<\/p>\n
Country singer Jake Owen<\/strong><\/a> is holding tight to one \u201camazing\u201d memory of Jimmy Buffett<\/strong> as we near what would have been the legendary performer\u2019s 79th birthday.<\/p>\n On the Wednesday, November 19 episode of Rolling Stone\u2019s<\/a>Nashville Now podcast<\/a>, Owen, 44, recalled the day Buffett flew himself into Owen\u2019s hometown of Vero Beach, Florida, to headline his annual charity show for the Jake Owen Foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cHe literally flew his own plane in, landed at Vero Beach airport, got off in flip-fops and a shirt with Mac McAnally<\/strong>, gig bag on his shoulder, and played for the people of Vero Beach,\u201d Owen shared. \u201cAnd then he got back on his airplane and flew himself out of there. Talk about that story, right? \u2018Jimmy Buffett\u2019s gonna stop by for a little bit in his airplane and play some songs\u2026\u2019 To have that kind of memory is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n The two had first shared a bill in 2017 at a hurricane relief benefit in Tallahassee. A few years later, Buffett quietly returned the favor by treating Owen\u2019s hometown crowd to an intimate acoustic set \u2014 no fanfare, just flip-flops, a guitar, and his generous heart.<\/p>\n After Buffett\u2019s death in 2023, Owen was invited to perform at the star-studded celebration of life at the Hollywood Bowl, an experience he says he\u2019ll never forget. Onstage during the finale, he found himself surrounded by music royalty. \u201cI was singing into a microphone looking face to face at Joe Walsh<\/strong>, singing \u2018Let It Be,\u2019 while McCartney played piano, and Snoop Dogg\u2019<\/strong>s smoking a blunt,\u201d Owen said. \u201cOnly Jimmy Buffett could bring these people together and provide this type of unity\u2026 and understanding that music is freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfb6<\/strong> SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfb6<\/strong><\/p>\n As Owen and so many others continue celebrating Buffett\u2019s legacy, those closest to him say his joy never dimmed \u2014 not even at the very end. Mac McAnally<\/strong>, Buffett\u2019s longtime Coral Reefer Band guitarist, revealed he visited the singer<\/a> just 24 hours before his death and found him in remarkably good spirits. \u201cHe was smiling wider than his head and saying, \u2018What a hell of a ride, keep it going, keep the party going,\u2019\u201d he told Fox News Digital<\/a> in 2023. McAnally shared that he picked up a guitar, and the two spent their final visit sharing tour stories and laughing.<\/p>\n The \u201cMargaritaville\u201d hitmaker was diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma that had metastasized into lymphoma. Buffet died on September 1, 2023 at age 76.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Nov 24, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Country singer Jake Owen is holding tight to one \u201camazing\u201d memory of Jimmy Buffett as we near what would have been the legendary performer\u2019s 79th birthday. On the Wednesday, November 19 episode of Rolling Stone\u2019sNashville Now podcast, Owen, 44, recalled the day Buffett flew himself into Owen\u2019s hometown of Vero Beach, Florida, to headline his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2174356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[22373,348542,309645,368457,359076],"class_list":["post-2174355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-florida","tag-jake-owen","tag-jimmy-buffett","tag-mac-mcanally","tag-vero-beach"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/He-Flew-His-Own-Plane.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2174357,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174355\/revisions\/2174357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2174356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}