Tickets go on sale this morning at 10 am PT for Jimmy Buffett’s show in San Jose:

San Jose, CA
Thursday, March 8th
HP Pavilion

Find tickets through TicketMaster or TicketNetwork.

Another show goes on sale tomorrow… the March 10th show in San Diego.

View all dates and find tickets on our Tour Dates page.

Bret Michael’s upcoming solo album will feature a couple of special guests, one of which is Jimmy Buffett:

“Loretta Lynn and I are gonna redo ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorn’ together,” he tells Rolling Stone. “And, for me, growing up in a family that my father loved country music and Coal Miner’s Daughter, this is gonna be a really awesome time.”

How did the two come together? “I met her at Thanksgiving and it was really great. We were out at her ranch in Hurricane Mills and we sat there, me and her, and after everyone, the whole family and my crew sort of dissipated we sat there and started writing some songs together,” he says. And one of the ideas she had was redoing ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorn’ and I thought it would be unbelievable for me and her to do that together.”

Among the other guests on the album are Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen and Jimmy Buffett. “The song ‘Get Your Rock On’ has Phil Collen from Def Leppard playing guitar with me and it also has Sal Costa from My Darkest Days, really, really good guitar player and good friend,” he says. “Jimmy Buffet and I did a live version of ‘Margaritaville’ together.”

Michaels says the two duets, with Lynn and Buffett, will be “two bonus tracks.” And of the rest of the record he says, “It is just straight up in your face rock & roll.”

Michaels joined Jimmy on stage in 2010 at his show in Detroit. Watch video of the appearance.

Liz O’Connell at the Huffington Post has a great article on Last Mango Racing, the horseracing partnership consisting of Jimmy Buffett and members of the New Orleans Saints organization.

Who Dat Ambush is owned by a subset of Last Mango partners together with some outside owners. Currently, Last Mango Racing is running FleurDeFortyFour, from Any Given Saturday’s first full crop, who finished second in a Fair Grounds maiden special weight this weekend in his third start. Franderella, a Henny Hughes three year old filly is on layup.

The Fair Grounds winner’s circle in 2012 is a long way from the deck of Jimmy Buffet’s boat the Last Mango II where in 2007, New Orlean’s Saints’ coach Sean Payton, the Saints’ director of communications Greg Bensel and Buffet were chilling. It was Super Bowl weekend in Miami, FL. The Indianapolis Colts were getting ready to win 29 to 17 over the Chicago Bears and Coach Payton was in town to receive NFL Coach of the Year honors.

While on that boat ride, the three friends talked football — Coach Payton encouraged Buffet to design a play that he would call at the Pro Bowl the following weekend. Buffet came up with a half-back pass that he called “the Last Mango” and Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Giants Running back Tiki Barber were designated to run the play. They did, the pass was intercepted, but that’s another story.

That afternoon the friends also talked about New Orleans’ recovery post-Hurricane Katrina. Buffet specifically asked about how the Fair Grounds Race Course (FG) was doing in its comeback. “I offered that we organize a small group of guys and each throw in $1000 a man and go get a hard-knocking claimer and run it in the fall meet at FG, our way of doing something we are all interested in. And what better place than the Fair Grounds, where we all have a connection,” explains Greg Bensel.

Be sure to read the full article here.

Buffett hit the track last month in New Orleans while in town for a Saints game. Read more.

After adding a show in San Jose earlier today, Jimmy Buffett announced another California show just now in San Diego:

San Diego, CA
Viejas Arena at San Diego State University
Saturday, March 10th

Tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10 am through TicketMaster.

George Varga of the Union-Tribune notes, this will be the first San Diego show in over a decade that isn’t being held at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheater in Chula Vista. He also believes it’s the first time Buffett’s played on the SDSU campus since the 1980′s.

After largely skipping the West Coast last year, Jimmy Buffett just announced a March date in the Bay area:

San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion
March 8th, 2012

Tickets go on sale February 10th

View all confirmed tour dates here.

Could a Hawaii show be on the horizon for Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band?

In the pre-show interview on Radio Margaritaville before Saturday night’s Orlando concert, Jimmy said that they’d be performing in a place with a “Polynesian atmosphere very, very soon.”

Buffett last played Hawaii when he performed at his Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber restaurant in 2010. His last big venue show was in 2009 when he played shows at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center and the Waikiki Shell.

We’ll post more information when it’s available.

