Two songs by Mitchell accuse Browne of causing the suicide of his first wife, Phyllis Major, whom he met around the time he ended his relationship with Mitchell: Mitchell apparently knew Major before Browne met her. If memory serves there was some account of Jackson leaving the stage in tears. Perhaps he was cloaking a disturbed childhood – as many of us do, perhaps unconsciously. ), Chris Hughes | Leicester, UK I asked the SMPD about their response to the incident. I knew a lot of his contemporaries and they all said she was a psycho and it never occurred to them that anybody would believe her. One general response and one addressed specifically to Mr. Browne’s support for her does indeed speak to his good character. in Yaffe’s book (based partly on conversations recorded in 2015 shortly before Mitchell’s aneurysm) Mitchell – perhaps advisedly – doesn’t repeat Not to Blame’s accusation but she vindictively describes Browne as a ‘leering narcissist‘, ‘just a nasty bit of business‘ and ‘the very worst one‘. In Jackson’s defense, a few people have said how crazy Daryl Hannah is. She’s never publicly repeated or withdrawn her implied accusation, as far as I know. Maybe not. *(p 407). Blue blew my mind, and still does. (There’s no excuse for it and some things can never have closure.). Regards David. With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, When you see through love’s illusion there lies the danger, And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool, Now she’s going to have to leave her wild ways behind, She says she doesn’t care if she never spends, Take a look in my eyes and tell me brother, And the next thing I remember, she was all moved in, But I was having trouble getting into her jeans, He stood up and knocked me through that barroom door, My friends were calling up all day yesterday, It seems we all live so close to that line, And the looks you love to drive to suicide, The story hit the news from coast to coast, They said you beat the girl you loved the most, With the beauty, with your fist marks on her face, I’m just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you, In my lessons at love’s pain and heartache school, Where if you feel too free and you need something to remind you, There’s this loneliness springing up from your life. Catherine James. Perhaps Hannah found that cocaine helped with her autistic shyness. Jackson re-enthroned in his childhood kingdom, rocking it in a rocking chair | For Everyman art direction: Anthony Hudson | Photo: Alan F. Blumenthal. The quandary seems to be that the facts cannot be established. In 1972, around the time he ended his relationship with Mitchell, Browne met the woman who was to become his first wife, Phyllis Major. This post is about what I found out. You say she had another chance to implicate Browne and didn’t – but she never has! https://onstagemagazine.com/jackson-browne-backstory-sky-blue-black No one else has suggested Browne was in any way responsible. Everybody could forgive everybody else, and we could all move on. That’s my excuse. OK, this could use editing…. He was born together with three other siblings namely Gracie, Roberta, and Edward.When Jackson was only three years old, his family relocated to Los Angeles to his grandfather’s house. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Nico. Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone writer who interviewed Jackson Browne in 1994 about the incident, ‘Very thorough and well researched’ In the well known Devon, UK, folk song, Widecombe Fair, the rousing – often drunkenly shouted – chorus consists of a long and open-ended list of all the people with whom the singer hopes to travel to the fair. In his open letter of general response, Browne, apparently referring to the February 1994 US interview, wrote: ‘It appears that Haskell Wexler has taken exception to your having printed my assertion that much that was said about this affair in the tabloids and in the media is untrue.’. History was bleaker than we wished for. ( Log Out /  (p 167) (See below). In the mid-1960s, he was a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt bandwhen they first started out. In December 1975, they were married. You are right however it would feel much better to know the truth. They are the parents of Ryan Browne. I must admit, though, I DO still listen to his music. Perhaps the whole thing is, as you say, relatively trivial. Sorry I cannot provide you with the source, but it was an American print magazine. In October 1992, one month after the incident, celebrity magazine People wrote about it. (Also, the casually entitled sexism shown in Ready or Not’s jokey reference to Major doing laundry and cooking meals can’t have helped. WAS IT VIOLENT? Great read sir. This begs the question: why didn’t Hannah’s uncle, Haskell Wexler, go to the police after seeing his injured niece and believing Browne to be responsible? Major took her own life after apparently suffering long-term mental health issues and extreme postnatal depression. If there’s more to it than that, perhaps it’s the depth of her feelings for Browne and the depth of her despair when he ended things. You might be right. Browne expressed frustration at not being able to talk to Mitchell about Not to Blame. Marc Edward Heuck, Other Works FYI — Jackson Browne did NOT write the song “Cocaine.” it was written by the Rev. I’d keep that on the table. Let everyone learn from us. It’s not available online, so I bought one from Ebay – currently waiting for it! There is no chance in the world that Browne didn’t intend the word play in “Sky Blue and Black,” which I find to be the most lovely and sad song in Browne’s catalog of lovely and sad songs. Thanks for your kind comment, Matt. Browne’s Late for the Sky was an emotional manifesto for many in the 70s. Thanks for your comment, Evan. Hannah’s uncle did accuse him, but instead of suing the uncle Browne aparently came to a private agreement with him. . That song’s defamatory message – boosted by Mitchell’s renown as the truthful songwriter, and by her more recent expression of lasting hatred – has continued to damage Browne’s reputation. Perhaps she had an autistic rage episode during which either she inflicted the injuries on herself or she attacked Browne and was injured when he defended himself. and sometime actor. In December 1975, they were married. Yaffe’s Reckless Daughter quoted Larry Klein, Mitchell’s husband from 1982 to 1994, as saying: However, Mitchell’s previous – intense – relationship with James Taylor was also apparently not ended by her – but she seems to have stayed friends with Taylor. Wexler’s letter said he ‘saw the results of the last violent attack’. With no evidence and no firm accusations, you still put him on trial? In his place I’d have been itching to put something called ‘Vengeful Little Goddess’ on my next album. Perhaps Browne inadvertently got through Mitchell’s defences like no one else, and left her permanently embittered when he ended their relationship. If Mitchell’s allegations aren’t true, why would she do that? On the other hand, Browne claimed Mitchell attacked him during their relationship. This rolling blogpost now rolls to a halt. Who says what | What I think (probably) happened | An appeal to Browne and Hannah. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Jane, commenter and lawyer, ‘You’ve put work into the research’ See below. See also Bruce Springsteen’s brilliant speech about Browne at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.). “Daddy, let’s get some girls Browne must have had his faults, but Mitchell seems to have constructed an alternative reality in which fault is one-sided, exaggerated and vilified. If Browne is indeed innocent, his refusal to make definitive comment in deference to an earlier covenant between Hannah and himself would place him on considerably higher moral ground than Hannah – i.e. We see our heros fail and it’s sad but it’s worse when we are not sure. Did the police see Hannah during their visit? Jackson Browne and Phyllis Majo… He was also in a relationship with the singer Nico. With the film companies, he supposedly relied on an extremely shaky police “statement”, but – more pertinently – apparently gambled successfully on the companies’ reluctance to take on a difficult, high-profile case. She used her art to hurt him back. (They’ve got form for ignoring such requests.) It paints a sad and murky picture not of physical abuse but of a failed relationship that ended badly and of Mitchell’s lasting and overwrought hatred of Browne – a hatred vented in Not to Blame. Browne says it’s none of our business. Finally, she can truly be described as Old Lady of the Year!). At five-ten, Hannah was the same height as Browne. But none of us knows what the promise was. His second wife, model Lynne Sweeney, divorced him and returned to her native Australia after he started a public romance with actress Daryl Hannah. It can produce psychiatric symptoms including violence. A magazine article about the incident included an account of a 1996 TV interview* (see ‘JFK, Jr. Interview’ in the article) in which John Kennedy Jr, Hannah’s lover at the time of her breakup with Browne, commented on Hannah’s flakiness, and said he didn’t think Browne hit Hannah. A REBOUND RELATIONSHIP? However, it seems likely they did see her. Major suffered extreme postnatal depression before committing suicide. She "had the frailty you despise/And the looks you love to drive to suicide" the song says. Her son Ethan has become an in-demand club D.J. When the suicide happened, he was in the studio recording The Pretender. I am selling that one ticket (my husband still wants to go but I refuse to) as can not see fit to contribute to him. If it was, for instance, ‘I will never reveal anything about you to the media or anyone else’, then he’s stuck with that. Thanks for your comment, GDOLEN. He is known for such songs as ‘Doctor My Eyes,’ ‘The Pretender,’ and ‘Running on Empty.’ Learn more about Browne’s life and music. Swops your discarded sooth for, er, some more sooth, An enquiry | Contents They should just tell us. She might well have been a match for the skinny ex-high-school wrestler approaching middle-age. It’s funny, honest and slightly flippant. The two began their relationship around 1971. Weller assured me her source was good. Consider that if you ever knew the whole truth about everything and refused to cooperate at any level with the morally repugnant then you would have to live like a monk. I googled the relationship of Jackson Browne & Daryl Hannah after watching the music video for “Tender is The Night” featuring both of them … circa 1983 … its spooky how the music video foreshadows their eventual breakup in 1992 … including the scenes of them fighting together, and Daryl packing up her things and later riding off in a car driven by a guy who vaguely resembles John Kennedy Jr …, What we call “domestic abuse” is created by, and adds to, the suffering in the hearts of both participants in the relationship … (my alcoholic grandfather beat my grandmother many times before she finally left him … both were very troubled souls and needed help to break the cycle of violence they were in) …. He said he wrote to Mitchell after hearing the song, but she didn’t reply. Life was much harsher. Then in 1994, clearly meaning to boost the rumour that Browne beat Hannah, she implied in Not to Blame that Browne routinely physically abused women. But it would perhaps explain that strange remark of Browne’s: Or was that actually about Mitchell and James Taylor, Mitchell’s pre-Browne lover. Well, at least she is married to someone that’s nice to her. I want to think Browne didn’t do it, of course, but wish there was a definitive answer out there. Thanks for your thoughtful contextual contribution, Anousha. With the uncle, he threatened to go public – and the uncle piped down. Thanks for your heartfelt comment, GIORGIAB. Premiere Of Disney's "Raising Helen" - Arrivals Apparently, Jackson hasn’t been nice to a lot of his exes. Tragically, Major, who had long-term mental health problems, suffered severe postnatal depression. What have you got to lose? Mitchell, known for her lyrical integrity, knew Browne well – so it must be true, right? In a 1997 interview about Not to Blame, Browne described Mitchell as a violent woman who twice physically attacked him during their relationship. Similarly to the Hannah incident info on that is scarce at best. I’d like to think she’s better than that. Mitchell made the ‘leering narcissist’ comment when speaking about her love not being reciprocated: The ‘nasty bit of business’ comment occurred when Mitchell explained how her sadness was caused by having her self-worth undermined: The ‘very worst one‘ comment was about Browne meeting Phyllis Major at the time he ended his relationship with Mitchell. But listening is private, whereas going to a show is public acceptance. Browne’s relationship with Joni Mitchell The daft and bitter song, Not to Blame by 70s-scorned Browne ex Joni Mitchell from her 1994 Turbulent Indigo album was supposedly about the rumoured assault. Happily, Abbey San Encino was kept in the family, and Browne returned there in the early 70s. Whatever happened and whatever Mitchell’s state of mind, her relationship with Browne gave Not to Blame considerable credibility. Was Mitchell broken-hearted when Taylor ended their relationship? Browne’s relationship with Joni Mitchell His first wife was actress and model Phyllis Major. According to Browne’s own comments, Ready Or Not (from the 1973 album For Everyman) showed he was lacking in emotional maturity at that time. Yes, that’s the trouble with rumours, isn’t it. For a while, according to Yaffe, they were very close. Sad story. Many excesses, deviations and character defects can be overlooked, but not, IMHO, domestic abuse. You despise I have season passes to an upcoming music festival where he is playing. Perhaps Wexler, clearly convinced Browne atacked Hannah, simply assumed – with, apparently, no evidence whatsoever – that there were previous attacks. If someone’s falsely accused, they can sue the accuser and so test the accusation in court. Follow @ShagTree. Apart from his wierdly successful two defamation claims (see above), he seems to prefer what he apparently thinks is a dignified silence. Browne’s relationship with Joni Mitchell You say you’ve researched this a lot. Their son, model and actor Ethan Zane Browne, was born in 1973 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and grew up in Los Angeles. In 1994, in the wake of the Browne-Hannah rumour, Mitchell released Turbulent Indigo, containing Not to Blame, which repeated the implied accusation more clearly. So, if there had been a follow-up police investigation in addition to the five-minute visit, the record might have been deleted, depending on whether the case was considered solved or not; and if not, how severe the alleged violence was considered to be.). He said Wexler hadn’t allowed him to explain what happened, but had joined the attack on his reputation and character in which many untrue things were said, some of which Wexler must have known were untrue; and that Wexler had added his own incorrect and damning assumptions. That, combined with a husband like Jackson Browne, would lead to some devastating end. Thanks for your Comments, riverofheart. If that’s you, dear Reader, please read on. Update Feb 2020: I just checked Wikipedia and saw that it now mentioned the allegation and gave three references (all of which are covered in my post). Jackson never assaulted Hannah’. | A rebound relationship? Was Browne’s heart crushed again when Sachse left him and fell for another man? Was it worth it? (There’s an excellent account of Browne’s musical career from the early 70s to the mid 00s on PopDose. Mitchell and Browne began their brief and turbulent relationship in early 1972 