Jimmy Buffet’s ashes smuggled into 2024 Rock Hall induction, says Kenny Chesney

Jimmy Buffett was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024 in the Musical Excellence category, and even though he passed away in 2023, it turns out he was still able to attend the ceremony.

Kenny Chesney and James Taylor performed in honor of Buffett at the induction. In a recent interview with Howard Stern, Chesney revealed that he and guitarist Mac McAnally, a member of Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, snuck some of the “Margaritaville” legend’s ashes into the ceremony.

“We were sitting back there warming up, trying to figure out our parts and stuff, and Mac comes up to me and he goes, ‘Look at this,’ and it was a small urn. He had Jimmy’s ashes in his coat pocket,” Chesney said. “So Jimmy’s ashes were in Mac McAnally’s coat pocket onstage with us as he was getting inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”

Turns out, it was Buffett’s daughter Savannah Buffett who gave McAnally the ashes.

“So even after he passed, Jimmy found a way to join the party,” Chesney added.

Buffett passed away Sept. 1, 2023, after battling a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer.

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