Radio Margaritaville confirms that, yes, I’m a Fruitcake

I have reached the pinnacle of existence for a slim-on-talent Parrot Head. I have become an official Fruitcake — as opposed to the unofficial fruitcake most folks have always believed me to be. 

If you tune in to Radio Margaritaville on Thursday, April 6, at 10 a.m. EDT, you will hear me take it over for a bit as a “Fruitcake on the Radio.” You can hear the half-hour segment on SiriusXM Channel 24, Dish Network Music Channel 6031, or by clicking here for Radio Margaritaville’s free live stream. Radio Margaritaville averages more than 3 million weekly listeners.

(The segment will be rebroadcast on Friday, April 7 at midnight; Sunday, April 9 at 4 p.m.; and Monday, April 10 at 8 p.m. You can listen at the same channel and link.)

Basically, the idea of “Fruitcake on the Radio” is to allow Parrot Heads to come on for a bit to play four Jimmy Buffett songs they’ve selected and talk a bit about each one and how they relate to their lives. Though my time is limited, I’m still able to bring up:

• My work at The Fuller Center … and the connection to a Buffett song
• How I learned to strum a guitar by playing along to the Buffett standards — those “Songs You Know by Heart”
• How I named my son Saylor and which Buffett songs were his lullabies
• How I have since sung those same lullabies to my grandkids
• Growing up in little Oglethorpe, Georgia, where a neighbor first introduced me to Buffett music
• And the “Breezy Buffett” song that is my wife Shellie’s favorite

I recorded this from home with the help of Radio Margaritaville’s JD Spradlin, who you can hear most afternoons broadcasting from the Sunset Walk Studios in Kissimmee, Florida. We had an enjoyable video call in getting this recorded. Because I’ve got a little bit of communications experience, it was one of the easiest sessions he’s been able to record.

Or maybe I’m just the next Casey Kasem.

p.s. — When I sing lullabies to my 7-month-old granddaughter Hazel Grace, she always looks up at me and smiles as I rock her in my arms and begin softly uttering the words “Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call.” By the time I finish “A Pirate Looks at Forty” and before I finish the second song — usually either “Havana Daydreamin'” or “Tryin’ to Reason with Hurricane Season” — she’s out! I just hope she doesn’t grow up to be a smuggler.