What did it take to bring together Mobile’s epic, seemingly near-spontaneous parade honoring the late Jimmy Buffett? A lot, and you can read all about it in an account from the agent provocateur whose notion put several thousand people in the street.

Over the weekend, Joseph Brennan shared an extensive post looking back on the genesis of the Sept. 10 parade down Dauphin Street and thanking the many people whose encouragement or active support made it a reality. You can read the whole thing at www.facebook.com/JosephTBrennan.

Among the revelations:

When the idea of a parade honoring Buffett struck him, first people Brennan sounded out were John Killian, taproom and event manager at Braided River Brewing, and Jonathan Landry of Blow House Brass Band. Had they been skeptical, the idea might have died right there. But Killian “helped make sure this thing didn’t go off the rails all the way through the end” and Blow House “generously donated their valuable talent and time.”

Early in the process, Brennan decided that he didn’t want to do it if it was against the Buffett family’s wishes. He turned to Suzanne Cleveland as an intermediary, because “she grew up with the Buffetts and she also pretty much knows everyone in Mobile.” Cleveland herself supported the idea, Brennan said, and “To get Suzanne Cleveland’s blessing is a pretty good start.” Word that came back from the Buffett family was along the lines of, “Jimmy belongs to the world” and that people were free to celebrate him as they wished.

Cleveland confirmed her role. She once worked with Buffett’s mother at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. and knows several members of the family. Brennan is a neighbor, and when he approached her, she sent a message to Lucy “LuLu” Buffett, one of Jimmy’s sisters. While she doesn’t presume to speak for anyone in the family, Cleveland said, the response she heard to the parade was positive. “As far as the family goes, the ones I know were thrilled,” she said.

More early support came from Carol Hunter and the Downtown Mobile Alliance, Brennan said, and that was critical. He was about to seek a parade permit on short notice after Buffett’s death on Sept. 1, for an event whose parameters were very vague. He couldn’t even get started on Monday, because he had to wait for the Labor Day holiday to pass. “I was freaking out,” he said. Fortunately, he found his idea was rapidly embraced by Capt. Matthew Garrett at the Central Precinct and Lt. John Angle of the traffic safety unit.

Brennan said he thinks the rapid support of Hunter “gave it some legitimacy with the police department,” but that he’s also grateful for a police department willing to show a sense of humor. “Something I’ve heard a lot is that this wouldn’t happen in any other city in Alabama,” he said. “Police wouldn’t be like, ‘Yeah, this sounds like a good idea.’”

Special appreciation is due the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel, which served as the starting point, and Moe’s Original BBQ, which served as the end point for a grand after-party. The Riverview Plaza’s role included “welcoming us and allowing us to render the valet station completely inoperable for over an hour” and even rolling out a margarita bar, Brennan wrote. Moe’s, meanwhile, allowed “some 1,500 loud migratory parrotheads to storm your establishment and sing and dance on what would have been a rather quiet Sunday.” Numerous musicians joined in a Buffet jam session that ran into the evening. Gene Murrell of WZEW-FM 92.1 has said, “I went to play two songs and ended up playing three and a half hours.”

Brennan said that Hunter tells him the Downtown Mobile Alliance got some interesting data from the event: An estimated 2,000 people took part, with another 1,200 or so along the route as observers. Some of the participants came from as far as Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Brennan said that matched his own experience. Before the event he met a woman who had driven up with her sister from Orlando, and a couple who’d driven from Chicago. “They hopped in their car Saturday morning, had never been to Mobile before, and drove 14 hours,” he said. “They were making a trip of it. They next day they were going to go to LuLu’s and check out Gulf Shores.” Such interest absolutely blew him away, he said: Beforehand his thinking was that “If someone came from Hattiesburg I was going to be impressed.”

One of the things that really stands out about the event, Brennan said, was how selfless everybody involved was. Early in the process, he said, he heard “a few brilliant remarks” from naysayers who thought it was a moneymaking thing. In reality “no one was paid, it was a zero-budget event,” he said, aside from him paying $25 for a parade permit.

“Nobody asked to be paid,” he said. “Did Moe’s sell a lot of margaritas? Yeah, they probably did. Also we stormed their restaurant. We took it over. We didn’t rent the back room, they just said, ‘It’s all yours,’ they threw us the keys. So, nobody was looking to get anything in return. There were no sponsors, no budget, nothing.”

Brennan acknowledged that the event has prompted people to talk about making it an annual event. He thinks some kind of yearly tribute to Buffett is a very realistic possibility for Mobile, but that it’ll take a more traditional planning process to determine what form would be best.

“What I think we have to be honest about is, we caught lightning in a bottle,” he said. “That kind of moment in time is never going to happen again. We’re all very lucky that we got to experience that.”

“I think the lesson from the parade is, truly anything is possible,” he said.

Related:

In Mobile, a notion to honor Jimmy Buffett turns into something epic

Jimmy Buffett’s final studio album, featuring Paul McCartney and other stars, coming soon

Jimmy Buffett was one of Alabama’s favorite sons