A recent column by Eureka Springs Independent Editor Mary Pat Boian discussed the writers and columnists who make the weekly newspaper diverse, informative and entertaining. After discussing each writer, and the paper’s co-owner, Perlinda Pettigrew-Owens, Mary Pat concluded about each: He/she isn’t in it for the money.
When I read that Jimmy Buffett passed away on Sept. 1 at age 76, I thought the same thing. Various reports put his net worth at close to $1 billion. Yet he kept delighting fans and giving concerts until May of this year when he was hospitalized due to complications from skin cancer. While best known for his tropical Caribbean beach bum songs, he was also a best-selling author and an astute businessman whose Margaritaville hotels, resorts and restaurants have been wildly successful.
For 26 years, I lived in areas of Mississippi near where Buffett grew up and went to college. He was born in Pascagoula, Miss., and graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. A friend from Hattiesburg, who played in a band with Buffett while they were in college, said that back then, Buffett was not considered anything special as a musician. That dovetails with what I’ve read about Buffett initially being frustrated trying to break into country music.
Then he developed his own style and persona. Like Dolly Parton, Buffet was best known for live performances and albums, but it was really his talent as a songwriter that earned him a top spot in the music industry. He also had the distinction of being one of the few authors to have both fiction and non-fiction books on top of The New York Times bestseller list.
In 1993, I traveled from the Mississippi Coast across Mobile Bay to meet with Buffett’s parents, J.D. and Loraine “Peets” Buffett, in their home for an interview. The article I wrote that appeared in Mississippi Magazine in March/April 1993 was titled, “Stories to Send You. Jimmy Buffett, One of the music industry’s most successful stars, has crossed over—into books.”
An avid reader herself, Buffett’s mother spoke of encouraging her son and his two sisters to read.
“My mother used to make me read the classics,” Jimmy said. “She taught me that reading is the key to everything. Reading as a child expanded my imagination and, when I grew up, I looked at the literature I enjoyed the most and asked why.”
The article begins with a bit of his history: “From the time he was a small child, there was nothing Jimmy Buffett liked better than climbing up on his grandfather’s knee to listen to stories of the sea, faraway places, and strange people. Captain James Delaney Buffett, a native of Nova Scotia, started working on a whaling ship when he was 16. A master of sail and then steam, Captain Buffett traveled around the world, spoke several languages with ease, and had a gift for relating the many wonders he had seen during his 60 years to family and a small circle of friends.
“Captain Buffett also started a tradition now enjoyed by millions. Because the one thing that most distinguishes the captain’s famous grandson from other popular musical recording stars is that Jimmy Buffett is a consummate storyteller.
“With a few well-chosen words, Buffett relates life stories, mini biographies, and biographies that entertain and enchant in enduringly popular songs like “Cuban Crime of Passion, “Come Monday,” and “When the Wild Life Betrays Me.” Songs like Buffett’s have a long tradition in folk music, which rarely makes the Top 40 music charts. In fact, when Buffett started his music career in the late 1960s, he was pressured to change his style to something more commercial. But he kept telling stories with music in a style uniquely his own and not easily classified. He is not country or Cajun, rock ‘n roll or reggae, Latin or Caribbean, but a creative Buffett musical gumbo that blends it all. His music is entertainment with pathos, and insight into human nature.”
Buffett’s parents were retired shipyard workers when I met them. J.D. was pretty quiet during the interview. Peets reminded me of my favorite high school English teacher – gracious, elegant, smart and very articulate.
Buffett’s parents talked about how they greatly enjoyed following his career from the early difficult days through his initial heady success to the comfortable status as a firmly established star who never burned out or lost his popularity. (Remember, this was written 30 years ago.)
Some of Buffett’s gold albums (selling more than 500,000 copies) and platinum (selling more than a million copies) albums decorated the walls of his parents’ home. They loved going to his concerts.
“I enjoy every minute of them,” Jimmy’s dad said.
“When we are backstage and look out at the crowd, it’s hard to realize it’s your son that people are screaming for,” his mom said.
“Since Buffett’s trademark sound is popular with concert goers of all ages, his parents blend well with the crowd,” the article said.
“I never planned to be family entertainment,” Buffett said. “It just happened. Believe me, it’s a challenge to appeal to a 12-year-old and a 60-year-old at the same time.”
The article concludes with a list of gifts to his parents including a 50th wedding anniversary celebration co-hosted by his sisters May 9, 1992, that climaxed with a party at the Grand Hotel in Fairhope, Ala., that included dancing to a big band.
“The really wonderful thing was that all of our family was there,” Mrs. Buffett said. “One of my granddaughters said it was a celebration of love, and it really was.”
The article concludes: “Buffett’s songs and his books, too, are also celebrations of love and of a life that—like his grandfather’s—has been filled with interesting characters, sailing to faraway lands, and lessons of life. ‘With all the passing trends of the past two decades, I still haven’t changed my style of writing,’ Buffett said. ‘A good story is never out of fashion.”’
And he wasn’t in it for the money.