Dreams DO Come True: My 6 Pix WERE Used During the Tribute Concert!!

I HAD to be there, yet again, especially with the possibility that photos I had taken several decades earlier might be shown on the back video wall. And they were!

Six of them, spanning my entire life following Jimmy and shooting photos at concerts from 1977 - 2021. That’s a span of 44 YEARS!

It was an ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE NIGHT at the “Keep the Party Going: A Tribute to Jimmy Buffett on Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl!

I embarked on this two-day adventure to Hollywood, CA, to shoot photos using my cell phone, decided once the concert started to shoot in video. I determined I could make screenshots from the videos as desired. For me personally, it was one fantastic moment after another, meeting fellow fans, exchanging stuff, etc.

I remain BEYOND THRILLED to see a 6-pack of my photos from previous concerts on the back video wall. Seeing my six pix enlarged so much to fill the wall gave me chills. To know 17,000 fellow fans saw MY PHOTOGRAPHS, even if only a few attendees knew they were mine, is still mind blowing.

Four of my photos were shown consecutively, and then some other photos that weren’t mine, followed by another two in a collage. In total, my photos were on the back video wall for about 15 wonderful seconds.

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Photo #1 on the great video wall.

I KNOW I am biased, but this may become the iconic photo to define that very special night. Jimmy is reunited with his current Coral Reefer Band. Jimmy looms larger than life, the dark background makes him stand out, and it shows him in his happy place: behind the mic. Though his eyes are closed, as if he is peacefully resting, they are directed upward towards the heavens. Appropriate!

In the background photograph I shot in 1978 in Columbus, Ohio, Jimmy was wearing a New York Islanders jersey. I always wondered why. Perhaps it was an omen of where Jimmy would eventually live and from where he left this precious earth. At the time of the photo, the Islanders were based in Uniondale, NY, just 71 miles from Jimmy’s future Sag Harbor home.

Some of it was magic…

The ORIGINAL PHOTO: Columbus, OH, March 20, 1978

I shot this photo from the second row, off to the left side during my 3-concert, 5-day hitchhiking adventure when I was 20 years old. It was an EPIC journey, one that truly changed the direction of my life. No, I wasn’t headed in the wrong direction - I was simply rudderless and in need of some direction. Jimmy provided clarity.

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Photo #2 on the great video wall. I am going to re-visit my college days studying photography to critique my own image. First, I am thrilled that they chose to include this photo during the Tribute as it is from the very first concert I ever photographed. This is now the oldest photo I have ever taken seen by the masses.

However, this particular photo is very “busy” unlike the first photo shown on the video wall. It is also a bit confusing as the backlights in the original photo makes you wonder at first glance if they are in the photo or were they part of the Tribute concert.

Finally, with Jimmy in the lower part of the original photo, he became partially obscured by the current Coral Reefer Band and unfortunately, you can’t even see Harry Dailey on bass. Still, LOVE that it made the cut.

The ORIGINAL Photo, August 2, 1977, Central Park, New York City

This was the very first concert I photographed using a 35mm camera I had purchased earlier that summer with proceeds from my very paycheck from my summer job. It was a basic Fuji camera with excellent through-the-lens metering.

This show was part of the Dr. Pepper music festival, which was broadcast along the east coast on WNEW, Jimmy’s first radio broadcast since 1975. This was the year Jimmy finally hit it big. He caught a big wave at the beginning of the year as he opened for his good friends, The Eagles, on their Hotel California tour for several dates in March and July. Not only did I attend Jimmy’s first concert as opening act for the Eagles on March 19, 1977, but I shot some “not-so-great” photos with my little pocket camera.

These were Jimmy’s first arena shows and stadium shows which allowed him to get his music to his biggest audiences yet. “Margaritaville” flew up the charts, helping the summer tour grow to many of the amphitheatres that Jimmy played for decades.

I LOVE the simplicity of the concert that day: no props, no video wall, just a single sign hanging with “Margaritaville” on it.

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Photo #3 on the GREAT VIDEO WALL - This one had the potential to become cluttered, however, if you look at the original below, there is ample room in the bottom portion of the photo to avoid anything important. Similar to the first photo in the sequence, this worked well in that so much of the photo was dark. I also LOVE that Mac is in both the 1989 photo and still on stage in 2024.

The ORIGINAL Photo: December 10, 1989, The Beacon Theatre, NYC

This was the scaled back “Living Room Tour” - just a handful of concerts in smaller theaters. For instance, The Beacon Theatre had a capacity of about 2,600 fans. Jimmy’s concert featured just a few of the Coral Reefer Band members, most notably Mac McAnally.

