From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V5 #96 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Saturday, March 18 2000 Volume 05 : Number 096 * 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 news on what Jewel is up to, go to * the OFFICIAL Jewel web site at http://www.jeweljk.com * and click on "what's new" * . * 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 V5 #xxx or the like gives fellow list readers * no clue as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- * Transcript to Jewel's interview on Exhale - Part 1 of 3 [Sabato229@aol.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 20:26:01 EST From: Sabato229@aol.com Subject: * Transcript to Jewel's interview on Exhale - Part 1 of 3 **Exhale Transcript** part 1 of 3 (Intro) Candice Bergen (CB) I used to live out of my car, and I've done pretty well. Ok...it was a Jaguar and it was parked in my parent's driveway but it only had AM radio and I had to push the buttons. Anyway, tonight I will be talking to Jewel about her amazing journey from rural Alaska to the top of the pop charts. If your good she'll even sing a song. If your really good I won't sing with her. So stay tuned...it might save your soul and don't forget to Exhale. CB: Jewel is an actress, a poet, and a multi-platinum selling songwriter and recording artist. Her latest cd is titled Spirit. Welcome. Thank You so much for being her we're so excited. Jewel: Thank You CB: You have such a magnificent voice and I've loved listening to your music. But I was watching the VH1 Storytellers concert you that you did... I was so struck by how wrapped your audience was. They were almost spellbound. Hmm, how have you made such an immediate connection with people? JK: Huh, when I was about 18, I never really sung my music for people before. I grew up singing other people's songs in bars. And I didn't think I had anything that was really interesting, it's hard to value your own thought process. You know? but when I started going through things I started putting into songs uh, I don't know, I realized when i was singing in front of people, in a little coffee shop, my own songs, that people just want what's honest and sincere whether it's angry,scared,or hopeful, or in love, it's interesting to people cause it reflects those same feelings in people. So like the only thing I think about when I am on stage is try to be as honest as I can with where ever I'm at and that seems to keep people really loyal to you. CB: I didn't expect to see your name in the same paragraph with Marilyn Manson. But ,uhm, but in last summer's 'Vogue' cover you did the interview inside this is how they enlarge it for me. You can read it Laguna. Uh...hum you in talking about that, you said "All you can do is be honest and people will respond to it that's why people love Marilyn Manson, he's real, I worship him. I think we're different sides of the same coin. I think he wants to do the same thing I want to do, which is break down boundaries and teach people to be more open, to think, that's all I want. We're the same thing." It's Great JK: I got put on the Catholic or Christian prayer groups for that comment. "Pray for Jewel we've lost her." I'm not kidding. CB: There's a lot of people out there praying for you. I think you were just saying that waitresses are praying against you, praying for your destruction. Do you just want to tell me what we were, you were talking... JK: I did Rosie, and she said,uh, "So is it hard being famous", and I felt kinda embarrassed, you know? To be ungrateful for what I have, so I was like "oh, you know, it beats waitressing" and a lot of people took offense to it and started an organization CALLED "WAJ" Waitresses Against Jewel CB: I didn't think anybody would ever label you as being against the working class. Uhm, Who is your core audience? Are they young people your own age, or they suburban, are they city? JK: I've been really lucky to have, um, that's funny.... when I was just singing coffeehouse , before I got signed, I had a little 60 year old couples coming in... little 8 year old kids, and everything in between. Real strong male as well as female. It's something I wanted very hard to try and reproduce, though I know in today's market it's a young buying audience and those tings but I've been really lucky, to feel like, ah, I just did Austin City Limits...ah, last night and uh, I just feel really lucky. I always have 30-40-50 year olds and always young kids, so I like that. Well I did a show in Florida once with a bunch of bikers there and they were singing 'I'm Sensitive, laughing, so I like it a lot.< more laughing > CB: Unbelievable ability to connect with people. Um, your lyrics, are um so revealing, they're so direct. Your,your so unambiguous about your wants and your needs, and,uh,and I'm always reading you what you said....um, you said "Cynicism isn't smarter it's just safer. I've noticed a belief that somehow optimism lacks intelligence and that optimism must stem then from a lack of experience in L'FATAE (?not sure of word here) I don't believe that." JK:HMM.. CB: You, um, are you um,fighting cynicism single handily in our culture? JK: No, just in my own life, you know? I...I really think cynicism is a luxury people who can afford to lose hope. I may think at certain level when things get hard enough in someone's life it's a sink-or-swim situation and it becomes a 'am I gonna keep complaining and continuing this or I'm I gonna start seeing what I can do about it.' I mean....you know? Life is really a perception of it... it's a glass, half full or empty. It's a choice, I don't think one's more real than the other. Except for what you make real and sort of actualize and I