Famed US singer Jimmy Buffett dies at 76

President Joe Biden hails Buffett as a 'poet of paradise'

Jimmy Buffett thanks the capacity crowd at the Coffee Butler Amphitheatre after a show in Key West, Florida in February. AP

FILE - Jimmy Buffett talks about the premiere of "Escape to Margaritaville" at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans on Monday, June 12, 2017. Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song “Margaritaville” and turned that celebration of loafing into an empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, has died, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. (Chris Granger / The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Jimmy Buffett performs on NBC's "Today" show in New York in July 2016. AP

Jimmy Buffett and a guest arrive at the 2015 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California. Reuters

Jimmy Buffett performs on NBC's "Today" show in New York in August 2013. Reuters

Jimmy Buffett performs on Duval Street in Key West, Florida in November 2011. AP

Jimmy Buffett performs at a memorial service for CBS journalist Walter Cronkite at the Lincoln Centre in New York in September 2009. AFP

Jimmy Buffett attends an NBA basketball game between Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks in Miami, Florida in November 2004. Reuters

American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, best known for his 1977 hit Margaritaville, has died aged 76, a statement on his website said.

Buffett's classic chill-out anthem Margaritaville, about beachfront living with a drink in hand, spent 22 weeks on the Billboard chart, and helped launch his decades-long music career and a business empire.

Known as the “Mayor of Margaritaville,” Buffett released nearly 30 studio albums of country, folk and tropical tunes, and also launched a line of resorts, restaurants and retail stores that capitalised on his laid-back, escapist image.

“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1 surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” the statement said.

“He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

President Joe Biden hailed Buffett as a “poet of paradise” and said he had got to know the performer over the years.

“Jimmy reminded us how much the simple things in life matter – the people we love, the places we're from, the hopes we have on the horizon,” Mr Biden said in a statement.

Born in Mississippi on December 25, 1946 and raised in Alabama, Buffett began playing guitar in college and later started performing on the streets and in the clubs of New Orleans, according to his website.

He released his first record, Down to Earth, in 1970, and a year later travelled to Key West, Florida, a place that became synonymous with Buffett's paradise-themed music and laid-back lifestyle brands.

Buffett also wrote bestselling books, appeared in movies and on television, and had a brief Broadway run with his musical Escape to Margaritaville.

But his signature song – and its refrain: “Wastin' away again in Margaritaville, searchin' for my lost shaker of salt” – is what his legions of fans and beach holidaymakers remember most.

“There are people out there looking for a good time for a few days a year,” Buffett told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996, referring to his fans, known as “Parrotheads”.

“We come to town and we're the carnival or the Mardi Gras. People blow off steam and then go back and become basically law-abiding citizens,” he said.