It was “just a few friends” playing music in a living room setting, complete with easy chairs, a couch, and a tv set playing old reruns of “Andy Griffith” and “I Love Lucy.”

At one point, a guitar tech brought a guitar on stage, sat down in one of the chairs, glanced at a magazine, stood up, and walked off the stage. Other unidentified people walked in and out of the “living room” throughtout the show.

Breaking up the entertainment, Jimmy ordered pizzas for the crowd, putting the pizza shop owner on speakerphone ...

And after a few more songs, right on cue, there was a special delivery of pizza brought on stage by the late and great journalist Ed Bradley, best known for his role on CBS New television program 60 Minutes.

Ed and Jimmy were tight friends until Ed’s untimely passing from leukemia at just 65 years old. According to some reports, Jimmy flew from Hawaii to be at Ed’s bedside when he passed.

Anyway, on this very special night, with Ed still on stage, Jimmy started flinging the boxes of pizza into the crowd like they were frisbees.

Nearly all the boxes were sealed with tape, but if you look closely at this photo, there is one box that is not taped.

Well that pizza flew out of the box, and like a heat-seeking missile, that hot pizza found its mark: the fur coat of a well-dressed woman, leading many to wonder, “Who wears a fur coat to a Jimmy Buffett concert?

Seeing this mishap, Jimmy suggested the woman "send your dry cleaning bill to Irving Azoff" - the uber successful talent manager.

(Unconfirmed rumor: the woman in mink was Barbara Walters.)

This photo was NOT included in the Tribute, but I included it here, because, well, Ed Bradley didn’t deliver pizza to just anyone.

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Photo #4 on the GREAT VIDEO WALL - This is another photo that became somewhat cluttered, because of everyone on the two stages. However, unlike Photo #2, there are no lights in the original photo to create confusion. Instead, the vintage Coral Reefer Band, including 6-year old Savannah Jane Buffett on the conga drums, is joined by the current Coral Reefer Band. I am not absolutely certain it is true, but I somehow remember an announcement that it was Savannah’s first time joining her famous Dad on stage. I hope Savannah saw this photo during the Tribute, but it was only on the video wall for a few seconds and she could have easily missed seeing herself in it.

The ORIGINAL Photo, July 9, 1985, Boston Common

After years of bringing my 35mm camera with me to Jimmy’s concerts without any hassle, policy must have shifted as cameras were no longer allowed into the concert area. They actually had a table set up to check cameras at the back of the outdoor seating area. Seeing this, I blasted off a full roll before turning my camera in, hoping for something, anything, that would be worthwhile.

So glad I had the presence of mind to photograph this concert under duress.

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Photos #5 and #6 on the GREAT WALL - After those first 4 photos were shown on the back wall in sequence, there was a series of other, non-concert Jimmy photos. Then they came back with an encore of my photos, on the left and on the right. No idea who shot the photo in the middle.

Both of my photos are in a vertical format, and the folks in charge of the video wall did a really good job in creating a bulletin board motif. I absolutely LOVE Jimmy’s smile in all three of these, especially mine (of course), because he is looking in the same direction in both, separated by 43 years in the photos.

The ORIGINAL Photos: Left, December 4, 2021, Tampa, FL; Right, March 20, 1978, Cincinnati

Left: This photo was taken from the first row, coming out of the damndemic using my iPhone 13 Pro Max, purchased on the afternoon of this concert with no real idea of how to maximize its features. Turns out it is an exceptional camera and now always with me. That was the first Jimmy Buffett concert I had attended in several years and I purchased my first two tickets just after midnight on impulse for such expensive tickets. Why? I HAD to be there. So glad I dug so deep into my pocket to see Jimmy one last time. Of course, at the time, no one knew of his health situation.

Right: How appropriate this one from Cincinnati was included. I had scored a backstage pass for this show and this photo was taken from the side stage, behind the curtain. That is Jay Spell on piano, and Greg “Fingers” Taylor on harmonica. Right after the show, I was able to meet Jimmy and have two photographs signed by him. Those were photos I shot in Boston just two weeks earlier, which motivated me to go on my hitchhiking journey in 1978.

THANK YOU JIMMY BUFFETT for being my north star my entire adult life, for ALWAYS writing the perfect words, and for encouraging us to seek adventures. You have shown me, and so many others, the way!

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Would LOVE To hear what you think.

Coming SOON: back to my collaboration with Bob Liberman on the writing of his memoir, my own memoir, and our efforts to get them published.

Stay tuned!