took you. As soon as you listen
to a song, it took you to another place, took
you out of whatever you were, it took you to
(00:47):
a beach somewhere with a drink in your hand.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I love that.
Speaker 5 (00:49):
And you love beaches and drinks and hands.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I do so all those things.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Those things. Jimmy Buffett passed away of skin cancer.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, yeah, which was pretty crazy there, not ironically.
Speaker 5 (01:04):
I mean, well, I means in the sun a lot.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Anytime you saw a picture of him, he was on
a boat, fishing in the sun, surfing that kind of thing.
So yeah, I guess you know what's crazy is no
one knew that he had skin camper. He kept it
secret for I think four years. They were saying, I
think a close few friends of the family knew, but
he didn't.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
And apparently that was just his style.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
He's like, it wasn't going to burden all his fans
and tell him like, hey, I got cancer.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I'm going to go pretty soon.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Did it make you sad when he died? Absolutely weird? Huh?
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Did somebody you never knew that? Somebody it feels like,
you know, die and it makes you feel sad.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
When you know so much about their life, you know,
I mean anything they fed you, I don't, you know.
I grew up and realized that Obviously, that's not how
Jimmy lived his life.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Every day.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
He was an entertainer, He was a businessman. He started
the Marguerite de Ville brand, you know, like he had
how many hotels and resorts, Like, he worked a lot.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
He didn't just chill on the beach and drink.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
And so I think I realized that when I got older,
but it was still just cool too. And I loved
falling on Instagram because on Instagram he was always riding
a bike somewhere or on an island somewhere, on a boat,
and so that was really cool. And so when you
learn all that stuff about a person, and read so
much about a person and read the stories, and then
from other artists that have hung out with him, you
(02:28):
read their stories, you really feel like you know that person.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
So when you lose them, you're like, oh man, we
lost a good one.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
And he was still putting out music today, still write
same vibe, same vibe, a little older.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Obviously.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
The thing about Jimmy is like he would always write
about his time, you know, is like if he's seventy
years old, he's writing about medicare you know he was
twenty he was writing about hooking up with chicks.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
It's like our show.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Honestly, I mean we we have not on our show
done what consultants traditionally want a show to do where
they identify an age group and this is your target audience.
I've always felt like my target audience are people that
I talked to that because I'm talking about my life,
our lives, what we're going through, I'm not gonna fake it, right,
And so you know, we used to be on that
(03:14):
younger Okay you're eighteen, twenty four, Okay, now you're twenty five.
So but I just I never purposefully changed. I just
changed as a person, and so my work changed with it.
It sounds like that's what Jimmy Buffet did too.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, And you know, and now after you pass, you
start seeing the people that are kind of honoring him
on Instagram, and you see, like, man, he hung out
with Don Johnson all the time, he hung out Amy Vice,
Miami Vice, like just people. Paul McCartney wrote this thing
about him, how he was just a really good friend
of Paul McCartney. And you think, like Jimmy Buffett was
a simple dude. Yeah he's a rich guy, but he
was a guy from Louisiana, you know at Alabama.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
He's from the South. Yeah, he's from the South. I
thought he was from some island. I never heard of that.
Only he owned and only he lived on.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
His story was crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
He came to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
He was a journalist major, I believe, and he came
to Nashville to write for Billboard magazine.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
What.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah, he moved to Nashville to write for Billboard magazine.
He wrote for them for like a couple of years.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
First of all, I don't know he lived in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
His first record label, his first records were here in
Nashville is country music. He was chasing country music. Then
he did a couple to write about it, just to
do country, to be a country artist.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So then he was writing about it just to make
some money while he was also pursuing it.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
He was yeah, he oh, he would write for Billboard.
It was just a you know, like a job, just
a job. We're working for Billboard and still writing music.
That's where he became friends with Jerry Jeff Walker here
in Nashville, and they would write songs and then got
a record deal. He'd made two albums in that deal.
The records were terrible. They weren't good at all.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
What were they sounding like?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
This pretty generic country country in nineteen seventies country like
Nashville sound type stuff. Totally yeah, and not what Jimmy
Buffett sounds like at all. And so then he goes
over to Florida, I think for like a trip over
in Key West, falls in, loves with it and says,
you know what, I'm just gonna move over there. See
what happens. So he goes over there, meets a bunch
of people, starts writing about them their life, and that's
(05:05):
kind of how he got the whole beach vibe.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
And then he's beach Willie Nelson.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I failed here, had a little had a little little bump,
but then went back home or went somewhere else to
when to screw it.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
I'm just gonna go back and do it.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And then found his own niche when he decided to
do it his own way.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
That's it, Jimmy Buffett, Rest in peace.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I thought we played this interview back and I would
never have done this interview without Eddie.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
I knew Eddie wanted to hop in and I thought
it was cool.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
I appreciate here you go. Here on the Bobbycast. It's
us talking with Jimmy Buffett.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
This is the Bobby Cast. Jimmy, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So I had a good week.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
Where are you right now?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I am in my studio in sag Harbor, New York.
