#128 – Close Calls

by Stacy Loves Buffett · May 26, 2026

#128 – Close Calls

-by Stacy Garwood-

We have all had close calls, you know, near misses that make us stop and say whoa! The Cambridge dictionary defines a close call as “a situation in which something bad, unpleasant, or dangerous almost happens, but you manage to avoid it,” and Mirium-Webster sums it up even more succinctly as a noun that means a “a narrow escape.” The Oxford English dictionary reports that it was first used in print in 1861 in Portage, Wisconsin. While I am unsure of its specific use, it’s been a part of American lingo for at least one-hundred and sixty-five years. It also has the distinction of being the title of a Jimmy Buffett song.

“Close calls, close calls, I will survive; brick walls, big balls, lucky just to be alive…”

Close Calls is a song on JB’s 2023 album, Equal Strain On All Parts. It was written by Jimmy Buffett, Will Kimbrough and Mac McAnally. It was recorded in early 2023, before the world woke up to a September morning with the realization that Jimmy Buffett was no longer riding around on this beautiful blue ball with us. The album was posthumously released in November of 2023 by both Mailboat and Sun Records.

According to Will Kimbrough, Jimmy wanted a song called Close Calls which dived into several of Jimmy’s brushes with death. They got together, discussed some of Jimmy’s stories, some well-known, some less well-known. Jimmy was the idea man, Kimbrough started the writing process, Mac McAnally was brought in to help with the song, and finally, Jimmy fine-tuned his original idea and the lyrics, all the while, we now know, he was receiving treatments for cancer. It’s got a definite country sound, is very upbeat and has a vibrant fiddle part. Of all the songs on this final studio album, besides Like My Dog, it has the most country sound, which fits a significant role in Jimmy’s music experience.

The song’s lyrics highlight a couple of incidents in his past. Perhaps the most well-known of Jimmy’s brushes with the law, as well as brushes with a living law enforcement legend, Bufford Pusser. Jimmy’s first song that discussed this “close call” was from his 1974 album, A1A. The song Presents To Send You, written by a solo Jimmy, is the first song mention of Jimmy’s run in with the giant-of-a-man, ex-professional wrestler, turned “walking tall sheriff” in a Nashville parking lot. Another nod to this incident is captured in Semi-True Story, written by Mac McAnally, and recorded on Jimmy’s 1999 album, Beach House On The Moon. Someday we’ll dive into that song, also very country and upbeat sounding, but today, the idea of “close calls” is wanting its turn.

“I fought Buford Pusser in a honky-tonk joint, he whipped my ass, that’s beside the point, close calls, close calls, lucky just to be alive…”

Let’s recap “The Buford Pusser Incident.” In 1974, a younger and wilder Jimmy Buffett, having performed while exceedingly intoxicated (too much tequila) at a hotel lounge in Nashville (ironically on the same day he recorded Gods Own Drunk). After the performance, Jimmy was hungry and wanting some BBQ, so with his then drummer Sammy Creason, he headed to the parking lot to find his rental car. It was small and the parking lot was large, so he climbed onto the roof of a car, wearing golf shoes, to search for his rental, and found himself knocked off the car by a man wielding a garbage can. Scrambling ensued, fists flew, retreat happened, and they were able to take shelter in their rental car, although both Jimmy and Sammy had battle wounds from Pusser. They escaped with a few scuff marks from the experience with Pusser in the parking lot, but later encountered him again in the hotel lobby, and this time Jimmy was saved by the unlikely assistance of two detectives that Pusser was reporting the incident too. Jimmy would later say that upon realizing who he had encountered in that parking lot, that Jimmy knew he had made a lucky escape. It’s no joke, as Buford Pusser single-handedly tried to dismantle the Tennessee mafia, and helped multiple men out of their lives. Pusser would die later that same year in a single-car crash (speculation the Tennessee mafia took him out), and soon after, Jimmy documented the incident in song.

That incident plays a front row role in Close Calls, with the lyrics highlighting that Jimmy didn’t come out the victor in that scuffle, as a matter of fact, he got his ass beat, but he managed to survive and walked away to sing another day. In a previous blog post, I described this “Buford Pusser Incident” as a gift that keeps on giving, and it feels so fitting that Jimmy, full of life and laughter, even to the end, was still poking fun, not only at the incident, but at himself as well. In Close Calls, the Pusser incident roles through the chorus, repeated with humor, but also the honest admission that Jimmy was lucky to walk away from that incident without some hair pulled out and a beat-up car rental.

It was an AMC Gremlin, if you are curious. I enjoy imagining Jimmy with his golden locks of the 70’s riding around Nashville in a Gremlin. While these cars were once maligned and laughed at, they are currently a serious collector’s item, and don’t come cheap. In August of 2025, a 1972 AMC Gremlin in “mint” condition, mint also being the color of the car, sold in a Pennsylvania auction for $40,700. No joke! If you are interested in your own Gremlin, you probably won’t need to spend quite that much, but you are still going to part with enough money to fund a European vacation. The Gremlin is a cousin to the AMC Pacer, made famous by the movie Wayne’s World, now also quite a collectors item.

