H
aving spent time interviewing nu-
merous celebrities over my decade
plus ride as a writer, it doesn’t nor-
mally phase me to meet, hangout with,
or interview just about anyone. No mat-
ter what they do or why they’re famous,
I’ve come to realize firsthand that, at our
core, we’re all just people being people.
However, this time was different. You
see Jimmy doesn’t really do a lot of in-
terviews, because…well, Jimmy doesn’t
have to. With all due respect to every
sports figure, actor, rock star, business
mogul, or presidential candidate I’ve
ever had the privilege of talking with;
this time it was the iconic Jimmy Buf-
fett. And, yes, I was something I haven’t
found myself feeling in quite some
time…nervous.
I normally do a lot of research before any
feature interview, but this time it seemed
less necessary. You see, I’ve always felt kind
of like I get Jimmy Buffett, and that should
we ever meet he’d get me too. I mean we
were both born in Mississippi and lived in
Alabama, we both share a passion for the
beach, wear shorts and t-shirts a lot, and
shoes sometimes, share an entrepreneur-
ial spirit and have penned a few books…
albeit, him far more titles, and way better
selling ones than mine. If you take away
everything cool he’s ever done how differ-
ent could we be? Of course, everything cool
he’s ever done is why he’s Jimmy Buffett.
The night before our interview all I could
think about was that I’d been listening to
Buffett’s “Songs You Know by Heart” album
since I was probably twenty years old. In
fact it is one of only a handful of CDs that
I have continued to listen to –and wear
out and replace three or four times- before
INSIGHT
finally downloading the songs, once that
era of buying music arose. Not only that,
but I recalled that his first novel, 1992’s
Where is Joe Merchant, was also one of the
early reads that inspired me to begin writ-
ing myself. All of these facts leading to the
conclusion that I didn’t need to do much
research in order to effectively interview
such an icon. I felt like I knew him already,
even though I was sure he would have no
previous knowledge as to who I was.
The cool thing about Jimmy Buffett –if it
were actually possible to narrow it to just
one- is that he is such a friendly, laid-back
and talkative guy; a real person with lots of
real stories to share, and an openness to an-
swer anything I asked him. I noticed quickly
that Jimmy likes to talk, and you don’t have
to solicit comments from him or beg him to
elaborate. He talks plenty, and even laughs
at his own comments at times. Something I
think makes him that much more real. Buf-
fett was once quoted as saying, “I’m still not
a great singer or a great guitar player, but
I’m a great Jimmy Buffett.” And that last part
rings true when talking with him. When I
told him I just wanted to let him run with
our interview and that I wanted to enlight-
en readers more on what they don’t already
know about him, instead of what they do.
He laughed and said, “Well, there may be
a reason they don’t already know some of
those things about me. Maybe I don’t want
them to.” He also reminded me “you know,
I’ve done this a few times, I used to do this
for a living.” He was speaking about his
time, well before his climb to stardom, as a
Nashville based writer for Billboard maga-
zine. He even joked that he’d set out to
become a journalist and a great writer, but
somehow it got displaced by a successful
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