Jewel broke out in a big way with her album "Pieces of You" in 1995. Whether it was "Who
Will Save Your Soul," "Foolish Games," or "You Were Meant for Me," her catchy hits turned
her into a bona fide pop icon. But she overcame her share of challenges all along the way.
This is Jewel's stunning transformation.
"Woof. I was — There was a lot of hard lessons ahead of me."
Jewel Kilcher was born in Utah in 1974, but soon relocated to a rural homestead in Alaska
with her family. She shared with Borders Media,
"I was raised on a ranch in Alaska, and my dad was a cowboy. We had a coal stove for
heat. We actually picked our own coal out of the veins in the bluffs."
The family didn't eat anything that they didn't kill or grow themselves. There was also no
running water or electricity in the home, either. But while it may sound like tough
going, with zero creature comforts, Jewel looks back on her early years with a sense
of wonder. She shared with the outlet,
"My favorite childhood memories are of, you know, riding horses out and sleeping under
the stars overnight with all the cattle."
If there's one thing that came naturally to Jewel, it was writing. And it quickly grew
into a creative outlet for her, at a very young age. She explained to Cryptic Rock,
"I think I started writing poetry when I was 6 or 7. For some reason it's always called
to me. Again, my family is very creative, so it wasn't strange to express yourself through
homiletics; everybody in my family wrote."
"Metaphor fascinated me as a young child."
In addition to having an innate talent, writing also helped Jewel cope with her often stressful
circumstances. She also added that reading was another huge love of hers growing up,
as it occupied her mind and inspired her to become better at her own writing.
Although a lot of Jewel's childhood might seem wild and relatively idyllic, not all
of it was so serene. According to People, the singer's mom left the family when Jewel
was just 8, and her veteran dad suffered from PTSD, and also struggled with alcoholism.
Explaining that her dad took on some of his own father's strict parenting tactics, Jewel
told Geek Mom,
"My dad got some of those tendencies and it turned into a tumultuous time when I was young."
Jewel ultimately left home when she was 15 years old, to study voice in Michigan. Even
back then, the singer could see that the odds of living a rich and fulfilling life were
not in her favor if she stayed at home. Seeming to understand the plight of those around her,
she told ABC News,
"I knew statistically I was going to end up in a ditch or on a pole or on drugs or in
an abusive relationship in short order, because that was the emotional language I was taught."
"I didn't have a lot going for me. I didn't have a lot of self-confidence or those types
of things."
Once Jewel graduated in 1992 and started performing in the lower 48 states, she found herself
struggling to stay afloat. Then something happened that set in motion a series of events
that left her homeless. Claiming that she once rejected a toxic proposition from her
boss, she told Too Fab,
"He wouldn't give me my paycheck. I couldn't pay my rent that month and I got kicked out
of where I was living. I was living in my car, thinking it would only last a couple
of months before I could get another job."
She would spend roughly a year living out of her car. But despite the fact that it was
the toughest chapter of her life, Jewel doesn't regret standing up to her boss, and figuring
out how to survive. She said,
"Even though it got worse before it got better, it got better in a way that wouldn't have
been possible if I'd compromised myself and slept with my boss."
"Did we say you're Jewel, by the way? Did we call you by name? Jewel."
Jewel cites a wide variety of musicians and songwriters as influences, ranging from her
family to popular country musicians and eclectic folk singers. But she wasn't concerned with
categorizing her own music for a long time — or really all that aware that genres existed.
So when she was signed to Atlantic Records, her label found it difficult to pin her down.
Jewel told Music Documentaries and Concerts,
"The way the business works is that there are very specific genres, and I started to
learn that because nobody knew where to put me. I had a label that was scratching their
head, looking at me going, 'We don't know what you are.'"
Fortunately, the execs at Atlantic trusted her enough to make the music she felt most
passionate about when she cut her first record. Recalling that the label respected her artistic
vision, she told Cryptic Rock,
"I really fought for my authenticity and they never once asked me to be different, ever.
They never told me how to dress […] they just supported me."
"Fame is a path a lot of people lose their footing on. And I knew I was very vulnerable
to that because of my background."
Jewel was homeless in San Diego when Atlantic Records came calling with a recording contract.
So before meeting with the execs, she hopped over to a local Denny's and washed her hair
in the sink with hand soap, according to Concert Live Wire. It wouldn't be long before Jewel
blew up and — from an outside perspective — became a star overnight. She shared with
Riff Magazine,
"It got a lot bigger than I anticipated. I feel really fortunate that I was able to make
something that was so authentically representative of who and what I was. I was seen for that.
It's kind of an unusual experience for somebody with my background."
In 1998, three years after "Pieces of You" debuted, Jewel released her second album,
"Spirit." She also had the opportunity of a lifetime fall into her lap when she was
asked to perform her hit single from the album — "Hands" — for a very special person;
the Pope. She told Concert Live Wire,
"I was at The Vatican singing for Pope John Paul. […] The orchestra learned my song
'Hands' that I wrote while I was homeless about stopping shoplifting, saying no matter
how poor you are or how broke you are, what you do with your hands is up to you."