just got to the point in my life where I realized I was making my life a lot harder on myself. Umm and the most faithful people I know are often the poorest, because they to have faith to continue and...and the most cynical people I know are....well,umm....journalists.... often, because you know, I think they can afford that, they have an income that I think can afford them to be a little bit cynical. CB: Are you surprised by how,um, how many un-cynical some people are...how there are pocket's of people who do, who are optimistic who are positivists....who want to try and change things and make the world better which is what you want? JK: Yea... CB: Or do you think we are fed because of what the media and, and what we're exposed to we think cynicism is more prevalent than it is and that maybe America is a more optimistic country than we thought? JK: Yea, I don't know, honestly. I mean I'm always surprised to see how cynical I am, you know? There are so many layers to it. I still noticed I am still quite guarded, and you know try and be cool and protected and not reveal myself too much in certain ways. I'm always surprised that it's still, you know? There's still so many areas where I'm like that. And I guess it's like that for people, some places I dare to have hope, and some places I'm pretty guarded about. I think a lot of people are like that.I notice with kids, kids really want...you know? People who are looking for places in the world to be tender; people are looking for places in the world to make a difference without it being some sort'of hippie commune or some kind'of ...uh un-grounded place. But there are people, like you were saying with your show here... I think, where people are starting to actually do that in the work place, and make places where people can be that way. CB: We're going to take a break. Stay with us we'll be right back. *** CB: Welcome Back to Exhale...I'm Candice Bergan and I am talking with Jewel. Umm, you were just saying that it's hard to fight being guarded uh, but how do you manage it all now with the kind of success you've had? I would think it would be impossible not to be guarded with the kind of attention you've gotten, the kind of media scrutiny that you've been under....do you have to fight it tooth and nail all the time? JK: I wonder how everybody does it you know? I've actually kind'of started,lately, wanting to talk to people about how they've handle their lifes and their careers. I've wanted to talk to like Oprah, and yourself and Madonna just to see how people stay alive and stay creatively alive and viable and relevant, at the same time have a life and those kind of things. I don't ,really honestly, have it all figured out yet and I've been going through a lot of changes and just trying to figure out is this what I want ... is this, you know? ...Am I going about it in a good way? How do I want to go about it? Um...and I ... you know? I'm sure I'll figure it out. The thing that is most important to me is.... being happy inside of myself, I'm just really miserable when I'm off my center and I am really aware of it. CB: What...what throws you off your center? JK: A Lot of things...I mean a lot of things make me outward. You know? I used to read all the reviews I'd suddenly see myself outside of myself... and it was hard for me to experience myself....genuinely inside myself cuz I started fearing so much of how it would be judged and you know? being judged is one of the worst over- censorships when you start concerning yourself, overly.Hmm, so I just think constantly remaining focused on what interests me right now and doing that regardless of how you think that will perceived and those things. CB: Do uh.. do you feel sometimes that you are not a woman of your time? Do you feel that your a woman of an earlier era? I know that you were raised with Ella Fitzgerald, and Cole Potter, and Edith Peiof and your parents read to you, you were surrounded by poetry. Um.. your music in a sense harkens back to a somewhat earlier time. Do you feel of this culture, of this moment? JK: Uh-huh... I do feel of this culture,and of this moment. I realized I was raised in certain ways that is very different, you know? from a lot of kids...say raised in New York or something. But I think I struggle with the same....you know? starting from the same point and living in the same world that everything else is and trying to figure out how to do that. CB: What do you think about American Pop-Culture? JK: I knew when I was a kid, raised on a ranch, I felt comfortable when I was out of doors and when I would have to, look at fashion magazines I would feel very uncomfortable. Cuz I felt really compared and I really compared myself to that. And so I've always kind'of avoided them and I always felt like, the standard that we're given by pop-culture is really sort of unattainable ...you have really perfectly beautiful people that can afford to do things to their bodies that most teen-age girls can't. And girls hold themselves against that kind of standard and it's been a hard thing for me to be in the public eye and go against that cuz I, like anybody else, feel the pressure of going,"well...maybe I should get my tits done" or something.....or like,uh, maybe you know? I should get my teeth fixed or my nose done or something. But I really do want to try and remain honest, and you know, and try and reamin, not create to big a gap between what I am and what most people are.....cuz it is the same thing. CB: I think..um, I think that your probably doing exactly what you should be. Which is just to fight to be honest....um, which is a struggle-- considering that you have to participate to a certain degree and um..... JK:Yea..... CB: