Vintage article about Steve Eng's unauthorized Buffett book

[Bwana Paul]

Biography reveals a serious Buffett

Singer known for wild side is successful entrepreneur, concerned environmentalist

By Liz Doup
The Miami Herald

Here's the problem with writing a book about Jimmy Buffett, South Florida's forever-young troubadour of bars and beaches:

People know ``so'' much about him already. His coke snorting,

beer guzzling and marital splits have long been the subject of Mr. Buffett's songs, stories, interviews, even his concert patter.

If there's one real revelation in Jimmy Buffett: The Man from Margaritaville Revealed (St. Martin's Press, $24.95), published this week, it's this: Mr. Buffett, who turned 50 on Christmas, is actually more workaholic than wastrel.

``Buffett delivers and always has,'' says author Steve Eng, 56, a former book reviewer for The Tennessean in Nashville. ``He may have gotten drunk after the show, but he did the show.''

So much for the Buffett persona as Florida's icon of beach-bum hedonism.

Long after a multitude of 1970s acts have vanished, or gone to early graves, Mr. Buffett, who divides his time between homes in Palm Beach, Key West and New York state, stays busy, ``very'' busy.

He's also cold sober about his work, which has included 34 albums (some years, he'd deliver two); three books (one a novel, one of short stories, one a kid's book); a never-produced film script; a successful business in Key West; numerous environmental promotions; and seemingly nonstop travel. Oh, and there's his current obsession, a musical, Don't Stop the Carnival, which he wrote with Caine Mutiny author Herman Wouk. That premieres in Miami in April.

So in Mr. Eng's book, you read about Mr. Buffett, the savvy businessman, with details about his Key West store, Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. That opened in 1985, followed by his cafe, which serves (what would you expect?) cheeseburgers and margaritas. Sales rose from $940,000 in 1986 to $2.1 million by 1990.

You also get Mr. Buffett as serious environmentalist, not exactly a revelation to Floridians, because his efforts on behalf of the Save the Manatee Club routinely make news. But Mr. Buffett tries to push his influence farther, Mr. Eng writes. For instance, he asks his 97 fan clubs to do environmental or charity work four times a year.

Mr. Eng says he originally wanted to write an authorized biography. But when he wrote asking for Mr. Buffett's blessing, the singer, a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and author of Tales from Margaritaville, sent a letter back that read, in part: ``I am more than capable of writing my own autobiography. I don't need any help or third-person interpretations. It is my life. I live it. ... Live your own life and stop trying to figure out mine.''

And, in vintage Buffett fashion, he suggested that Mr. Eng start the book with his letter, which Mr. Eng does. He also wrote that if Mr. Eng backed off, he'd buy him a beer during his next trip to Nashville.

Says Mr. Eng, who is also author of the Porter Wagoner biography, A Satisfied Mind: ``I'd rather write a book than have a drink.''

Besides, Mr. Eng says, the same endless appeal that hooks Mr. Buffett's fans hooked him.

``People feel like he's their brother or their uncle, and he'll always be there when they want him,'' Mr. Eng says. ``Madonna changes, but Buffett doesn't. Good ol' Jimmy is still Jimmy. He makes people feel perpetually young.''

So for two years, Mr. Eng hopscotched the countryside, hitting Nashville, Key West, Mobile, New Orleans, Aspen, as well as Pascagoula and Mobile, where Mr. Buffett grew up. Mr. Eng interviewed anyone who'd talk, from an Aspen carpenter who worked on Mr. Buffett's home to a history instructor at Mr. Buffett's alma mater. (``He was his own boss and didn't like to conform to rules ... like attendance, and stuff like that,'' the professor says.)

Mr. Eng carried a camera, snapping pictures of the New Orleans apartment where Mr. Buffett lived during the '60s and his Key West apartment from the '70s. He also appears to have read virtually every newspaper clip and seen every TV interview Mr. Buffett ever did - and quotes liberally from those to make up for Mr. Buffett's refusal to speak with him, which actually isn't so out of character at all.

Sure, Mr. Buffett may share his public mishaps and misdeeds in his lyrics, as he did when he wrote the song Jamaica Mistaka, recounting his encounter last January with Jamaican cops who fired on his seaplane after mistaking him for a drug runner. But he's ultra quiet about his private life and his relationships with those he loves the most.

Twice married, he's had an on-off-now-on-again relationship with his second wife, Jane, whom he met in Key West in the early '70s and married in 1977. They're the parents of Savannah Jane, 17, a student at Palm Beach County's School of the Arts in West Palm Beach; Sarah Delaney, 4, born after Mr. Buffett and Jane reunited after years apart; and Cameron Marley, 2, a son adopted by the Buffetts, according to Mr. Eng.

Mr. Buffett recently said in a magazine interview that he no longer drinks margaritas and doesn't even own a Hawaiian shirt these days.

[lminor26]

I was thinking SAvannah was older than that. I was thinking she was in her late 20's now. How old was she in the book Pirate Looks at 50? And that book is around 10 years old, right?

[SharkOnLand]

I was thinking SAvannah was older than that. I was thinking she was in her late 20's now. How old was she in the book Pirate Looks at 50? And that book is around 10 years old, right?

I thought she was older than that. I want to say 15 or 16? There was mention of her not wanting to vacation with her parents, as she was at that age...

[weirdo0521]

I was thinking SAvannah was older than that. I was thinking she was in her late 20's now. How old was she in the book Pirate Looks at 50? And that book is around 10 years old, right?

This article appears to be from 1997, so your math is right in line.

[Caribbean Soul]

I was thinking SAvannah was older than that. I was thinking she was in her late 20's now. How old was she in the book Pirate Looks at 50? And that book is around 10 years old, right?

You're right.
Savanah was born in '79 ... so she'll be 29 this June.

[Bwana Paul]

If you like poetry, I highly recommend Steve Eng's book Yellow Rider and Other Fantasy Poems. Very gothic, a bit spooky, but good stuff.

Eng was also a songwriter.

Anybody know where Savannah Jane was born?