Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is a musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist from the United States who has sold over 18 million records in the country.
As a talented adolescent musician in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he had his first triumphs penning songs for others, writing “These Days” at the age of 16; the song became a small hit for the German singer and Andy Warhol protégé Nico in 1967. He also co-wrote songs for fellow Southern California bands the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, of which he was a member briefly in 1966, and the Eagles, the latter of which had their first US Billboard Top 40 hit with the Browne co-written song “Take It Easy” in 1972.
In 1997, he released The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne, and in 2004, he released The Very Best of Jackson Browne in conjunction with his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Downhill from Everywhere, his most recent studio album, was released in 2021 as a follow-up to 2014’s Standing in the Breach, which featured the first completely realized version of his song “The Birds of St. Marks,” which he wrote at the age of 18. Rolling Stone named him 37th on its list of the “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time” in 2015.
