Jimmy Buffet fans remember him as an inspiration to have fun and enjoy life

Millions of fans are mourning the passing of singer Jimmy Buffett.

It's been revealed that he died from a rare form of cancer called Merkel Cell Cancer. But along with the sadness, there is also an appreciation of the gift he gave people with his tales from a place called Margaritaville.

Perhaps it's fitting that Jimmy Buffet died at the beginning of a three-day weekend. He would like that people had an extra day off work to party.

But Linda Sordal didn't feel much like celebrating.

"I'm numb. It's very surreal to me. It's shocking that I'm having this reaction for somebody I've never met," she said. "People knew that it was not normal for this man to pass. And this reaction, I don't think anybody expected the reaction that we're all having."

To love the music is to love the man, and Linda fell hard, becoming a member of "Latitude 38°," a Bay Area chapter of the national "Parrot Heads in Paradise" fan club.  She's attended more than 100 of Jimmy's concerts, including his final big one in San Diego just this May.

"Jimmy got on stage and he was a little out of breath, but he was having fun. And you could see it," Linda said. "And that made us feel like, 'Oh, he's going to be OK.' That's the shocking part of it."

Jimmy succumbed to a deadly form of skin cancer. Maybe if he had spent his life in an office, rather than out in the sun, he might still be living, but he wouldn't have had the same life.

And it was how he lived life that became an inspiration to millions of fans, hardworking people who dreamed of calling in sick and hopping on a sailboat. 

CBS commentator Bill Flanagan was a close friend and said it was no act.

"I don't think I ever knew anyone with more positive life force," he said. "Even when he was in treatment for cancer this last year, Jimmy would come out of the hospital and, instead of resting like he was supposed to, he would jump on one of his planes and fly across the country to play a show."

But it wasn't all fun and games. In 1983 Jimmy told a very young David Letterman that he wrote his hit "Come Monday" about being desperately unhappy while waiting to play a show in San Francisco on Labor Day Weekend.

"This is a song that kept me from killing myself in Marin County," he told Letterman.  "I was in a Howard Johnson's under Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, living there, playing in San Anselmo. It was awful, and I wrote this song. And it hit, and the rest is history."

Despite being one of the most popular touring musicians in the world, Jimmy never had a number one album. His biggest single didn't come until 2003 with his cameo appearance on Alan Jackson's "It's Five O' Clock Somewhere." But Linda said it's the heartfelt humanity of his music that gives it its power.

"The songs that he writes about being with friends, the songs that he writes about slowing down and enjoying the moment, and the songs he writes about growing old — They're just songs that hit us that way," she said.

And that's why he'll be so missed. He told people it was OK to play hooky from work to go have fun. And even if we knew we couldn't, we knew he was out there doing it for us.