He did not start out a beach bum though. Jimmy Buffett started out as writer for Billboard magazine after graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in history.

Buffett learned to play guitar while attending Auburn University, where he went before graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi. He started his music career as a country artist in Nashville, but found little success. He moved to New Orleans where he lived as a street musician struggling to live. He and country singer Jerry Jeff Walker moved to Key Wets where Jimmy finally discovered the beach bum persona that would make his career.

Buffett found comfort in the ocean and the ships in his new locale that reminded him of his childhood. His father worked at ship yards and his grandfather was the captain of his own boat, the Chicamauga.

Jimmy Buffett created a unique sound, combining the country, folk, and pop music he had been playing with tropical lyrical rhythms. The sound is sometimes referred to a gulf and western, but it has characterized Jimmy’s career.

Buffett released his third album and first album from his new home in 1973. A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean was a move I the right direction, and after two more albums, Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude made Jimmy a star. The classic single “Margaritaville” rose to number one on the adult contemporary charts and he had arrived.

Buffet went platinum with Changes in Lattitude, Changes in Attitude and the follow up album, Son of a Son of a Sailor. The albums that followed in the late ‘70s and ‘80s did not sell very well, apart from the greatest hits compilation Songs You Know by Heart, which went platinum seven times, but he was far from a sinking ship.

Jimmy had become a huge concert draw, easily out grossing his albums with his live performances. Fans of Buffett became known as Parrottheads and he began to tour every summer. He used his popularity to try other interests, publishing his first novel, Tales from Margaritaville: Fictional Facts and Factual Fictions, in 1989 and took to investing restaurants named after popular songs, Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise, and a minor league baseball team.

Jimmy Buffett continued to tour during the ‘90s and pursued writing fiction and appearing in television and movies. He truly was squeezing the most out of his success as possible. Buffett still had more ground to cover after the turn of the century. His album License to Chill topped the U.S. pop album charts for the first time in his career. His incredible success even had him become the first musician to play at Wrigley Field.

External links
Official Jimmy Buffett Web Site