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Savannah Jane Buffett did an interview of her father Jimmy for AXS TV. A video of the interview is available on Youtube.

Jimmy Buffett isn’t performing at this year’s Jazz Fest but that didn’t stop him from coming to enjoy the music and the food. Here is an EXCLUSIVE interview with the legend.

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band performed last night at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, FL (near Ft Lauderdale). The show was a continuation of the “Lounging at the Lagoon” tour, the set list from the show is now available.

In an interview on Radio Margaritaville before the Ft Lauderdale show Jimmy mentioned he will be going back into the studio after the Florida tour to record a new album. The working title for the new album will be called “Songs from St Somewhere“, and that will also be the name of the new tour which begins in April.

The Florida tour continues on Tuesday Feb 5th in Pensacola FL, and on Thursday Feb 7th in Jacksonville FL, and then a private show in Orlando.

(photo from the front row courtesy Steve)

An article at Adelaidenow.com.au mentions Buffett will be doing two acoustic shows in September of this year and plans to return for a bigger tour down under next year. Buffett also discusses his fall from the stage last year, and the new Margaritaville that will open in Sydney in November 2012.

“Margaritaville singer Jimmy Buffett returns to play in Australia after Sydney stage fall declaring ‘I wasn’t drunk‘”

SINGER-songwriter Jimmy Buffett has revealed he was lucky he didn’t kill himself when he tumbled off the stage during a Sydney show.

The US veteran, best known for his hits Margaritaville and Cheeseburger in Paradise, landed badly, cut his head open and was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital after falling while trying to shake the hand of a fan and missing the edge of the stage at the Hordern Pavilion show in 2011.

”I just walked off,” he said.

”I wasn’t drunk and whoever I was waving to wasn’t that pretty. I was banged up pretty bad and I was very lucky.

”I think what saved me is that I had been surfing a lot the week before and I was in pretty fair shape so I rolled when I hit. If I had gone flat-faced, God knows what would have happened.”

Buffett is returning to play in Australia for the first time since the accident next month for intimate, acoustic shows in Melbourne and Brisbane, ahead of a bigger tour next year.

It will be a working holiday for the laid-back singer, whose daughter is studying at the University of New South Wales, and who will open one of his Margaritaville chain restaurants in Sydney’s Darling Harbour in November.

He has rewritten his signature tune, Margaritaville, to reflect his dice with death Down Under.

”I have put the whole episode into the last verse and chorus,” he said.

”I got permission from my wife and daughter to play a couple of little shows over there in Melbourne and Brisbane – I can’t wait for the reaction from Down Under to the song they had something to do with.”

Ken Hoffman from the Houston Chronicle has an interesting article that you must read: “Ultimate Jimmy Buffett fan gets sneak peek at rehearsal”

If you’re going to the Jimmy Buffett concert Saturday night at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, be in your seat by 8 p.m.

You do not want to miss Buffett’s stage entrance. I’m not allowed to say what he does, but it’s the best, funniest, most surprising entrance I’ve ever seen.

Monday I had total access to Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band’s final rehearsal before their 2012 Lounging at the Lagoon tour starts in The Woodlands. The band began practicing two weeks ago in an empty warehouse near Austin. It was the first time an outsider was invited to a full-blown rehearsal.

I learned that practically everything you see at a Jimmy Buffett concert was Buffett’s idea. He’s the boss, and everybody in the warehouse – 11 Coral Reefers, the lighting crew, six video technicians, four sound guys, two costume coordinators, two large security men, tour manager, accountant, IT wizard, Radio Margaritaville disc jockey, stage decorator and even the guy who runs onstage to hand guitars to Buffett – knows it. He’s Bubba.

Buffett arrived a few minutes later, wearing a white baseball cap, aviator sunglasses, white T-shirt, pink shorts and flip-flops. He headed straight to video production. The entrance was his idea, which has tricky special effects. He watched every inch of tape.

Buffett removed his cap and sunglasses, kicked off his flip-flops and climbed onstage at 4 p.m.

The video wall behind the band comprises 96 big-screen televisions. The stage is decorated to look like a lagoon. Buffett’s usual coconut trees are replaced by swamp grass and hanging cypress trees.

The rehearsal lasted about three hours, lengthened by cutting up between songs, Buffett banter and an occasional blooper. Buffett couldn’t get the beginning notes of “Jolly Mon” right, before realizing he had grabbed the wrong guitar.

Buffett wasn’t happy with the video that accompanied “Come Monday.” He told the video producer, “I have some newer video I shot last year in Montana on my bicycle and on a horse. Let’s use that. Trust me, it will work better.”

