Jimmy Buffett, the American singer-songwriter who went from Key West seaside bum to billionaire behind the always-on-vacation “Margaritaville” industrial empire, has died on the age of 76. “Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs. He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many,” an announcement on his web site mentioned on Saturday. It didn’t give a reason behind loss of life. In current months Buffett had canceled exhibits attributable to well being points.

Buffett, nominated for 2 Grammy awards and winner of quite a few Country Music Awards, constructed his title touring his folk-country songs across the United States within the Seventies. His breakthrough hit was “Margaritaville,” a melodic observe with a tropical lilt that quickly turned a mainstay of resort musicians and a trip favourite of nonetheless vaguely hedonistic child boomers, with its lyrics about “wastin’ away” and “nothing to show but this brand new tattoo.”

Other widespread songs – all on an analogous sun- and cocktail-drenched theme – included “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” U.S. President Joe Biden issued an announcement on Saturday on Buffett’s passing, calling him a “poet of paradise.” It mentioned: “Jimmy reminded us how much the simple things in life matter – the people we love, the places we’re from, the hopes we have on the horizon.”

Buffett launched over two dozen albums and performed numerous concert events over six a long time, whereas the “Margaritaville” idea exploded into a life-style model that ultimately included every thing from motels and eating places to pool floats and frozen shrimp dishes. For growing old followers – generally known as “Parrotheads” – who couldn’t get sufficient, the primary “Latitude Margaritaville” retirement group opened in Florida in 2018, and others quickly adopted, promising “food, fun, music and escapism” for the over-55s.

The concept for the “Margaritaville” model started within the mid-Nineteen Eighties when Buffett observed individuals strolling round Key West sporting t-shirts together with his (misspelled) title on; he responded by opening up a t-shirt retailer after which added a restaurant. He informed Forbes in 1994 that “if you’re an artist, if you want to have control of your life … then you gotta be a businessman, like it or not.”

In 2023, Buffett – who had a 28% stake within the Margaritaville Holdings agency – made the Forbes checklist of billionaires. He was mates with mega-rich investor Warren Buffett (no relation) and he owned and flew a number of personal jets. But he all the time mentioned that he was at his happiest touring -playing barefoot to crowds massive or small and plucking at his guitar. Wearing his trademark Hawaiian shirt, he would typically seem on stage with different musicians to do shock performances.

KEY WEST CALLS James William Buffett was born on Dec. 25, 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and grew up in Mobile, Alabama, the son of a well-traveled military engineer and the grandson of a seafaring man who he would later say gave him a lifelong love of the ocean and craving for journey. He studied journalism at college and went to Nashville, Tennessee, to work for Billboard Magazine.

As a pupil he had begun enjoying guitar and busking and in Nashville, the house of nation music, he launched his first file in 1970. But it was in 1971 when he found Key West that he discovered his calling. An island on the far tip of Florida, nearer to Cuba than the U.S. mainland, Key West has lengthy had a repute as a spot for artists, misfits, and heavy drinkers. Author Ernest Hemingway lived there within the Nineteen Thirties.

“Key West will always be a part of me,” Buffett mentioned in an interview with the Miami Herald in 2022. “I really found myself I think as a writer down there… I’m just glad that I was able to utilize it and it did for me as much as I did for them.” Buffett’s folksy calypso music that channelled the Key West mode of life shortly made him widespread.

“Come Monday” was his first hit in 1974, though it was 1977’s “Margaritaville” that basically took off. Beyond Florida, his songs hit a nerve with those that did not care an excessive amount of about their jobs, who smoked pot and drank tequila and lived for his or her seaside holidays. Over his profession, Buffett launched 27 studio albums, wrote a Broadway jukebox musical (“Escape to Margaritaville”) and plenty of books (most notably 1989’s “Tales from Margaritaville.”) He established a file label, Mailboat Records, in 1999.

He was married twice. He had three youngsters together with his second spouse, Jane Slagsvol, who he met in Key West within the Seventies. (Writing by Rosalba O’Brien Additional reporting by Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru Editing by Diane Craft, John Stonestreet, Frances Kerry and Matthew Lewis)

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