You have to look like this...... JK: I'm sure you run across that all the time too, being a woman in this industry is really....the certain things, you know? CB: Just being a woman growing up in this country. JK:Yeah... CB: And this culture, um..... JK: Do you notice it a lot more here than abroad? CB: Ohhh.....Oh Yea!! JK: REALLY??!! CB: YEA!! Yea!! JK: Like everyone in France like eats cream and butter and the're still skinny.....I don't know how they do it. I mean why is that? CB: I don't know either. It makes me nuts CB:They Really Do.... JK: It's funny too it's like if I did fix my teeth people would riot. I mean that's a funny thing too, it's like it's my prerogative to fix my crooked teeth. CB: Oh, I beg of you not to. JK: But like Tommy Hilfiger did an ad with me and fixed my teeth without telling me..... CB: Ohhh.... JK: for an ad.... CB: I would've sued... JK: What's funny is like, people had a near riot and what's funny is in Japan there's actually girls getting their teeth surgically altered like mine. I mean it's a very weird thing. CB: REALLY??!! JK: YEA!! CB: Do you write about what happens in your life? When, for instance, a song like...Foolish Games, on your first album. Which is sort of lament of a failed love affair. JK: Right..... CB: Do,um, is that your own experience. Do you, your work being so honest, does it always reflective of your own life? JK: I kind'of exaggerate..really, you know...like CB: Well you are a storyteller JK: I take a little something that might have, I felt one day in the relationship a little bitter and torrid and I turned it into a whole song where you know, I said all the clever things I never had the courage to say, really ...in real life -- um but oddly enough when that became a hit I had just broken up with a boyfriend and that was years later after I wrote the song, maybe 4 or 5 years later, but it really summed up it was funny. I was just like any person driving down the road hearing a love song going "Yeah, that asshole!" JK: It was really funny CB: How do you meet guys? How do you meet guys and deal with the dynamic of the "Jewel-ness" of it all? JK: CB: how, um.... JK: It has been a little weird, I was always so poor that the man had to take care of me. I think men are actually comfortable with that role....I was pretty un-comfortable with it. And I noticed that when I got rich and famous it was harder for guys not having as much money as me, it put a real stress, and in the dynamic. Meeting guys hasn't been hard, I mean when people come up to you for their own reasons, it's obvious....you know? You know how it is, they're so transparent it's not hard to detect. Umm I've never really had a problem.....I don't really meet tons of people. I find my life to be actually be very isolated and I work a lot, and I notice that now while I am young I don't have a huge focus on it right now. CB: Like right now you're taking a semi-time off. Umm so what is that time off for you? Is it catching up with friends that you don't get to see when your touring? Is it um...when your my age it gets to be doctor's appointments Umm, what do you do? Ahh you live with your mom JK: Hmm...mm CB: And do you have horses? Do you ahh... do you try ...is your life kind'a nature bound life? JK: Yea... I've been umm, I've actually been living in Texas umm on my boyfriend's ranch, he has a like a 2,000 acre ranch there, and for me just to be able to get outdoors again and get quiet,and be in silence again and relate to myself irreleative of fame has been really important to me. Last time I looked I was 18 and I was just starting out and now I am 25 and becoming a woman and it's, and I am famous and I have money and I have lost my own amenity, I've lost my Alaskan roots. So I think I grieve a lot over the loss of certain things umm, and I am tremendously thankful for other things. So for me, to tell you the truth, like this month,I've been writing a lot and I've been just thinking a lot about ... now that I am 25 who am I? Who do I want to be? What does success look like? Do you have to work every single day? And never have friends, to keep popular? Like do I want lots of hits? Or do I want to just have a folk underground career? What I want my job to look like,now that I am here? Umm... so that's sort of what it's been all about for me. When I was in my... when I was in my car I got signed to the record label, I wanted to make a difference in the world, I wanted to feel useful, cuz I woke up everyday feeling like I was just passing time. I didn't want to spend my whole life like that....consiously knowing that I was doing really nothing that made me feeling like I wanted to wake up in the morning..... and when I started singing in front of people, and helping people feel less alone, and helping myself feel less alone, I suddenly I had a real...felt like I had a purpose in my life. And I wanted to never, I wanted to try and not disable people and I knew I was getting into a you know, an entertainment industry, that mainly disables people that says "don't think just buy", so I wanted to try and go about it in a conscience way and I felt like I had achieved a lot of that through a lot of my career and then I started feeling just like a pop icon and I felt like I was adding to the hype and I was adding to the.... and it made me feel bad about myself and I don't care to be a pop icon enough, I don't care for the adulation enough to kinda get me though it. So I lost a lot of motivation and it's something I am now getting back to, of how do you do that? You know? CB: We have to take a break, don't move JK: < Continued in Part 2 of 3 > ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V5 #96 **************************