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"In License to Chill, Buffett paired with several famous country music stars on the album's songs. The album's high sales rekindled his popularity in the early 21st century." , Buffett paired with several famous country music stars on the album's songs. The album's high sales rekindled his popularity in the early 21st century. on December 25, 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi) is a singer and songwriter, best known for his "island escapism" life and music including hits such as "Margaritaville" (No. 234 on the list of 'Songs of the Century'), and "Come Monday." He has a rabid, but genial, fan-base known as "Parrotheads." They call the youngest members "Parakeets."

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The son of James Delaney Buffett Jr. and Mary Loraine "Peets" Buffett, Buffett grew up in Mobile, Alabama, where he attended McGill-Toolen Catholic High School. He only began playing guitar during his college years at Auburn University and the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1969 (ΚΣ). Later that year, he married his first wife, Margie Washichek, at Spring Hill College in Mobile.

Buffett began his official musical career in Nashville during the late 1960s as a country artist and recorded his first album, i in 1970. He then moved to Key West and began establishing the easy-going beach bum persona for which he is known.

Buffett's third album was i which featured the breakthrough hit song "Margaritaville".

During the 1980s Buffett made far more money off his tours than albums and became known as a popular concert draw. He released a series of albums during the following twenty years, primarily to his devoted audience, and also branched into writing and merchandising. Two of the more unusual albums were i a collection of Buffett songs sung by children and containing "cleaned-up" lyrics (like "a cold root beer" instead of "a cold draft beer").

In 2003, he partnered in a partial duet with Alan Jackson for the country hit "It's Five O'clock Somewhere," a number one hit on the country charts.

Buffett's most recent album, i, released on July 13, 2004, sold 238,600 copies in its first week of release according to Nielsen SoundScan. With this, Buffett topped the U.S. pop albums chart for the first time in his three-decade career. This made some longtime fans feel that Buffett had alienated them by abandoning his traditional "Gulf and Western" sound for a more commercial and thus mainstream act.

Buffett co-owns the "Margaritaville" and "Cheeseburger In Paradise" restaurants (the latter of which is a part of the Outback Steakhouse family of restaurants). He harbors a well-known love for baseball, and has been part-owner in two minor league teams: the Fort Myers Miracle and the Madison Black Wolf. He makes an estimated 30-40 million dollars a year between his restaurants, album sales, and tours.

went straight to No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller non-fiction list, making him the sixth author in that list's history to have reached No. 1 on both the fiction and non-fiction lists. The other five authors who have accomplished this are Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Styron, Irving Wallace and Dr. Seuss. He also co-wrote two children's books, i

He is a regular visitor to the Caribbean island of Saint Barts and other islands where he gets inspiration for many of his songs and some of the characters in his books.

Buffett has been instrumental in the work of the Save the Manatee Club.[1]

He is friends with legendary investor Warren Buffett and they suspect that they are distant cousins, but they haven't been able to document this. (Wall Street Journal, 5; Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton) is a Buffett-esque singer running his own tropical resort who is offended when asked to play "Margaritaville" rather than his own "Pina Coladaburg", released seven years earlier, exclaiming "son of a son of a bitch."

An avid pilot, Jimmy Buffett owns several planes including a Grumman HU-16 "Albatross". The plane, named "Hemisphere Dancer," is currently parked next to his Margaritaville restaurant in Orlando, Florida. Previously it could sometimes be seen on the ramp at Princess Juliana International Airport (IATA identifier SXM) in nearby Sint Maarten while he was in the area. This is the plane Buffett was flying during the incident recounted in the song "Jamaica Mistaica" on the album i While in Jamaica on January 16, 1996, Buffett's plane was shot at by Jamaican police. The "Hemisphere Dancer" had been carrying Buffett, U2's Bono, and Island Records producer Chris Blackwell. Police suspected it was smuggling drugs. No one was hurt, although there were a few bullet holes in the plane. Buffett's company has since licensed use of the name Margaritaville to several restaurants in Jamaica, in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Negril, where the "Jamaica Mistaica" incident took place.

Buffett was hired to sing for Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski at a party on the Island of Sardinia. The local news showed a video of him singing at the extravagant Roman toga party. Horatio Sanz impersonated Buffett on SNL after the incident, alleging he "smoked dope with Hulk Hogan."

Buffett has been satirised by David Allan Coe in his protest song, "Jimmy Buffett Doesn't Live in Key West Anymore" or "The Jimmy Buffett Song"[2], which also uses the "son of a son of a bitch" joke (and predates i).

He has donated $500,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief so far.

His last name is often misspelled "Buffet".