During a new episode of Songlines & Stories on SiriusXM's RadioMargaritaville, Mac McAnally and Zac Brown reflect on their shared mission to continue Jimmy Buffett's legacy.

McAnally was one of Buffett's closest friends and a longstanding member of the Coral Reefer Band, while Brown cites the late ‘Margaritaville’ legend as one of his biggest influences. Buffett joined Zac Brown Band for ‘Knee Deep’ and ’Same Boat’, both of which epitomise Buffett's sun-soaked, Hawaiian shirt-adorned aesthetic.

Shortly after Buffett's passing in September 2023, Brown and McAnally joined forces for a moving tribute, ‘Poets & Pirates’, which was inspired by a phone-call the two had. In that heartfelt offering, they underline their dedication to ‘keeping the party going’, which was reportedly Buffett's parting message to his loved ones.

In the newly shared interview on RadioMargaritaville, Brown touches on how he and his band-mates try to channel Buffett during their concerts, “In our live shows, how do we carry the torch of what Jimmy's legacy is? And then how do we inject our own brand of that in there, and then studying all of it, trying to figure out how to elevate it for what we can do now? That's where my mind is on the live show that we want to create, and on being able to collaborate on these things together”.

There's a touching moment during Zac Brown Band's live set where, while introducing the wonderfully breezy ‘Knee Deep’, Brown remarks that he likes to think that, if Buffett's spirit is anywhere, it would be right here in the room with them and their fans.

McAnally humbly responds, “I'm not smart enough to arrive at that, but I've seen some of what you're talking about from the front of the stage and from looking looking off the stage. [Both] Springsteen and Jimmy were being themselves and being joyous. If you are yourself, joy is contagious. Jimmy was not pretending to be happy on stage. That was the happiest place in the world for him. He was the happiest guy in the world, and people that liked an album he made 30 years ago, and not necessarily what he did in the last 10, it didn't matter. They saw that, and they're like, ‘I want that. I want that every year. I want to go every year’”.

McAnally, who penned an array of much-loved songs with Buffett, such as ‘Changing Channels’ and ‘License to Chill’, expands, “He didn't go every year because he had an album to sell. He didn't make an album every year. He didn't go because he had thought of some new way to build a blender, that they needed one more. He went because he wanted to do that more than anything in the world”.

The Alabama native goes on to highlight how part of Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band's appeal was the fact that they provided escapism for those who needed it, “We carried the beach to people that couldn't go. We carried it to Detroit. People that couldn't go to the beach for a week from Detroit, they come and spend one night and get a babysitter and pay a little parking, and feel like they got three days of pure joy out of one two-hour show. I think you know there's all kinds of ways to get cerebral about it. But if I know how talented you are, if you stand on a stage and you be yourself and be happy, they're going to get it”.

The ‘Back Where I Come From’ singer-songwriter adds, “I'm going to stand on a stage and be happy, not just because I enjoy it, but also because I know the degree to which I suck at everything else. So the fact that I get to do my calling...that is my calling. You know, just by default, because I'm not that good at anything else!”

McAnally concludes with a note about the vitality and joie-de-vivre we get from knowing we're fulfilling our higher purpose, “But that's what I'm here for. I think Martin Luther - the original Protestant Martin Luther - wrote something like, ‘There's nothing more religious than for a guy that was put here to farm to farm’. We're doing what we're here for. Jimmy was doing what he was here for, and there is benefit not just for us, but...that we can spread. We can spread a little good from that”.

Brown echoes this sentiment, “Absolutely. How do you capture it? It's that lightning in a bottle that you're trying to harness. And for me, you know, maybe the way that I think about it and process it is different. I like everything that you just said, and I think being authentic and being there - 100%. You felt Jimmy's [spirit], you felt him”.

Both McAnally and Brown, and other tropically-inspired troubadours such as Kenny Chesney and Niko Moon, are doing a fantastic job of carrying Buffett's tiki-bar baton in today's country music scene. And it's true what these two trailblazing artists say in their insightful conversation about Buffett's music being far more important and instrumental for his Parrothead fanbase than it is given credit for. Buffett wasn't just a savvy business tycoon and a laidback crooner that loved surfing and margaritas - he was someone who was doing what he was put on earth to do, loving every second of it and, in doing so, spreading joy to his fans. And that, this writer would argue, is the most valuable thing an artist can do.