I just got back from California, but that's where I've
been for three months, sitting it now.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You know you're playing the Opry on June twenty seventh,
and I host that TV show.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
I played The Opry a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I producing the TV show as well, and I was
very excited to know a couple of weeks ago that
you had come on. Had to keep it quiet, which
is a big deal for me to keep something quiet,
because not what I'm paid to do is keep things quiet.
So how long ago did you decide or did you
get the call to play the Grand Ole Opry?
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what about. There's
a long history because once upon a time, when I
was a struggling songwriter in Nashville, I had to get
a real job and it wound up being for Billboard
magazine and I was working for the editor named Bill
Williams at that time, and he took me down because
at that point in time was when they started the
Friday Night Opry, So I covered the Opry for Billboard
(06:36):
back in like nineteen seventy one. So, and then when
they did the Johnny Cash Show from the Ryman, my
wife at the time was the assistant tele coordinator, so
I got to go to all those shows. So I've
had a long desire to play it. The only time
I ever played the Ramen was once with Jenny Lewis.
And then when this way when the pandemic came and
(06:59):
Mac called me and said that they'd been doing these
shows and I saw the one the Dents and Marty
and I think Brad Paisley did. I just I love
what they were doing, and they reached out to him
and I said, I'd be honored to do it. So
that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Well, Jimmy will be making his Grand Ole Opry debut
June twenty seventh, and Brad Paisley, mc mckinnelly and Jimmy Buffett, congratulations.
By the way, your record number two on the Billboard
two hundred. Lady Gotgay was the only person to beat you.
I don't know if you heard from her, but she
was talking a lot of crap.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Jimmy. Uh, you know, I met at one time. I've
always liked what she does because you know, she's a
real player and a real singer. You know, that came
up through bars, and you know, I think we have
that in common. People that do that seemed to be
able to do okay. And she couldn't have been nicer
when I met her briefly. And so yeah, I like
(07:50):
being number two the Layer. Yeah, but I'm number one country.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
You know, I think a lot of people don't realize
or maybe they don't remember that you've had two number
one songs on the country charts, specifically with Alan Jackson
and Zach Brownband.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
How did those collaborations come together?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
You know, it was it was again, you know, all
that time spent. You know, it was obvious to a
lot of people that you know that Nashville went to
the beach about ten years ago, and I guess I
was kind of the guide. And you know when when
country music went to the beach, everybody kind of was
wanting to check in, and uh, you know, Alan called
(08:29):
me and at that time he was being managed by
Howard Kaufman, who was my manager as well, and I
was again honored. I thought, yeah, this would be fun
to do, you know, because I wouldn't. I haven't had
a lot of big radio hits, I think two point
one in forty years, but we managed to do okay.
So you know, it was great meeting those those kids
(08:50):
and kids at that time like Alan and Zach who
you know, it kind of followed me. Everybody kind of
starts out, you know, emulating somebody else. I loved the
Gordon Lightfoot and uh and Merle Haggard, you know, and uh,
you try to emulate and then find your own self.
So I felt the honor that people have come of
thought that much of it. And so that's that happened.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
We're talking with Jimmy Buffer right now.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You know, you talked about living in Nashville back in
the day, which a lot of people may not even
know or even associate you with Nashville. But were you
back and who was kind of emerging as a big
country artist when you were living here?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Well, again, I was. I was covering the covering, uh,
the whole scene for a billboard and I also at
that time it was like, uh, you know, God, I
guess uh people on charged them were like I remember
Lynn Lynn Anderson had Rose Garden. That was a big one.
And I got to hang out with Glenn Uh, Billy
(09:44):
Sheryl and Uh and Glenn Lyn's husband who wrote and
Uh and also left you. Brazail cut one of my
songs back then, Railroad and Lay. That's the first time
I ever got cut in Nashal and wayl and Jenny's
that he went to Paris, and those about the only
two songs I ever got cut in that day when
I was trying so, you know, and it was kind
(10:06):
of pre outlaw, but still I'd go to the operay.
But I always always loved shows of Little Jimmy, Dickens,
Fair and young those kind of people, and of course
Dollie you know, and so yeah, that was what was
going on at the time. And then I also got
to cover muscle shows and Memphis and what was going
on and making so I was covering, you know, when
(10:26):
all that was kind of exploding out of the South
at that time. I covered that too.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Did you ever think in some bizarro world that you
would have been just a great reporter and you would have,
you know, maybe been dragged out of music to just
cover the hot beats?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Well, that's not what I wanted to do, Bobby. It was.
