a legend never dies

Ken Hoffman recalls the most memorable moments he shared with the legend Jimmy Buffett

Buffett with his beloved dogs just days before he passed away.

Jimmy Buffett/Facebook

The first time I met Jimmy Buffett was back when I started working for a newspaper in Florida. I was invited to interview him during his break from putting the finishing touches on an album at Criteria Studios in Miami.

Midway through our conversation, I had this one saved up, I asked him, “Who puts mustard on a hamburger?”

He looked at me funny and said, “Uh, not me, why would you ask that?” I said, “That’s what you say in 'Cheeseburger in Paradise.' You say mustard.” I even brought an album that had the lyrics on the back.

“Medium rare with mustard be nice.”

Ken alerts Jimmy to a wrong recipe

It says right here, “A big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat. Heaven on Earth with an onion slice. I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and french-fried potatoes, big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer, medium rare with mustard be nice.”

Buffett grabbed the album. Let me see that. He said, “They got the words wrong. I’m saying medium rare with Muenster’d be nice. Muenster cheese.”

It makes sense. If Buffett left off the Muenster, the song would be about a Hamburger in Paradise. It ain’t a cheeseburger without cheese. He contacted the record company and they changed the lyrics on the album. That was my contribution to Parrothead World.

Farewell to the Pirate

Jimmy Buffett died late Friday, September 1 at his home, surrounded by family, friends and beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Dogs. He was 76. I remember doing a video chat with Buffett and I could hardly make out what he was saying because his dogs were licking his face practically the whole time.

The last video Buffett released, only two days before his death, was “Like My Dog” on TikTok. The video showed Buffett playing and smooching his pups to a song he performs written by Harley Allen and Scotty Emerick.

@jimmybuffett #likemydog ♬ original sound - jimmybuffett

I got to know Jimmy Buffett over the past couple of decades through Coleman Sisson, the general manager of Buffett’s Radio Margaritaville. Sisson was in charge of Buffett’s Sirius satellite channel and backstage during the broadcast of every concert Buffett did.

There was the time Sisson invited me to Buffett’s rehearsals before one of his annual tours. The practice sessions took place in a warehouse outside of Austin. The building was so big that the crew had to ride bicycles to get around. Working inside that building were 11 members of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, the lighting crew, six video technicians, four sound people, two extremely large security guys, tour manager, accountant, IT wizard, Radio Margaritaville hosts, stage decorator, clothes coordinator, and the person who runs onstage to hand guitars to Buffett.

And one boss: Jimmy Buffett.

Jimmy reveals his bucket list gig to Ken

Another time Sisson asked me, would I like to stand at the edge of the stage and watch 25,000 people put their hands on their heads and pretend they’re sharks bobbing “fins to the left, fins to the right?” I would love that. Fins up!

I peeked out from behind a potted palm tree and watched a packed audience dance in the palms of Buffett’s hands. Audiences loved Jimmy Buffett as much as he loved them back.

I asked him, “Is there anything or any place left on your bucket list? He said there was a military base in Antarctica that the soldiers named Margaritaville South. He wanted to play the bottom of Earth.

I used to tell people, I’m lucky. I know a couple of famous people and one of them is Jimmy Buffett. Pretty cool. I dragged many people to his shows who invariably said the same thing on the way to the parking lot. “I didn’t think I knew any of his songs but I knew most of them! I just didn’t know that was Jimmy Buffett!

The secret of Jimmy's shows — and shirts

Sometimes friends will go around the group, who’s the singer or group you’ve seen the most. Mine is easy, Jimmy Buffett and it’s triple or quadruple whoever’s No. 2. His shows were a combination of rock ‘n’ roll, frat party, Harry Belafonte, and vaudeville. He didn’t just sing, he told stories that rhymed. I’m glad that I never missed a concert when he came to town.

Buffett was a hotel, resort and casino owner, restaurant owner, clothing store owner, genius businessman and one-man billion-dollar industry. But more than anything else, he was an entertainer.

Buffett concerts were laid back nights where many fans dressed in outlandish island costumes. Middle-aged fans let loose with coconut bras and grass skirts. Women dressed like hula girls. It was like Caribbean Halloween for everybody at a Buffett concert … except Buffett, who performed in a tight-fitting t-shirt, shorts and bare feet.

