Jimmy Buffett was a best-selling author, songwriter, businessman, airplane pilot, sailor, surfer, father, husband, environmentalist, tequila drinker, dog lover, and more. Yes, he lived a huge life.

Buffett died on Sept. 1 from cancer. He was 76 years old.

The thread of all his magical pursuits is how he paid attention to detail.

Jimmy Buffett listened for every heartbeat.

He found a twinkle in the eyes of everyone he met.

I have dozens of Buffett stories. Twice I brought Richard Harding and his daughter Catherine to Buffett shows in the Chicago area. Richard Harding was the grizzled owner of the Quiet Knight music room south of Wrigley Field. The Quiet Knight was where Buffett got his Chicago start in the early 1970s.

The last time we were all together was in July 2011 when Buffett played Toyota Park in Bridgeview. My “date” was Minnette Goodman, the tiny mother of the late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman. She was 84 years old.  I’ll never forget Minnette holding her own against the torrent of beachballs and hands-in-the-air fins signals. Buffett was friends with her son and family.

Buffett asked to meet our group backstage before the show. I don’t do backstage, but I’ll always remember Buffett taking at least a half-hour to talk to Richard Harding underneath the shade of a golf cart. He spoke with Minnette. Then, during the concert he paid tribute to Richard and Minnette. Richard and Minnette would both die a year later.

Hello in there.

Richard Harding and Jimmy 2011. (Courtesy of Catherine Harding)

The first time I took the Hardings to see Buffett was in July 1991 when he appeared at Poplar Creek in suburban Hoffman Estates.

This odd road trip included then-Bulls-guard John Paxson and his wife. This group of Chicagoans piled into my car. Before the show, we rolled into the since-closed Penny Road Pub in Barrington. Before the concert the Hardings brought Buffett some artwork made by the late Eddie Balchowsky (1916-1989).

Balchowsky was a poet, one-handed piano player and Spanish Civil War veteran who worked at the Quiet Knight and inspired Buffett’s hit ballad “He Went To Paris.” During this concert at the last-minute Buffett included an acoustic version of “He Went To Paris.” With his omnipresent pens and pencils in his tattered shirt pocket, the white-bearded Harding was surprised and happy. I remember the tear in the eye of Harding’s daughter.

Jimmy Buffett was fiercely loyal.

I started writing about him in June 1982 for the Illinois Entertainer when he opened for Bonnie Raitt at Poplar Creek. There were no “Parrotheads” back then and he often gave me credit for helping to build his Chicago audience. At least that’s what the Chicago Sun-Times advertising department told me when Buffett’s camp always took out full-page ads for our newspaper. I think that may be why we kept in touch over the years. He never forgot. He never turned down an interview request and came on my WGN-AM radio show at a moment’s notice. I mean, I’m no big deal.

From left: Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Jimmy. (Via Willie Nelson.)

Buffett began his career as a journalist, writing in […]