“This band has been with you for 24 years, a few of the guys even longer. You’ve been doing some of these songs for 40 years. Do you really need to rehearse them?”

Buffett said, “Rehearsal is very important. I do some new songs with each tour, and we need to learn them. Plus, I like to put some fresh paint on other songs. I’m going to write new verses to ‘Margaritaville.’ But mostly, we rehearse to give fans the best show we can. It’s why we’re still doing this 40 years later. There’s a right way to do things, and that requires rehearsing. We respect the audience. It’s just how this band does things.

Read the full article here

From Billboard: “Jimmy Buffett To Record New Album This Year”

Jimmy Buffett says he has tunes to the left and tunes to the right as he eyeballs his next studio album.

Buffett tells Billboard.com that he’s “got a lot of songs and I’m gonna go in this year” to record a follow-up to 2009′s “Buffet Hotel.” “I’m happy with the material ’cause I’ve been working at it for a while,” Buffett says, detailing songs such as “Useless and Important Information,” which is “in the running for the album title,” as well as “Einstein Was a Surfer,” “I Want to Go Back to Cartagena” and “Clueless People in a ‘Fraidy Cat World.”

“I’ve got a couple of minor-key things,” Buffett adds. “I’m excited about it, and (the material) is kinda piling up on us here, so I’m ready to go back in.” Buffett says he’s “written most of this stuff myself,” though he’s also worked with regular collaborators Mac McAnally and Will Kimbrough and has composed a song with Jerry Jeff Walker’s son Django.

Buffett is considering a number of studios to work on the project, including his own Shrimp Boat facility in Key West, Fla., as well as EMI’s Abbey Road studio and Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios, both in West London, England. “I want to go in and do it together as a band,” Buffett says. “We normally do that anyway, but then people are busy and have to go out and someone’s usually phoning in a part from somewhere. This time I’d like to the whole thing all together… I started thinking, ‘Do I really want to go in and make a record or do I want to just put a few (songs) out. I thought maybe I’d go in and do four or something, and then I said, ‘Nah. I like going in the studio with my band, and it can be an experience.

From the Dallas Morning News: “Move over, Zuckerberg: Jimmy Buffett is to blame for social networking”

In an exclusive interview with Mario Tarradell, Margaritaville’s very own Jimmy Buffett spoke on everything from Mardi Gras , Facebook and, of course, his parrot-headed fans.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

“I come from a Mardi Gras culture,” he said. “I grew up on the Gulf Coast and I am a child of Mardi Gras. There was always one or two days in our lives when a good Catholic Jesuit boy put on a mask and costume and blew off some steam. That’s the origin of the idea of a Mardi Gras carnival. I grew up with that culture.”- Buffett on Mardi Gras

“We were the social network before there was a social network on the Internet.” – Buffett on his fans

“I’m talking about tales about my friends and people I’ve known along the way,” he said. “The songwriting hasn’t really changed since that first collection of songs when I moved to Key West. I made it in folk clubs in Miami before I ever made it to Key West.” – Buffett on his music

Read the full article at Margaritaville.com

Buffett changes the set list by taking inventory of what he’s played before and what he hasn’t played in a while, then matching the energy and the recognition factor with the old songs. In fact, he was so tickled by talking about Down to Earth that he’s decided to weave “The Captain and the Kid” into his current tour, which stops Thursday at Gexa Energy Pavilion.

The interview with Jimmy Buffett by Showbiz Tonight’s A.J. Hamme is now available:

“Going backstage with Jimmy Buffett”
- Jimmy Buffett discusses his ‘Margaritaville’ beach brand
- Buffett says he respects young musicians that give great live performances

Showbiz Tonight caught up with music legend Jimmy Buffett backstage at the NCAA Big Dance Concert. The ‘Margaritaville’ singer describes how his love of going to the beach has evolved into a music brand. Buffett also says he respects the Black Keys and other younger musicians that deliver great live performances.

Tune into Showbiz Tonight on HLN at 11p.m. ET/PT.

Music icon Jimmy Buffett sat down with Showbiz Tonight’s A.J. Hammer to reveal some big secrets and he isn’t holding back!

From A.J. Hammer: We weren’t at Margaritavilla, but we were in New Orleans at the Big Dance concert where I sat down with Jimmy! He revealed to me what the absolute strangest thing was that he was ever asked to put his name on! Tune in for a must-see exclusive with the great Jimmy Buffett at 11pm ET/PT on HLN!