The quintessential sensitive Californian singer/songwriter of the early 1970s.
Born in Heidelberg, West Germany, Browne and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 3 years old. By the time he was a teenager, he had developed an interest in folk music and began playing guitar and writing songs, which he sang at local folk clubs.
Early in 1966, he was invited to join the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, whom he had met through the LA folk circuit. Although he was only with the band for a few months, the group recorded a handful of his songs on its first two records.
By the beginning of 1967, he had signed a publishing deal with Nina Music, a division of Elektra Records, and had his songs included on albums by Tom Rush and Steve Noonan in 1968.
During 1967 and 1968, he lived in New York's Greenwich Village, where he played in Tim Buckley's backing band. Browne also began working with Nico, who recorded three of his songs on her Chelsea Girl album. When their relationship disintegrated in 1968, he returned to LA, where he unsuccessfully tried to record a solo album and form a folk group with Ned Doheney and Jack Wilce.
Browne continued to play local clubs and his reputation as a songwriter continued to grow, with Linda Ronstadt and the Byrds recording his songs. By the end of 1971, he had signed with David Geffen's fledgling Asylum Records on the strength of his widely circulated demo tape.
His debut album, Jackson Browne, was released in the spring of 1972, spawning the Top Ten hit single Doctor My Eyes. Shortly afterwards, Take It Easy, a song Browne co-wrote with Glenn Frey, became the Eagles' breakthrough hit. Many songs from his debut album, including Rock Me on the Water and Jamaica Say You Will, became singer/songwriter standards.
On his second album, 1973's For Everyman, he began a long-term collaboration with instrumentalist David Lindley. For Everyman was a commercial disappointment, but consolidated his cult following.
Released in the fall of 1974, Late for the Sky expanded Browne's audience significantly, peaking at number 14 on the charts and going gold by the beginning of the following year. Browne's first wife, Phyllis, committed suicide in the spring of 1976, but in the wake of the tragedy he recorded his commercial breakthrough album, The Pretender. The record climbed into the Top Ten upon its fall 1976 release, going platinum in the spring of 1977. In the summer, Browne launched an extensive tour, recording a new album while he was on the road. The resulting album, Running On Empty (1977), was an even bigger success than its predecessor.
With his career riding high, Browne began to pursue political and social causes, most notably protesting the use of nuclear energy. The success of Hold Out (1980) was evidence of Jackson Browne's popularity. Though the album wasn't as well crafted as its predecessors, it became his only number one album upon its summer release. Divided between love songs and political protests, Lawyers in Love was another hit and also showcased a newly found social consciousness, which dominated 1986's Lives in the Balance. Browne continued to write primarily political songs on 1989's World in Motion, but the album was only a modest success.
Browne was quiet for the next 4 years, working on a variety of social causes and suffering a painful public breakup with his girlfriend, actress Daryl Hannah. He finally returned with a comeback effort in the fall of 1993 entitled I'm Alive, which received his best reviews since the late 1970s. In the spring of 1996, Browne released Looking East, which failed to gain the same attention.
In 2002, he released The Naked Ride Home. Around this time Browne took to the road and played intimate, acoustic shows around the globe. The 2005 release Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 was compiled from these concerts and appeared on Inside Recordings, an independent label founded by Browne.