Jimmy Buffett, singer of ‘Margaritaville,’ dead at 76 from Merkel cell skin cancer

Singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett, the mastermind behind “Margaritaville” — a breezy bop that birthed a business empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen drinks dedicated to embracing the beach bum lifestyle — has died. He was 76.

“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” read a statement posted to Buffett’s official website and social media pages early Saturday morning. “He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

Buffett died from Merkel cell skin cancer, a rare and aggressive carcinoma which typically begins as a “red, shiny nodules on the face, hands and neck,” according to the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

He had been hospitalized back in May, forcing him to reschedule several concerts, added the statement from his website.

A source close to the singer told TMZ Buffett was diagnosed with skin cancer four years ago and that it eventually turned into lymphoma. He was reportedly placed in hospice care on Monday.

Fans, lovingly dubbed “Parrotheads,” raced to social media to pay tribute on Saturday, many of them using lyrics from “One Particular Harbor.”

“But there’s one particular harbor / So far yet so near / Where I see the days as they fade away / And finally disappear,” they wrote.

Buffett was born on Christmas Day 1946 in Pascagoula, Miss., and raised in the port town of Mobile, Ala. He went on to graduate from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and then turned to busking in the streets of New Orleans to get by.

In 1970, Buffett released his first record, “Down to Earth,” and enjoyed moderate success — until he penned his hit song, “Margaritaville.”

Released on Feb. 14, 1977, the breezy tune turned into an anthem of escapism, crooned by those “wastin’ away” on a sunny afternoon. The song — from the album “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” — spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 8. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016, marking a formal recognition of the song’s cultural impact.

“There was no such place as Margaritaville,” Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021. “It was a made-up place in my mind, basically made up about my experiences in Key West and having to leave Key West and go on the road to work and then come back and spend time by the beach.”

Buffett said he was actually in Texas when inspiration for his biggest hit struck. He and a friend had stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant before she dropped him at the airport for a flight home to Key West, so they got to drinking margaritas.

“I kind of came up with that idea of this is just like Margarita-ville,” Buffett told the Republic. “She kind of laughed at that and put me on the plane. And I started working on it.”

He immediately started writing during his flight home and finished the song while driving down the Florida Keys.

“There was a wreck on the bridge,” he said. “We got stopped for about an hour so I finished the song on the Seven Mile Bridge, which I thought was apropos.”

The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning Buffett’s desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion brand. In 1985, a string of Margaritaville-themed stores opened in Key West, followed by the first of many Margaritaville restaurants in 1987.

The brand has since expanded into dozens of categories, including resorts, apparel and footwear, a radio station, a beer brand, iced tea, tequila and rum, home décor, and food items like salad dressing and pimento cheese. Buffett launched multiple other restaurant chains as well, including 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar and LandShark Bar & Grill.

Touring and recording with the Coral Reefer Band, Buffett would go on to make 27 studio albums — four went platinum and eight gold — over the course of a career that spanned five decades. He also appeared in TV and movies and wrote both fiction and nonfiction books. His work inspired the jukebox musical “Escape to Margaritaville,” which premiered on Broadway in February 2018.

Buffett is survived by his wife, Jane Slagsvol, who he married in 1977. In a 1998 interview with Time magazine, Buffett recalled meeting his partner, then a student at the University of South Carolina, when she visited Key West while on spring break. He was drinking at a bar and saw her again the next night, when she wore a “long pink dress that made a lasting impression.”

Buffett is also survived by their daughters, Savannah and Sarah, and son Cameron.

With News Wire Services