Wild days: Music legend Jimmy Buffett shares his craziest sports memories

Jimmy Buffett appears on my laptop screen in a New Orleans Saints ballcap and he’s eager to talk about sports.

Neither of these things surprise me. Sports are at the core of his being, next to passions such as sailing and flying. And making a couple of bucks from singing.

The tropical troubadour, who still sells out arenas after 50-plus years performing, is a lifelong sports fanatic and has some stories to share, from partying with the coked-out zanies on the 1970s Oakland Raiders (and with gonzo king Hunter S. Thompson) to his sheer joy of witnessing the Saints finally shed their demons to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in February 2010.

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He’s also mulling a return to minor league baseball ownership, something he once did years ago with actor Bill Murray.

More than a year after writing about how his trop-rock and escape-the-grind-for-the-beach lifestyle brand increasingly relies on sports promotions and merchandise as part of its $1.5 billion in annual sales, I was able to finally connect with Buffett. He prefers Zoom calls, so we video chatted from my house in chilly suburban Detroit and his studio-office in balmy Palm Beach (which reinforces the lure of his brand).

Buffett, a Gulf Coast native who wisely ditched his journalism degree for a guitar and mic, is unabashedly a diehard Saints fan with deep connections to the Chicago Cubs and Miami Dolphins. Since live sports and live concerts are off the table until he can get the COVID-19 vaccine, Buffett and daughter Delaney recently created an acoustic album of him explaining the origins and then playing his lesser-known tracks.

We chatted for about 45 minutes before Buffett had to jet off to spend the holidays – he turns 74 on Christmas Day – in St. Barts, where he’s retreated to relax since the 1970s. The interview is edited for clarity and length.

You’re wearing a New Orleans Saints hat. Growing up down on the Gulf Coast, who were the teams and athletes that you followed back in the day?

There were no (NFL) football teams back then, growing up with family between New Orleans, Gulfport, Pascagoula and Mobile. Both sides of my family, they went from Tulane to LSU to Ole Miss, Mississippi State, to Auburn to Alabama. It was like the Hatfields and the McCoys when any of those teams were playing. But I was actually a baseball fan growing up. Our minor league team in Mobile was called the Mobile Bears and they were a Cleveland Indians farm club. We also had great ballplayers from Mobile: Willie McCovey, Hank Aaron. Milt and Frank Bolling played with the Tigers, and Willie Mays was not far from there. There’s a great kind of minor league baseball enthusiasm along the whole Gulf Coast.

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In football, it was college football because there was no pro team. The closest pro team in those days anywhere in the South was the St. Louis Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals). I always liked the Dolphins. Then the Saints came along. I was working on Bourbon Street in a club, my first big club gig, the year that the Saints had their first season.

They took the scrubs and the leftovers from all the other teams. In those days, you didn’t have a big top draft pick. They just sent everybody to New Orleans and let’s say it was a different NFL player those days. They were quite happy to hang out in bars with people like us. I was at the first game in the old Tulane Stadium. John Gilliam ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown. We went, ‘This is going to be easy.’

It didn’t quite turn out that way.

The loyalty to that team in New Orleans, as bad as they were for as long as they were bad, says something about people. And as somebody that knows about loyal fans, it’s much appreciated, and I understand that a little bit. If that’s your team, that’s your team.

(The Saints) are part of life in New Orleans, the way I’m sure it is other cities. It’s kind of sad to see the Raiders go to Las Vegas and figure out who the loyal fan base is there. I hope they find one. But it’s not the same as this having a 40-year-old place you call home and suddenly the trucks are coming in and you’re moving somewhere else. But it seems to be part of the NFL these days.

Speaking of the Raiders, you knew Hall of Famer Ken “The Snake” Stabler. I think there’s a picture in the Margaritaville on Duval Street (in Key West) of the two of you on the sidelines. Tell me about that.

Well, it goes a little deeper than that. We grew up close to each other. We knew him because he was the best quarterback around and, unfortunately, went to Alabama. We stayed in touch. At one point in time I had broken my leg (in 1978) and Bob Rosenfeld was the trainer for the Raiders. He also was a great orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles, and his son was my lawyer. I got my leg set and fixed. Dr. Bob said, ‘Well, why don’t you just come on up? We can do your rehab while we’re doing training in Oakland.’ John Madden was still the coach. I went to training camp with the Raiders. I had a couple weeks on and off when I would go up for my PT with Kenny Stabler, John Matuszak and Pete Banaszak. (Fred) Biletnikoff was in there, too, and I knew him from his Florida State days. And Pat Toomay and Terry Robiskie. It was amazing just to be there and to do that, and then I’d go to the games sometimes, on the sidelines.

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So you were doing your leg rehab with Stabler and those guys. You were friends with Hunter S. Thompson then, too. How did you survive that era?

