Tributes to Neil & Jorge
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Clips from the Neil Rogers Show. https://neilrogers.org
Jimmy Buffett RiP He was 76
Singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett who gained millions of fans world wide with his folksy tales of living and loving on tropical sandy beaches, frozen concoction in hand, died Friday. He was 76.
The statement didn't say where Buffett died or provide a cause of death. The singer had rescheduled concerts in May, and Buffett said on social media that he had been hospitalized.
The song went on to inspire a brand, which included restaurants and resorts, a radio station, clothing and apparel, as well as food and drink items like beer, tequila, salad dressings and salsa. It also helped make him a billionaire, with Forbes this month placing his real-time net worth at $1 billion.
But in an apparent nod to his business pursuits in the song “A Pirate Looks at Forty,” Buffett sang that he “made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast. Never meant to last, never meant to last.” Buffett was nominated for two Grammy Awards, for “Hey Good Lookin’” a cover of the Hank Williams classic and “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” a duet with country superstar Alan Jackson.
Elton John was among several stars to pay tribute to Buffett, calling him a “unique and treasured entertainer,” in a post on Instagram Stories. “His fans adored him and he never let them down. This is the saddest of news, a lovely man gone way too soon,” John wrote. Actor Miles Teller also posted several photos of him with the singer on X, formerly known as Twitter. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys also took to X, where he wrote, “Love and Mercy, Jimmy Buffett.”
Fans, affectionately dubbed “Parrotheads,” were also quick to pay tribute to the singer, who was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on Christmas Day 1946. He was brought up mainly in Mobile, Alabama. Many cited “One Particular Harbor” when remembering the singer: “But there’s one particular harbor/ So far yet so near/ Where I see the days as they fade away/ And finally disappear.”
After learning guitar at college he attended Alabama's Auburn University before graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi he began busking on the streets of New Orleans before going on to form his first band. He later moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to work for Billboard Magazine and try his luck as a singer, the biography says. But it was in Key West, Florida, in the 1970s, that Buffett “found his true voice,” according to his website.
Fellow country singer Jerry Jeff Walker first let him stay at his Coconut Grove home, and then they drove in a 1947 Packard to Key West, he told graduating students at the University of Miami, where he received an honorary doctorate in music in May 2015.
“Needless to say, my life took a big and wonderful change towards South Florida, which has a lot to do with why I’m standing here today,” he said, while wearing flip-flops below the academic robes. Touring and recording with the Coral Reefer Band, he would go on to make 27 studio albums four went platinum and eight gold in a career that spanned more than five decades.
Buffett also appeared on TV and movies, wrote fiction and nonfiction books, including “Tales from Margaritaville,” “A Pirate Looks At Fifty,” as well as “Where Is Joe Merchant?,” and his work became a musical.
He popped up in the film “Jurassic World” as “running park visitor with margarita drinks,” as IMDB put it. He carried two, one in each hand. And Buffett guest-starred in the Tom Selleck show “Blue Bloods,” playing both himself and a virtual double who posed as the singer and scammed people.
A Broadway show based on his music, “Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville,” debuted in 2017. In a recent interview, Buffett said his life-long love of reading came from his mother, Mary Lorraine Buffett, who also wanted him to be a writer. “I think she knew that for us to read we would see the world as a bigger place than where we grew up, which was a great gift,” he said.
He also dedicated some of his time to charity, starting the “Save the Manatee Club,” a nonprofit group that seeks to protect the large, docile marine mammals from boating injuries and harm by the actions of people.
In a 2017 interview with Men’s Journal, Buffett was asked what remained on his bucket list. “I have four things: Learn to hang ten. Go to space. Go to Pitcairn Island, where my Buffett ancestors are from. And go to Antarctica,” he said.
The singer is survived by his wife, Jane Slagsvol, two daughters, Savannah and Sarah, and son, Cameron.
Remembering Jorge Rodriguez RIP
South Florida radio fans will remember George “Jorge” Rodriguez, the producer for WQAM-AM host Neil Rogers. Jorge passed away Friday morning, according to his daughter. Jorge Rodriguez had been keeping the memory of Rogers alive for years with this network replaying their old shows together. We lost not just Jorge but Suds recently, Eric, Neil and now Jorge.
Life is short and we just have the memories of those good old days when the whole gang was together on AM radio and it was the real Golden era of radio in the South Florida market. Those days seem so long ago.
We have put together a couple of things in honor of Jorge below is a video in honor of our mentor, a father, husband and good friend to a lot of people.
Like Neil, Eric, Suds before him we will miss you Jorge... We won't forget the good times we all had from the early days on the show in the 90's to all the way til the end.
Here is the post from Jorge's daughter, Sabrina:
"This is Jorge's eldest daughter You won't find it on the news yet, Neil & Jorge fans get it first My father passed away suddenly Friday morning. He was born in Cuba but America was his home- from FL, NC to MT. This would have been his first July 4th as a citizen. He frequented concerts, skated 3 to 4 times a week, and did more than I as his daughter could keep up with. Every Take-Your-Daughter-To-Work Day he'd let me work the board with him and allow me to press those famous *fart* buttons he and Neil would use. He was unstoppable till the very end. There's so much more that could be said for years about a great man like him. What are your favorite memories of Jorge?"




