They say “Never meet your heroes,” but one of the exceptions to that rule was evidently Jimmy Buffett.
Ahead of their sold-out reunion shows in Oklahoma and Texas, the Cross Canadian Ragweed frontman stopped by the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast to talk about what led them to the reunion and how that all came to be, being a huge part of the rise of the Red Dirt scene, his career in music after Ragweed ended, raising kids who have the music bug and much more.
It was a wonderful conversation with a man who is quite literally a Red Dirt Legend. He’s too humble to say it himself (that was mentioned in the podcast), but Cody Canada truly played a role in popularizing and spreading the sub-genre of Red Dirt all throughout the country music world and beyond.
And when you are busy doing that, there’s a high likelihood of crossing paths with other artists. We asked him if there have been any moments where meeting or collaborating with someone else in the music industry didn’t go as planned, and Cody Canada took the high road by answering with this:
“There’s been a few. It’s one of those where they were so rude, I don’t believe they need any air time.”
Though the country music artist didn’t want to reveal the bad example, or examples, that he’s run into over the years, Canada did offer up a story about a meeting that went so well, he was never the same afterwards. And it all revolved around everyone’s favorite tropical singer… the late, great Jimmy Buffett.
As Canada told the story, the Red Dirt artist had an opportunity to meet the “Come Monday” singer earlier on in his life, but he declined:
“In Nashville, I met one person that forever changed my life and just made me feel so warm and fuzzy. I had the opportunity to go see Jimmy Buffett when I was 16 in Kansas City. My friend who was a guitar trader, he said, “I’ve got backstage passes. Want to meet him?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ This is the guy that made me go from the hat acts of Nashville to, ‘Oh I can write songs about my feelings.’ I love Buffett and I forever will.”
So Cody Canada effectively passed on the run-in with Buffett the first time around.
As fate would have it, another chance to meet the “Mayor of Margaritaville” would arise later on his life. Canada detailed getting a phone call while he was in Nashville about a special opportunity that would involved meeting one of his heroes:
“Tony Brown, who was our record label president when we were out here in Nashville, he called my wife’s phone. We called it the ‘Bat Phone.’ It was the only cell phone we had in the band. He said, ‘Hey you and Shannon come over to this certain location. Have some drinks and bring a guitar.’ I said, ‘Okay let me get the band.’ He said, ‘No, just you two. We don’t have room for everybody.'”
Though Brown apparently never mentioned Buffett by name, Cody Canada had a pretty good feeling that he might be walking into the place to meet an idol of his. And sure enough, when he got to the spot, Canada came face-to-face with Jimmy Buffett himself:
“He knew how big a fan I was of Jimmy, and I walked in and there was Jimmy and Tony sitting at a piano with Mac McAnally playing guitar and singing Rolling Stones songs. I was like, ‘Oh my God, what did I just walk into?’ And this was 3 o’clock in the morning after one of the awards shows in town.
He looked right up at me and goes, ‘Tony’s boy.’ It felt like I had… did it. And I talked to him and he was as sweet as he could be. That was one of the moments where… they say, ‘Don’t meet your heroes.’ I think those people are meeting the wrong heroes. Buffett was as kind as he could be, and the very last thing he said was, ‘If you ever need anything, they know where to find me.'”
Jimmy Buffett singing Rolling Stones songs with his longtime songwriting partner Mac McAnally? That’s certainly a memorable first impression, and for Canada, it was something he won’t ever forget.
@whiskeyriff Two LEGENDS. Don’t miss your chance to catch The Boys From Oklahoma on the road this year at theboysfromoklahoma.com. #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff #codycanada #ragweed #jimmybuffett ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
You can hear Cody Canada talk more about Buffett’s impact on his career in the latest episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast:
