"...that little boy..." - Ethan Zane Browne, 1973-2025

publicity photo of Ethan Zane Browne from the Alain / Zane Facebook page

November 29, 2025

This week, we at Letters To You were shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic death of Ethan Zane Browne at only 52 years of age. Ethan was the son of Jackson Browne and the late Phyllis Major. During his short life, he did some modeling, some acting, and - as one-half of the duo Alain Zane - he also made some pretty damned good R&B/soul music.

In the now-hard-to-find 1980 film No Nukes, there's a sweet scene of Jackson Browne carrying five-year-old Ethan backstage to meet his father's friend, Bruce Springsteen. Onstage during his second "No Nukes" concert, on September 22, 1979, Springsteen dedicated his performance of "The Promised Land" (as seen in Thom Zimny's 2021 film The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts) to, among others, Jackson Browne and Ethan Browne, "...that little boy," as Bruce said with a smile.

On the back-cover of Jackson Browne's 1976 album The Pretender, produced by Jon Landau, there's a beautiful photo of Ethan that was taken by his father as the child ran playfully on a beach. Superimposed over the photo is a poem by Pablo Neruda, translated by Kenneth Rexroth:

Brown and agile child, the sun which forms the fruit

And ripens the grain and twists the seaweed

Has made your happy body and your luminous eyes

And given your mouth the smile of water.

A black and anguished sun is entangled in the twigs

Of your black mane when you hold out your arms.

You play in the sun as in a tidal river

And it leaves two dark pools in your eyes.

Brown and agile child, nothing draws me to you,

Everything pulls away from me here in the noon.

You are the delirious youth of the bee,

The drunkenness of the wave, the power in the wheat.

My somber heart seeks you always

I love your happy body, your rich, soft voice.

Dusky butterfly, sweet and sure

Like the wheat field, the sun, the poppy, and the water.

Letters To You sends its deepest condolences to Jackson Browne, and to everyone else who knew and loved Ethan Browne.