Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way

A candid compelling and rollicking portrait of the pirate captain of MargaritavilleJimmy Buffett. In Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way acclaimed music critic Ryan White has crafted the first definitive account of Buffetts rise from singing songs for beer to his emergence as a tropical icon and CEO behind the Margaritaville industrial complex a vast network of merchandise chain restaurants resorts and lifestyle products all inspired by his sunny but disillusioned hit Margaritaville. Filled with interviews from friends musicians Coral Reefer Band members past and present and business partners who were there this book is a top-down joyride with plenty of side trips and meanderings from Mobile and Pascagoula to New Orleans Key West down into the islands aboard the Euphoria and the Euphoria II and into the studios and onto the stages where the foundation of Buffetts reputation was laid. Buffett wasnt always the pied piper of beaches bars and laid-back living. Born on the Gulf Coast the son of a son of a sailing ship captain Buffett scuffed around New Orleans in the late sixties flunked out of Nashville (and a marriage) in 1971 and found refuge among the artists dopers shrimpers and genuine characters whod collected at the end of the road in Key West. And it was there in those waning outlaw days at the last American exit where Buffett like Hemingway before him found his voice and eventually brought to life the song that would launch Parrot Head nation. And just where is Margaritaville? Its wherever its five oclock; its wherever theres a breeze and salt in the air; and its wherever Buffett sets his bare feet smiles and sings his songs.