Who We Are
Welcome to the home site of the Derby Parrot Head Club. We are a group of folks from all walks of life who love Jimmy Buffett and the Parrot Head lifestyle.
Our main goal is to Party With a Purpose. That means we love to have fun while also doing charitable work for the community. Our main local charity is the Alzheimer’s Association of Kentuckiana.
We meet the first Thursday of the month (with a couple of exceptions) at Joe’s Older Than Dirt in Lyndon at 6:30. Come check us out.
How we began
Our parrot head club began in the same way that we’d like to think many Buffett songs have — on a beach in Key West, after a few cold cervezas, kicking back and wondering why we should ever go home.
Ron Wilder, Joe Schiess and Angie Mullins were down-island for our semi-annual homage to the tropics, when Joe started talking about getting everyone together for a party. Not just any party, but a monthly party where they’d celebrate the sand, sun and surf—a Buffett party. They kicked it about for a while, wondered who they’d invite, what they’d do, and where they’d have it. And then, like so many other great ideas in our lives, they forgot about it. After all, they were in Key West and there were more pressing things to do. And at the time, Kentucky was just a cold, wintry memory.
Back in Louisville, the thoughts remained dormant for a few months, until spring began bringing life back to the area. They then talked about it a bit, and began planning their first event.
For the location, they talked with the manager of Rumors, a place that can best be described as the closest thing Louisville has to Eat It Raw. Reluctantly, she agreed to let them hold the party at her restaurant, but was quick to note that she didn’t see it as an ongoing event. Just didn’t think we’d have enough people interested in something like we were talking about.
To populate our first party, they advertised in the local paper and put fliers up at work. And surprisingly, people came to the party. However, unlike the beginnings of most other clubs across the nation where you get members from varied walks of life, our first meeting was attended primarily by police, EMS, and nurses and doctors from our local trauma center.
Our numbers began to grow and in a few short months, they moved from Rumors to The Brewery, a larger venue where they could spread out a bit and where the management was more inclined to work with our group. It was there that they first met and befriended Scott Kirby and Peter Mayer, who were invited to play a few sets at one of our early meetings.
Friendships
Though the Derby Parrot Heads began as a tight-knit group of friends partying like Bubba does, our group quickly grew in numbers and our membership began becoming quite diverse. Over the years, we’ve had as members an assortment of doctors, nurses, lawyers, firemen, teachers, students, police—even a U.S. District Court Judge, and yes, they all wore leis, grass skirts and tropical shirts just like any other respectable parrot head would.
And as the years have passed, all of our members have become close friends, and in some cases spouses. Each one of us has at least one, really good friend that we probably wouldn’t have met had it not been for the club. Indeed, over half of the members now vacation with people that they met through the club, whether it be a quick trip to Put in Bay or a week-long getaway to the French West Indies.
We’ve also lost a few great members and friends along the way. Al Baxter, a man who routinely visited Key West when Jimmy Buffett was thinking of little more than asking that cute little blond girl to the junior high school dance. Paul Adams, who lived and loved his life by the river when he had to, and by the ocean whenever possible. And Jackie Walton, a wonderful lady who used Jimmy’s music to escape her pain as she fought a rough bout with cancer. Had it not been for the club, we might never have had the honor to meet these great friends.