“Scuba divin’ Pensacola, a hundred twenty feet down, I’m so glad Jack buddy-breathed me, or I guess I would have drowned, close calls, close calls, I don’t always use my brain…”

The other incident that is stated in the lyrics was a close call near drowning that happened when Jimmy was in his late teens, probably eighteen or nineteen. He was scuba diving with the Mobile Devilfish Skindiving Club, somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. The lyrics state it was near Pensacola Florida, but Jimmy’s novel, a Pirate Looks At Fifty doesn’t mention a specific location. They were diving deep, around ninety feet deep, and he ran out of oxygen. If it wasn’t for his friend Jack Andrade, who helped him with buddy-breathing until they reached the surface, Jimmy might have drowned before he even managed to make it to college, not to mention New Orleans, Nashville, Key West, and Aspen, to name a few. Jimmy mentions that he and Jack’s paths diverged soon after, but that Jimmy was pretty sure he thanked Jack for saving his life. Certainly, Jack’s name will live ever more in this song’s lyrics, so that is a special kind of thank you!

The song sums up this incident with the lyrics, “I don’t always use my brain”. Check your gear, know your limitations and be careful. Also embellishing the details reminds me of some of the details can be altered with time and memory. Ninety feet versus a hundred and twenty feet… either way, thank goodness for Jack!

Jimmy has a lengthy list of “close calls” and “near misses” in his life. Another one that made it into a song, Jamaica Mistaica, was in 1996. Jimmy, on his beloved Grumman Albatross sea plane, The Hemisphere Dancer, was considered an enemy of Jamaica for a few long moments. This incident is well known in Buffett Lore, with Jimmy flying some friends from Florida over the Caribbean with plans to have some jerked chicken lunch in Jamaica. The friends were record producer Chris Blackwell, and Irish singer Bono and Bono’s wife and children as passengers. Jimmy planned landing near Negril, when the authorities mistook Buffett for a drug smuggler and opened fire on the mighty post-World War II sea plane. Luckily, all passengers were safe, if perhaps not feeling very secure. Bono and family quickly left Jamaica, while Jimmy stuck around to deal with authorities, who were quite apologetic. For Jimmy, it was another “close call” that inspired the song Jamaica Mistaica, an iconic song highlighting the situation, deflecting what was most likely a terrifying situation with humor.

The Hemisphere Dancer has been long retired, is currently located in Florida at Universal Orlando’s City Walk and still has the bullet holes to testify to the truth of the Jamaica situation. It has been recently refurbished and has become a beacon of call for Buffett fans to visit. If you want to learn more about the plane that played such a huge role in Jimmy’s life, read A Pirate Looks At Fifty, since the Grumman Albatross is a huge character in the novel, carrying Buffett and his family on a tropical tour of the Caribbean, the backdrop for many adventures.

Another near miss, also well known in Buffett fan circles, is a seaplane crash that Buffett was involved in, August of 1994, two years before Jimmy took fire in Jamaica. Jimmy had another Grumman, this one a Widgeon, that Jimmy used to fly over and find fishing spots along the coast of Massachusetts. It’s a smaller plane and can be piloted solo, unlike the Grumman. The airplane, with Jimmy the sole occupant, nosed over on takeoff in rough water, and took on water quickly, almost completely submerging in the surf. Buffett, who had received Naval emergency flight training in 1986, so he could fly on a F-14 Tomcat and land on a Naval aircraft carrier USS America. Buffett credited this naval training course with his survival from his Grumman Widgeon crash. That training also led to the advice to follow the bubbles up, which became the centerpiece of an instant Buffett hit, Bubbles Up, also from Equal Strain On All Parts.

“Been in lots of tight spots, so many that I can’t explain, big shots, bon mots, I don’t always use my brain…”

Yes, there are a few more…

Another one that comes up when fans talk about close calls for Jimmy is when, in 2011, at the end of a concert in Sydney Australia, Jimmy stepped off the stage and fell approximately eight feet to the ground, hitting his head on a metal box, and knocking himself out cold for several minutes, to the stunned shock and worry of the crowd and bandmates. Ironically he was singing Its Been A Lovely Cruise during his final encore that night. Thankfully, besides a laceration to his head that required stiches and a concussion, Jimmy was unscathed from what have could have been incredibly significant injury, including a brain bleed, spinal fracture or even death. He even managed to add this incident to a fan favorite hit, giving us the Hawaiian lyrics to a live recorded version of Margaritaville, which can often be heard, along with his humorous retelling of the story, on RadioMargaritaville.