while touring the USA and England. According to lawyer, fan and forum contributor ‘Laura‘ it was the practice in California at that time (and still is) to investigate – and, if appropriate, to prosecute – cases of apparent domestic violence even if no complaint was made to the police. This whole thing was very public so I think it should really be explained. Did Browne’s relationship with Mitchell turn sour because he was on the rebound from a previous relationship? In the same interview about Fountain of Sorrow Browne was asked about the meaning of these lines: The equally brilliant and moody song Late for the Sky – ‘Looking hard into your eyes, there was nobody I’d ever known’ – is also thought to be about Mitchell. I also love a lot of her other work, earlier and later. Call me obsessive – I suppose I am. Sounds painful. (You’re another one, dear Reader.) About. He hasn’t replied. As for Joni Mitchell, vengeful goddess is about right! They have a son named Ethan Zane Browne. In his reply, Geffen added, ‘Jackson never assaulted Hannah’.). However, there was apparently some low-level violence. © Chris Hughes and Soothfairy, 2020. To drive to suicide. According to David Yaffe’s Reckless Daughter, the breakup was ‘less eventful than has been reported elsewhwere’ (p 167). In his US reply to Wexler, Browne threatened to go public unless allowed to privately explain it. Quoting numerous anonymous ‘friends‘, People said: In a February 1994 interview in classy monthly film and music magazine US, Browne opened up to music journalist Fred Schruers (better known as a writer for sister publication Rolling Stone). In a 1994 interview, Browne unconvincingly made light of this event. In his 1997 interview about Not to Blame, Browne said, ‘She and every one of her friends knows – it’s all about carrying a torch‘. However, he refuses to publicly explain what happened, citing a promise made during his relationship with Hannah. Thanks for that, WVF – I hadn’t come across CZ’s book. Although, if you check the Wikipedia entry for Townshend (I spelt it right this time! INTRODUCTION. How long will it last? In 1976 soon after the suicide of Browne’s first wife, Phylis Major, Mitchell released Song For Sharon which includes a coded implication that Browne caused his wife’s suicide. Not doing so makes me think Browne’s story isn’t more believable. her apparent willingness to let an allegation to hang in the air, unformalised and thus undefendable, which has come close to destroying a man. But in this case, absolutely no assault occurred. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. 2 years later they divorced in 1983. (p 410). Hannah’s entertainment attorney replied immediately to say, ‘Please do not contact Ms. Hannah or myself again’. She recently revealed she is autistic, Browne never knew this. Jackson Browne has made the shift back from “Lives in the Balance” to love in the balance. Hannah’s spokesman told the press on the day of the incident: ‘She received serious injuries incurred during a domestic dispute with Browne for which she sought medical treatment.’. We can only hope that one day the truth will come out. Hi soothfairy — Good post, thanks. It said: ‘Nobody has even alleged that Daryl Hannah was even touched. I added this annex quite late when I realised that many people condemn Browne because they believe Mitchell’s accusatory song Not to Blame – and that the song’s believability depends on her relationship with Browne. The last one was made over 20 years after their relationship ended. Jackson Browne was previously married to Lynne Sweeney (1981 - 1983) and Phyllis Major (1975 - 1976). Not really. In 1976, Browne's wife, Phyllis Major, committed suicide. Browne’s representatives – his lawyer and publicist – haven’t replied. I heard your baby say In 1974 Browne recorded the personal and deep "Late for the Sky", according to many fans, his best album. That would explain why, after all that hot air, they both suddenly and completely clammed up (apart from Browne’s occasional pained – if unexplained – denials). Was it simply that Browne didn’t sufficiently return her feelings (perhaps because it was a rebound relationship) and – perhaps even worse – that it was he who ended it? Apparently furious after Browne ended their relationship in 1972, Mitchell trashed him implicitly in two songs and then explicitly in a recent biography. (What was it? The police ‘statement’ included in Browne’s open letter to US (see above) said, ‘no one alleged that Hannah was assaulted‘, presumably meaning no assault was reported to the police. ), ‘Nice presentation and analysis of competing facts and explanations… excellent evidentiary compilation’ I hadn’t heard of the incident with Nico, but you piqued my interest. After all this time, perhaps she could forgive him and retract her claws. It is this department’s intention that no citizen, regardless of who she is, suffer any kind of abuse, whether it be domestic violence or any other kind of assault. Change ). And a rich wife-batterer will likely use his money, power and connections against his wife, Weitzman says. According to Weller (as related in a 2008 news report), Mitchell confided to a friend that Browne disrespected her on stage at LA club The Roxy, and that they later had an argument, during which he hit her.