Keep The Party Going: A Tribute To Jimmy Buffett

Highlights

• Let It Be

  With guest(s)

On this night at the Hollywood Ball in Los Angeles, various artists paid tribute to the late Jimmy Buffett, an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman who passed away in September 2023. As a close friend of Buffett’s, Paul McCartney was invited to perform on stage towards the end of the show.

Dave Grohl introduced Paul to the audience, and he performed “Let It Be” with backing from The Eagles, who had performed before him. While on stage, McCartney appeared to be balancing moods, striking some of his familiar crowd-friendly poses, but also visibly emotional.

Following his performance of “Let It Be”, McCartney returned to the stage for a full-cast rendition of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville“, carrying a margarita to make the occasion more special.

Good evening, Hollywood F*cking Ball! I had the great pleasure of knowing Jimmy, and like everyone else on the bill tonight has said, this is one great man. He was generous, he was funny, he’s done just about everything in his life. I said he was generous… I was on holiday with him and I forgot to bring my guitar, so he had his own guitar strung left-handed for me. And the next time I saw him, he had one custom-made left-handed for me. So… I love Jimmy… In the last week of his life, I was invited up through his house by Jenny, and by the way, this wouldn’t have happened tonight, let’s for Janey. And I was invited up there to sing a couple of songs for Jimmy and he was in a pretty bad way, but he still had that twingle in his eyes, so I thought I would sing one of those songs that I sang to him tonight.

Paul McCartney

Do you remember the last time you cried for a song?

Yeah, it’s funny you ask. I was a friend of Jimmy Buffett; I didn’t know him from a long time ago, but we’ve been friends over the last few years. And when he died, his wife was organizing a tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and there were a lot of very good musicians, and there were the Eagles who were like the top number, and they asked me to participate somehow. Because I was with Jimmy a few days before he died, and he was in bed, he only had two days to live, and his wife and wife asked me to play a couple of songs for him. Wow, that was hard… Because being hand-in-hand singing for someone is always half difficult. But knowing Jimmy was dying, it was very hard for me to sing. So I sang Blackbird crying all the time, and I looked at my wife to see if she could help me, and it was a sea of tears, and I looked at Jimmy’s wife and it was the same. And the last song I played to him, I played him on guitar, was “Let It Be.” So when I was asked to go to the concert, I got to rehearsal, I was standing on the side of the stage, the Eagles were playing “Take It To the Limit.” Vince Gill, who has a beautiful voice, was singing. And I stood there and started crying. So that was the last time the music made me cry.

Paul McCartney – Interview with El Pais Uruguay, September 22, 2024

Hollywood Bowl

This was the 8th concert played at Hollywood Bowl.

A total of 8 concerts have been played there • 1964 • Aug 23rd • 1965 • Aug 29th • Aug 30th • 1993 • Apr 16th • 1998 • Jul 19th • 2010 • Mar 30th • Mar 31st • 2024 • Apr 11th

Setlist for the concert

1. Let It Be

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   

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