Jimmy Buffet

Sometimes death comes at me from an unexpected angle.

When Johnny Carson died I was disturbed. Odd, no? It's not like I was a crazy Johnny Carson fan, not like I got 4 hours of sleep every night so I could stay up and watch him. I watched him when I could. Accountants need their sleep.

But I was impressed with his cool. I loved the way he carried himself. I loved his viciously quick and sharp-tongued sense of humor. I loved the way people respected him. I loved the way he commanded respect. I loved his style.

Jimmy Buffet's death is killing me. Fucking killing me.

I was not an over-the-top Buffet fan, but I liked him a lot. My knowedge of his music went beyond Chesseburger and Margaritaville, I knew his more sensitive stuff, I had a sense of who he was. I own a couple of his books.

I am now an over-the-top Jimmy Buffet guy. I have been listening to his music non-stop since September 1. Watching interviews. Reading about him. And when you listen to Sirius XM you get the knowledge and love and respect and worship of people who just LOVED the man, which gives you a deeper understanding of who he was. You hear great stories. Especially from other musicians, which carries a lot of weight.

Everything I have read about the man, all the songs I am hearing that I never heard before, all of that is making me smile and appreciate and regret and understand - Jesus fucking Christ - the man enjoyed life. He knew what would make him happy and he built his entire life around that. And he made everyone around him happy - he cared about their happiness - what the fuck else is life about?

He understood life. At some point he took a step back, looked around and realized that all of us live life like a feather in a hurricane, he realized life is hard and not guaranteed so he decided to put as much fun into his life as possible. He focused on fun. That is how you life a life.

Every remembrance of him focused on his joy, his positive spirit, his sense of and appreciation of fun. He made people smile.

He gave fun to his fans as a gift in concert and on records, a gift to lift them out of their own troubles and to help them smile, laugh and dance and sing. Amazing, amazing stuff.

Jane Slagsvol, Jimmy's wife: "Jimmy was love. Every cell in his body was filled with joy. He smiled all the time, even when he was deeply ill. And his sense of humor never wavered. Jimmy was always the optimist, always twinkling, always making us laugh."

Jimmy Buffet lived his life - his way - and made other peoples' lives better. There is no higher compliment you can pay another human being.

Requiescat in pace, Jimmy Buffet.

I loved you and I didn't even know it.

Thank you, man.