GEM OF A GIRL
Jewel on her comeback following a breakdown. By JAKE BARNES
She's been called the new Joni Mitchell and Folky Spice, but Jewel's mix of country, rock and funk is pretty unique. As the 10 million people who bought her debut album, Pieces Of You - made when she was just 18 - will confirm. It brought fame and fortune to the girl raised on a farm in Homer Alaska, who lived in a Volkswagen camper van with her manager mum while trying to make her name.
"My young life was crazy," says Jewel, now 27. "I used to play bars as a double act with my father but when he split up from my mother we moved to California. Living in a car was something I did to allow me to write songs and not spend all day waiting tables to pay the rent."
But success brought its own troubles and the constant touring - Jewel clocked up 500 gigs a year - took its toll. Following the release of her second album, Spirit, she had a nervous breakdown. She quit showbusiness for two years, swearing never to record again.
"I got so out of it by my last record my label got scared and said, 'Take a break'," she recalls. "I was dead, sick with pneumonia, on a short fuse, no breath. I wasn't happy. I wanted to step back and re-evaluate what I was doing and why. I've got an odd ability to be successful without having to chase fame. Once you have hits there's constant pressure to have more and you end up like a cartoon."
Even so, she has returned to the fray with a new album, This Way, and has a new boyfriend, Ty Murray, the multi-millionaire Texan champion bull rider to help her cope with being in the limelight- She's also back on the road and plays the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday.
"I enjoy London," she says. "It has nice parks and a smart, literate audience. They value the lyrics. I've always been surprised by the type of people who are into me - bikers, teenagers, 60-year-olds, gays."
And, of course, Tom Cruise...
"Tom Cruise listens to my records? Wow! I don't mix with celebrity. I did the cover of Vanity Fair with
David Bowie, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder and it felt silly to be talking to people just because we're famous. I'm friends with Moby, though. We met on Top Of The Pops.
"I'm a pretty solitary person. I can do two week stints of being in the public eye and then I go back to writing and my own space. I'm shy if you don't know me. If you do know me I'm quite twisted. I don't have a lot of friends. Like Moby said, our friends have to be tremendously understanding of our jobs. I didn't return his
phonecall for a year. I'm friends with Billy Bob Thornton. We'll go months without talking then speak every day for two weeks."
Last year when she sang the National Anthem at the Lewis Rahman fight in Las Vegas, one thing stood out for Jewel.
"There was a British girl there, Beverly Knight, singing God Save The Queen." she recalls. "Her dress went down past her butt and you could see her crack. It was pretty hot. I couldn't help staring at it. It's not something I'd do. My tits are too good."
Despite recording her album in Nashville, boasting a large bust and having a boyfriend in a Stetson, Jewel
says she's no Parton-esque cowgirl.
"I'm not a country singer. I like working in Nashville because there's no $500 haircuts to make you look like you just woke up, no people looking over your shoulder to see if you're making hits. And it's a tax-free state. Which helps. I wanted this record to be eclectic rock, pop, country folk. I like putting the hip hop groove under the Wild West."
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