I was introduced to Jimmy Buffett through Margaritaville and Come Monday playing on the radio; I don't think I'd ever even heard Cheeseburger in Paradise. When I started collecting music, Songs You Know By Heart was one of the first albums I ever bought - and I was hooked. I bought Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads on cassette and it was on constant rotation; I listened to Bars so much the cassette broke, and I had to move the magnetic tape inside to another shell so I could keep listening to it. Then I went to my first concert in Irvine, where he sang "I Love the Now", and knew there was so much more to experience. His music kept me going through some of the darkest parts of my life; when I was thrown out of the house at 15, Jimmy's music was there. Through depression, anxiety, stress, his music was a light in the darkness. I will mourn that I never got to take my daughter and sons to one of his concerts, and help connect them to that part of my life; I will mourn that I never got to think him personally for everything he's done for me. But I will celebrate his life and his music, because even if I never got to meet him in person, never got to shake his hand and say "Thank you", my life wouldn't be what it is without Jimmy Buffett.

Thank you, Jimmy.