Unlike a lot of professional musicians, Jimmy Buffett‘s life was not merely outlined by wild parties, damaged hotel rooms, and backstage antics. While that was likely a part of it, Buffett was so much more. In essence, he was a true adventurer and always searched for something new and novel around every turn. He kept this spirit even after receiving his Merkel cell carcinoma diagnosis in 2019.
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Jimmy Buffett’s stories are endless and entirely unique. They are not part of the prototypical rock ‘n’ roll canon. Once, while on a plane with Bono, he and the U2 star got in a one-sided shootout with Jamaican police. Another cool Buffett story is when he sailed to Havana, Cuba, to cover the Pope’s visit for Rolling Stone in 1998.
Needless to say, the man sought out adventure differently than his musical peers. And he kept doing just that during his battle with cancer, as his friend, Carl Hiaasen, recalled when Buffett had an encounter with a lemon shark in the Bahamas.
Jimmy Buffett Didn’t Know How to “Take It Easy”
Following Jimmy Buffett’s death on September 1, 2023, Carl Hiaasen sat down with People magazine to discuss his “larger than life” friend. One of the larger-than-life stories he shared was about Jimmy Buffett’s gung-ho attitude when he encountered that lemon shark. Hiaassen told the publication, “I was with Jimmy in the Bahamas in October of 2022. He was supposed to take it easy, although he didn’t know what that meant.”
The author and journalist continued, “He was fishing when a large lemon shark was heading for him. He had a drone up because he wanted a video of this experience. He was so excited because he wanted to put it on stage while he was performing during his next tour, when he performed his song ‘Fins’. The shark was really close, but Jimmy was so excited.”
On that same trip, Hiaasen recalled Jimmy Buffett disappearing to go surfing. “He just got up and disappeared, even though he was told to take it easy,” stated Hiaasen. Carl Hiaasen summed up Buffett best, as he truly was a one-of-a-kind “larger than life” figure. Even in the seemingly darker periods of his life, Jimmy Buffett couldn’t help but smile and suck the marrow out of life. That’s what he did, and that is how the masses remember him.
Julie Skarratt / Courtesy of The Press House
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