From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V3 #226 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Saturday, April 18 1998 Volume 03 : Number 226 * If you wish to unsubscribe, 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: * http://jewel.zoonation.com and click on "TOUR" * OR * go to the OFFICIAL Jewel home page at http://www.jeweljk.com * and go to the "What, When, Where" 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 V3 #xxx or the like gives readers no clue * as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- HELP ! - Alaska People Magazine ["Oink oink" ] Kinda late - don't think it was mentioned yet... - My fave Jewel story ["Oink oink" Subject: HELP ! - Alaska People Magazine To all you Alaskan EDA's (if there are any, which I'm sure there are), This may be a shot in the dark, but I'm trying! Would it be possible for you to obtain a couple issues of the current issue of Alaska People Magazine that features Jewel on the cover? I would pay for them along with shipping costs etc. Heck, I'll even trade you a tape along with it! Please, anything you can do to help me get this magazine would be greatly appreciated! For all you other EDA's, you can find the article here: http://www.alaskana.com/akpeople/current.cfm So please, please, please respond to this e-mail if you're from Alaska! Thanks in advance :) Love, Nancy the angel who breaks everything sometimes ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 23:17:47 PDT From: "Oink oink" Subject: Kinda late - don't think it was mentioned yet... - My fave Jewel story Hi Guys! I know this is kind of late, but I was listening to my CWoJK tapes and on tape number 6 (the original version of this is on another tape, but I don't know which), she's about to sing I'm Fading and she stops and starts voicing all these little thoughts. It's not really a story, just a bunch of random thoughts plastered together. No one ever mentioned it, so I thought I'd type it out for you. She starts by talking about how many suicides must be associated with flourescent lights in bathrooms. "They make you look terrible!" she says. And then she talks about how everywhere you go, there's a "fat" mirror. She says that there's one in every hotel and when she finds it she stays clear of it. THEN, she starts talking about a commercial she saw where there's a guy who drinks an entire bottle of soda and she claims that doing that really hurts...she's tried it of course and she says, "It's really cold!" So then she goes in on the Safeguard deoderant commercial with Charles Barkley and wonders, "I wonder what it's like to be named after the dog in Sesame Street." This whole time she stops in between each of her little musings and plays the intro to I'm Fading, but she's just in a silly mood or something, so she never sings it and keeps stopping. So she begins talking about movie auditions. She feels just terrible that when they need a fat person for a film, the signs say, "Needed: Fat Person" or what if they needed a midget? Or for Heather Locklear, "Bitch Needed." Isn't that funny? It's funnier listening to it on tape and probably even funnier if you were actually there. The crowd just loved it! Especially for the one guy that huffawed really loud the whole time :) Love, Nancy the angel who breaks everything sometimes (clumsy) **Just saw Green Day on MTV's Live From the 10 Spot! YAY! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 16:57:53 -0400 From: Mike Connell Subject: Alaska People Magazine - the full Jewel article (amazing interview!) Howdy folks! :-) Below is the full text of the article/interview from Alaska People Magazine. I am not too sure that it's going to be still available at any newstands (even in Alaska) as the magazine is published quarterly and I know this online version was up in December. (if it's not still available at the news stands, you really SHOULD check out the online version at http://www.alaskana.com/akpeople/current.cfm as there is an old picture (that I don't think has been mentioned before on this list) that shows a simply adorable Jewel at what looks to be at about age 12 or 13. (she's singing with her dad) Mike :-) ****************** Note, this interview was from May 1997 Interview with Jewel by Chris Mundy Within two days you catch a glimpse of what her life was and what it has become. Tuesday afternoon, Jewel's hotel room: She is alone, barefoot and cross-legged on the king-size bed, guitar in hand, belting out a tune she wrote just yesterday. As she sings, Jewel closes her eyes and disappears somewhere within the song. When she finishes, she smiles broadly, rocks forward until her head hits the mattress and then bounces back as if she is taking a private bow. Thursday afternoon, NBC studio 8H: Jewel sits up straight in a makeup chair at a rehearsal for Saturday Night Live while one woman applies eyeliner and a second awaits the chance to coif her hair. As they work, Jewel simultaneously approves the promotional items her publicist hands her and speaks to a manager via cell phone. Luckily, as she points out, she is a Gemini and feels comfortable living in two different