From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V4 #233 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Sunday, May 2 1999 Volume 04 : Number 233 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe from this digest, send an email to * jewel-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY the word * unsubscribe in the BODY of the email * . * For the latest information on Jewel tour dates, go to * the OFFICIAL Jewel web site at http://www.jeweljk.com * and click on "Presence" * OR * go to the Atlantic Records site at http://www.atlantic-records.com * and go to the "On Tour" section * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: jewel-digest V4 #xxx or the like gives fellow list readers * no clue as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Vouge HGH Concert - i need a copy! [Stevie3103@aol.com] Ordering From Jewel's Site ["Greg Butler" ] Seventeen magazine - Win jewels guitar [JABURGOS@CSUPomona.Edu] Jewel interview in 'Observer' (UK) ["Richard Mee" Subject: Ordering From Jewel's Site Hi, I was wondering if anyone has ordered anything from Jewel's site (www.jeweljk.com). If so, what are the ways of paying and ordering??? Thanks. Greg The Broken Angel AIM - BrknAng523 lovingjewel@hotmail.com "No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from." -Jewel Life Uncommon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 01:16:01 -0800 (PST) From: JABURGOS@CSUPomona.Edu Subject: Seventeen magazine - Win jewels guitar May be I read this wrong, but I was going to enter the contest to win Jewel's guitar, sure the magazine wasn't intended for my personale demographic, but equal opportunity for everyone, anyways they're liars. I read the special details in the back and they said the guitar retailed at $300.00, last time I checked Jewel plays a 912-GC, which retails for about $2500. The only Taylor I know of that retails for under $1000, is the baby Taylor, a 3/4 sized guitar. They worded it weird, where it's like you think your going to win the guitar that she uses, but it's all a lie. Please, somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks, Jerome ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 1999 10:11:17 +0000 From: "Richard Mee" Subject: Jewel interview in 'Observer' (UK) Hello people, For any UK fans out there, there's a pretty good interview with Jewel in today's 'Observer' newspaper, in the magazine section. The interviewer even managed to get her to talk about her love life! You can find it at www.observer.co.uk Just follow the links! Only a few days to wait for those UK shows... Richard History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake (James Joyce, Ulysses) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 06:28:57 -0400 From: Mike Connell Subject: Jewel in todays' USA Weekend - reminder Howdy everyone :-) This is just a reminder that according to last weekends' edition of USA Weekend, in todays' edition of the USA Weekend Sunday supplement there is supposed to be a "Mothers and daughters" article that talks about four celebrities and their daughters or mothers, including Jewel and Lenedra. It is not there yet (6:30am EST) , but the article will quite likely show up later today in the online edition of USA Weekend at http://www.usaweekend.com since they mention it there too :-) Mike :-) - - * If you are new to the Jewel list and need a helping hand, * or have a burning question about Jewel and/or the list, * The Jewel/EveryDay Angels List Homepage & Guide is at: * http://www.spectra.net/~ducksoup * Many basic/common Jewel and list questions can be answered there :-) * * Need some Angelfood? Try http://www.angelfoodbank.org * * DuckOfPrey or WhyADuck55 on AOL and/or AOL Instant Messenger ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 07:09:25 -0400 From: Mike Connell Subject: Full text of the www.observer.co.uk Jewel article Complete with a few errors (this is NOT Jewel's first tour with a band...not even close), here is the full text of the UK article/interview that Richard Mee posted about. Mike :-) www.observer.co.uk Jewel in the rough She's a guitar-playing, million-selling, denim-wearing, honest to goodness trailer-trash icon. She went from dirt poor to superstar in one effortless jump. Now she's turned to poetry... Sunday May 2, 1999 'Why are you smiling like that? Why is that interesting? How am I supposed to answer a question like that? Is my tone of voice disappointing you? Am I not being generous enough? Why did you choose that particular word? Where is the question coming from?' It is normal practice in interviews for the journalist to ask the questions and for the celebrity to respond with answers. But, as in many other respects, Jewel Kilcher does not conform to normal practice. The 24-year-old Alaskan singer/songwriter is semi-famous in this country. Most people have heard of her, but few could name any of her songs, let alone hum one. People are vaguely aware that she