Mississippian Jimmy Buffett, 'Margaritaville' musician and mogul, dies at 76

With his crinkled smile, breezy tunes and barefoot stage presence, Jimmy Buffett encompassed the persona of a beach bum.

But a 50-plus year recording career that spawned unparalleled devotion from fans as well as branded restaurants, books, beer, resorts, a Broadway show and cruise line established Buffett as a bona fide mogul.

The “Margaritaville” icon died Sept. 1, according to a statement on his official website and social media pages. He was 76.

The statement reads the singer died "peacefully … 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."

Buffett struggled with an undisclosed health issue starting in 2022, when he was hospitalized and forced to cancel several shows. In May and June 2023, he canceled more concerts after revealing he was “back in the hospital to address some issues that needed immediate attention.”

It was a striking admission from the road warrior, whose summer tours attracted swarms of devotees, known as Parrotheads. His fan base is legendary, with hundreds of Parrothead Club chapters around the country whose members trekked to multiple concerts adorned in Hawaiian shirts and hats bearing the tropical motif of Buffett’s songs.

A proud supporter of his alma mater, Buffett, a native of Pascagoula, Mississippi, earned a degree in history from the the University of Southern Mississippi, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity, a press release from USM states.

"A bronze marker located near 'The Hub,' a historic center of student activity on the Hattiesburg campus, notates where he met musical collaborator Greg 'Fingers' Taylor who together founded the longtime chart-topping song machine, 'The Coral Reefer Band,'" the USM press release states.

"Buffett was inducted into the USM Alumni Hall of Fame in 2018. He was an honorary co-chair for the University’s fundraising campaign, Give Wing: The Campaign for Southern Miss, and was also a member of the USM Foundation Honor Club and life member of the Southern Miss Alumni Association," USM's press release states.

“The Southern Miss family mourns the loss of our 1969 graduate, Jimmy Buffett, whose work ethic and global success exemplified Southern Miss grit,” said USM President Joseph S. Paul. “Our prayers go out to his family, friends and all who knew and loved him.”

"Buffett supported USM in many ways including honoring his mother, Loraine, who was passionate about education," USM's press release states. "That led to the establishment of the Mary Loraine '"'Peets'"' Buffett Scholarship Endowment in 2002, a renewable scholarship supporting freshman students with financial need who are from Mississippi with a minimum 3.0 GPA in one of the arts and letters programs. A total of 35 scholarships have been awarded.

"'Miss Peetsy' B, a USM research vessel, was donated to the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Marine Education Center in 2011 by Jimmy Buffett and his sisters, Lucy Buffett and Laurie Buffett-McGuane. The boat’s name comes from Mrs. Mary Lorraine Buffett's nickname, 'Peetsy B.' Today, the Peetsy B. still sails, educating students about their coastal environment and ultimately creating a more informed citizenry to protect and maintain local marine habitats.

"Early in his musical career, Buffett performed both solo and with a band known as 'The Upstairs Alliance' at student hangouts on the Hattiesburg campus and other venues. In the early 1970s after he graduated from USM, Buffett met Taylor on the steps of the 'The Hub' where Buffett had been playing guitar for students on break from night class. Taylor asked if he could join in with his harmonica, and what came from the chance encounter produced what’s considered one of the most successful musical collaborations in American history. Along with Taylor, Buffett was a member of the Coral Reefer Band from the mid-1970s to 2001 and then recorded more than half a dozen solo albums; both are inductees of the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame."

Along with his 1977 breakthrough “Margaritaville,” the languid ode to relaxation with a buzzy bent that was submitted to the National Recording Registry in 2023, Buffett penned a bonanza of pop culture staples in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Come Monday,” “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,” “A Pirate Looks at Forty” and “Pencil Thin Mustache” were alternately contemplative and silly. But all bore Buffett’s signature sound that became known as “trop rock,” or, as Buffett called it, “Gulf and Western,” with acoustic guitar, steel drums and pedal steel guitar injected into their backbone.

Born on Christmas Day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Buffett grew up in nearby Mobile, Alabama, where he developed a love of sailing from his grandfather.

He started playing guitar while at Auburn University. After his time at Auburn, Buffett attended Mississippi's Pearl River Community College before graduating with a degree in history from Southern Miss in 1969. A lifelong supporter of the university, Buffett's Margaritaville company partnered with Southern Miss athletics earlier this year on a line of merchandise inspired by the "Margaritaville" song.

Buffett subsequently moved to Nashville to release his first country album, “Down to Earth,” in 1970.

But it was a 1971 trip to Key West with fellow country music singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker (“Mr. Bojangles”) that altered Buffett’s musical direction from outlaw country to Calypso folk-pop.

While Buffett bred a persona of lackadaisical living through his lighthearted songs that offered fans a musical escape hatch from real life, he was also asserting his business acumen.

He opened his first Margaritaville store in Key West in 1985 and followed it two years later with a nearby Margaritaville Café.

Since that initial endeavor, Buffett built an empire encompassing apparel, resorts, restaurants (including 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill and LandShark Bar & Grill), beer (LandShark Lager), casinos, a radio station (Radio Margaritaville on SiriusXM) and retirement communities dubbed Latitude Margaritaville.

In 2017, Forbes estimated that the Margaritaville global lifestyle brand had more than $4.8 billion in the development pipeline and garnered $1.5 billion in annual sales.

As of June 2023, Forbes listed Buffett’s worth at $1 billion.

“If you’re an artist, if you want to have control of your life . . . then you gotta be a businessman, like it or not,” Buffett told Forbes in 1994. “So the businessman evolved out of being an artist.”

Buffett told USA TODAY in 2022 that being “a sponge of ideas” helped him determine his numerous business ventures.

“It’s that unexpected phone call that comes along and you say, ‘That sounds interesting.’ It’s got to be the right time, the right feeling and there has to be a lot of luck in it, too.”

But Buffett’s business building didn’t quash his creative endeavors.

In addition to his 30 albums, he launched Margaritaville Records in the early ‘90s, wrote several fiction books (including the bestsellers “Tales From Margaritaville” and “Where is Joe Merchant?”) and dabbled in film and TV via musical contributions (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Urban Cowboy”) and cameos (“Jurassic World,” “NCIS: New Orleans”).

In 2018, “Escape to Margaritaville” debuted on Broadway to mixed reviews and closed after five months; the musical continued as a touring production.

With the 2020 release of his final album,”Life on the Flipside,” Buffett spoke about the song “Live Like It’s Your Last Day,” which he said was inspired by his 1994 plane crash and a stage fall in 2011.

"I've had a couple close calls and I'm still here,” he told USA TODAY. “So I think I've been living like it could be my last day for a long time."

This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Jimmy Buffett, 'Margaritaville' musician and mogul, dies at 76