Jewel: At 18 She Lived In A Car. A Best-Seller And 20 Million Albums Later, She's Definitely in The Driver's Seat - ViewWoman - Interview

Interview, Dec, 2001 by Martha McPhee

MM: And how is that?

J: You get to see a broader spectrum of me on this record. Usually you had to see me live to get the rock 'n' roll side. It's a fun album, not too serious, but there's enough depth in the lyrics that I was able to say a lot of what I wanted to say to the world and to myself. Songs like "Jesus Loves You" definitely express, though in a tongue-in-cheek way, my beliefs and a lot of my ideologies. I think it's a more provocative and looser record than the earlier ones--and the comfort in myself and with my craft shows.

MM: Do you have a sense of how it will be received in the world?

J: I tasked myself to grow musically [with this album], to take more control, to have it be more of my vision, and that's all I know how to do. I don't know how to predict how that's going to be absorbed in the world. I know that creativity is something that ebbs and flows, that nothing natural or organic has a constant. And so I'm prepared [knocks on table] to say that my career will probably have times that are fallow and times of harvest, times when I'm making hit records and times when what I'm into is out of sync with the zeitgeist.

MM: Your childhood on the farm in Alaska and the hard times of your parents' divorce and the subsequent dislocation are so at variance with the life you have now. How do you reconcile the two?

J: I feel in some ways my childhood prepared me to do what I do now, because it gave me a different North Star to guide myself by. Sort of like having a different kind of compass inside me that helps navigate my career. Being raised with silence, valuing poetry, valuing the land and hard work benefits me today.

MM: How were you taught to value poetry?

J: Life is poetic in Alaska. It's harsh but it's also poetic; there's so much to romance you. Writing was never mysterious because my parents wrote songs. It didn't seem like something that was beyond my ability. My family is bright and artistic. They all write poetry, write songs, do plays, play instruments.

MM: Your work is like sincerity taking irony lessons. Funny, but at the same time so clearly interested in truth and honesty. How do you achieve that?

J: It's usually the simplest thought I have.

MM: Do you feel vulnerable being so raw and naked before the world?

J: Just the opposite. I feel safer the more revealed I am. Because there's nothing somebody will discover that I haven't already.

MM: You have an enormous audience. Why are you able to speak to so many people?

J: I'd be guessing. I think it's because fundamentally we are all the same person and there's not a single emotion I feel that is different from any emotions you feel. That is what I concern myself with.

MM: In Ang Lee's movie Ride with the Devil you played the role of a widow magnificently. Was it difficult to transition to acting?

J: I'm a double Gemini. Maybe that's how we can explain it, but I tend to really love to do many things. I was raised by people that do many things. When it came to choosing a career, I was best at singing because I'd done it for so long. But I really didn't want the other talents to atrophy. And no one limits you but yourself. If I don't allow growth for myself then I'm going to have a very