I was introduced to Helen Hiatt who designed Buffett’s stage outfits for the past two decades.

First question: Jimmy Buffett has someone who designs his stage outfits? He dresses like 10-year-old Timmy at summer camp.

Helen Hiatt: I buy his T-shirts from a store in Palm Beach. They’re adult large. I dye them myself. Jimmy doesn’t like them baggy, so when he changes guitars, his T-shirt doesn’t move around and look sloppy. The T-shirts are 100-percent cotton. The neck and arm holes are very tight so he’s comfortable. I get him five T-shirts before each tour. After a concert, I just send them to a local Fluff ‘n’ Dry laundry service to have them cleaned.”

Hiatt also has designed stage outfits for Janet Jackson, Prince, and Paula Abdul. She won an Emmy Award for designing outfits for Cher. I’m guessing that dressing Cher involved more than buying five T-shirts from a surf shop in Palm Beach.

Jimmy jams with J.J. in Houston

One show I approached Houston Texans superstar J.J. Watt hanging out backstage at a Buffett concert. Watt swapped a No. 99 Texans jersey for a Buffett souvenir T-shirt (good trade). Later that night, Watt came onstage and played bongos with one hand during Buffett’s biggest hit, Margaritaville. Watt’s other hand held a beer. The crowd, as they say, went wild.

“I asked Watt, what are you doing here?” He said, “Same as everybody else. I love Jimmy Buffett. Everybody loves Jimmy Buffett.”

Jimmy faces off with Ken

One show, I met Buffett backstage before the concert in his dressing trailer. It was about an hour before showtime and Buffett had just gotten up from his nap. Yeah, that’s a pro pacing himself. I challenged him to answer 10 Jimmy Buffett trivia questions. He said, let’s do it.

I remember a few of the questions.

One of your early hit albums was titled A1A. If you got on A1A in Key West and drove its entire length, where would you wind up?
His answer: Fernandina Beach, Florida. (Correct)

Only seven authors have made No. 1 on both the New York Times best-seller list for fiction and non-fiction. Name four of them.

His answer: Ernest Hemingway, Irving Wallace, Dr. Suess … and me! (Correct. The other three are Mitch Albom, John Steinbeck and Willian Styron).

You graduated Southern Mississippi University in 1969. Today the nickname for Southern Miss athletic teams is Golden Eagles. What was their nickname when you went there?

His answer: I don’t know. (Ohhhh sorry, we were looking for The Southerners.)

Buffett scored seven out of 10 right. He said, “That’s a B, I’ll take it.”

I told him, “Maybe that’s a B at Southern Mississippi, but everywhere else your report card would say C.”

He said, “I’ll still take it.”

A few years ago, I wrote a column trying to answer the question: which performer has played in front of the most fans ever in Houston?

Over the years, since the early ‘70s, Buffett played venues ranging from Liberty Hall to Southern Star Amphitheater to Compaq Center to Minute Maid Park to the Astrodome to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. He played somewhere in Houston practically every year.

So after crunching all the attendance figures I could find, this was my bottom line: Jimmy Buffett.

Curious side note: every show for 50 years, the act was billed as Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band. Except one. When Buffett performed at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in 1988, organizers didn’t want the word “Reefer” anywhere near the Astrodome. So for one night only, the act was called Jimmy Buffett and the Cheap Vacation Band.

Jerry MacDonald is the president and CEO of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, one of the most successful outdoor concert venues in the world.

MacDonald: “Jimmy was an all-time favorite artist of the pavilion. We could count on him playing almost every time he toured and he was always a highlight of our concert season. He played our opening season in 1990 and played the venue 25 times, the most of any artist. No one drew the range of fans that he did. Fans from 10 to 90 came to his shows. His contract rider encouraged tailgating areas for his fans to party before his shows. I’ve been in the concert business and hosting his shows for 48 years and there was nothing like a Jimmy Buffett concert.”