Let’s just say I tried to keep on the perimeter of all those people. I thought there are amazing, incredible people in their own worlds of doing things. As a child of the Mardi Gras, I had a bit of a wild side, but I always try to temper it a little bit. But when you’re around people like that, you go, ‘Man, I better watch out.’ Maybe it’s good old Catholic guilt that made me kind of stop for a while and reevaluate myself or whatever. But yeah, those were some pretty wild days. I’m glad I got through it.

I bet. Did you play sports growing up?

I played baseball and I played football up until high school, then I ran track.

You have a link to the Cubs through singer-songwriter Steve Goodman, your late friend (who penned the team victory song “Go, Cubs, Go). Do you consider yourself a Cubs fan today?

Yes, I am. Steve Goodman was one of the most authentic Cubs fans you’d ever find during those days, when they were horrendous. (Chicago) was the first major city out of the South that I’d made any noise in. If you came along and (established musicians) liked you, they promoted you to their fans. That happened to me in Chicago with Goodman and John Prine and a couple of other people around there.

(Buffett was an opening act at famed music club The Quiet Knight, now a Blaze Pizza, a few blocks south of Wrigley Field)

It was close to the field, so we went to every game in the afternoon because there were no lights then. We sat in the bleachers and I’d go out there and drink a few beers and watch a horrible baseball game. I loved Billy Williams back in those days. I met him many years later. What an idol, to be that good and be on that bad a team. I would go right from the game to work, and that’s how I became a loyal Cubs fan.

I didn’t know at the time is Chicago is a beach town. There’s Lake Michigan, for god’s sake. I made it a point to play there as much as possible. It’s a great sports town. I got to go with the Cubs to the White House (after the 2016 World Series championship) two days before President Obama was done with his term in office. And you know, he’s a White Sox fan, but he was gracious as he could be. Joe Maddon had been a friend for a long time, too.

Yeah, well, I can tell you how Obama felt because I’m from Cleveland. So that 2016 World Series was … well, they got close, but somebody had to end their curses.

I was an Indians fan, too. Early Wynn and Bob Feller. I was working with my uncle, he was building a housing subdivision in Canton (Ohio). I saw Early Wynn pitch at old Cleveland Stadium. That was my first Major League game.

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Do you have a favorite sports memory?

I was at the Super Bowl in Miami when (Saints cornerback) Tracy Porter intercepted that pass and we won the Super Bowl (in February 2010). You’re up against Peyton Manning and they were coming back, and all of a sudden that happened … that had to be my best sports moment.

How important are sports in your personal life?

I’m a very active tennis player. I’m a very active surfer now. I love to play basketball but with banged-up knees it’s hard to get out there these days. It’s just part of life. I was raised in the water so I was either fishing or diving or swimming. I was a lifeguard. All you have to do is look back to the Greeks and they had to do something besides kill each other so they came up with sports.

How do you feel about all the Margaritaville theme nights at sporting events, especially major and minor league baseball?

I’m honored. I owned a piece of a minor league team for a long, long time, until we got into casino business, and then Major League Baseball makes you divest yourself of any contact with that. Seems a little hypocritical to me. I love minor league ball because it’s kind of like going to watch good bands when they’re first coming up. It’s more community baseball. We were on the verge of trying to get involved with the team in Pensacola, a minor league team there or in Biloxi. Hopefully, I can do that. This is a passion. We went on a tour one time of opening ballparks. We did we did a couple minor league stadiums and some major league stadiums. The stage rolled out and we’d play after the game and wave to the crowds who were still left. Some nights were interesting, some nights got real interesting.

It was amazing, but it was so weird depending on how drunk they were. This was before they started cutting off beer after the sixth inning. I was a nomad and a road dog for a long time and just that idea of putting together baseball and a concert, I thought it was a lot of fun.

Are there notable athletes that have come to you or contacted with you and said, ‘I’m a Parrothead and I love what you do.’”

A lot. The first guy that I met who was a big fan, and I was a big fan of his, was Graig Nettles when he played with the Yankees. Nettles and Goose Gossage were big fans. When we were in New York, we’d go hang out, go to games, then go have a beer with him later on. But through the years, there certainly have been a lot of people that I’m honored. Bruce Bochy was a big fan. And (Padres infielder) Tim Flannery. Drew Brees is a good friend and a fan. Eddie Podolak was a longtime friend of mine and I was a fan of his. Jimmy Graham, I remember because he was a pilot when he was at New Orleans, we were always talking planes. Sean Payton when he was with the Giants and Cowboys. And Moose (Daryl Johnston). We’re lucky enough that our careers can run a lot longer than most ballplayers. It’s an honor that people think that much of you.

What was the last sports event you were able to attend prior to 2020 falling apart?

The last one that I went to what was the worst game, which was the bad call that the Saints didn’t get in New Orleans and we didn’t go to Super Bowl. The end of the season has not been good for my team. I was on the sidelines and I’m standing right there when that happened. Nobody could believe it because it was so obvious.

(Top photo: Courtesy of Margaritaville) 

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