Get the latest gossip

Kashus Culpepper Explains How His Journey to Songwriting Started With a Jimmy Buffett Cover at a Margaritaville


Singer-songwriter Kashus Culpepper is Billboard's country rookie of the month for February.

“He would start all the hymns out at my church, and he had this crazy voice — almost like Howlin’ Wolf, really raspy — and did these Stevie Wonder-like melodies,” Culpepper tells Billboard. In 2020, at the height of a COVID-19 pandemic-caused pause, Culpepper picked up a guitar and began learning cover songs to entertain his fellow Navy troops while they were deployed in Rota, Spain. He was performing at one of Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville locations on the southern coast, when an audience request became the catalyst for Culpepper to begin writing his own material.

Get the Android app

Or read this on Billboard

Read more on:

Photo of Margaritaville

Margaritaville

Photo of kashus culpepper

kashus culpepper

Photo of Jimmy Buffett

Jimmy Buffett

Related news:

News photo

Jimmy Buffett's Tweet About Renaming The Gulf Of Mexico Is Going Viral

News photo

James Taylor Inducts ‘Hero’ Jimmy Buffett Into Rock Hall: ‘There Won’t Be Another Like Him’

News photo

Kenny Chesney, James Taylor Salute Jimmy Buffett at 2024 Rock Hall Ceremony