Page Title

Not Just Wastin' Away

By Amanda Van Benschoten
The Sunday Challenger
avanbenschoten@challengernky.com

These Parrotheads Have Fun For A Good Cause

MONTGOMERY, Ohio - "What time is it?" shouts Pam Inglish
to an enthusiastic crowd dressed in leis, tropical shirts,
straw hats and a wide array of colorful, tropical-themed costumes.

"Time for a group drink!" reply 40 members of the Cincinnati
Parrothead Club during the group's Aug. 10 meeting at
Don Pablo's in Montgomery.

The members raise their margaritas and beers, laugh
and take a drink.

The "group drink" is a tongue-in-cheek habit, done in jest
to the idea that Jimmy Buffett fans, or "Parrotheads,"
are simply fun-loving drunks.

"The thing that we fight all the time is that the press
about Buffett fans is that they're margarita-swilling,
commode-hugging party animals," said Inglish, founder
and president of the 80-member club.

Parrotheads don't deny that they like to party hard. They're
notorious for dressing in flamboyant costumes and getting
a little wild during Buffett's concerts, especially in Cincinnati,
where the term "Parrothead" was coined 20 summers ago.

"Everybody needs to learn how to relax in their lifetime.
We can't be at the beach, but by God, we're going to have
our time. It's just fun," said Steve Hoffman, 47, a wedding
officiant from Erlanger. "We want to have a good time. Yeah,
people are going to drink to excess that night. People are going to have
their outlet somewhere along the line. That just happens to be our one
day a year, so that's not a bad thing."

More than a Good Time

The other 364 days, it's a little less debauchery and a little more
dedication. The Cincinnati Parrothead Club raises money year-round to
benefit local charities in the model of Buffett himself, whose Singing For
Change foundation awards grants to community groups.

The Cincinnati Parrothead Club sponsors a water station at the 23rd mile
of the Flying Pig Marathon every spring, where members dress in
outrageous Buffett-themed costumes and keep runners hydrated and
energized. The Parrotheads earned $1,500 in donations from marathon
organizers during the past two years, which they donated to the Ruth
Lyons Children's Fund.

In January the club held a fundraiser at the opening of the Cheeseburger
in Paradise restaurant in Eastgate, raising $15,000 for the Michael W.
Bany Music Scholarship Foundation. Bany, a local musician, was killed in
Over the Rhine in 1995 during a robbery after leaving a gig.

"Our motto is 'Party With A Purpose,'" Hoffman said. "Basically what we
do is raise money for charities."

The club hoped to raise more than $5,000 Saturday to benefit the
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Ohio during a Buffett-themed
fundraiser at Coney Island's Moonlite Gardens. Yesterday's fundraiser
commemorated the anniversary of the term "Parrothead."

Legend has it that during a show at Kings Island's TimberWolf
Amphitheatre 20 years ago, Buffett's Coral Reefer Band bassist Timothy
B. Schmidt compared the enthusiastic Tristate fans to the Grateful
Dead's "Deadheads." He dubbed them "Parrotheads," the name stuck,
and became a badge of honor for Buffett fans on both sides of the Ohio
River.

"I've often thought that I should have named it the Cinci-tucky Parrothead
Club," Inglish joked. She founded the club in 2001. "It's like a big party
every year," she said. "Everybody in Cincinnati is such a big fan of
Jimmy Buffett, and vice versa."

"She Came Down From Cincinnati"

Aside from the crazy, colorful tropical costumes and the wild
concert-night partying, it's the love of the music that makes a true
Parrothead.

"He has such a wide range of types of music that he does," said Bryan
Pitts, who works in radio. "It's really not all tropical-sounding music. You
have a lot that has a country sound to it, and a lot that's just like genuine
rock 'n' roll. ... There's something really relaxing about it. He's a really
good songwriter, and he gets songs from people who are really good
songwriters. And I like the fact that the music has got so much to it."

Hoffman began listening to Buffett 28 years ago, when he was 19 years
old and stationed in Germany while serving in the Army. He said the
music resonated with him then, and still does today.

"When you're a soldier and you're in the middle of nowhere, and nobody
knows you, you need something that's going to be fun. ... That kind of
kept me company over there," he said.

He's seen Buffett play in Cincinnati nearly every year since attending his
first show in 1991.

"It's just fun. You get people doing all kinds of different things," Hoffman
said. "You're getting to see all these people who are really conservative
finally let their hair down once and enjoy life, instead of being so damn
serious about stuff."

Fort Mitchell physician Pat Burns, 46, describes himself as "a
semi-retired Parrothead" because he hasn't attended a concert for the
past five years. But he can still remember taking a road trip with friends
to Dayton, Ohio for his first Buffett show during the late 1970s.

"I got hooked," he said. "I bought every record as it came out and I went
to at least one show each year."

Burns said he particularly likes the literary references in Buffett's songs,
from John D. MacDonald to William Faulkner to Gustave Flaubert.

"I think he's a wordsmith. I think he's very good at choosing his words,"
Burns said. "There's all kinds of literary references. ... The man is just so
well-read, just really a Renaissance man."

If We Weren't All Crazy We Would Go Insane

The Parrothead craze is hard to explain, even for fans of Jimmy Buffett.
Something about his music, which also transcends definition, is just
"fun," and fans say that attending his concerts feels like going on
vacation.

"You feel like you can hang out with anybody around you and just have
fun - whoever you're sitting next to, even if you're not with them - and
just enjoy the show and just kind of party with them," said Bryan Pitts of
Independence. "It's just like a small vacation. You forget about everything
else for two or three hours. It's just a blast."

Pitts will turn 30 on the day of the concert, and it will be his seventh time
seeing Buffett. It'll be the fourth concert for his wife, Holly. Both belong
to the Cincinnati Parrothead Club, and Bryan is the reigning Buffett trivia
champion for two years running.

"It's funny, because Parrotheads range in all ages: from 10 years old up
to 60 or 70 years old," said Holly Pitts, 28. "His kind of music appeals to
everybody."

Boat Drinks
Jimmy Buffett will play to 20,500 fans from all parts of the region, and the
country, at Riverbend Music Center at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 21. It'll be
a full house, typical for a Buffett show. This show sold out less than 10
minutes after tickets went on sale March 26, according to Riverbend
Marketing Director Rosemarie Dalba, who said that the entertainer and
his band never fail to disappoint fans here.