A Jimmy Buffett Fan

Being an avid defendant of environmental issues, Jimmy Buffet discussed the fate of Florida’s manatees and other issues with Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida state. The governor recently made state wildlife commissioners to delay a decision to downgrade protections for manatees. Buffett thanked Crist for what he did for the sea cows. The governor thanked Buffet in return for doing much for Florida and looking out for the wildlife and the natural estuaries.

Buffett filed a lawsuit against UnderOneHut.com in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas last November. His attorneys were seeking to prevent UnderOneHut.com from selling Buffett merchandise claiming that they had not granted permission for such sales. This case made worldwide headlines appearing in over two hundred media sources. Ultimately, it was settled out of court. Last month, Jimmy filed suit against Six Flags claiming that the company had infringed on his trademark by calling its kids club the Carrothead Club, claiming the name was taken from the term “Parrotheads,” which is typically associated with Buffett’s fans.

Jimmy Buffett has been involved in many charity efforts. It all started in 1981, when Buffett together with former Florida governor Bob Graham founded the Save the Manatee Club. The Club is the world’s leading manatee preservation effort. Eight years later, legislation was passed in Florida that introduced the “Save the Manatee” license plate, and earmarked funding for the Club.

Jimmy Buffet was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He grew up along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The boy graduated high school from McGill Institute for Boys. Jimmy started playing guitar during his college years at Auburn University and The University of Southern Mississippi, where he received a bachelor’s degree in history. Buffet was initiated into the fraternity Kappa Sigma at the University of Southern Mississippi. Jimmy later married his first wife, Margie Washichek. After graduating from college, he worked as a correspondent for Billboard magazine in Nashville.

Jimmy Buffett wrote the sound-track for and acted in the 2006 movie entitled Hoot. The film was directed by Wil Shriner and based on Carl Hiassen’s book that focuses on issues important to him, like conservation. The movie became a critical and commercial blunder. Jimmy also wrote and performed the theme song to the popular 1993 CBS television series Johnny Bago. Jimmy Buffett has made several cameo appearances, including in Repo Man, Congo, Cobb, Hook, and From the Earth to the Moon.

Singer Jimmy Buffet, 60, has recently stepped out of Margaritaville in order to discuss the fate of Florida’s manatees as well as some other environmental issues together with Sunshine state Governor Crist. Charlie Crist met privately with the singer for about ten minutes before introducing him to nearly twenty thousand fans at a performance, saying that the artist “has Florida in his heart and loves her like I do.”

Jimmy Buffett is also a prosperous businessman. His brands are well-known all over the country. He is a proprietor of famous restaurant chains “Margaritaville” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise” (Buffett is its licensor), which got the names after his most popular songs with the same name. Buffett has capitalised on his name – he also licenses such brands as Margaritaville Tequila, Margaritaville Shrimp and Margaritaville Footwear. Buffett is a co-proprietor of two baseball teams the Fort Myers Miracle and the Madison Black Wolf and runs and is planning to run some other business ventures. Last year the Rolling Stone claimed Buffett the 7th richest rock star in history.

The 41st Annual CMA Awards were held Wednesday night in Nashville. To our regret, Jimmy did not win the award in the sole category that he was nominated in: Musical Event of the Year for “Hey Good Lookin’,” with Alan Jackson and George Strait.

Buffett has been nominated 6 times for CMA Awards, but has won only once, for Vocal Event Of The Year with Alan Jackson for the 2003 hit “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”In fact, the CMA Broadcast Awards are among the most prestigious awards given out in the field of Country Radio. 40 distinguished broadcasting professionals, representing all market sizes and regions of the U.S. judge the competition.The winners in that category of the nomination were Tracy Lawrence with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw for “Find Out Who Your Friends Are”.Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally was nominated as Best Musician, but this award was given to Jerry Douglas.Let’s hope that Buffer will someday be included in the list of the lucky CMA Awards receivers.

Buffett is not only a prosperous singer, businessman, but also a talented writer. Almost all his books as soon as they are released have become best sellers. Three of his books have become No. 1 best sellers (among them are “Tales from Margaritaville”, “Where Is Joe Merchant?” and a non-fiction book “A Pirate Looks At Fifty”). Along with such notable writers as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Styron, Irving Wallace, Dr. Seuss and Mitch Albom, he has become the author who managed to come first both on fiction and non-fiction best selling lists.
Buffett’s latest book “A Salty Piece of Land”, released in 2004, has also become a top book, according to the New York Times. His next book “Swine Not?” is due to be out in spring 2008 and is probably subjected to the same fate – to become a best seller.

Before 2003, Buffet used to perform at each and every of his shows 8 standard songs, which were then called the Big 8. Thanks to the success of Jimmy’s duet with Alan Jackson when they performed the song “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere“, the list of songs played at every show have been extended, and now it counts 9 songs instead of 8 - as you have guessed adding the very song “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”. The original “Big 8″, though unspecified, include the following:

1. “Margaritaville”
2. “Come Monday”
3. “Fins”
4. “Volcano”
5. “A Pirate Looks at Forty”
6. “Cheeseburger in Paradise”
7. “Why Don’t We Get Drunk”
8. “Changes in Latitudes”

Of course, when we are talking about the Big 8, we use this “term” figuratively, cause it was not always that these songs have been played at every show. For example, “A Pirate Looks at Forty” was not played during the George, Washington ‘92 show, and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” was omitted from opening of the Irvine show in 2006. However, it is absolutely clear that these songs, no matter 8 or 9, are the greatest and most loved in the creative work of Jimmy Buffet.