(Hat tip Doug S.)

The 2012 Welcome to Fin Land Tour made its way to Orlando, Florida on Saturday night as Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band performed at the Amway Center.

The Orlando Sentinel has a review of the show:

In a rowdy (if predictably so), 2- hours-plus on Saturday at a packed Amway Center, Buffett effortlessly delivered the laid-back vibe that he has managed to turn into a worldwide brand.

On a stage that was as low-key as the guy’s attitude, Buffett and his 10-piece Coral Reefer Band performed in front of a couple of giant beach umbrellas, a wooden fence and not much else aside from a giant video screen to show oceanfront views and other images.

“It was a lovely day in Orlando today,” Buffett told the crowd, in the midst of an opening salvo that included “The Wino and I Know,” “License to Chill” and the party anthem “It’s 5 o’clock Somewhere.” The latter featured singer-guitarist Mac McAnally, one of the formidable talents in the band, as a capable substitute for original duet partner Alan Jackson.

Read the full review here.

Buffett takes a three week break before hitting the road again on February 25th in Birmingham, Alabama. He’ll then hit Tallahassee, Little Rock, and Louisville. See the full tour schedule and buy tickets here.

Frank Marshall, veteran Hollywood producer and long-time friend of Jimmy Buffett, helped to produce the new Margaritaville Online game that was released last month.

The Hollywood Reporter has an interview with Marshall on the game. There’s some interesting tidbits in the discussion. For example, Marshall says the game was originally planned to be released on the Nintendo Wii platform.

The Hollywood Reporter: How did you partner with Jimmy Buffett on Margaritaville Online?

Frank Marshall: Jimmy and I met over 30 years ago and we’ve been good friends ever since. We have a similar background and share a lot of the same interests. We’ve talked about movies, books, songs and just about anything you can think of.

I have always loved the world he’s created and the fact that he really lives in it. Jimmy and I have been trying to do something together for years and when the idea of a Facebook game came along, it seemed like a natural. What people love about Jimmy Buffett is his lifestyle and the world he’s created. Whenever the real world gets to be too much, you can escape to his world through this game, no matter where you are.

THR: Where did the idea for a Facebook game come from?

Marshall: I was actually meeting with Danny Bilson, EVP Core Games from THQ, about The Last Airbender game. We started talking about other things we could do. I wanted to do something fun, so I thought, instead of creating one of these violent worlds, why not go to paradise? Why not somewhere you could go to play games and have a party? Initially when we started talking about it, it was actually going to be made into a Wii game. But as social games increased in popularity, things shifted and we saw great potential of creating a social experience based on Jimmy’s lifestyle.

Read the full interview here.

Marshall also was a co-producer on Hoot, the 2006 film that Jimmy co-produced and played a teacher in.

It had been over a decade since Jimmy Buffett performed in Charleston, but the wait was well worth it as he played a high-energy show that included a couple rare gems.

“Honey Do” was last played January 16, 2010 in Bora Bora and “Prince of Tides” was last played February 5, 2003 in Columbia, SC.

The Margarillas posted the actual set list, noting that “Tin Cup Chalice” was originally planned as the final encore but Jimmy switched it to “He Went to Paris.”

The Charleston Post & Courier has a photo gallery and review of the show:

Unseasonably warm weather made it all the easier for fans to tailgate Thursday in the coliseum’s parking lot, which was awash in rainbow of Hawaiian shirts and tropical drinks. Once inside, the crowd was an impressive variety of demographics: everyone from baby boomers who, like Buffett, now qualify for retirement (Buffett turned 65 Christmas Day), to those folk’s grandchildren, and every age in between. Apparently when it comes to enjoying a “Cheeseburger in Paradise” or discussing the finer points of a pencil-thin mustache, age knows no bounds.

Given the warm reception that he received, it might not take another 15 years for Buffett to return as a performer.

Buffett plays Orlando on Saturday before taking a three weeks off. See the full tour schedule and get your tickets here.

Developers of the new Margaritaville Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida have released renderings of the $130 million project that is slated to open in 2014.

The $130-million dollar resort will be located at Johnson Street on the Broadwalk and across A1A on the Intracoastal Waterway.

The resort will be 17 stories and have 349 rooms, along with seven restaurants, several bars, a spa, and retail shops. There’s also a lagoon pool which features a water slide and a “Flo Rider” used to simulate surfing which will be open to the public.

Take a look: