Featuring Roger Bartlett and other Coral Reefers

With Roger Bartlett living in Gulfport, there was no question about doing a Jimmy Buffett tribute show at the Palladium. Bartlett, Buffett’s original guitarist and the first Coral Reefer, put together a show last January that sold-out Hough Hall and had Buffett fans dancing in the aisles. (Originally set for October 2024, the show was postponed by Hurricane Milton)

We’re bringing the show back this Saturday night, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. in Hough Hall, and there are only a few tickets left. To get in on the fun, follow this link. (https://mypalladium.org/events/a-tribute-to-jimmy-buffett-ft-members-of-the-coral-reefer-band/)

Roger recently talked with our friend Nanette Wiser, who writes for Tampa Bay Newspapers. Her story on Roger and the show appears below.

Hope to see you Saturday night at the show. I’ll be the guying wearing a white sport coat and a pink crustacean!

Roger Bartlett is Jimmy Buffett’s OG Coral Reefer

• By NANETTE WISER/TBN
• Nov 5, 2025

Never one to dwell on bad times, Roger Bartlett is determined to end this year on a high note, hell or high water. The original guitarist of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band will perform with other members of Buffett’s touring band on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 8 p.m. at the Palladium, 253 Fifth Ave. N., St. Petersburg.

“Last year, the hurricanes forced us to reschedule our show for January 2025, and a couple of days before, I had a heart attack,” Bartlett recalls. “Brendan Mayer came down and filled in for me, but this year, I’m gonna be there. I’m really looking forward to it. I even wrote a song about the heart attack called ‘Wake Up Call.’ I was talking to a friend of mine, and I said, ‘Oh jeez, I had a heart attack.’ She asked if it was a bad one, and I said no, it was mild, but it was a wake-up call. Her reply? ‘Well, better a wake-up call than a kiss goodnight.’ And I was like, oh, that’s a song title if I ever heard one.”

Nicknamed “Coral Reefer #001,” Bartlett was Buffett’s first road band member, added in Austin, Texas, in 1973. He’s scoring a documentary about the Coral Reefers with John Cunningham, has a new album (“Wake Up Call”) in the works and is headed to Key West to perform in early November before returning to the Palladium.

Bartlett recalls the early days when it was just the two of them. “Just two acoustic guitars and vocals. After a year on the road as a duo, and with the success of a hit song, ‘Come Monday,’ it was clear our band needed to expand to play the bigger venues, so Jimmy added Greg ‘Fingers’ Taylor on harmonica and keyboard, Harry Dailey on bass and Phillip Fajardo on drums.”

Bartlett is also known as the singer and writer of “Fool for a Blonde” from the classic horror movie “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. Always fast with a quip, when asked if he was a fool for blondes, he shot back: “And brunettes, and redheads.”

Since then, he’s had many incarnations of his own bands and served as lead guitarist for numerous artists from New York to Las Vegas. He’s working on more albums, always composing (“Ocean Avenue,” “The Spice of Life,” “Sunset”) and loving life in St. Petersburg. He pops up now and then at small local venues around town, including Gulfport, Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach’s Paradise Grille, often with John Frinzi.

In a world of AI and streaming fame, Buffett is more than just tropical party music; Jimmy may be our era’s Mozart.

“Since Jimmy passed, there’s been so many great tributes to him all around the country,” Bartlett says. “The Parrotheads just can’t seem to get enough of it, and there’s a new generation — we call them Parrotkeets — that discovered and love his music. I’m always happy to go out and play his songs because he has so many great songs. He was a great raconteur, very upbeat and happy. And you know, I want to be happy because if not now, then when?”

Working on a new album after his heart attack has him mining some nostalgic moments in his legendary musical career as a performer and songwriter, some of them too colorful for a family newspaper.

“There’s a song called ‘Shoot the Moon’ on the new album I’m working on,” Bartlett says. “I went to visit an old girlfriend from a zillion years ago, and in the room she had me staying in at her house, she had a picture of her and me in our 20s. I was like, oh jeez, man, it really brought me back. We were just starting out down the road, and we used to promise each other we’re both gonna be in show business and we’re gonna shoot the moon.”

Last season’s celebration brought Parrotheads together for an emotional and joy-filled evening honoring one of America’s most beloved performers at the Palladium. This year, Coral Reefer Band members and friends will reunite in Hough Concert Hall for the largest gathering yet in the Tampa Bay area.

Coral Reefer vocalists Nadirah Shakoor and Tina Gullickson, who backed up Buffett for three decades, will light up the Palladium mainstage. Pedal steel player Doyle Grisham, who first recorded with Buffett on “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean” in the ’70s, continues to be a signature element of the Coral Reefer Band sound. John Frinzi, lead vocalist and guitarist at many memorable Key West Meeting of the Minds gatherings, will also perform.

Adding to the lineup are Vinnie Seplesky of the Mad Beach Band on bass, Rich McDonald on drums and Robin Swanson on keyboards.

This is a tribute to the music and spirit of Jimmy Buffett you won’t want to miss.