Jimmy Buffett, Music Legend and Hamptonite, Dies at 76

Jimmy Buffett, the “Margaritaville” singer-songwriter and longtime North Haven resident who drew legions of colorful fans who called themselves Parrotheads and who parlayed his success into business ventures, died Friday. He was 76.

The tropical rocker’s passing comes two months after he debuted a new song, “My Gummy Just Kicked In,” during an in-person interview on WLNG 92.1 FM Radio in Sag Harbor. He had canceled his tour after an unspecified illness and didn’t hold his annual concert at Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater this summer.

A Jimmy Buffett tribute band already scheduled to play the Jones Beach Bandshell on Saturday is expected to turn the show into a vigil.

Jimmy Buffett’s Legacy in the Hamptons & Beyond

“Jimmy helped start the Palm Tree Festival which first started in the Hamptons,” said Vinny LeVien, who put on the concerts. “It’s now a national and international festival. He wanted to help a young new performer Kygo who had a vision like him to have clean concerts with good energy. His legacy will live on with so many entertainers he helped.”

Buffett was known for making surprise musical appearances in the Hamptons over the years. He made a surprise appearance during Kygo‘s headlining DJ set at the second annual Palm Tree Music Festival in June 2022 at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach. He joined Willie Nelson‘s son, Lukas Nelson (& Promise of the Real band), onstage at a party on Labor Day in 2019, and even entertained guests at Montauk’s exquisite Surf Lodge in 2018, when he jumped onstage as Wyclef Jean performed.

Buffett dropped by Broadcast House in Sag Harbor and joined on air DJs at 11 a.m. for a 45-minute interview on a very special edition of WLNG’s “Lunch on the Deck” with Bill Evans and Jessica Ambrose.

Jimmy said, “I wanted to drop the song like we used to, and knew that WLNG, my hometown station would be one of the few places with live DJs on a Sunday morning in July!”

WLNG is essentially Buffett’s “hometown radio station” as he lived across the street from the station decades ago and still lived nearby.

Jimmy Buffett built an empire based largely on Caribbean-flavored pop that celebrated the Florida Keys, sunshine and nightlife. His name became synonymous with a laid-back subtropical party vibe.

But behind the laid-back exterior, Buffett was an admitted workaholic. He expanded into novels, nightclubs and many other ventures. At one time his estimated annual income was more than $40 million, and his revenue sources extended far beyond a musician’s typical business model of album sales, concert tickets and souvenir T-shirts.

He landed at No. 13 in Forbes’ America’s Richest Celebrities in 2016 with a net worth of $550 million.

The title of Buffett’s most popular song showed up on restaurants, clothing, booze and casinos. He became involved in such products as Landshark Lager, the Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chains, boat shoes, salsa, hummus, tortillas, dips, tequila and blenders. The Margaritaville cafe on the Las Vegas strip was said to be the top grossing restaurant in the nation.

Buffett was chairman of Margaritaville Holdings based in Palm Beach, Florida. He had a restaurant and a casino in Vegas, a casino in Mississippi and a hotel in Pensacola Beach, Florida, but the exact scope of his empire was a secret. Margaritaville Holdings LLC didn’t disclose its finances, and he usually declined interview requests.

Along with hit songs, Buffett wrote best-selling novels. In 2008 he was ranked by Vanity Fair as No. 97 on a list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and his fan base was broad and loyal. Even when he was in his 60s, his concert tickets fetched more than $100.

“I’m not about to apologize for being a good businessman,” Buffett told 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 was born on Christmas Day, 1946, in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He once said he arrived in the Keys driving a 1946 Packard in about 1970. He found his musical niche during that decade with breezy, island-influenced party tunes. The tone was set with a popular song in 1973, “Why Don’t We Get Drunk?”

He became a pop star in 1977, when “Margaritaville” cracked the Top 10. 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.

Fans worldwide will surely be drinking margaritas in his honor this Labor Day weekend.

–With Flo Anthony, Oliver Peterson and Associated Press