Jimmy Buffett, homeboy

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Added: Thu. Apr 23, 2009 6:43pm
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Thing is, back then I thought he was gay. It wasn't exactly a stretch, he made his home in Key West, some of the guys in his band were pretty obviously gay, and I was invisible to him. I had become accustomed to male attention by the time I was twelve, you see. I met very few straight men who did not at least appraise me, if not outright leer. He did neither. Of course, unlike most men I met, he knew how old I was.

Summer evenings at Tammy's were not the first or last time our paths crossed. Jimmy was well known in town for playing on the street, and like everyone else, I had stopped to listen and chat with him many times over the years. Those street performances became far less frequent as he became more popular. Several years passed and my roommate brought in an album called "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean". Kathy asked if I'd heard his music. Um...yeah...up close and personal. She was a little starstruck, but I still figured he was a local phenomena. That summer I turned 18. I was visiting the Houston area, and frequenting a beach bar in Surfside. Imagine my surprise to find the jukebox loaded with Jimmy Buffett songs. I remember thinking...oh, no way. Aside from the fact that it was someone I knew, this was a hard-core country bar (like every bar in Texas). I got a huge kick out of watching cotton-eyed joe country boys hootin' and hollerin' to Margaritaville.

The last time I ran into Jimmy, I was about 20. I joined him at the bar and we had a couple of drinks. I left Key West for good shortly after that and have not seen him since. What I would want people to know about Jimmy Buffett is that he is genuine. He doesn't have a giant ego or a sense of overinflated entitlement. He is a guy who knows how lucky he is to be great at something he is passionate about....and I'm sure that's why he has such passionate fans.