worlds. What is most striking is how peacefully the dual lives coexist, mostly because Jewel does not so much adjust to other people's realms as invite everyone else into her own - --- to the point where those around her adopt her mannerisms. She giggles at one moment, spouts romantically the next ("Poetry is the snakeskin of the soul," she says. "You're going to watch my evolution"), and she asks a litany of questions "What's your middle name? What's your sign? What's your favorite food and why? " of whomever is near. Jewel's defining characteristic, in fact, is her knack for remaining equal parts curious and at ease, like a kid enjoying the field trip that has become her life. "This is my life now," Jewel says. "The amount I'm getting out of it personally and what I'm learning has made me grow by leaps and bounds. I'm greedy with that." At the moment, it is the business of being Jewel that beckons. She is in New York not only to perform on SNL but also to tape an episode of MTV Unplugged, for which the usually solo Jewel will be accompanied by more musicians than she has ever played with in her life. Between the two, she'll take the time for two in-depth discussions. The only problem is that Jewel is not interested in retelling her vivid, albeit short, life story. "I don't think it's for people to understand," she says by way of explanation. "I come across like a cartoon character in print." Then again, not really. A 23-year-old Alaskan folk singer who has been yodeling onstage since the age of 7 and who within six months went from living in her car to signing a deal with Atlantic Records is too far-fetched to be believable. Even cartoon writers know enough to script their heroes out of mundane realities. How would Spiderman feel if his boyhood got more attention than his ability to scale buildings? A little fed up, if Jewel's reaction is any indication. When you first meet her in the lobby of her hotel, you offer a hand. "Ah," she says, sizing you up, "the predator." You get the feeling that things have not started well. What you expected was Jewel Kilcher, the naive girl whose father, a folk musician, and mother, a glass sculptor, divorced when she was 8, leaving Jewel and her two brothers to forge a pioneer existence on their father's 800-acre homestead in Homer, Alaska. At the time, Jewel spent her days milking cows and her nights reading poetry or singing at bars with her father. As a teen-ager, she was briefly adopted by an Alaskan Native American tribe; moved for a short time to Hawaii; moved back to live with her mother in Anchorage; attended Interlochen, an arts school in Michigan; then wandered around the country for six months, eventually settling with her mother in San Diego, where she waitressed and sang in a coffeehouse. The person you first meet, however, is more the road-weary traveler who has been promoting her debut album, the quadruple-platinum Pieces of You, at times at a rate of 40 shows every 30 days, since its release back in 1995. Since that time, Jewel has gone from watching her record go virtually unnoticed for more than a year to scoring back-to-back hits with "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "You Were Meant For Me." Now, with the album firmly tacked in the top 10, Jewel has flashed the nation (when she showed up at the Grammys in a dress that appeared to be made of saran wrap), has been requested by the first daughter to play at the presidential inauguration and has parlayed a one-off stage performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz into her first movie lead. Not to mention that the prolific Jewel recorded an album's worth of songs last July, a few of which will come out on her next release. In short, Jewel is tired. She is tired of the schedule, but mostly she is tired of reading depictions that make her past sound less like the romantic childhood she remembers than something akin to the Unabomber's. "You can't tell a whole life story, even if you've lived it," explains Nedra [Carroll], Jewel's mother. "As soon as you start pulling out pieces, it looks like something else. There's a tendency to focus on the more dramatic. The natural flow of things gets lost." For her part, Jewel finally settles into the interview process, albeit slowly. She is sweet and friendly, although often guarded, armed with questions of her own in order to sidetrack the interrogation. After two days, she articulates her fears. "I'm very leery of creating a gap between me and any person that's going to read this." she says. CM: Why would you create a gap? JK: What someone gets out of the way I lived my life can be immediately diminished by them thinking that I'm a phenomenon. I'm not a phenomenon. I didn't think I was this talented. It wasn't until I really decided, talent or no talent, I have to do what makes me feel like a real person. I would be absolutely useless onstage if people looked at me like a phenomenon. It makes me so scared that I could cry right now. CM: How can I get a sense of your childhood that you're comfortable with? JK: Look at it like a science project. I was spared a lot of media. I was spared a lot of