Bret Michael’s upcoming solo album will feature a couple of special guests, one of which is Jimmy Buffett:

“Loretta Lynn and I are gonna redo ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorn’ together,” he tells Rolling Stone. “And, for me, growing up in a family that my father loved country music and Coal Miner’s Daughter, this is gonna be a really awesome time.”

How did the two come together? “I met her at Thanksgiving and it was really great. We were out at her ranch in Hurricane Mills and we sat there, me and her, and after everyone, the whole family and my crew sort of dissipated we sat there and started writing some songs together,” he says. And one of the ideas she had was redoing ‘Every Rose Has It’s Thorn’ and I thought it would be unbelievable for me and her to do that together.”

Among the other guests on the album are Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen and Jimmy Buffett. “The song ‘Get Your Rock On’ has Phil Collen from Def Leppard playing guitar with me and it also has Sal Costa from My Darkest Days, really, really good guitar player and good friend,” he says. “Jimmy Buffet and I did a live version of ‘Margaritaville’ together.”

Michaels says the two duets, with Lynn and Buffett, will be “two bonus tracks.” And of the rest of the record he says, “It is just straight up in your face rock & roll.”

Michaels joined Jimmy on stage in 2010 at his show in Detroit. Watch video of the appearance.

Liz O’Connell at the Huffington Post has a great article on Last Mango Racing, the horseracing partnership consisting of Jimmy Buffett and members of the New Orleans Saints organization.

Who Dat Ambush is owned by a subset of Last Mango partners together with some outside owners. Currently, Last Mango Racing is running FleurDeFortyFour, from Any Given Saturday’s first full crop, who finished second in a Fair Grounds maiden special weight this weekend in his third start. Franderella, a Henny Hughes three year old filly is on layup.

The Fair Grounds winner’s circle in 2012 is a long way from the deck of Jimmy Buffet’s boat the Last Mango II where in 2007, New Orlean’s Saints’ coach Sean Payton, the Saints’ director of communications Greg Bensel and Buffet were chilling. It was Super Bowl weekend in Miami, FL. The Indianapolis Colts were getting ready to win 29 to 17 over the Chicago Bears and Coach Payton was in town to receive NFL Coach of the Year honors.

While on that boat ride, the three friends talked football — Coach Payton encouraged Buffet to design a play that he would call at the Pro Bowl the following weekend. Buffet came up with a half-back pass that he called “the Last Mango” and Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Giants Running back Tiki Barber were designated to run the play. They did, the pass was intercepted, but that’s another story.

That afternoon the friends also talked about New Orleans’ recovery post-Hurricane Katrina. Buffet specifically asked about how the Fair Grounds Race Course (FG) was doing in its comeback. “I offered that we organize a small group of guys and each throw in $1000 a man and go get a hard-knocking claimer and run it in the fall meet at FG, our way of doing something we are all interested in. And what better place than the Fair Grounds, where we all have a connection,” explains Greg Bensel.

Be sure to read the full article here.

Buffett hit the track last month in New Orleans while in town for a Saints game. Read more.

After adding a show in San Jose earlier today, Jimmy Buffett announced another California show just now in San Diego:

San Diego, CA
Viejas Arena at San Diego State University
Saturday, March 10th

Tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10 am through TicketMaster.

George Varga of the Union-Tribune notes, this will be the first San Diego show in over a decade that isn’t being held at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheater in Chula Vista. He also believes it’s the first time Buffett’s played on the SDSU campus since the 1980’s.

After largely skipping the West Coast last year, Jimmy Buffett just announced a March date in the Bay area:

San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion
March 8th, 2012

Tickets go on sale February 10th

View all confirmed tour dates here.

Could a Hawaii show be on the horizon for Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band?

In the pre-show interview on Radio Margaritaville before Saturday night’s Orlando concert, Jimmy said that they’d be performing in a place with a “Polynesian atmosphere very, very soon.”

Buffett last played Hawaii when he performed at his Jimmy Buffett’s at the Beachcomber restaurant in 2010. His last big venue show was in 2009 when he played shows at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center and the Waikiki Shell.

We’ll post more information when it’s available.

(Hat tip Doug S.)