It was a temporary job. I answered an ad in
the Nashville Banner and it said report it won and
need a journalism degree. And I said, aha, I have
a journalism degree. And I answered the ad and it
was Billboard magazine. So I got to tell you the
one thing about it. Though, working there and working for
Bill Williams, who is a great influence on me, I
(11:04):
learned very very early what really the music business was about,
and you had to be a little bit careful. And
so learning of music business from the side of covering,
I think gave me a gave me cover later to
figure things out.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, all right, we're on with Jimmy Buffer right now.
I'm gonna bring I wanna bring Eddie on. Who is
your biggest fan. He's my best friend. And whenever we
you know, we're playing a comedy band together, but when
we're playing real songs, it's always a Buffet song. Jimmy,
I'm gonna and listen, Jimmy, I love you, but I sometimes.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
I'm like Eddie. Enough with the Jimmy Buffett. But here
this is Eddie. I'd like to introduce you guys Eddie's
I had to Jimmy, I love I love.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Those people to drive other people crazy because they love
my music so much. Hey Eddie, what's up?
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Hey? Jimmy big fan.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
I'm a parent head, of course, I've been since high
school because of my buddy Brian Wagner. His parents introduced
me to your music and I've been a fan ever since.
But you know, I lived in Austin and what and
what people like to do from their hometowns is always
make up stories of like yeah, yeah, yeah, Jimmy Buffett
wrote Margaritaville here and I want to hear it from
the horse's mouth, like where did you write Margaritaville? Was
(12:07):
it in Austin? And also they said you wrote it
while you were standing at a friend's house. Who was
that friend?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Well, I did, Yeah, it happened in Austin. I was
playing a club at that time called the Castle Creek,
and that was where Jerry Jeff had gotten me to Austin.
And I can't remember the name of the little Mexican place,
but it's not there anymore because I tried to remember it.
My my friend that took me there, we were talking
(12:34):
about it and so she took me out to the
airport because I was living in Key West and I'd
done a show the night before, and so I was
a little bit hungover, and so we went and had
some burritos in a margarita and it was hot, and
I said, damn, that was a good margarita. And I
started it there you're like wasting away or and then
(12:57):
got on a plane from Austin when back to Miami,
was driving down the Keys going home and there was
like a wreck on the seven mile bridge and the
stop traffic. And I wrote the end of it on
the seven mile Bridge and then got to Key West
and finished it and did it on stage when the
bar I was working in the next nine people seem
(13:18):
to like it. So that's that's how it actually started.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Yeah, okay, so they're not all just liars.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Then when they claimed out, oh it actually happened that way.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
Yeah, hang tight. The Bobby cast will be right back.
This is the Bobby Cast.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
So Jimmy, I met you a couple of times, and
it was interesting. The one time I met you, I
look over and you're you're standing behind me. We're at
a show and we were watching Jake Sshima Bukudu, the
ukulele player. And you're standing right behind me, but you're
wearing a suit, you got little glasses on. Not exactly
how I pictured Jimmy Buffett would be on the streets
(13:56):
per se. Is that what you wear when you're normally
like a Wednesday? Now what does Jimmy Buffett wear on
just a regular day?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Wait a minute, let's go back to this suit thing.
This this this guy. You know, it's weird. I can
remember a lot of stuff that's been going on, but
I'm thinking, why would I be with listening to Jake
Shimmer before a backstage somewhere in a suit? Give me
a venue, because I would have only had it on
(14:24):
for some reason.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Okay, okay, So it was not were.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Every day this is you know it.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
It was Captus Cafe and Jake was coming in to
play a little show. You guys had another show. I
think you all were rehearsing your tour over by the rodeo,
is what you told me?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And say? Yeah, okay, so okay, So we were in Austin, correct,
So we were we were all we always rehearse.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Out at the fair ground, right, correct, that's what you said?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
What the hell? Would I be.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Hey, if I could interject for a second, Jimmy, I
met you in Miami at the Super Bowl. One of
my best friends is Andy Roddick, and we went back
and we were saying hello to you, and you.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
Were dressed up pretty nice to hanging out.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
So we don't mean to kill your vibe, but you
were looking pretty good then too.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
You were dressed up. All I know is there was
a lot of Hawaiian shirts going on.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
So which super Bowl? Which super Bowl? The Super Bowl?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yes, the Saints, Saints over the Colts.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Oh yeah, oh god, I'll be I don't know why
I would have been in a suit him, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
We're totally blowing your cover, Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Sorry, well, I must say go okay boys every now
and then, But I do I do like to put
on a white sports coat every now. Maybe Ali in
that white sports coke mood. I don't know. Don't all
that suits, but but at the maybe I had to
make it impression on somebody at the Super Bowl game.
