Jewel lyrics and Jewel guitar tabs, Jewel pictures and biography

Jewel Kilcher
Born May 23, 1974 Jewel was talented right from the start.
But she grew up without much in her life, things that we would
consider essential to our way of life she mostly did without,
like television and indoor plumbing, and electricity and well
nothing more than one coal furnace to heat her home. Which
wouldnt seem so bad if they werent in Alaska, where the
temperature stays pretty much in the 20-30 degree range for
most of the year. Ok well sometimes it can get up to 45 in
the summer, but when your from Sunny southern california like
me 45 degrees would freeze you. Jewel grew up on an 800 acre
farm in Homer Alaska, which even though it is cold, is one of
the most beautiful places on earth. Jewel grew up having to
wake up early in morning so that she could hike to the nearest
raod
(about 2 miles) so that she could hitch-hike to school.
And chores were more than you could imagine on a plot of land
that size. So needless to say while Jewel was out milking the
cows and what not her friends were home watching episodes of
He-Man. It was a tough life, but it made the young Jewel
realize the importance of nature and made her realize its
beauty. At an early age Jewel showed her intrest in wanting
to perform, unlike her brothers she wanted to sing all the
time. But it was a different form of singing at first. Jewel
first started to yodel but not because of her Swiss anscetory
or because her father did it, but because of cowboys that she
had heard. She was even kicked out of class frequently and
sent home with letters to her parents that said, Please tell
young Jewel to stop yodeling in class! . But Jewel's parents
had no desire to stop Jewel from developing her talent, even
though some people said yodeling at such a young age would
cause damage to her vocal cords. She began singing with her
father on stage at the age of 6 and singing by herself by
the age 8. Soon her mother and father would get divorced and
Jewel's life would change dramaticly. She lived with her
father and continued to sing to take her mind off various
pains. By the time High School came around Jewel was not
getting along to well with a house full of men
(her father
and 2 brothers) and decided to live with her aunt in Hawaii.
Now that was a change of climate if I have ever seen one, and
Jewel loved that part. but she was constantly teased because
of the color of her skin and she had to get out of that
quickly. She came back to Alaska and hooked up with her mother
who helped her put on a concert that would raise money to put
her into the Interlochen Arts Academy school in upper Michigan.
There she would study how to perfect her voice as well as
picking up the guitar although most of her guitar work was
not learned there. She graduated for the school and decided
she would not go on to college. It just wasnt something she
wanted to do. Instead she found herself not quite fitting in
when she came home to Alaska and decided to move to San Diego
with her mother. But after time the place they were living in
became too costly considering Jewel could not hold down a job
for very long and her mother just wasnt making enough. So
they had to make a decision of wheather to eat or have a
roof over there head. Fortunately there was a compromise.
They both moved out and got VW vans and lived in those.
Jewel continued to work odd jobs and had to wash her hair
in public bathroom sinks. She once let a kidney infection
go to long and not being able to afford the medication or
even the doctors visit she was turned away numerous times
until she finally had to seek help at a hospital.
Soon afterward Jewel went to a coffee house and met a person
by the name of Steve Poltz. He was a singer/songwriter as
well, he held a regular gig at the coffee house where he
soon started to share his stage with Jewel. From there Jewel
built a small following and soon afterward she would have to
find her own stage. The Interchange CoffeeHouse would be the
place where Jewel would go, this is where she would officially
get her start Jewel sang everynight and within a few weeks
the place was selling tickets to see her show for five dollars
a piece in a standing room only coffeehouse. Word spread and
the record making scouts came a lookin'. Jewel released her
first album, Pieces of You on February 28th in 1995 and it
was not much of a hit. It had no backing, no one except the
people in San Diego knew her, so she hit the road for 2 years
straight playing up to 3 shows a day and in a different city
every week. She gained praise city by city and was soon
selling 1000 albums a week and her worries were coming to an end.