Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, Zac Brown, and More Celebrate the Late Jimmy Buffett with All-Star Tribute

A major highlight of the 2023 CMA Awards, held Wednesday at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, was a special tribute performance to the late Jimmy Buffett, who died in September at age 76 after a battle with skin cancer.

The tribute featured performances from Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band, and Mac McAnally. Each artist had strong connections with Buffett, particularly McAnally, an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who had been a member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band since 1994.

[RELATED: Caroline Jones on Tonight’s Jimmy Buffett Tribute at the CMA Awards: “We’re Really Honored”]

The performance began with Chesney and McAnally seated on stools next to each other on a small stage, strumming acoustic guitars as they sang Buffett’s “A Pirate Looks at Forty.”

A curtain then rose on the main stage to show Jackson with Zac Brown Band, as Jackson and Brown sang a few lines of a tune apparently called “Adios My Friend” before everyone kicked in to Buffett’s signature 1977 tune “Margaritaville.”

Celebrating the island vibe embraced by Buffett, Brown donned a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and the stage featured a tiki-style, thatched drum platform, and was decorated with giant parrots, palm trees, margaritas, and tropical cocktails.

A screen behind the stage showed a photo montage of Buffett photos throughout the performance.

In 2003, Jackson recorded a hit duet with Buffett, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” which topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also was honored with the Vocal Event of the Year prize at both the CMAs and the Academy of Country Music Awards that year.

The next year, Jackson and Chesney both teamed up with Buffett, as well as with Clint Black, Toby Keith, and George Strait, on a cover of the Hank Williams classic “Hey Good Lookin’,” which appeared on Buffett’s 2004 album License to Chill and reached No. 8 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Chesney also was a guest singer on the title track of the album.

Chesney collaborated with Buffett again in 2018, on a new version of Buffett’s 1974 tune “Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season” that was featured on Chesney’s Song for the Saints album.

Meanwhile, Zac Brown Band teamed up with Buffett for an episode of CMT Crossroads that premiered in 2010. That same year, the group topped the Hot Country Songs chart with Buffett, thanks to “Knee Deep,” a tune co-written by Brown that’s featured on his band’s 2010 album You Get What You Give.

Getting back to McAnally, he not only sang backing vocals and played guitar, dobro, and slide guitar in the Coral Reefer Band; he co-produced nearly every album Buffett release from 1999 on. He also co-wrote many songs with Buffet over the years, dating back as far as “It’s My Job,” which was a minor hit for Buffett in 1981.

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Photo by Terry Wyatt/Getty Images