The entire experience helped Jewel put into focus just how far she had come, as well.
She called it, quote, "surreal."
Although Jewel broke into the music industry with a pop music sound, by 2008, she decided
to go in an entirely different direction. She wrote and released her first-ever country
album, "Perfectly Clear." But as Jewel tells it, this was years in the making. She explained
to Concert Live Wire,
"For me it was natural. You know I've never seen music as having boundaries and as a writer
and a singer I think musically that it's natural."
As it turns out, Jewel doesn't really consider pop music to be all that different from country,
although she acknowledges that the industry labels them that way. When it really comes
down to it, she says she's always been a country music writer — ever since she was 16.
In 2011, Jewel became a mom for the first time when she welcomed her son Kase with then-husband
Ty Murray. Naturally, going through this rite of passage changed Jewel in a big way, causing
her to look inward for answers. She shared with Time magazine,
"The birth of my son really inspired me to make sure I'm the kind of woman I want my
son to know, and looking at the places I've been stagnant, looking for things that were
lost and reclaiming them."
Given Jewel's very humble roots, she also has concerns about making sure she doesn't
raise a spoiled kid, now that she's worth an estimated $14 million. She told Geek Mom
that she views her current Nashville home as an extension of her native Alaskan homestead,
something that she hopes will help keep her son's head out of the clouds.
In 2013, Jewel was cast as June Carter Cash for the Lifetime Original movie "Ring of Fire."
And the role was something that Jewel was honored to step into, armed with a deep respect
for the history-making woman she portrayed. She explained to Rolling Stone,
"A lot of people knew her as Johnny Cash's wife and that's why I was honored to be part
of the film. She deserved to have her own story told. She was so famous before Johnny."
"So let's give a big welcome to June Carter Cash."
Fans of the movie probably noticed that Jewel's teeth looked perfect, thanks to prosthetics.
While she's famous for her signature smile in real life, Jewel's new June Carter-style
grin had fans second-guessing the real story. She told CBS News,
"I always have gotten teased for having a snaggletooth, and, at the same time, if anybody
thinks I fixed them, I get persecuted, so it's like I can't win."
"People have still been in an uproar, in fact, a friend of mine was in Nashville, like, 'Jewel,
she sold out ever since she fixed her teeth.'"
In 2014, after six years of marriage, Jewel and her then-husband, pro rodeo cowboy Ty
Murray, came to the decision that they needed to part ways. Of course, it wasn't an easy
choice to make, but for Jewel, it was vital to let the marriage dissolve. She told Sirius
XM,
"My ideal, my dream, my hope was to have a family. Losing the fantasy of the family that
I wanted was probably the most heartbreaking aspect of the divorce, and it wasn't even
real. It was a fantasy."
But instead of finding solace in any one particular vice, Jewel instead turned to her creativity
to help her heal instead. She dug into her songwriting and even went on to write a New
York Times best-selling memoir, "Never Broken," that hit the shelves in 2015 — just a year
after her divorce.
Jewel may be able to afford herself the high life now, but her experience with poverty
and homelessness has had a lasting impact on her. And these days, she is all about offering
help to those in similar situations. She launched her own non-profit to help at-risk youth,
and in 2019 she signed on to be an executive producer for the documentary "Lost in America"
about youth homelessness. Claiming that even just talking about the issue can be beneficial
in raising public awareness about the situation, she explained to Riff Magazine,
"A lot of what we struggle with and what works against us is a lack of awareness and empathy
for who and what these kids are, and what they're going through."
Jewel also wrote a song for the documentary entitled "No More Tears," while noting her
deep appreciation for her unique perspective on the issue.
After spending decades in the music business enjoying a prosperous and celebrated career,
Jewel is able to look back and feel an enormous amount of gratitude for all that she's accomplished.
Having overcome the odds in order to live out her dreams, she told Cryptic Rock,
"The fact that my career has been able to be so successful as a singer-songwriter is
very fulfilling to me."
Jewel credits her longevity and staying power with the fact that she has always followed
her heart, something icons like Neil Young and Bob Dylan advised her to do, right out
of the gate. She says she has always gone wherever her inspiration has led her. And
by the looks of it, her instincts have always been right.
One thing that Jewel has always been candid about is that her home life was less than
stable, growing up. But rather than let the damage from those formative years fester forever,
Jewel refused to let those early scars make an imprint for life. Starting with that first
decision to leave her family home when she was just a teen, she explained that she continued
to face her demons, telling People,
"I was determined to heal: to let go, move on and figure out how I could be the one who
changed those habits."
However, in a tender development in Jewel's story, she revealed in 2020 that she and her
dad had mended their once bruised relationship. The singer even celebrated the new chapter
in an Instagram post on Father's Day. She explained to People,
"He got sober and did this amazing inner work. It's a profound transformation. We have a
really authentic, great relationship now, but it's because he did his work, and I did
my work."
"We all kind of figure it out as we go along."
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