grew up in extreme poverty, with no electricity or running water; that she used to sing with her dad in biker bars, and at one point lived in a caravan in California; that she dated Sean Penn; that her first album sold 10 million copies (fewer than 100,000 of them in Britain); that she often yodels at the end of her concerts. Now there is another piece of amusing news to add to Jewel's half-fame: her first volume of poetry, A Night Without Armor, has sold two million copies in the United States, making it the biggest-selling poetry book in American history. Sitting in an 'English-style' tea room in a hotel in Japan ­ where she is midway through a world tour that visits Britain next week ­ Jewel says she was surprised by the book's success, but no more so than she was by the success of her debut album, Pieces of You, which she dismissively refers to as 'student artwork'. 'I find it freakish that my first album was so big, don't you? I mean, a record like that should never have sold 10 million.' She's right. Pieces of You is a collection of 14 mostly acoustic songs with barely three choruses between them ­ and a lot of overwrought lyrics. Its main appeal, as Jewel recognises, was its 'sincerity'. Released in 1995, it initially sold few copies, but months spent touring (Jewel famously played 500 shows in a year) sent it slowly up the charts. By 1997, Jewel was a fully fledged star, appearing on the covers of Rolling Stone and Time. Last year's follow-up, 'Spirit', was a much stronger album, but has sold a 'mere' five million copies so far. Jewel seems unfazed by this. 'What happened to me was kinda like being Homecoming Queen for a year,' she says. 'If I want to have a career that lasts 30 or 40 years, it's bound to have ebbs and valleys and dips.' Her role model, she claims, is Neil Young. But Young never wrote a best-selling poetry book. Nor did he star in a Hollywood movie ­ unlike Jewel, who was cast in Ang Lee's forthcoming film, Ride With the Devil, despite having no acting experience at all. 'I didn't know anything,' she admits. 'I didn't even know they shot scenes more than once.' So why was she chosen? 'My character grew up lower-class, working the earth with oxen, ploughing, stuff like that. So I guess my background…' she trails off self-consciously (she is sick to death of talking about her Alaskan childhood). 'But the main reason Ang wanted me was my teeth.' Jewel has crooked teeth. This may seem unremarkable, but among American celebrities, it is a bit like having three legs. Jewel's teeth have become a kind of symbol ­ of her 'unspoiled' upbringing, of her naturalness. Her teeth, and her undemonstrative taste in clothing. For our interview, she wears a baggy black sweatshirt, old blue jeans and a black wool hat that she pulls down over her eyes whenever she doesn't like a question (which is quite often). In the song 'Barcelona', Jewel describes herself as 'super-paranoid'. It turns out she's not kidding. She seems to detect a hidden agenda in almost every inquiry. After an hour or so, her responses become so ludicrously wary that I can't help laughing. You seem very analytical, I say. 'Am I analytical? Yeah.' She pauses. 'I feel very uncomfortable,' she says finally, and blushes. Why do you feel uncomfortable? 'I don't know… interviews are tough. You begin to feel so incredibly retarded, talking about yourself as if you're important. I'm a pretty natural person ­ I create pretty effortlessly. So when I turn a magnifying glass on myself, everything becomes disjointed. It's an odd experience.' After this mini-crisis, Jewel relaxes a bit and talks less self-consciously about her early days, playing in coffee bars in San Diego. On her first tour, she supported Peter Murphy, former singer with the goth band Bauhaus. How was that? 'Well, it was a challenge. A lot of kids with fangs.' We laugh. And then I ruin it by asking her what she thinks of Phoebe from Friends… Five hours later, backstage at the 1,000-capacity venue in downtown Osaka where she will play tonight's concert, Jewel is taking part in a meet-and-greet with a shy bunch of Japanese fans. She looks awkward, but grins her way through it. Afterwards, she comes up and fixes me with a cold, unwavering gaze. 'So. Phoebe, huh? I asked someone about her [Jewel claimed to have seen only one episode of Friends] and they said she was a real ditz. I feel insulted. Is that what you think of me? Do you think I'm a ditz?' The PR, sensing an ugly scene, intervenes to explain that Phoebe is by far the nicest and most natural of the six friends. 'The others are all like cartoon characters. She's the one people really respond to.' And she's really creative and spiritual, I add. 'Yeah,' says Jewel sarcastically, 'and she sits in a bar and sings about a smelly dog.' A smelly cat, I correct her. 'Whatever.' Jewel is not really like Phoebe at all ­ she's too grounded, too sensible, too hard-working ­ but for some reason, the comparison bugs her. Brady, the drummer in Jewel's band, walks past, and I ask him what he thinks of Phoebe. 