Jimmy Buffett, the mogul and musician whose hit song “Margaritaville” became a way of life for legions of devoted fans, died at 76. The singer-songwriter, whose new album “Equal Strain on All Parts” was set to be released later this year, died with friends and family around him, according to a statement on his website and social media.
The statement read, “Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st 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.” The statement was accompanied by a touching picture of Buffett sitting on a boat. Buffett died after battling Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare skin cancer affecting less than 3,000 people in the United States annually.
In May, Buffett was forced to reschedule a concert after he was hospitalized in Boston “to address some issues that needed immediate attention,” he told fans in a statement shared on Twitter. He said, “Growing old is not for sissies, I promise you. I also will promise you that when I am well enough to perform, that is what I’ll be doing in the land of She-Crab soup. You all make my life more meaningful and fulfilled than I would have ever imagined as a tow-headed little boy sitting on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.”
Buffett was born on Christmas Day in 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and raised partially in Alabama. His love of music started in musical theater as a young boy, thanks to his mother, Mary, who spent her time off from the shipyard with the Mobile Theatre Guild in Alabama. In 2018, the same year his musical, “Escape to Margaritaville” opened on Broadway, he told Entertainment Weekly, “She would always be in productions, and she would take me to the shows when they’d come through town.
After graduating from college with a history degree, Buffett briefly worked as a Billboard magazine writer, spending several years working on a fishing boat. In 1970, he released his first album, “Down to Earth,” but didn’t break through until 1977 when “Margaritaville” became a hit. The beloved sun-kissed anthem, which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016, helped change Buffett’s career trajectory, as it generated a booming business of the same name featuring everything from restaurants and resorts to drinks and apparel.
Though Buffett continued to release a steady stream of albums over the next few decades, he became known mainly as a massive concert draw, with his annual shows with his Coral Reefer Band raking in millions for the star. Buffett released over 30 albums throughout his career and was nominated for two Grammys. In addition to his music, Buffett was a best-selling author and philanthropist who founded the nonprofit Save the Manatee Club in 1981 with then-Florida Gov. Bob Graham.
In his memoir, Buffett praised his family and friends as being “treasure more valuable than gold” and said he believed himself to be highly fortunate. He wrote, “I have been called a lot of things in these fifty years on the good old planet Earth, but the thing I believe I am the most is lucky.” Buffett is survived by wife Jane and kids Savannah, Sarah Delaney and Cameron.