It’s safe to say I was in a funk when I got the news that Jimmy Buffett had passed away. To his family and me, Jimmy was more than just a legendary, great music artist, he was also a friend.
Jimmy came into my life as a very fun and famous friend of my parents. But as time went on, our friendship grew, and we started seeing more, mainly because he was a frequent stopover in Dallas for concerts, and he would often ask me to take him out to dinner. Ta.
As is often the case with the loss of a loved one, memories flood our minds. So I put pen to paper and wrote down some of my most memorable moments with Jimmy. Of all the times we spent together, nothing captured his spirit more than when I tried to get him to invest in one of my projects.
The year is 2013. I was in the middle of developing the Coyote Drive-In in Fort Worth. Suddenly my phone started ringing. It was a random number from Florida. For some reason I decided not to screen the call and answered the call.
“Hey!” said a familiar voice over the phone. “I’m Jimmy Buffett. I heard from Johnny D. [a mutual friend] with the drive-in open. (Yes! In fact, I was.) “You know, it was my dream to own a drive-in,” he told me. “I’m on it too!” I was in the process of raising money for this project, so his timing couldn’t be more coincidental. I started explaining my financial requirements. Jimmy stopped and said, “Oh,” he said. “Well, I don’t usually have to write checks because, well, I can help you in other ways.” explained. After all, I told him I treat all investors the same. They all add value in their own way. Jimmy said think about it, but to me that meant “hard pass.”
Six weeks passed without a peep from Jimmy. Not a word. “I’m done,” I thought. How can I turn him off? Maybe he was right. Getting him into the drive-in would have been a big deal. Still, he didn’t want investors to think he had proposed a different deal to them, so he thought he had to accept his decision. Little did I know how things were going to turn out.
I was traveling with friends to my hometown of New Orleans when my cell phone started ringing. It was Jimmy.
“Hey!” he said. “I’m in Palm Beach. I pondered his confusing itinerary before replying, “I’m in New Orleans!”
Jimmy enthusiastically invited me to follow him to dinner, but I was already booked with 10 friends. “Can I mix in?” he asked. I picked up the phone and asked my friends, “Hey guys, can Jimmy Buffett join us for dinner tonight?” No one objected.
Next, as you know, we were sitting at a large table in Cochon and walking past The Man, The Miss and The Margarita. He sat down at the head of the table and began the court. He spun tales of the old times we spent together. hunting and fishing trips. We went to a show at the Senger Theater in New Orleans where he sat me and my siblings on the side stage (we were in our early teens). Partying with my parents in Aspen in the ’70s. That was in high school when his brother Brant Wood and I stole his caramel-colored 911 Porsche Carrera because it had been sitting at home for a few weeks. The stories were endless. they still are.
Tequila and stories flowed. Finally he turned and looked at me. “Okay, Brady,” he said. “We’ve reserved a table in the back. Let’s go cut the deal.” The two of us made our way to a quiet booth. “I can’t stop thinking about drive-ins,” he says. “I really want to join.
i thought about it. I told him “no” and that I had to invest on the same terms as everyone else. And take a break. “I admire your style,” he said. “Screw in. I’m in!”
We talked for another hour and before he left (definitely on his wild itinerary) I went back to my friend. A few months later, the Coyote Drive-In Theater opened and has been a staple of Fort His Worth’s entertainment ever since.
A year later, when we hosted the first-ever “Live From the Drive-In” show, Buffett proved that the investment in drive-ins really matters. He took the stage at his Coyote drive-in to present a show that was synchronously broadcast live to 90 other drive-ins.
That one night, more than 30,000 parrotheads flocked to old drive-ins across North America to sing and drink margaritas from makeshift tiki tailgates. This is another night that I will never forget.
My friend, and later my partner, Jimmy, had a life that continues to inspire me. He blurred the line between work and play. He loved making people happy. He valued friendship. And he sang: “Sometimes it’s magical, sometimes it’s tragic, but I had a good life the whole time.”
Brady Wood is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of WoodHouse, a creative hospitality company that creates, owns and operates experiential concepts in food and beverage, private social clubs, music and entertainment spaces.
