Wyclef Jean and Shaggy pay tribute to Jimmy Buffett in the Hamptons
Wyclef Jean dedicated a Hamptons set to his late pal Jimmy Buffett over the weekend, and even crafted some special lyrics in his honor.
“I am a Jimmy Buffet obsessive fan,” Jean said on stage at the Surf Lodge in Montuak, where he performed with Shaggy and DJ Cassidy.
“When I performed here a few years ago, someone who came to see me and join the stage with me was Jimmy Buffet,” Wyclef added. In a 2018 show, Buffett sang along with Jean and played the bongos.
“Put a lighter in the air for Jimmy Buffett,” Jean told the crowd before starting the song “No Woman, No Cry.”
“We are going to send it to the Buffet family with positivity,” he said, “He’s in the heavens and I know he loves reggae.”
Wyclef belted out new lyrics to the Bob Marley tune, including, “I remember when I used to chill / In Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.”
Buffet was a local legend in the Hamptons. The ocean lover had a home in Sag Harbor, where he passed away last week at the age of 76 after a battle with cancer.
The “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” singer was a fixture in the community and played a number of venues including rock spot Stephen Talkhouse and the Palm Tree Music Festival in Westhampton Beach.
Over the years he jumped on stage at Surf Lodge during performances by Willie Nelson and his son Lukas and local act Nancy Atlas.
The hotspot’s owner Jayma Cardoso tells us, “Jimmy was always kind, respectful and humble. You could walk by and nobody would know it was one of the biggest musical legends of all time. It’s just how he was. He was a good human being and made his mark on Montauk and the world.”
Wyclef told us he dedicated the concert to Buffett. “It was deep,” he told us. “When I got the news, it was a little shock. It’s insane respect.”
“I love Jimmy because of how he built Margaritaville, he’s an entrepreneur,” Wyclef said, of the late star’s chain of hotels and restaurants named after his hit song of the same name. The Fugee musician noted that he wants to work on his own similar project called The Carnival.
The earlier concert went off without a hitch a despite an appearance by the Fire Marshall. Shaggy and DJ Cassidy played hits and Wyclef took off his shirt, pulled lifestyle expert Valerie Greenberg on stage, and had Malibu pina coladas in coconuts passed out to the crowd.