Mac McAnally has taken to social media to express his gratitude to Zac Brown Band for honouring their late friend and mentor, Jimmy Buffett, during their Fenway Park show.

McAnally joined Zac Brown Band a couple of times during their historic set to cover two iconic Buffett anthems, ‘A Pirate Looks at Forty’ and ‘Margaritaville’. As well as dedicating the songs to the ‘Come Monday’ icon, they also paid homage to Robert Greenidge, a steel-pan player and an integral member of Buffett's Coral Reefer Band, which McAnally now leads. Greenidge passed away in June.

Elsewhere during Zac Brown Band's hit-filled set, they surprised the crowd by revealing that everyone would be getting two tickets for their Margaritaville at Sea cruise in January. It's estimated that this cost $40million, with this reportedly coming from Brown's own pocket. As well as performing on the cruise, Brown has designed the new Beachcomber ship, which features a special Same Boat stage.

Via Instagram, McAnally underlines how special it was being a part of the Buffett covers and this historic giveaway, which was also honouring Buffett's Margaritaville legacy.

McAnally gushes, “Sunday night I had the privilege of being a small part of a real big deal in Boston. Zac Brown Band at Fenway Park is a big enough deal to start with, but getting to help Zac and the gang honor my big brother (and their friend and mentor) Jimmy raised the bar for me. And then giving all 37,000 folks in the park a free cruise on Margaritaville at Sea’s new Beachcomber ship raised it again”.

The prolific songwriter goes on to highlight what, in his mind, make Buffett and Brown kindred spirits, “In the midst of all the bar raising, what impressed me the most was what Jimmy and Zac have most in common: Making people happy with music”.

Humble as ever, McAnally heartwarmingly concludes, “There will never be a time when that’s not a good thing. I brought Jimmy’s guitar and sang as proud as my God Given Limitations allow. Thanks always to Jimmy Buffett and to ZBB for carrying on”, adding, “Meanwhile the Coral Reefers are gonna do the same starting tonight!!”

The Coral Reefer Band continue to tour North America, as they strive to ensure that Buffett's final wishes - to “keep the party going” - are honoured in a vibrant, Hawaiian-shirt-adorned way that would no doubt make the Tropical Country king proud.

McAnally and Brown have paid tribute to Buffett's impact on both their respective lives and their careers on a number of occasions. McAnally became friends with Buffett in 1977, and went on to become one of his closest friends and a key collaborator, co-writing coastal odes such as ‘Changing Channels’ and ‘It's My Job’.

Brown, meanwhile, crossed paths with Buffett at a campsite, before linking up to headline CMT Crossroads together. The next year, they released the brilliant ‘Knee Deep’ together, and would collaborate once again on the lively remix to ‘Same Boat’ in 2021.

When Buffett died in 2023, Brown penned a heartfelt ode to his old pal, ‘Pirates & Parrots’, inspired by a phone-call he had with McAnally after hearing of his passing. In honour of that conversation, Brown invited McAnally to sing on the song, with the latter explaining to Holler, “I am not a writer on that song. I just bragged on [Zac] for expressing himself. I said, ‘You need to run with that’. And he did, and he recorded it, and I guess, because it was somewhat born out of our conversation - I didn't make any contribution other than tell him it was really good - but when he finished it, he called and asked if I would sing a verse and join them on it”.

We love to see Buffett's joyful, sun-soaked spirit being kept alive by contemporary torch-bearers of his Gulf and Western sound and his glass-half-full outlook, such as Brown, McAnally and the likes of Caroline Jones, Kenny Chesney, Niko Moon, Brian Kelley and more. We're hoping that, as Zac Brown Band gears up for their Love & Fear follow-up album, there are plenty more beachside odes to look forward to, as well as another project on the horizon from McAnally after his stellar and tremendously under-rated 2020 body of work, Once in a Lifetime.