Here It Is...

A little over 26 years ago I had the opportunity to meet Jimmy Buffett personally. This is my story and its background:
On January 24,1980 The Tennessee Williams Fine Art Center of Florida Keys Community College had its Gala Grand Opening with a production of “Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis,” a Tennessee Williams play chosen for the occasion. This was not however the first event ever held in the then state of the art theatre.
When the theatre was experiencing a shortfall of funds to operate its first season Mrs. Flo Thompson, a Key West socialite prevailed upon her former neighbor and friend Jimmy Buffett to do a benefit concert prior to the Gala opening to raise money for the theatre. Jimmy agreed to do this and the event became a tune up for a 1980 winter tour he and the Coral Reefer Band were about to embark on. This concert took place in the theatre several weeks prior to the Grand opening.
A few days before the concert I received word from Bill Seeker, the recently hired President of FKCC, through my then wife Beth that it would be nice if Jimmy would receive one of our Chamber of Commerce welcome packets and would I arrange with the Mayor of Key West to present a “Key to the City.” This was something routine to me so we got to work on it.
The next day the Mayor’s secretary called me on the phone.
“Sonny says come over to the office. I have the key for you. He refuses to meet with Jimmy Buffett and says he has authorized you to present ‘the Key’ .” She then explained to me that Jimmy had given $1,000 to Mayor McCoy's opponent in the last election.
This turned out to be the only in time in five years of being Executive Director of the Greater Key West Chamber of Commerce, Inc. I was ever authorized to present the key to the city.
Now I was and am a big Jimmy Buffett fan. I owned every album he’d made up until that time (I even had a cassette once of an album he’d made while in Nashville before anyone ever heard of him). A month before I’d stood in line for the right to buy four tickets to this concert (and donate four tickets to FKCC students) so that my family could attend. Being at the front of the line we got tickets in the first or second row.
The day before the concert Beth called me at work. “Bring the gift pack and the key with you to my office at 2 PM this afternoon..We have a surprise for you.” The surprise turned out to be that we were going to “sit in” on the "sound check/rehearsal" of Jimmy and his band. It turned out that the band hadn’t been together for 6 months and did a full rehearsal of the show with three people sitting in the audience; Dr. William A. Seeker, the now Beth Blair of Apalachicola, Florida (a part time Florida lobbyist) and one Jipzeecab. How cool was that! It also was the first time anyone did anything in that theater.
When the rehearsal was over we went to the green room to meet Jimmy. I remember that he wanted a “coke” right away which someone got him from a vending machine.
Then I presented him with his goody bag and the KEY to the City of Key West. This was his response:
“Well, thank you very much. This is the first time I’ve ever been given the key to a city. Do you think this might get us into the kitchen at Logun’s Lobster House (a famous local restaurant) at 3:00 AM.”
That evening a party was held at the home of Captain Hugh McMurphree,ret. in Key Haven to honor Jimmy. In attendance was Tennessee Williams.
Kate Schweppe Moldawer, heiress to the ginger ale and tonic fortune attempted to introduce Jimmy to her famous playwright friend. Tennessee was totally out of it and ignored Buffett completely despite the fact that Jimmy was raising tens of thousands of dollars for a theater which bore his name. I personally think the late playwright could have cared less that the fine arts center was named after him either.
So that’s my story..except for one other thing. Jimmy is noted nowadays for having a clause in his performance contract that says “if anyone opens a door during a sound check, Buffett is released from performance and must be paid his full fee.”