Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne, born in Heidelberg in 1948, was a teenage songwriter on the Los Angeles scene of the mid-'60s, placing his songs with other singers before he ever stepped out on his own. When he did, with his self-titled debut in 1972, he had 2 top-40 hits right away in "Doctor, My Eyes" and "Rock Me on the Water". For Everyman followed in 1973 with "These Days" and "Take It Easy", and then came Late for the Sky, in 1974, his biggest to that point: "Fountain of Sorrow", "For a Dancer" and the title track are grown-up, searching songs, sung in a plain, unguarded voice that never oversells a line. The Pretender, in 1976, climbed higher still, reaching No. 5.

Running on Empty, in 1977, is the signature record, a live album that doubles as a concept album about life on the road. "Running on Empty" barrels down the highway, and it and "The Load-Out"/"Stay" both went top 40, while the album rose to No. 3. Hold Out, in 1980, became his only No. 1 album.

He has sold more than 30 million albums in the US, spent decades as a political activist, and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.