Jackson Browne
Over the course of more than five decades, Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most literate and moving songs in popular music. With classic albums including Late For The Sky, The Pretender, Running On Empty and For Everyman, Browne has defined a genre of songwriting that is charged with honesty, emotion, and personal politics. Along the way, he has touched the hearts and minds of millions worldwide.
A member of both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Browne emerged from the Laurel Canyon music scene in the early 1970s and became a regular performer at The Troubadour in Los Angeles. He recorded his now-iconic, self-titled debut for David Geffen’s Asylum Records in 1972 — which found him collaborating with David Crosby and Graham Nash on “Doctor My Eyes,” his first Top 10 single. Forming a tight-knit musical partnership with David Lindley the following year, they would go on to create some of the most beloved releases of the decade — including Browne’s Jon Landau-produced 1976 fan-favorite The Pretender, and its seven-time Platinum-selling follow-up Running On Empty.
In all, Browne has released 15 studio albums and four collections of live performances, and has sold more than 22 million albums worldwide. His highest-charting single, 1982’s “Somebody’s Baby,” was closely followed by the full-length Lives In The Balance — named one of the “Greatest Albums of the 1980s” by Rolling Stone. Subsequent releases deftly examine topics like social and political struggle (World In Motion), matters of the heart (I’m Alive), personal growth, and the interconnectedness of the world around us (Looking East). He has been nominated for seven GRAMMYs, including recent nominations for Solo Acoustic, Vol 1 (2005), Love Is Strange: En Vivo Con Tino (2010) and his latest album Downhill From Everywhere (2021). As a producer for other artists, his work includes David Lindley’s debut El Rayo-X as well as Warren Zevon’s self-titled release and Excitable Boy.
As influential and enduring as his music is, Browne’s legacy as an advocate for social and environmental justice has been equally central to his career. Browne has been the recipient of Duke University’s LEAF Award for a Lifetime of Environmental Achievement in Fine Arts, the NARM Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award, and The John Steinbeck Award — given to artists whose works exemplify the environmental and social values that were essential to the great California-born author. He has also been honored with the Gandhi Peace Award, the GRAMMY Museum Jane Ortner Education Award, and the We Are Family Humanitarian Award. In 1979, Browne co-founded Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE), and was instrumental in organizing the legendary “No Nukes Concerts” at Madison Square Garden. Empathy has been at the core of his work for more than 50 years and he has regularly threaded activism into his life and songs, raising funds and awareness for many social, political, and environmental efforts.
“Racial, economic and environmental justice are at the root of all the issues we’re facing now,” says Browne. “Dignity and justice are the bedrock of everything that matters in this life.”