And one “close call” that I hadn’t been aware of until I started looking into this song, was a story from the late seventies, when Jimmy was partying on his sailboat, struck up a friendship with some potential drug runners on a “cigar boat.” Later, while taking a nap in the dingy that became untied, he drifted away from the larger vessel, and was stranded on the high seas alone, with only sea water all around him, no sign of shore, and without food or fresh water. That could have been quite serious situation, but Jimmy’s angels prevailed and his new “friends” on the “cigar boat” found him and pointed him in the direction of his own sailing vessel, and another “close call” became part of Buffett lore.

So, Jimmy was no stranger to close calls. One can see how he wanted to create a song about his many situations. After Jimmy’s death, but prior to the release of Equal Strain On All Parts, Will Kimbrough stated, “Jimmy wanted to write a song about his brushes with death, And so he told me a couple of stories, and I sketched out a song. He changed some of the lyrics.” Mac McAnally, a longtime friend and writing partner of Jimmy’s, also collaborated on this song. Mac would have been aware of many of Jimmy’s incidents and stories over the years, and of course, he authored Semi-True Story, which highlights the Buford Pusser incident, as well as nods to many of Jimmy’s stories, which combined truth and potential fiction into wildly entertaining tales.

Unfortunately, we never got to hear Jimmy tell us about these songs, or perform them live, but Kimbrough and McAnally are reliable resources for the energy that Jimmy was trying to capture in each song. Kimbrough described the resulting song Close Calls as “a tongue-in-cheek fast country song, very country. It’s fun, it’s fast, it reminds me of something off of ‘White Sport Coat,” which references Buffett’s 1973 album A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean. A little country, a little Key West, and the blending of those two sounds that would be the beginning of starting what became known as Gulf and Western, Jimmy Bufffett’s very own music genre.

Something that stands out in this studio recording is a fast-paced fiddle part, played by the incomparable Stuart Duncan. Stuart Duncan was born in Quantico, Virginia and raised in San Diego, California. If those places make you think of the terms Jarhead and Leatherneck or want to sing about the Halls of Montezuma, that is because Stuart’s father was a lifelong Marine who had an interest in music that he passed onto his young son. Stuart plays fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo and has been a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band since 1985. He is a three-time Grammy winner, Academy of Country Music Fiddle Player of the Year award six times and International Bluegrass Music Associations Fiddle Player of the Year award eight times.

From that list of accomplishments, it’s easy to see that Stuart Duncan is a gifted player and musician. He has been apart of hundreds of studio recordings, possibly up to nine hundred, and not only does he play, but he also sings, writes, and arranges music. He has been part of working with music greats such as Alison Krauss, Robert Plant, Bela Fleck, Ricky Scaggs, Patty Lovelace, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Marty Stewart, just to name a few. It is no wonder that Jimmy Buffett wanted him to play on this song. The fiddle part simply comes to life on Close Calls and adds the perfect amount of liveliness and fire that elevates the song to a whole different level.

“Life can be a pickle, or a stalk of sugar cane, one day you’re wrestlin’ gators, next day you’re singing, “Never Been to Spain”, in Spain, in Spanish!”

One other part of the song that has grabbed my attention is the nod to the Hoyt Axton song Never Been To Spain. It was famously recorded by the band Three Dog Night and became a major hit. Jimmy never recorded the song himself, but there must be a story to how that landed in the song lyrics. I have not been able to research an answer. One interesting connection between Jimmy and Three Dog Night is that early in their careers they were both signed to ABC/Dunhill records. Jimmy and his band used to open for the vocal group and traveled in the same music circles. If anyone knows what that aspect of the lyrics is about, please drop a comment and let us all know.

While we can’t ask Jimmy about the details that led to the song’s lyrics and style, and we relay and surrogates to help fill in the details, Jimmy did give us a little something in interviews about Close Calls, although this interview was in regards to the 2020 album, Life On The Flip Side, it is clear that Close Calls might have already been brewing in Jimmy’s lyrical storytelling mind. He said, “When you’ve had a couple close calls, like an airplane crash and a stage dive, you think you’re probably living on borrowed time. I tend to live like it’s my last day — you never know.”

Perhaps in the weird way that inspiration strikes, this was the question that sparked an idea in Jimmy’s mind. I guess we will never know, and that’s alright. We have this song, and so many others. And we have so many stories to enjoy. Sometimes it feels like he is still with us, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

“Close calls, close calls, I will survive; brick walls, big balls, lucky just to be alive…”

By the way, I can’t find any information that Jimmy ever wrestled any alligators, but it’s possible it’s use while both fun and dramatic, is an analogy for managing the recording and entertainment industry. Jimmy definitely managed the entertainment industry well.

“Close calls, close calls, I will survive…

Close calls, close calls, lucky just to be alive…”

We miss you, Jimmy! So incredibly grateful to have your music and stories to carry forward!

Stacy

Please enjoy Close Calls. I have included the link below. Enjoy!

2023 Studio Version: