Jimmy Buffett has no qualms about hitting the road again at age 74
“Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffett is performing live again. With the COVID-19 pandemic shuttering venues and canceling live performances last year, the 74-year-old singer is heartened that things are now starting to re-open.
Speaking with Billboard about how he weathered lockdown, the two-time Grammy nominee confessed, “I wound up stuck. I mean, everybody’s life stopped.” However, he used his down time wisely, adding, “I got little studios everywhere, so I was generating content and working on things and staying in touch with the band.”
He also said the “silver lining” was being able to spend time with his adult children, Savannah, 41; Sarah, 29; and his adopted son Cameron. “I would have never spent that much time with my grown kids for the rest of my life… Six months with them was great,” he smiled.
The singer kickstarts a series of live performances today, spending the next four nights at the Delray Beach, Florida, venue The Pavilion at Old School Square.
All four shows sold out in a matter of minutes, with Buffett hailing the shows as “spring training” to whip him into shape for bigger venues with even more fans sitting in the crowd.
As for why he picked The Pavilion, explains Buffett, “I had friends that were recommending it to me” and that he had been looking into “places I knew were making a really concerted effort to make sure everybody was safe.”
When asked how he feels about playing for an audience that is much smaller than he’s used to, joked Buffett, “I think that you always have to look at when it wasn’t like this, and when you had to play [small venues] and never forget that it can all go to h-ll in any minute, and never forget to duck.”
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