Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band and more pay tribute to Jimmy Buffett at 2023 CMA Awards with lively performance

At the 57th Annual Country Music Association awards on Wednesday evening, the audience and stars celebrated Jimmy Buffett's life with a tribute in song, performed by Kenny Chesney, Mac MacAnally, Zac Brown Band and Alan Jackson.

Jimmy Buffett, known as the king of tropical rock, died on Sept. 1 in New York. Buffett's 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.

The tribute 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.

More: Jimmy Buffett's Nashville country legacy: From the EXIT/IN to 'Margaritaville' and beyond

Kenny Chesney and Mac 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.

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.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band and more pay tribute to Jimmy Buffett at 2023 CMA Awards