Jimmy Buffett died after fighting Merkel Cell Skin Cancer for four years, according to an updated statement on Buffett’s official website.

“He continued to perform during treatment, playing his last show, a surprise appearance in Rhode Island, in early July,” said the statement.

The Mayo Clinic describes Merkel Cell Skin Cancer as a rare, aggressive form of skin cancer.

Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song “Margaritaville” and turned that celebration of loafing into an empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, died Friday at the age of 76.

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“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” said a statement on Buffett’s official website and social media pages, posted early on Saturday. “He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

Born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in 1946, Buffett moved to Mobile with his family and grew up there. His parents, Mary Loraine Peets Buffett and James Delaney Buffett Jr., were employees of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company.

Buffett’s grandfather, James Delaney Buffett, was a steamship captain and his father J.D. had traveled to India and Africa with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Buffett was randomly spotted at the Dew Drop Inn in Mobile in January 2017.

While working for AL.com at the time, reporter Jared Boyd caught a glimpse of the tropical-shirted figure stepping into a white late-model Nissan van in an adjacent lot on Old Shell Road.

“It’s often said around town, when Jimmy Buffett is discussed, that everyone in Mobile has a connection to the man,” Boyd wrote. “Inside, at the woman’s table, her mother looked my way, explaining that she hadn’t seen Jimmy since he was a young man, living in her neighborhood in Fairhope.”

“In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Jimmy Buffett’s Foundation Singing for Change, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana Farber Cancer Institute or MD Anderson Cancer Center,” the obituary for Buffett states.