Jackson Browne

Clyde Jackson Browne was born on October 9, 1948, in Heidelberg, Germany, where his father, Clyde Jack Browne, was stationed as an American serviceman working for the Stars and Stripes newspaper. His mother, Beatrice Amanda, née Dahl, was of Norwegian ancestry from Minnesota. Browne has three siblings: Roberta, born in 1946 in Nuremberg; Edward Severin, born in 1949 in Frankfurt; and a younger sister, Gracie. When Browne was three years old, his family relocated to his grandfather's home, Abbey San Encino, in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles. He attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California, graduating in 1966, and during his teenage years performed folk songs at Los Angeles venues including the Ash Grove and the Troubadour Club.

Following high school, Browne briefly joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, performing at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California, where the group opened for the Lovin' Spoonful. He subsequently moved to Greenwich Village, New York, where he became a staff writer for Elektra's publishing company, Nina Music, before turning eighteen. During 1967 and 1968 he worked in Greenwich Village, backing Tim Buckley and Nico of the Velvet Underground. In 1967, Browne contributed writing and guitar to Nico's debut album Chelsea Girl, including the song "These Days." After returning to Los Angeles in 1968, he formed a folk band with Ned Doheny and Jack Wilce, and it was during this period that he first met Glenn Frey. Early Browne compositions such as "Shadow Dream Song" and "These Days" were recorded by artists including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Tom Rush, Joan Baez, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds, and Gregg Allman, among others.

In 1971, Browne signed with Asylum Records, the label run by his manager David Geffen. His self-titled debut album, released in 1972 and produced and engineered by Richard Orshoff, yielded two Top 40 hits: "Doctor, My Eyes," which reached the Top Ten on the U.S. singles chart, and "Rock Me on the Water." His second album, For Everyman, followed in 1973 and included his recording of "Take It Easy," co-written with Glenn Frey, which had already been a major hit for the Eagles. Late for the Sky, released in 1974, peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 200, and its title track was later featured in Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver. During this period Browne also produced the first two Asylum albums for Warren Zevon. The Pretender, released in 1976 following the suicide of his wife, reached number 5 on the album chart and included the singles "Here Come Those Tears Again," co-written with his mother-in-law Nancy Farnsworth, and "The Pretender."

Browne's 1977 album Running on Empty is widely regarded as his signature work. Recorded entirely on tour, it combined live concert performances with recordings made on buses, in hotel rooms, and backstage, using exclusively new material rather than previously released songs. The album rose to number 3 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for over a year, producing the Top 40 singles "Running on Empty" and "The Load-Out/Stay." His 1980 album Hold Out became his only number 1 record on the U.S. pop albums chart. In 1982, the non-album single "Somebody's Baby," recorded for the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The 1983 album Lawyers in Love included the hit single "Tender Is the Night," and in 1985 Browne duetted with Clarence Clemons on "You're a Friend of Mine."

Browne has been an active political figure throughout his career. In the spring of 1978 he performed a free concert near a nuclear reprocessing plant in Barnwell, South Carolina, and in June of that year performed for 20,000 people at the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant construction site in New Hampshire. Following the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979, he co-founded the antinuclear organization Musicians United for Safe Energy. He was also arrested while protesting against the Diablo Canyon Power Plant near San Luis Obispo.

In 1993, Browne appeared on Broadway in a production credited as Jackson Browne. He has released two career compilation albums: The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne in 1997, and The Very Best of Jackson Browne in 2004, the latter released in conjunction with his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked him 37th on its list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time." His most recent studio album as of 2026 is Downhill from Everywhere, released in 2021, which included the first fully realized recording of "The Birds of St. Marks," a song he had written at age 18. Across his recording career, Browne has sold over 30 million albums in the United States.