fear talk. I'm aware now how affected I am when I hear on the news how violent we are, how we can't trust our religious or political leaders. That affects your ability to interact as a person. I was spared that and instead given a natural curiosity about life. CM: Did growing up on the homestead also give you the strong work ethic you have now? JK: I'm able to focus mercilessly for a long time because I was trained to do that at a young age. However, it's not like I worked this hard waitressing. I can work this hard because I had one shot at this. I really thought I would live in a car or probably have an apartment, but I thought I would live on that level my entire existence. I was given a shot and it all fell on my shoulders. I'm glad it did, because I knew I could do something about it. CM: You and your mom lived side by side in vans for a while. Why? JK: We could have gotten an apartment. It was a decision to do that, it was freedom. An apartment allows you freedom. And then you go get in your van and drive somewhere. If I could afford an apartment, I couldn't afford a car. If I could afford to pay rent, I couldn't afford food. I'm not exaggerating. So you can imagine that having that burden gone was tremendous. CM: Where did you park it? JK: I found a favorite spot that was near a little flowering tree. I pulled my van up close so the tree hit the window and nobody could see in. And you light candles and you read at night. CM: What about running water, a bathroom? JK: I grew up without all that. It wasn't a difficult thing for me or my mom. Running water? Who cares? CM: You've said you were lost at that point. What helped you turn the corner? JK: My mom kept challenging me. I'd say, "I have to go to school," and my mom kept saying, "What do you want? What does your spirit say?" Finally I said, "I know what I want. I want to sing until people never feel alone." And when I said that, she said, "OK." CM: Did you realize your spiritual side on your own, or is it from your parents? JK: It's picked up from a lot of people. The American Indian thing had a big influence on me. CM: What was that about, anyway? JK: [Laughs] That's what I'm talking about with me as a cartoon. I went to a gathering when I was 16. You adopt the Indian way. Everybody is your uncle or aunt. CM: How seriously did you take it? JK: It was serious for a while, but then it lost its' usefulness. CM: How has the dynamic with your mom changed now that she doesn't have to worry about you? JK: Our energies are less focused on surviving, so we can put our energies more into creating. Too much of our flesh is wasted on survival. CM: You speak in proclamations, almost religious pronouncements. JK: I don't understand. CM: Oh, I don't know...how about: "Too much of our flesh is wasted on survival"? JK: It's because I'm a writer. It's probably from reading so much at a young age that my brain is shaped in a certain pattern. CM: You had dyslexia as a child. Did that hurt your confidence? JK: Mostly, having dyslexia made me feel like I would never be interested in life again. I used to love reading when I was little, and then it became difficult and I didn't understand why. I thought, what a bummer, my passion all drained out of me. So when I found out I had dyslexia it was like, oh, that's what it was. CM: Your parents got divorced when you were at a critical age. Were you confused about which parent to live with? JK: [Very quietly] It was joint custody. I couldn't have chosen. None of us could choose. You love both your parents; there's no way to choose. It's unthinkable. CM: Are you close to your father? JK: Yeah. He went to the Grammys with me. He toured with me and taped VH1's Hard Rock Live with me. The last time I was onstage with him, I was looking up at him because I was so much littler. And then to have him on my stage with my crowd...it was staggering. CM: When you were onstage as a little kid, did you ever resent not having a choice? JK: I always had a choice. I really did. People always think, "Oh, an 8-year-old in a bar," but it wasn't like that. I didn't feel unsafe. It was more family-restaurant bars. My brothers didn't do it. I was the one that liked to practice five hours a day. CM: Was it out of boredom? JK: It definitely wasn't a boredom thing. I loved it. I feel most myself when I sing. I constantly skip around my hotel room going, "I'm a writer. That's what I do. I write." CM: A lot of people accuse you of writing songs that are derivative, but you've said you didn't hear the radio growing up. Is the truth somewhere between those two things? JK: Probably. Who cares anyway? Derivative? I don't think they are. CM: There's part of "Little Sister" that is more Joni Mitchell than Joni Mitchell. JK: I'd never heard Joni Mitchell before I did my album. I'd heard a lot of Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald. I wasn't raised in a vacuum --- I did hear things on the radio, but I didn't have a tape player. I've never been a real music fan. I'm odd that way. But the people I love, I totally studied. I studied Jennifer Warnes until I could do her voice perfectly. CM: How can you grow up