Jimmy Buffett Q&A

SI: Two years ago you wrote a 4,700-word article in the Swimsuit Issue about battling tarpon on a windswept coral reef in the Virgin Islands. You're becoming a Swimsuit issue veteran?

Buffett: I'm thinking that's a pretty good thing to be a veteran of (laughs).

SI: So why are people inherently drawn to a guitar?

Buffett: It's an interesting question because there is a magic about a guitar that is unexplained. I've seen where a song can change people's concepts. The thing about the guitar is the portability of it. If you look back historically, musical instruments were large and cumbersome items that did not have the portability. The thing about a guitar, having played mine in a lot of places, is it goes with me everywhere. I have learned over the years that a guitar is a passport and will diffuse situations. It really allows you go beyond borders. The fact that you can carry a guitar with you and create magic and joy, not to get too sappy and romantic about it, it's a cherished thing. It's magic in and of itself.

SI: Have you played the guitar that's being auctioned?

Buffett: It was my studio guitar at my place in Sag Harbor. And I played it when we went down to do the video in St. Barts. It plays great. It traveled well. It seemed when the girls got the guitar, it was like a teddy bear. One of the photographers, Pamela Hanson, told me the guitar became like a mascot out there. I love that because I think that brings out the magic of the guitar. When I was looking at all the footage of the Swimsuit shoots to assemble a video for SI, I loved that a lot of the girls were saying, ‘Oh, I just wish I could play it.' I think that guitar had a pretty good time out there. I know I wish I could have been caressed by that many beautiful women.

SI: The guitar you donated is one of only 168 in existence. Why did you choose that particular guitar for SI?

Buffett: I did two guitars with the Martin Company and the Shellback is my favorite. A Martin Guitar is really the pièce de résistance. In fact, I know exactly where I was when I bought my first Martin.

SI: So where were you?

Buffett: Chappy's music store in Pascagoula, Mississippi. It was 1967 and it cost me $418. That was a lot of money at the time. The Martin guitar is not a musical instrument. It's a piece of art. I played them all my life and I've loved them. The company came to me and offered to put me in the limited edition series and I was honored. We did the first one and it sold out in no time at all. They came back and asked if I wanted to do another but I didn't want to get over-commercialized. I had a Martin that was my boat guitar. It went everywhere around the world with me and was stolen out of a boat somewhere down in the Caribbean. I miss that guitar so much. It was a guitar I could throw on bunk. It wouldn't warp and I didn't have to baby it. It just worked. So I told them if we were going to do another guitar, I wanted it to be something that could be thrown into a bunk area, something beautiful but tough enough to be a boat guitar. They came back with the shellback design. It's a more durable guitar because you have a mahogany front as opposed to a spruce front. You don't get quite the resonating tones of the wood but it didn't matter to me. I wanted something that you could backpack around the world with.

SI: The proceeds from the sale will benefit both the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic and the Habitat for Humanity Musicians' Village. Why those charities?

Buffett: I was born in a little town called Pascagoula, which was devastated by the storm and is not so much on the recovery radar. So I've been trying to focus attention there and get help. I believe simply New Orleans is the cultural soul of America and needs to be saved. There are plenty of problems there , and there always will be. But there is a unique thing about New Orleans culturally: Whether we like it or not or know it or not, we need New Orleans. I went back and played Jazz Fest and we had record crowds. But it's a war zone there. We tend in our lives to go on to whatever the next thing is. I'm one who is ready to bring the troops home and send them to New Orleans. Let's fix us first.

SI: Are you looking forward to the auction?

Buffett: Yeah, I'm even going to bid on that guitar (laughs).

SI: You also wrote a song (Getting The Picture) for the issue. Swimsuits and sun. Must have been real tough to draw inspiration?

Buffett: Let's face it, it's not hard to be inspired by 20 of the most beautiful women in the world. I have been in worst places to get inspired. Mac McNally, who is my producer, kind of came up with the chorus and I worked on the verses. The fact of it was we could either be subtle or tongue in cheek about it. Or we could just be totally shameless and throw Sports Illustrated in (laughs) the lyrics. It's fun and escapism, not a big stretch for me. What was fun was you were really writing a fun song.

SI: Did any of the models in the video ask you for guitar lessons?

Buffett: Yeah, Brooklyn (Decker) asked me for guitar lessons. I told her I could teach her three chords in about an hour.

SI: Free of charge?

Buffett: Absolutely (laughs).

SI: Did you grow up rooting for a particular sports team?

Buffett: I was an Alabama fan and then I became a Florida fan later on. The rest of my family were Auburn fans so just for spite I just rooted for Alabama. Later on I became an LSU fan when I dated a girl from LSU. My allegiances were not cemented.

SI: But your real passion is the New Orleans Saints, right?

Buffett: I was at the first win for the franchise in 1967. It was against the Eagles and Walter "The Flea" Roberts ran a kickoff for a touchdown. I have been a New Orleans fan since the very beginning.