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Anyone else. Would you like to ask Jimmy?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
All right, Jimmy, I have one more You know A
friend of mine told me he met you one time
and he went up to you and said, Jimmy, I'm
a big fan of your music. And your response was, oh,
you're the one and so and so.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Well most of the time, like you just said, you
know that your best friend, your parents are. I always
want to thank your parents for raising y'all on this music.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
That's who I want to thank, all right, Jimmy Buffett's
on with us. He just released his new album Life
on the flip side of May twenty ninth, which, by
the way, flew up the charts. It was his first
studio album in seven years. And so, why so long?
Why did you take such a break from the last
studio album to the studio I'm Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well, you know, Bobby was like other things were happening
and during that time, and it was we were on
a writing spreakers I have. We were kind of invested
in going in the direction of Broadway to do the
musical Martin Riteville, which took about five years to get up, down,
ramped up and on stage, and so that wound up
(17:00):
being more work than I thought about. And at the
time that was happening, and then when you know, when
we playlists and then music service things would come in,
and the thing, I didn't know whether albums would still
be around, to be honest, you know, And I thought,
maybe you will do a couple of songs because we
got the studio. Because the interesting thing from having done
so many albums, when you do a whole album, you
(17:23):
could as a you know, I consider the corwy for
man and me more of a performer than than than
than a radio artist, because that's what I've done all
my life. But as a performer, you do an album,
you could never put twelve new songs into the show
list and try to play them. You always had to
find out that a whatever everybody's playing on the radar
(17:44):
be what answer was telling you for a couple of
slots in it. So I just thought that we would
kind of keep if we had some songs, we go
in and record them and then put them up on playlists.
And then but I was once we got the musical
up and done, and then the road show went on
the road and unfortunately had to come off the road
when the when the pandemic started. But then there was
(18:08):
time there and I thought, you know, and Mac and
I were talking about it, he said, you know, let's go.
We may not make another album, but let's go make
for one. He was Mac mcinalen was a catalyst, and
he said, you got some really good songs here, so
let's go ahead and write some more and let's let's
do a project. And I'm and I agree with him
and Mike Utley and so you know, that was two
(18:30):
years ago. So that five years before that, it was
it was a lot of time invested in going on
the road, writing and rewriting for the Broadway show. And
and that's that's where I was.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Life on the Flipside came out May twenty ninth. That's
out right now, stream it by it. I got two
more questions for you. Question number one is you were
born on Christmas Day? How do gifts work with you?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Do?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Do they have to get you two gifts? Do the
Is it just all one one big Jimmy Day on Christmas?
Like what happens there?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Well, my other insisted that family members like my aunts
and uncles down and I had one one one family
string was in past Gagoula, Mississippi. The other was in
Gulf Court. So they all had to buy me two presents.
But knowing my family, it usually with like socks and
a rosary bead. You know, it was let's just say
(19:22):
they were not useful objects for me at the time,
but I got two of something. So but the worst
thing about it, I was the last guy in my
class to get his driver's license. So you know, that
summer of turning everybody else was sixteen. That was the
most excruciating time because everybody else was driving and you know,
(19:43):
and so it was it was that teenage thing that
I didn't have my license and I wasn't cool. So
that was the hardest thing about it.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
On with Jimmy Buffett. One final question.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Do you ever go into a Marguerite deville and just
have something to eat and not tell them it's you?
Or do you go in and try to convince them
it's you and they don't believe you.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Both of those have happened. What's happened is, yes, I've
I've tried to go in and just uh and go
in when when it was the first Margaret read when
there was only one when they first started in Key Weston,
and we had one in New Orleans before we kind
of chained out. But yeah, I go in there and
just to eat and then but people would come up,
(20:22):
and usually the one that got you was say'd look
at you and go you're not him. They didn't even
ask the question. Then he went you're not him or else,
and then I go, well, yeah, show me a driver's license.
It's like, you know, I went, wait.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
A man here, Well listen, Jimmy, congratulations on the new music,
and you know, you know been. I'll spend a little
time with you randomly at different charity events, and you've
always been super nice to a random guy that always
walked up to you, So I appreciate that, and I
appreciate the time you spent here with me and my
buddy Eddie. He's a massive fans amazing.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Thank you so much, Jimmy, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And maybe I'll see you at the opera.
Speaker 5 (21:04):
Hi, Bobby, all right, Jimmy, looking forward to it, see
you soon.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
All right, Thanks, God, bye, bye pleasure.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
This has been a Bobby Cast production.
Host
Bobby Bones
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