Ken's last chat with Jimmy was on a boat

The last time I spoke with Buffett was a few months ago. Coleman Sisson and I were on Coleman’s boat on Lake Conroe. Coleman was teaching me how to fish when Buffett popped up on the boat’s video screen. (Fitting.) We talked for about a half-hour. Buffett, who had a recent illness and was forced to cancel his tour, was itching to get back onstage.

Except for a brief guest spot on a one-offshow featuring his guitarist Mac McAnally, Buffett never returned to performing. He was a beloved original who will be missed dearly. He has passed away, but like he says in his song "Last Mango in Paris," a legend never dies.

Winter weather warning

Arctic air will bring hard freeze to Houston this weekend

Photo by Uliana Sova on Unsplash

This weekend could bring ice to Dallas-Fort Worth and beyond.

With many Americans still recovering from multiple blasts of snow and unrelenting freezing temperatures in the nation’s northern tier, a new storm is set to emerge this weekend that could coat roads, trees and power lines with devastating ice across a wide expanse of the South, including Texas.

The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a “widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,” said Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“I don’t know how people are going to deal with it,” he said.

Forecasters on Tuesday, January 20 warned that the ice could weigh down trees and power lines, triggering widespread outages.

“If you get a half of an inch of ice — or heaven forbid an inch of ice — that could be catastrophic,” said Keith Avery, CEO of the Newberry Electric Cooperative in South Carolina.

The National Weather Service warned of "great swaths of heavy snow, sleet, and treacherous freezing rain” starting Friday in much of the nation’s midsection and then shifting toward the East Coast through Sunday.

Temperatures will be slow to warm in many areas, meaning ice that forms on roads and sidewalks might stick around, forecasters say.

The exact timing of the approaching storm — and where it is headed — remained uncertain on Tuesday. Forecasters say it can be challenging to predict precisely which areas could see rain and which ones could be punished with ice.

Meteorologists at WFAA say it's too early for an exact forecast across Dallas-Fort Worth. But it's good to start being weather aware.

Here’s what to know:

Cold air clashing with rain to fuel a 'major winter storm’
An extremely cold arctic air mass is set to dive south from Canada, setting up a clash with the cold temperatures and rain that will be streaming eastward across the southern U.S.

“This is extreme, even for this being the peak of winter,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson said of the cold temperatures.

When the cold air meets the rain, the likely result will be “a major winter storm with very impactful weather, with all the moisture coming up from the Gulf and encountering all this particularly cold air that’s spilling in,” Jackson said.

Texas could be a harbinger for other parts of the South
Some of the storm’s earliest impacts could be in Texas on Friday, as the arctic air mass slides south through much of the state, National Weather Service forecaster Sam Shamburger said in a briefing on the storm.

“At the same time, we’re expecting rain to move into much of the state,” Shamburger said.

Low temperatures could fall into the 20s or even the teens in parts of Texas by Saturday, with the potential for a wintery mix of weather in the northern part of the state.

Forecasters cautioned that significant uncertainty remains, particularly over how much ice or snow could fall across north and central Texas.

“It’s going to be a very difficult forecast,” Shamburger said.

An atmospheric river could set up across the Southern U.S.
An atmospheric river of moisture could be in place by the weekend, pulling precipitation across Texas and other states along the Gulf Coast and continuing across Georgia and the Carolinas, forecasters said.

“Global models are painting a concerning picture of what this weekend could look like, with an increasingly strong signal for ice storm potential across North Georgia and portions of central Georgia,” according to the National Weather Service's Atlanta office.

Highway and air travel could be tangled by the storm
Travel is a major concern, as Southern states have less equipment to remove snow and ice from roads, and extremely cold temperatures expected after the storm could prevent ice from melting for several days.

The storm is also expected to impact many of the nation’s major hub airports, including those in Dallas-Fort Worth; Atlanta; Memphis, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Polar air from Canada to keep northern states in a deep freeze
Unusually cold temperatures are already in place across much of the northern tier of the U.S., but the blast of arctic air expected later this week is “will be the coldest yet,” Jackson said.

“There’s a large sprawling vortex of low pressure centered over Hudson Bay,” Jackson said of the sea in northern Canada that’s connected to the Arctic Ocean. “And this is dominating the weather over all of North America.”

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