SI: So this year must have been unbelievable?

Buffett: I was in Tangiers for the Saints-Eagles playoff game. The hit Reggie Bush took was one of the hardest hits I've ever seen. When he got up, well, I know about adrenaline and I know about crowds. When he got up I said to myself: they are going to win the Super Bowl. I've gone through Archie Manning, Kenny Stabler, and Bill Kilmer, everybody. When I was 18 years old and working on Bourbon Street -- some football players have the propensity to hang out in bars after games, you know -- we were the hangout spots for a lot of the original Saints. Today any Saints team members or staffers eat and drink for free in Margaretville in New Orleans. What Sean Payton and the Saints did was beyond football.

SI: What would it have meant to you had the Saints won the Super Bowl?

Buffett: Well, I have been a Miami Heat fan since the beginning. So I got that title. I'm also a Saints fan in football and a Cubs fan in baseball. It would have been amazing.

SI: Did you play football in high school?

Buffett: I played junior varsity until got hurt. I ran track and played baseball.

SI: Any memorable sports-related gigs as a kid?

Buffett: I was a water boy for the Senior Bowl in Mobile. We were part of the South team. Afterward, we got the chin straps, jock straps, and programs. And we got them all signed. There were no Ebay then but we sold them. That was my first kind of awareness of big time.

SI: How did you end up a Cubs fan?

Buffett: I ended up a Cubs fan because Chicago is one of the first major cities out of South where I had enough popularity to make a living. In doing so I wound in the company of (folk singer and songwriters) Steve Goodman and John Prine during that great folk era in Chicago. I was always a baseball fan because Mobile, Alabama had a lot of baseball heritage with the Aaron brothers and a minor league team. There was no major league teams in the South in those days. When I got to Chicago we worked at night. So Goodman would take me to Wrigley Field during the day and we would buy a ticket in the bleachers. I remember seeing Willie Mays play for the Mets against the Cubs. That was an amazing event for me. So those developing years musically for me I spent a lot of time in Chicago and at Wrigley Field. And then last year we played the field. We did two days there. It was amazing. Ironically enough, that was the weekend New Orleans was flooded so I had a huge mixture of emotions.

SI: How often do you come across athletes who are fans of yours?

Buffett: It happens a lot. Ken Stabler and I were friends from our high school days and still remain friends. I remember in the heyday of the Yankees, Greg Nettles and Goose Gossage were big friends of mine and vice versa. Today, it's [Saints coach] Sean Payton. A friend of mine told me passed on a message from Sean. He said to ask me if I remembered the guy in a shark hat that grabbed the shark in Dallas and almost got thrown out of the show. I said, Yeah, I did remember that. He said, That was Troy Aikman, Darryl Johnston and Sean Payton. When I met Sean he said he was a great fan of mine. And it was vice versa. It's an interesting and wonderful thing if you are into sports. You run into people that you admire and the great thing is that most are genuine people.

SI: You got invited into the Saints locker room after a win over the Niners on Dec. 3. What happened?

Buffett: Well, I got one of two game balls for the San Francisco game. That's when I told them I'd see them in Miami. It was a pretty cool thing. I gave the ball to my son for Christmas.

SI: The best sporting event you have attended because of your celebrity?

Buffett: Playing a show at Wrigley Field qualifies to me as a sporting event. But the best event I went to as a fan was Game 6 of the Pistons-Heat series last year when we put them away.

SI: You're a Miami Heat season ticket holder, right?

Buffett: Always have been from Day One. I sit on the floor. We're going to be okay this year. What has been nice is Jason Kapono has been getting time. And I think Dorell Wright is going to be a player. When they won last year I was most happy for Alonzo Mourning. He's an old friend of mine and that guy has been through some stuff. That guy works his butt off.

SI: Let's talk about one of the great moments in NBA history: Your ejection from the Knicks-Heat game on Feb. 4, 2001?

Buffett: I got tossed for yelling at a game by referee Joe Forte. It was a big international incident (laughs). I'd say it's nothing I had not heard from the bench or people around me. Yeah, my son was next to me and I apologized to him first. But it was a bad call. It still is a rotten call! John Starks clobbered Tim Hardaway. It was a close game. I just said you stupid, mother------, that is the worst call I ever heard. People yell all the time but he turned at me. Normally, referees do not make eye contact. So while he did not come over to me, he told the local security guard. By then the crowd was getting into it. Pat Reilly was on the bench, asking 'They are kicking you out of the game? Alonzo was like: Sit down. You stay there. I told the security guard. This is probably not a good idea. Then they came to me and said they would give the Heat a technical foul. So I said, Okay, I'll go.

SI: Is there an athlete you have always wanted to meet?

Buffett: There is a long list of people I have met but I'd say Zinedine Zidane. I loved his style of play. I took my son to the World Cup in Germany. I was a fan of the Trinidad soccer team and we went to see the England match. You know, I've traveled the world a lot. As crazy as the world is, it seems that music and soccer are the two true universal things people have in common.