'Hey, man, I'm not getting involved in that shit!' he says, looking petrified. For the first time in her career, Jewel is touring with a band ­ two guitarists, a keyboard player, a drummer and a bassist, all of them men. She is flirty with all five ­ asking one guitarist to kiss her neck, massaging the shoulders of the other, stroking the drummer's hand ­ but each responds with a kind of paternal reverence: the way the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man treated Dorothy. I imagined she had known them for years, but it turns out they had only met six weeks before. The other person who always accompanies Jewel on tour, apart from her English manager, is Lee, a friend from Alaska whom she has known since she was 16. Lee is tall, camp and funny. I ask him what his role is on tour, and he says: 'I do things for Jewel.' These things include keeping her healthy (he carries around B12 vitamin pills and homeopathic eye drops) and well-fed. Japan, apparently, is a nightmare for food. 'I mean, if you're into dried fish heads and icky, gooey things that look like eyeballs, then I guess it's good,' says Lee. Backstage in Osaka, Jewel tucks into a big box of fried chicken. >From where I'm sitting, the gig seems fine. As with most Japanese concerts, the fans are completely silent during the songs, and then applaud wildly when each one is over. Jewel starts out quiet and intense, and becomes looser and rockier as the night wears on. Her voice is wonderful ­ clear and emotive, with a depth not even hinted at on her debut album. She wears black leather trousers and a top that airs her Monroe-like decolletage. Despite reviews to the contrary, however, she doesn't really dance and looks ill at ease without a guitar in her hands. She does not yodel at the end. It is only 9.30pm when the concert ends, but Jewel looks shattered. 'That was weird,' she says. 'Right from the start, I could tell there was a bad vibe. Plus I was tired. I was not in a good head-space before I went on.' Jewel goes off to have a shower, then arrives at the hotel bar looking refreshed. As the gin and tonics are lined up on the bar, she gets gradually more sociable and giggly ­ despite the fact that she doesn't touch a drop. 'Look at me, I'm really hyper,' she says after half an hour. 'Imagine what I'd be like if I did start boozing.' Finally, she starts to talk freely, without dissecting every other word. She tells me about rubbing Bob Dylan's nose ('He just presented it to me ­ it's a great nose!'); about the surreal exploits of her maternal grandfather ('He invented the first snowmobile'); about her childhood experience of slaughtering cows ('You had to shoot them in the head ­ it was never easy'). She talks about her mum, with whom she has set up a scary-sounding charity organisation called Higher Ground for Humanity (motto: 'Be the difference that makes a difference'), and about her dad (a 'musical entertainer'), who used to call her 'my little Emmylou' because Emmylou Harris was his heroine. Jewel invited him to play on stage with her and Emmylou one night, and he wept. We even talk about her love life. She's been single for 'about a month', she says, after a relationship that lasted 'about a year'. How does it feel to be single? 'It's a huge relief, to be honest. It was getting really heavy towards the end. He's a great guy, but… this is not a job that's conducive to romantic relationships. I've only had two relationships, post-fame ­ if that makes any sense ­ and both those guys had trouble with the fact that I was the one with the career, getting all the attention, making all the money. I think that's hard for men.' Were either of them celebrities? 'No. Maybe that's the problem. I always thought it was a bit odd that celebrities chose to go out with each other, but maybe they're the only ones who can understand. It's funny: people always look at this job and think it's so glamorous. They think I'm always out on the town with all these handsome men. But it's so not like that. I never meet men.' By 1am, Jewel is lounging next to Brady, singing Public Enemy lyrics in a breathy, girly voice, and blaming me for her lousy gig. 'I was standing there, playing my guitar, and all I could think was: "Is this art or entertainment?" God damn it, I'm still not sure ­ you really screwed me up!' Someone offers her a choice of sandwiches, and Jewel wrinkles her nose with indecision. 'Now, let me think,' she says. 'What would Phoebe do in this situation?' * Jewel plays Southampton Guildhall, 4 May; London Albert Hall, 5 May; Cambridge Corn Exchange, 6 May; Glasgow City Hall, 8 May; Manchester Academy, 9 May; Warwick Arts Centre, 10 May; Bristol Colston Hall, 11 May. Jewel's new single, 'Down So Long', is released on 24 May ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V4 #233 ***************************