Katherine Jackson is the mother at the heart of one of the most famous families in music. She raised nine children, including a boy named Michael, and today she is 96 years old.
Her house has always been full of grandchildren, and one of them is Austin Brown. Austin is the son of Rebbie Jackson, Michael’s oldest sister, and her husband Nathaniel Brown. He was born in 1985, and like so many in this family he grew up to make music. He sings and records with his own band, and he put out an album called “The Festival.”
So you might expect his best memories with his famous grandmother to come from a concert stage, or some glittering party most of us only ever read about.
They don’t.
When Austin sat down with CNN in the spring of 2025, he was asked about his grandmother, and his answer had nothing to do with fame. The thing he treasures most is quiet. It’s the three of them sitting together at a table, playing a board game. Austin, his grandmother and his mom Rebbie.
“I’m blessed that she’s still here and I get to have those moments with her,” he told CNN. “Especially when it’s me, her, and my mom playing. I cherish those moments big time.”
It’s a simple picture. Three generations of one of music’s biggest families, taking turns around a game at the kitchen table. There’s no crowd and no cameras, only a grandmother, her daughter and her grandson.
Austin also wanted people to understand something about how he came up. He says folks assume a Jackson grandchild had a certain kind of childhood, and it wasn’t the one he actually knew.
“You know, I didn’t grow up the way people might’ve thought I did,” he said. His father ran his own business, and Austin says that example shaped him every single day.
He had warm words for his mother too. Rebbie spent years in the music business, which can be a rough road, and Austin said she carried it with grace. “My mom went through a lot in the music industry,” he said, and “my mom always kept a good, balanced head on her shoulders.”
Michael is woven through all of it. He was Katherine’s son and Rebbie’s little brother, which makes Austin his nephew. Austin even caught a screening of the new film about his uncle, with his cousin Jaafar in the starring role, and he came away moved by how good Jaafar was.
But the memory that stays with him isn’t the spotlight at all. It’s game night with Grandma, the three of them laughing over a board they’ve probably played a hundred times.
See the photos below for a look at Austin with his mother Rebbie, and recent pictures of Katherine with her family.