not hearing Joni Mitchell but reading Pablo Neruda? JK: Books are much easier to get ahold of. [And] I can't stand listening to music. [Laughs] Isn't that weird? It's just not a habit. I don't like the noise. [Laughs] I do like beautiful cello concertos or Rickie Lee Jones albums. But it's nothing I do when I come home. CM: Who teaches you about different bands? JK: My friend Steve from the Rugburns has been instrumental. I'd never heard the Replacements, I'd never heard the Beatles' White Album. He sat me down and had what he called Jewel 101 classes. [Laughs] CM: You two used to go out; isn't that hard? JK: Not at all, not with me and Steve. We just dig each other a lot. CM: Then why don't you go out now? JK: It's not meant to be that way. It's not always about sex. We write incredible songs together. It makes me get goosebumps. CM: When you went out with Sean Penn, were you worried that you'd be overshadowed by his celebrity, that you'd be "the singer who goes out with Sean Penn"? JK: Not at all. God, I don't get overly caught up in what people are going to think or not think. Whatever. CM: You don't seem comfortable with that question. JK: No, I'm not into that one. CM: Do you have to be extra-careful trusting who you have around you now? JK: I don't think about that. These things you're talking about aren't part of my daily life. CM: Aren't they part of this new reality that you're in? JK: I think how you deal with it spiritually is much more important. CM: So how do you deal with it spiritually? Have you turned to other artists for advice? JK: For certain things, I do. I don't know many people who have emotionally handled [fame] well. I think Flea has handled it well. CM: Flea? I wouldn't expect you to hang out with Flea. JK: Ah, what I am now has little to do with what I will become. CM: What will you become? JK: Many things. This is just the tip of the iceberg. That album --- I was 19 and had been writing for only a year and a half CM: Is it strange to have it out there? JK: I didn't expect anyone to hear it. It was a time capsule of me at 19. It's like a jalopy winning the Indy 500. CM: What's the biggest difference between you now and you then? JK: Well, I'm becoming more and more myself with time. I guess that's what grace is, the refinement of your soul through time. CM: Can you burn out on the number of people swarming around you? JK: You talk your guts out. Your nerve endings are shot and you're totally useless as a human being. But you need to adjust to the lifestyle. My whole goal is to keep my spirit intact --- if that doesn't happen, none of this is worth it. Let's face it, fame isn't that fun. I'd rather go home. CM: How do you balance being sweet and being a survivor? JK: It's one thing I'd like to say to women: Be brave in your living. You can be sexy and spiritual. You can be seductive and innocent. You can be wise yet incredibly naive. CM: But men have it easier because they run things more. Women have less of a support system. JK: That's true. That whole thing with the Grammys was hilarious. The dress. CM: Then again, if you didn't see what that dress looked like, you're the only woman in America who gets dressed without looking in the mirror. JK: But I wasn't backlit in the hotel room. You're in a dress, you feel like an angel. I didn't have an entire spotlight up my ass. [Laughs] I still haven't looked at the videotape. CM: The music industry wants to play up a woman as a sex symbol no matter what. JK: That's very tough. As liberated women, sex has been our power. CM: But it's helped you a lot. JK: I think it's definitely helped, but it's also helped Jakob Dylan a lot, too. Sex sells. However, I think it's been easier for men to be taken seriously as intellectuals and be good-looking at the same time. CM: Do you ever imagine yourself five years from now? JK: Yeah. I hope to be in other arts fields by then. Movies. I definitely want to have a poetry book by then. CM: What questions are you not asked that you'd like to address? JK: I'm going to go off on a tangent. I never thought that so many people would lend themselves to my dream. Because I lived with such hopelessness for such a long time that I thought it would kill me. You can't live with hopelessness. CM: I thought things were difficult but you were hopeful. JK: During a certain phase it got to the point, when I was 18, just before I lived in my car, why was I going to continue. CM: Continue playing or continue living? JK: Continue living. I wouldn't say I was suicidal, but I became consciously aware that I could not face time anymore. I think a lot of kids get to that place. You think "What the fuck is the point? To have a family? Maybe, maybe not. To be a secretary? Maybe not. To be famous? Probably not." Even when I was [living] in my car, I hoped I would get to do what I loved. I never thought it would be on this level. I don't mean so much the level of success but the actualization of knowing that for the rest of my life, I'm going to be OK. I'm going to be OK. That's so amazing to get used to. ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V3 #226 ***************************