‘A Buffett missionary’: The Mac McAnally interview

From tiny Belmont, Mississippi, Lyman Corbitt McAnally Jr. – known to one and all as Mac – has a worldwide reputation as a songwriter (“Old Flame,” “Back Where I Come From,” “Two Dozen Roses”) and guitarist – he’s got a record 10 wins as the Country Music Association’s Musician of the Year.

McAnally was also Jimmy Buffett’s right-hand man for nearly 30 years. Buffett, who recorded McAnnally’s “It’s My Job,” “Beach House on the Moon” and other tunes, tapped him to anchor his touring group, the Coral Reefer Band, in the early 1990s. A gig that ended with Buffett’s death in September 2023.

Not only do the Coral Reefers survive as a touring tribute to their departed friend and bossman, McAnnally continues to write and perform his own music.

But the Man from Margaritaville is never far from his thoughts. April 12 brings him to Ruth Eckerd Hall, with fellow Coral Reefer Scotty Emerick, for a two-dude acoustic show called “Margaritas and Memories.”

For Emerick, who happens to be a Florida native, it’s an opportunity to remember the late Toby Keith, his pal and songwriting partner of many years, along with Buffett.

McAnally welcomes any chance to talk about Jimmy the B., and to sing his songs again.

(Mac’s daughter, incidentally, is married to Coral Reefer keyboardist Mick Utley, whose father Mike was a longtime member of the early band. Utley Senior remains a good friend, MacAnally reports: “We call ourselves the Co-Daddys.”)

St. Pete Catalyst: What’s the last year or so been like?

Mac McAnally: I ended up playing 80 solo shows last year – “closure” is the wrong word, but I was maybe putting a Band-Aid on the wound of folks that were missing Jimmy. And I was one of them, y’know? I just sorta felt like I had a purpose in helping those folks deal with his absence a little bit, but by the same token remind them of how much joyous music the guy left us. That was my mission. I was a little bit of a Buffett missionary, I guess.

And it was good for me too, because he put together a wonderful group of people – our band and our crew on tour – and not just them, but the whole audience that he built over his lifetime, and his legacy that he built over his lifetime, is really, really impressive. I think it’ll live on in various ways, and I’m just proud to be a little part of it. I’m proud to run around in my part of the world and remind folks what a good thing that he did, and what a good thing he left for us.

When the band goes and plays as the Coral Reefers now, there’s no way you can replace Jimmy. We still leave his microphone open in the middle of the stage and have his guitar sittin’ on the stage. Nobody’s trying to replace him. We’re just trying to honor and remind folks of what he did and what he left for us.

Let’s turn the clock back. In the 1980s and ‘90s, you had a career going, as a musician and a songwriter. As a solo artist. Was there ever any hesitation about “hitching your wagon” to his? That was a big machine to join. Did you think “Hey, what about me?”

I can tell you, my mindset is to be of use. That’s what makes me go. And it even goes back to childhood: In northeast Mississippi, most every mother said to her son, “Be a good boy” or whatever it was, the standard thing. My mom always said, when I left the house, she always said “Make some use of yourself.”

I’m grateful that that’s what she said, because that still is what guides me every day: I want to be of use. And sometimes it is in the service of myself, and my own dreams, but for the most part my dream is to be of use.

I was born without much ambition. I never had a desire to be in the middle of the stage. I’ve been grateful enough to be in the middle of a few stages, and I’m going to be in the middle of the stage at Ruth Eckerd Hall, and I can’t even believe that. It’s such an amazing room. I’ve been an opening act there, and I’ve played with other folks there.

And I’m really thrilled to have Scotty Emerick, my buddy … Scotty kind of was to Toby Keith what I got to be to Jimmy. And he’s been a member of the Coral Reefer Band since the last full year that Jimmy toured.

It was such a thrill for Jimmy to have somebody out there who grew up listening to Jimmy’s old albums. Scotty knew every one of those old album cuts. He knew ‘em better than Jimmy at the end. And they would sit out in the hall, on show days, and sing “Brahma Fear” and “West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown,” a bunch of songs that Jimmy hadn’t sung in years and years. It lifted Scotty up to get to sing ‘em with Jimmy, and it lifted Jimmy up to get to hear ‘em and sing ‘em with Scotty. It was just a big joyfest out there that whole year.

When Jimmy asked you to join the band, I guess you didn’t have to think twice then … that move ramps up a whole lot of stuff.

Well, it does. And I’d been writing country songs for other folks, and when my kids were young I just stayed home and was a studio guy. And I love being a studio guy, and I’ve been overly accoladed for being a studio guy. They gave me that Musician of the Year award 10 times.

When I won it two times, Jimmy started saying “five.” From the stage, he would announce me as “five-time,” when I had two. And then when I got six, he started saying “10.”

And when I finally won the 10^th one, Jimmy called me the next day, and he said “You know, there’s a lesson in this: Sometimes when I’m spouting bullshit, it’s about to come true.”

And he had a point. He was just optimistic. We’re all storytellers, and all storytellers stretch the truth a little bit. But sometimes you foretell the truth, and that’s what he was doing in that case.

Was he as nice a guy as it seemed to all of us out here?

He was a great guy. He was happy. If you met him in a grocery store, he was the same guy you saw on television. Or heard on the radio or on your records. He was the same guy every day.

You know, there aren’t many people that succeed at the level he succeeded, that realize that they’re just a really fortunate person that caught a really good wave. It’s kind of easy, when you hit the big time like that, to think you’re some sort of deity. And Jimmy never felt that way. You never got that from him. We stayed at the same hotel he did, we ate at the same places he did. He never gave us the Big Star treatment.

He joked about it some. But he never felt like he was a bigger deal than anybody else. And that’s part of what was so loveable about the guy.  

What’s next for the Coral Reefer Band?

Tell everybody we’re going to be touring with the Doobie Brothers in August and September this year. The Doobie Reefer Tour! You can insert your weed joke right there in the middle of that equation. I’ve been joking that we should get Doritos to sponsor us.

When we play, it’s a joyful noise family reunion with the people that love his music, and the people that got to play it with him.

Do you enjoy that? Is it like you’re all raising his spirit up?

Absolutely it is! I feel like he’s there. You know, Jimmy toured every year of his adult life. Until the pandemic, and then he marked time until he could tour again.

And even when he was going through the cancer treatment, he played beyond when the doctors told him he should be playing. He just loved it more than anything. The show was his favorite thing in the world.

And I got a feeling he’s still around when we play too. When Scotty and I do these “Margaritas and Memories” shows, I tell Jimmy stories and he tells Toby Keith stories.

And I think they’re sittin’ up there with a red Solo cup, laughing their butt off at all of us. And it’s a beautiful feeling.

For tickets to “Margaritas and Memories,” visit the Ruth Eckerd Hall website.