Jimmy Buffett on the Role He Was Born to Play: Himself
Credit to Author: Will Schube| Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2019 14:07:49 +0000
As Jimmy Buffett tells it, he’s got it pretty good. When the musician-turned-business-mogul-turned-sometimes-actor is not touring the world with his band The Coral Reefers, he’s floating on his paddle board in St. Barths or Miami or Sag Harbor, a fishing rod in hand and a mile-wide grin stretched across his face. Buffett knows he’s lucky, but he’s not willing to chalk it all up to good fortune.
“I had enough work ethic instilled in me by my parents,” he explains to Noisey over the phone a few days after the South By Southwest (SXSW) premiere of Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum, where he plays himself. “I also had a slight bit of talent and a little bit of luck. That’s what it takes. It’s mostly perspiration.” 72 years young and 50 years into his career, Buffett is reaping the rewards of a whole lot of sweat. With 27 studio albums under his belt, 17 of which have charted; a Margaritaville empire that includes restaurants, hotels, and margarita machines; and yet another world tour planned for summer 2019, Jimmy Buffett knows what hard work is, though he knows some luck is required too.
And The Beach Bum a happy-go-lucky movie, a symbolic reflection of Buffett’s persona as everyone’s best friend, of a life where chill vibes and good times are paramount. Korine hasn’t explicitly named Buffett as the film’s North Star, but Jimmy is so emblematic of the Florida cool that pervades the film that the two become knottily tangled and inseparable.
Beach Bum is a stoner flick with a heart, a celebration of a goofball named Moondog who eschews the trappings of upper-class Miami in the hopes of spending one legendary night on the Keys. It’s a musical, a comedy, a tragedy, and a McConnaissance—all wrapped up into a technicolor acid trip that only Harmony Korine knows how to pull off.
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This article originally appeared on VICE US.