Key West The Newspaper

The weather is getting warmer and it’s 5 o’clock somewhere—which means there’s no better time for JIMMY BUFFETT: A Good Life All the Way (on-sale May 9; Touchstone), a rollicking, incisive biography of everyone’s favorite tropical troubadour by music critic Ryan White (also the author of Springsteen: Album by Album).

This is the definitive, comprehensive account of Jimmy Buffett’s long-way-around road to success, his music, and the massive $1.5 billion-per-year Margaritaville lifestyle brand it spawned. Deeply researched—with interviews from friends, musicians, Coral Reefer Band members, and business partners who were along for the raucous ride, the book traces Buffett’s journey from strumming songs for free beer to emerging as the iconic “Pop of Trop Rock.” White also offers a nuanced appraisal and keen appreciation of the lyrics and songs that inspired Parrot Head nation.

Garden & Gun raves, “A buoyant new Jimmy Buffett biography sings. . . . The portrait that emerges is affectionate and admiring but devoid of Parrot Head fawning. . . . White’s prose bears a music of its own.” Publishers Weekly says, “[White] carefully takes readers behind the scenes of every Buffett album, revealing an artist who was always in control, despite his slapdash public persona [and] aptly captures an ingenious musician.”

Packed with pictures and chockful of tales, this is a full sail adventure with plenty of musical meanderings from Mobile, Pascagoula, Nashville, and New Orleans to Key West, the Bahamas, and beyond. The first book about Buffett supported by many of those who know him best, Jimmy Buffett gets at the man behind the legend that he has so carefully cultivated. With rich detail, White brings readers onto the stages, inside the studios, and aboard the boats where the foundation of Buffett’s reputation was laid.

Jimmy Buffett wasn’t always the pied piper of beaches, bars, and laid-back living. Born on the Gulf Coast to the son of a sea captain, he was destined to scuff around New Orleans and Biloxi in the late ’60s and flunk out of Auburn and Music Row (not to mention a marriage) by 1971 before finding unexpected refuge among the artists, shrimpers, drug-runners, and other colorful characters who’d collected at the end of the road in Key West. Deemed too rock ‘n’ roll for Nashville and too country for New York or Los Angeles, Buffett finally found the perfect mix of climate, compatriots, and cold beverages off the last American exit south. There, he honed his unique voice and style—and ultimately brought to life the songs that would launch Parrot Head nation and influence new generations of fellow musicians, including stars like Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, and Zac Brown Band.