Trip to Africa inspires Jimmy Buffett

MIAMI — A Jimmy Buffett fan we know heard that the singer’s new CD is good, but he needed convincing. “Is it good like License to Chill (2004) was good,” he sniffed, “or is it GOOD like (‘70s classics) A1A, Havana Daydreaming, Son of a Son of a Sailor?”

Rest assured, Parrotheads. Buffet Hotel — out Tuesday and inspired by a trip the 62-year-old Buffett took to Timbuktu, Mali, for a music festival and a sign he saw in a train station for the Le Buffet Hotel — ranks among his best work.

We caught up with Buffett at his Palm Beach home for a phone chat on spelling, the Miami Dolphins and mixing the perfect album.

Q: For years we’ve fought over the spelling of your name. With this album title, you’ve set our cause back 40 years.

Buffett: (Laughs.) I saw this sign and thought it would be fun to play with it. It’s been a pet peeve of mine back to the days when I was playing clubs. People would come up and ask, ‘Where’s the food?’ ‘No, no. No food. That’s me.’

Q: Did the trip to Africa inspire the music?

Buffett: The trip to Africa was one of the musical highlights of my life. It lit a fire under me as a songwriter. (But) the inspiration was more technological. Everyone uses (Pro Tools), and I am an older person but my mind is inclusive enough to want to know of these things. I was able to do the vocals at my leisure. I call it the red-wine vocals. I was never one to spend a lot of time (in the studio.) Maybe to my detriment. I’m a capture-the-magic kinda guy as opposed to working it to death. I got other s - - - to do!

Q: Buffet Hotel also has your first surf-rock song.

Buffett: At St. Barts I’d sit in my house with this little set up and work on those songs in a great place. Nothing like writing Surfing in a Hurricane, then go out and surf, and come back and listen to it.

Q: The Dolphins’ stadium is temporarily renamed after your Land Shark beer — all for the price of rewriting the lyrics to your 1979 hit, Fins. How’s that going?

Buffett: It is fun. I must say, I’m like a kid. I sit up there and go to that game, and if you told me a year ago I’d be sitting at Land Shark Stadium, and the Miami Dolphins would be playing, and 60,000 people would be doing Fins I’d say, ‘You’re crazy!’ Strange times. I wish they were playing better, but ... that’s football. I get a kick out of it, and the fans are having fun. (Team owner) Steve (Ross) was a smart guy in figuring that out.