Whipped Cream Difficulties

Jimmy Buffett. THR. Pitchfork.

Thing I did not know: Mr. Buffett and Jerry Jeff Walker were buddies.

Buffett’s time in the Florida locale, and, in fact, some time away from Key West, ultimately led to his defining song: “I came to Austin a lot in those days. I made it there by getting these college bookings and getting on Willie [Nelson]’s second Fourth of July picnic,” Buffett recalled in the wake of Walker’s death in 2020. “I played Castle Creek many times. I think it was after one of those shows, the next morning I had a hangover and I had to fly home that afternoon. I went to El Rey, a Mexican restaurant on Anderson Lane for lunch. I had a margarita, which helped with the hangover, and in the car on the way to the airport the chorus of a new song started to come to me. I wrote a little more on the plane and finished the rest of ‘Margaritaville’ back in Key West.”

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After seeing what a success his beach-bum image was, Buffett decided to expand his brand, becoming not only a performer but a businessman. He came out with several books, beach-themed clothing, a Margaritaville restaurant chain, hotels, resorts and more.

The Margaritaville Store on Amazon, just in case you want your own frozen concoction maker. Frankly, $350 seems steep.

It looks like the nearest Margaritaville restaurant to me is in San Antonio. But there is one in Tulsa, Mike.

Apart from music, the musician has also made appearances in television and movie projects over the years, including Jurassic World, Billionaire Boys Club, Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods.

IMDB. That was the bad “Hawaii Five-0”. He was also in “Repo Man” (!!!!).

His claim to squandering his wealth notwithstanding, Mr. Buffett proved to be a shrewd manager of his considerable fortune; Forbes this year estimated his net worth at $1 billion.

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Mr. Buffett was also an accomplished author; he was one of only six writers, along with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and William Styron, to top both The Times’s fiction and nonfiction best-seller lists. By the time he wrote “Tales From Margaritaville” (1989), the first of his three No. 1 best sellers, he had abandoned the hedonistic lifestyle he once embraced.
“I could wind up like a lot of my friends did, burned out or dead, or redirect the energy,” he told The Washington Post in 1989. “I’m not old, but I’m getting older. That period of my life is over. It was fun — all that hard drinking, hard drugging. No apologies.”
“I still have a very happy life,” he went on. “I just don’t do the things I used to do.”

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An avid pilot, Mr. Buffett owned several aircraft and often flew himself to his shows. In 1994, he crashed one of his airplanes in waters near Nantucket, Mass., while taking off. He survived the accident, swimming to safety with only minor injuries.
In 1996, another of his planes, Hemisphere Dancer, was shot at by the Jamaican police, who suspected the craft was being used to smuggle marijuana. Onboard the airplane, which sustained little damage, were Bono of U2; Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records; and Mr. Buffett’s wife and two daughters. The Jamaican authorities later admitted that the incident was a case of mistaken identity, inspiring Mr. Buffett to write the song “Jamaica Mistaica,” a droll sendup of the affair.

I’ve never been a Parrot Head, but I did own a copy of “Margaritaville” on a 45 RPM single. (Kids, ask your parents, etc.) I may have a rare (for me) margarita tonight in his honor.