After many years, I finally got an opportunity to see Baby Boomer icon and "Cheeseburger in Paradise" singer Jimmy Buffett in concert here at Denver's Pepsi Center.
And in addition to confirming all of my not-so-incorrect notions about the Parrothead Nation, partying it up in the parking lot and doing the fin dance in the stands, I also got a bit of insight into how Buffett and his generation will be easing into retirement. Maybe "easing" is the wrong word. Perhaps not even retiring at all.
Buffett, perhaps unbelievably, turns 65 on Christmas Day. And as the seemingly unstoppable purveyor of beach- and booze-themed good-time music, the venerable performer (who aptly described himself as "just a goofy guy from Alabama") has turned his post-teen summer job as a musician into one of the music industry's biggest money making machines. For more than four decades.
Not that Buffett (who, yes, really is a distant cousin of that more financially famous namesake, Warren), hasn't had his share of missteps along the way, ranging from the occasional floatplane crash to his more recent and well-publicized face plant into the audience at a show in Sydney, Australia.