Jimmy Buffett may be gone, but his band plans to live on. Songwriter Mac McAnally, a longtime member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, tells Billboard that the band plans to continue on, despite Buffett’s passing on September 1.
“The Coral Reefer Band is second family to all of us. We are a family. And Jimmy wants us to continue and we want to continue,” McAnally shares. “There’s ongoing discussions about the best way to do that, the most practical way to do that and how to do it in a way that is worthy of the legacy that we’re part of.”
He adds, “I can’t wait until we [figure it out] because we miss being out there, playing his songs to people and feeling that alternating current go back and forth from the stage to the crowd. I don’t know who’s got more energy, them or us.”
Buffett’s last time on a stage was in June when he surprised the audience at McAnally’s show in Rhode Island, where they played the Buffett/Alan Jackson tune “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.”
“I looked back around at him because he was coming up behind me and he was 100% the happiest person on earth,” McAnally says, “because I don’t think he knew if he was going to feel it again and I don’t think he knew that he was never gonna feel it again after that.”
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