THE ROAD TO WILLIE’S PICNIC (#15): The road to Willie Nelson & Jimmy Buffet went through Ft. Walton Beach. In my Junior year, I went with some of my Delta Tau Delta fraternity brothers to watch the contest to pick the Queen for the College of Engineering’s Annual Fair because it had a bathing suit competition. One of our Delta Tau Delta Little Sisters was in the same sorority as the winner. I ask her to introduce me and it went well. After we graduated, I went to law school and she went home to Ft. Walton Beach to teach.
She was an art major and on one visit told me she had been commissioned to paint “The Face upon the Barroom Floor” in a cottage that had been converted to an Oyster House to accommodate customers waiting in line to get into a very popular seafood restaurant. While she painted, I shot pool and listened to Jimmy Buffet on the Jukebox.
A few weeks later she called and told me Jimmy Buffet would be playing in College Station, Texas on the 4th of July, 1974. If I bought the tickets to Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic, she would get plane tickets to Texas. The same man that had commissioned her to paint “The Face Upon the Ballroom Floor” was restoring an old river boat and had a lot of work for her.
We weren’t country music fans, we were just going to see Buffet, but the lineup was tremendous. July 4th, the first day was our favorite. Jimmy and the Coral Reefer Band were one of the first acts. “Living and Dying in 3/4 Time” had come out earlier in the year and he played his first radio hit “Come Monday”. My favorite was “Pencil Thin Mustache”, but by far the crowd’s favorite was “Why Don’t We get Drunk.” Buffet was followed by Guy Clark. Later a female streaker ran across the stage while Waylon Jennings was playing. Jerry Jeff Walker ended the day.
Willie started off every day and Leon Russell was the MC. Some people who surprised me were Kinky Friedman, Doug “The Raggin’ Cajun” Kershaw on fiddle, and Rick Nelson. My favorite memory was a harmonic duel between Fingers Taylor, Leon Russell, and John Sebastian.
Jimmy became a good friend of Joe Nuzzo, owner of the Suncoast Surf Shop, and there were several cruises, but I never made one. So those are my Jimmy Buffet stories, the early years.
