Jimmy Buffett honored with tribute performance at CMAs by Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, more

It was a celebration of Jimmy Buffet's life at the 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards as Kenny Chesney, Mac MacAnnally, Zac Brown Band and Alan Jackson took the stage to pay tribute with a medley of the late singer's hits.

Buffett, known as the king of tropical rock, died on Sept. 1 in New York. His popular songs, like "Margaritaville," "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" and "Come Monday," encourage a beachy, easy-going lifestyle on the ocean with a drink in hand.

So it's no surprise Wednesday night's tribute during the awards show in Nashville, Tennesse, captured Buffett's enthusiasm for the tropics, with a rowdy audience that sang along to the lyrics, and chanted and hollered as colorful lights flashed onstage.

Of course, rainbow parrots and palm trees decorated the stage.

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Chesney and MacAnally started off their tribute with an acoustic cover of Buffett's "A Pirate Looks At Forty," both playing guitar on a smaller stage in front of the main stage.

A picture of Buffett was shown on the screen behind the stage with blue lights that washed over the performers.

"Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred years too late  / The cannons don't thunder, there's nothin' to plunder," the two sang together.

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Afterward, the curtain opened up to the bigger stage behind and Zac Brown Band and Alan Jackson played the classic "Margaritaville." A slideshow of Buffett played in the background, where pictures showed him grinning and sun-kissed, sitting on a sailboat.

During the celebratory performance, Zac Brown wore beachy shorts (and no shoes) in classic Buffett fashion, and Jackson rocked his sunglasses inside.

Jackson and the band sang, "Wastin' away again in Margaritaville / Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt" and the crowd chanted "Salt, salt, salt!" And as they finished out the chorus, they sang, "Some people claim that there's a woman to blame / But I know it's nobody's fault," and the audience danced and smiled, honoring Buffett with their exuberance.

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Buffett died at his home in Sag Harbor on Long Island, New York, from skin cancer, according to an obituary posted to his website in September.

He had been battling Merkel cell skin cancer for four years, which the National Cancer Institute describes as a rare carcinoma which usually appears as a single painless lump on sun-exposed skin and tends to metastasize quickly. It is second to melanoma as the most common cause of skin cancer death.

He kept performing while undergoing treatment, and Buffett’s last show was a surprise 45-minute appearance at a July 2 Mac McAnally show in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where he brought the crowd to its feet screaming when he walked out.

Buffett “passed away peacefully,” a statement announcing his death read, “surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs."

"He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many."

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Contributing: Kim Willis, USA TODAY