With Jimmy Buffett the effusive showman and James Taylor the introspective loner, the two ostensibly seemed worlds apart. But they had more in common than anyone would have expected. Both were sailors, and both (as Buffett joked in a recent tribute to Taylor) dealt with early fame, receding hairlines and getting healthy in later life. The two shared stages together and collaborated in the studio on a few of each other’s records.
As Taylor told Rolling Stone last year, the two were in touch regularly until Buffett’s health issues became more pronounced. “I was aware that he was sick and that he was fighting and struggling with it,” Taylor said. “I sent him some emails. I didn’t expect him to respond, but I wanted to be there for him.” Here, Taylor remembers once more his good friend.
Oh, boy. My favorite thing — public speaking. Jimmy Buffett’s wife, Jane, is in the audience tonight, and she should probably be talking to you, not me. But a few weeks ago, she threw one of her legendary parties. It was a was a goodbye party for Jimmy, and I think it helped us all accept the fact that he’s really gone. I don’t know why that’s so hard to believe. People all over the world are grieving his loss, and I was asked to speak on that night, too. I think I talked about celebrity and about how we assemble our personal mythologies in the popular culture, some bullshit like that. But the point is that for so many of us, Jimmy was a sort of a central hero, like a heroic figure in some Greek myth. His adventure was our adventure, and we got to share his huge love of this life.
He loved, loved being Jimmy Buffett. He loved his family. He loved his band, he loved the music, the life on the road, and he absolutely loved his audience, absolutely. He made you feel that he really did. And we were summoned, like, to a tribal celebration, you know, the Parrot Head nation. We were right there with him, all the while piloting his seaplane or surfing the wake of a supertanker. He actually did that. He was larger than life, but somehow, at the same time, always right-sized and always authentic. Jimmy was a self-made man and a poet, and there won’t be another like him.
I just wish I could see him enjoy this moment tonight. So, hats off, bottoms up. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor and great pleasure to announce the induction of Jimmy Buffett to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
