Kenny Chesney Performs Beautiful Cover of Jimmy Buffett's ‘Come Monday’ with James Taylor and Mac McAnally

Kenny Chesney teamed up with James Taylor and Mac McAnally for a stunning cover of Jimmy Buffett's ‘Come Monday’, as part of the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony.

Buffett was posthumously receiving the Musical Excellence Award, with Dave Matthews also delivering a moving tribute to the country icon with his rendition of ‘A Pirate Looks at Forty’.

Kenny Chesney's island-inspired, tropically-themed brand of country music was largely inspired by Jimmy Buffett's sunny-side-up aesthetic, with the ‘No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems’ crooner name-checking Buffett on his early hit, ‘How Forever Feels’ (“Coconut oil, tanning señoritas / Oh, now I know how Jimmy Buffet feels”). Kenny duetted with Buffett on a revamped version of ‘Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season’ as part of his much-loved 2018 record, Songs for the Saints.

As a result, it felt apt that Kenny Chesney had been chosen to lead the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame tribute to his old friend, with Kenny's signature charismatic vocals coasting intricately across the gentle strum of the accompanying acoustic guitar.

The sincerity of his delivery accentuated the bittersweet, wistful tone of Buffett's 1974 classic, ‘Come Monday’, which finds the narrator yearning to be reunited with his true love.

James Taylor and Mac McAnally were also good buddies with Jimmy Buffett, with Mac McAnally serving as a celebrated member of Buffett's famous Coral Reefer Band since 1994.

In a touching social media post shared after the performance, McAnally explained how he'd left Jimmy Buffett's guitar next to him, in honour of his long-time friend, “Rock and Roll has always benefitted from people doing their own thing their own way and this year’s class is a great example. I’m especially happy that inclusion includes Jimmy Buffett. Especially happy that he was represented musically by Dave and James and Kenny (and little ole me as well), people he loved so much and that loved him. I had his guitar on a stand next to me on stage and I know he was there in more ways than you can count. We were all honored to honor him”.

Mac McAnally expanded, “Jimmy lived an extraordinary life but also found the joy in the ordinary and gave millions of people a roadmap to do the same. He had Big Dreams and used the vast majority of his waking hours making them come true”.

James Taylor delivered a heartfelt speech as he inducted Buffett into the Hall Of Fame, “I think I talked about celebrity and about how we assemble our personal mythologies in the popular culture, some bullshit like that. But the point is that for so many of us, Jimmy was a sort of a central hero, like a heroic figure in some Greek myth. His adventure was our adventure, and we got to share his huge love of this life”.

Jimmy Buffett died on September 1st, 2023, with the pioneering country artist and Margaritaville founder releasing a posthumous album, Equal Strain on All Parts, on November 3rd, 2023.

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