A piece of Panhandle history died with Jimmy Buffett. But his music and memory live on
As Pensacola locals have been buying the city out of cheeseburgers and margaritas this past week in Jimmy Buffett’s honor following his death on Sept. 1, stories of good times shared to the soundtrack of his greatest hits have filled Gulf Coast beach bars with the glass-half-full energy that Buffett spent his life creating.
Some fans believe his down-to-earth demeanor and blue-collar relatability in spite of his mega-stardom is part of why his fandom has had such longevity. Even though his celebrity has spanned decades with his first record released in 1970, he never lost his wide grin, button-up beach shirts, or his Southern coastal roots.
Buffett had deep ties to the Gulf Coast, as well as a legion of friends and fans in the Pensacola area who have spent the past week sharing memories of rubbing shoulders with Buffett at local beaches and bars.
“I've personally been friends with the Buffetts for a couple of decades,” Flora-Bama co-owner John McInnis III told the News Journal. “He (Buffett) made his mark in escapism because everybody dreams about being someplace warm and loves music and loves the beach and love sitting there with a cocktail, and he loved it himself. And so, with God's gift of writing songs and music, (Buffett) was able to give people that feeling regardless of where they were in the world and made a heck of a career and a heck of a life out of it.”
Buffett’s deep roots in the Gulf Coast
As eager as he was to say yes to any adventure, like hopping on a plane to fish for conch pearls in Puerto Rico — the South was home to him, born in Mississippi and raised in Mobile Bay. As he grew older and his sister Lucy “LuLu” Buffett opened LuLu’s Sunset Grill in Fairhope, Alabama, before moving to a larger location in Gulf Shores, he found himself crossing state lines more often for visits, sometimes with a guitar in hand for impromptu performances at the Flora-Bama nearby.
When the Deepwater Horizon oil Spill tainted Buffett’s beloved Gulf Coast white beaches in 2010, he stepped in to provide a free concert with 30,000 people packing the oil-drizzled beach that day.
Skilled not only in music, but also in aviation, he was even brought along for a flight with Pensacola’s famed Blue Angels. He credits the training for his Blue Angel flight for saving his life in 1994 when a seaplane he was piloting nosed over a swell in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and sank. Buffett swam to shore sustaining minor injuries, according to Buffett World, a website dedicated to the musician’s life.
Buffett was so charmed by Pensacola he even brought the world’s first Margaritaville Hotel to Pensacola Beach with the help of Little Sabine Inc. President Marilyn Hess in 2010.
“Having grown up in Mobile, Pensacola Beach was the first Florida I ever saw, long before I headed to Key West,” Buffett wrote in a 2010 release distributed by Margaritaville. “It is great to be coming home and making a commitment to Pensacola and the Gulf Coast, especially at this time.”
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Buffett’s run-ins with the locals
Whenever locals were fortunate enough to have a run-in with Buffett while in town, they were tickled to see how easily he fit right in. Some say he blended in so well that many didn’t know it was him until after he left.
Gail Grantham remembers visiting the Flora-Bama when she turned 19 in the early '80s (Florida raised its drinking age from 18 to 19 in 1980 and then to 21 in 1985) and making the drive from her home in Pensacola to the Perdido area, eager to buy one of her first drinks. When the man sitting next to her offered to buy a drink, her youthful sass came out.
“No, I’ll buy you a drink!” she countered.
She didn’t buy another drink the rest of the night, as she made conversation with the “fun uncle” perched up on the stool next to her who cleared her tab. Only after he made his way quietly out of the bar did the bartender lean in and say, ‘You know that was Jimmy Buffett, right?”
The fun-loving, easy-going vibe and sandy flip-flops should have been a giveaway, but he came off as a normal, charismatic guy.
“What I love is the consistency of who he seems to be," she said.
Buffett affectionately shares Flora-Bama memories of his own through his music, particularly in the song "Bama Breeze," which articulates some of the memories that took place on the Florida-Alabama state line.
"At the Bama Breeze/ I turned 21 down there/ Had too much fun down there/ Stumbled out with the sun down there."
McInnis said he always made a special point to give a shout-out to the Flora-Bama during his shows when late Flora-Bama co-owner Joe Gilchrist would hold up an “I heart Jimmy Buffett” sign front row at his concerts.
“Jimmy would always see it and say, 'Well, Jimmy Buffett loves Flora-Bama and Joe Gilchrist, too,'” McInnis said.
Jeannie Gardner and her husband, Bob Gardner, reminisced at Pensacola’s Oar House over lunch Wednesday afternoon, where Buffett’s name is inscribed on a weathered brass plaque nailed to the bar.
When Jeannie, who now lives in Orange Beach, Alabama, was working at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, she recalled Buffett spilling into Narcoosee’s for dinner after performing a show. As one of his songs filled the room, he whispered to the bartender, “You know, you don’t have to play my music.”
“I can still hear the song in my head,” Jeannie said as he hummed, searching for one that stood out on his set list.
Bob, who had seen Buffett perform about four times, echoed remembering Buffett's humility, whether he was playing a surprise show at LuLu’s and “hanging out” with everyone after, or taking the stage for a packed show at The Wharf.
“He was just the person the Bible would tell you to be,” he said.
Buffett was all about sneaking into places unrecognized, typically with intent to put a smile on the face of the most unsuspecting fans.
One of Buffet’s close friends, Corbett Davis Jr., former owner of Pensacola's Jewelers Trade Shop, recalls one fishing trip in the Bahamas where Buffett spotted a boat nearby with a plate on it from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Buffett called up the boat, “You mind if we come aboard?” Davis recalled.
Davis and Buffett climb on, Buffett with his guitar in hand. He offered to play a few songs.
“Do you know 'Son of a Son of a Sailor?'” the boat captain asked Buffett.
Even though that was Buffett’s own song, he played coy and waited to reveal his identity not to spoil it.
Not only did he go on to perform a miniature concert of songs for the boaters, but he then offered them front-row seats to a concert in Cincinnati he was playing a week later. When it came time for the show, he had a video with the boaters in it playing in the background.
“He was a joy to be around,” Davis said.
Jimmy Buffett's last words to his sister
When he wasn’t playing for thousands at music festivals, like the New Orleans Jazz Fest he made a point to perform at often, he would play for his core group of fishing buddies on their annual trip.
As good friends do, they would try and stump him by requesting a song they thought he wouldn’t know. Elvis Presley, Elton John, Dolly Parton. It may take him a minute or two, but he never missed.
As far his own music, he favored playing “That’s What Living Is to Me,” or the soft and sentimental “Lovely Cruise,” according to Davis.
Davis said even though Buffett recognized the fame he had accrued, he never acted like it. When Davis tagged along for a show in Paris, France, he remembers Buffett being stunned to see his name up in lights.
Speaking to the caliber of Buffett’s fame, in his final days, Paul McCartney came to provide one last private show for Buffett and his family, according to Davis. He brought the room to tears with his bedside serenade of “Let It Be.”
But finality of death, caused by years of battling skin cancer, wasn’t something that was meant to be solemn, since Buffett packed every ounce of life into each day.
His sister “LuLu,” who splits her time between Perdido Key and Key West, wrote it in a column this way.
“We were always left in his wake or his vapor trail as he ventured to the next thing! He was an ordinary man from an ordinary childhood that did extraordinary things that touched millions,” she wrote. “He didn’t care about resting in peace. The last words he whispered to me were, “Have fun.”
McInnis said Buffett’s memory will live on in the Flora-Bama and has a special event planned next month to help commemorate his life.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Jimmy Buffett Gulf Coast legacy lives on with Pensacola Parrot Heads
