by Carrie Resch
Staff Writer
What would the world of music be like if Jimmy Buffett became a Navy pilot instead of a singer? There would be no Margaritaville, just Margarita drinkers. Parrotheads would be a term belonging only to birds.
And he certainly wouldn’t be appearing at the Arena tonight before 14,000 or so avid supporters who bought every ticket within a half-hour after they went on sale.
No, a woman wasn’t to blame in this instance of Buffett’s idea to get his wings. He was actually planning to be in the military, but his college friends encouraged him to record instead because they just knew someday that he would be a star.
According to two of his fraternity brothers who now live in Jacksonville, he was always the same as he is now, a free-spirited, flower shirt wearing, barefooted singer who loved to entertain.
Buffett attended college at Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg in the late 60s and was in the Kappa Sigma fraternity along with Joe Demoramval and Phil Voss.
Demoramval lives in Jacksonville and works at Wood Treaters. He grew up with Buffett in Mobile and they attended high school together at an all-boys Catholic school.
“There was a place on the top floor we called the ‘B.S. Room’ where there were sofas and a sit-in area,” Demoramval recalled. “He was always there or on the stairs writing songs or plucking away at his guitar.”
Later they attended college together and were in the same fraternity, inducted at the same time.
Fraternity brothers Buffett and Rick Bennet were in the same band in college.
Demoramval said, “People used to call them Buffett Bennet. They were both free spirits and in charge of setting up house parties in Panama City or the Gulf Coast.”
Demoramval thought that Buffet might be famous someday, but not to this magnitude because of his laid back ways.
“He just really liked singing, playing, and scuba diving,” Demoramval remembers. “He’s just a lot of fun.”
Although he and Buffet don’t really keep in touch much anymore, Demoramval attends some of his shows and he and his family big fans of his music. They plan on attending this show and doing some luau-type tailgating before the performance.
Voss, who works for LSI, was Buffett’s frat house roommate and also when they rented an old house together for a short period of time.
“What you see is what you get. Back then he wore a flower shirt, cutoffs and was barefooted, and the next time I saw him 30 years later he was wearing a flower shirt, cutoffs and was barefooted,” Voss said. “He’s real and also a real smart guy.”
Voss still keeps occasional contact with Buffett by phone or email, more so in the last couple of years.
Voss recalled, “Jimmy always wanted to be a Navy pilot and I wanted to be a famous musician, and then I became a Navy pilot and he became a famous musician.”
When asked if he was a fan of Buffett’s music, he replied, “Yeah, isn’t everybody?”