Singer-songwriter
Jackson Browne lead a master class at the
Academy of Contemporary Music @ the University of Central Oklahoma. School CEO
Scott Booker lead the Q&A session, which involved live acoustic music, new songs, personal tales and insight into the music industry.
Students, staff and guests filled the
Coca-Cola Bricktown Events Center in downtown Oklahoma City on Sunday night for three hours, where he talked about writing and co-writing hit songs for the
Eagles,
Warren Zevon,
Linda Ronstadt and more.
His own music had sold more than 17 million albums in his 30-plus-year career, which began when he was a pre-teen, holed up in his room, writing folk music. His father was a fan of Dixieland jazz, and introduced him to trumpet playing at a young age. He soon begged for a banjo, then picked up his brother's guitar. He was hooked, he said.
"Rock and roll is about freedom and desire and finding your place in the world," said Browne.
"All three just so happen to apply to women in your songs, too," joked Booker, which got a giant smile and laugh from the musician.
He also spoke about his activism, from protesting nuclear power plants (including the 1973 proposal of the
Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant near Inola), "the land of
Karen Silkwood," massive plastic waste debris in our oceans, the Reagan era, getting arrested with Wavy Gravy, anti-war activism, helping Haiti earthquake victims and more.
He played tunes "
Don't Let Us Get Sick," "
Take it Easy," "
These Days," "
Waterloo Sunset" and several new songs.
He said music was the first thing he remembers ever catching his interest. "By high school I was driven. Writing songs became the way I could explore what was going on around me, whatever it was."
Artists like Oklahoma's
Woody Guthrie were the earliest folk musicians he remembers, and
Bob Dylan and those like him represented the "alternative path" of civil rights, consciousness expansion and changing sexual mores, he said. He spoke about the early influences of musicians like Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, a young
Stevie Ray Vaughan,
the Byrds,
Joan Baez,
Barbara Dane, the
Beach Boys and more.
His live album, "
Love Is Strange," was released earlier this year. He's also collaborated with the
Kinks'
Ray Davies on a version of "Waterloo Sunset."
