Phyllis Major was a popular European model who met singer Jackson Browne at the legendary Hollywood venue the Troubador, just after his split with singer Joni Mitchell. Legend has it Browne got into a fight with an unemployed actor who was also making a play for her. Browne lost the fight but got the girl, and the incident was comically memorialized in the song "Ready or Not." Together, they had one child, Ethan Zane Browne, born November 2, 1973 (See Ethan Browne). In December 1975, they were married. Four months later, on March 25, 1976, she was found dead in their Hollywood Hills home. She had overdosed on pills. Browne channeled his loss and depression into the production of his fourth album, "The Pretender." Phyllis is the subject of at least three songs written by Jackson Browne -- "Ready or Not," "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate," and "In the Shape of a Heart." Her son Ethan has become an in-demand club D.J. and sometime actor.
