Jewel talks about childhood memories(Interview w/ R.Reinhart 9/22/08)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJsSF644E5g&feature=related

So Close To Heaven http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VHyLYfLD2k&feature=related

Summertime (her strong influence from Cole Porter's music shows in this track).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyIFLjEnij0

Excerpt from a "Night Without Armor" {BUKOWSKY'S WIDOW}

My prince has slipped!and his face has turned to shadow his tongue no longer strong but gray (how sad!)it used to be so full of spit and roses.My prince the stars have fallen from your crown!And I can not fathom their fading--some things should be forever!You've taken your coal and your seaward gaze--You've taken you're will and your weakness and left me with nothing but words to keep me warm.But I don't want them!Take them back!I want Paris.I want you drunk on wine.I want to walk with you and hold you up and giggle and kiss God how I miss your smile and thick skin at night.

Interviewed during her Almost Famous Tour(Solo Acoustic)3/27/09-1

I often get asked about fame.Fame is an unfathomable creature that shifts shape, and one becomes even more aware of the mythical creature Fame when in LA. Many people want to be famous here.Here is what I have learned: Fame does not exist except in the minds of people. It is not real. It's like the Easter Bunny, or Disneyland. It is not a real thing. It is not a tree or air or bread. It is a fantasy that is created and built on clouds in our collective minds. I guess mostly it reminds me of high school; everyone wants to be liked and popular. The difference with celebrity is that there is money to be made at this, and there is an entire industry built around manufacturing, selling and creating the illusion of celebrity.I have always felt like an outsider even in school. I have always been shy and introverted and watched the 'cool' kids,and I wrote about everything I saw. It shocked me that these writings led me to fame.Ty and I often talk about success,and have categorized famous people in two groups.One group is made of those who wanted to be excellent at their craft,and by being excellent became successful or famous as a side effect. For this group, being good at their craft was the goal. For the other group, fame is the destination, and they simply see music or sports, or whatever, as their vehicle to fame. When you meet someone, you can instantly see which of the two groups they fall in.

Interviewed during her Almost Famous Tour(Solo Acoustic)3/27/09-2

People who want to be good at a craft are good listeners.They are usually humble, confident and secure. They spend most of their time practicing- not networking. The other group is usually insecure and has a deep need for attention and to be liked. They usually have big egos and are somewhat narcissistic and self-centered. They will usually do anything to be famous. I have been lucky enough to be around a lot of types of celebrities, and the most truly talented
ones have always been the most open-minded and humble and curious. I found Bob Dylan, Neil Young, BB King, Sean Penn, Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, among many others to be the most interested in young talent and in new ideas. It has always been the mediocre talent who grandstand and are pompous, try to dominate conversations and tell you their entire resume and all their accomplishments within the first 5 minutes of meeting them.Fame is not some magical transformation. It is simply a heightened awareness of a person. That's it. It just means suddenly a lot of people are aware of you that weren't before. There is no metamorphosis that takes place, unless you are foolish enough to take it personally, in which case it can warp your mind. Being famous does not mean you are talented. It doesn't mean you are a good person, it doesn't mean anything except a lot of people know your face. At the end of the day your artistic growth has to be guarded privately by the artist, and the moral integrity of the person must be shepherded by that person alone.

Interviewed during her Almost Famous Tour(Solo Acoustic)3/27/09-3

I see so many people get a little bit of fame and start to think they are a big deal, and they get arrogant and they spend their money like they are going to be popular forever.But in truth this is a fickle business with a high turnover and an insatiable appetite for something new. And there are one thousand young aspiring talents to take your place. I always tell aspiring artists to work hard, stay humble, have good manners and save their money. I suggest they spend all their free time practicing because talent will get recognition and stand out.Unless you want to be famous for nothing like someone like Paris Hilton, who does work hard I think, by networking and constantly being out and being seen and living such a highly public life. I don't even think one is better than the other. In fact I always get asked by reporters if it bothers me that there are people who can't sing that are famous singers, or people who are
famous for just being famous- and the truth is it doesn't bother me at all. I'm not an art snob. I think there is room and appetite for it all. Everyone works hard and pays a steep price for whatever they have, and I don't think those people take money out of my pocket. I feel lucky that I get to make a living at what I do.I feel like the luckiest person alive that I get to write and learn for a living, and I am enjoying the ride and trying to make sure that I am
creating a life I enjoy.

Cloak of the Cult(Painting #1)

Interviewed during her Almost Famous Tour(Solo Acoustic)3/27/09-4

I really struggled with fame at first when I was young and broke onto the scene. Man, I was not equipped. I was too sensitive and too introverted and unprepared for the massive level of fame I reached so quickly. I was never a very shiny, happy, perky, outgoing person. I wasn't ever the cheerleading personality type. And I found the constant attention just deafening. I was used to watching people, now they were watching me back. I felt trapped, like an animal in a petting zoo that was reduced to sound bites and TV images. No real person fits into such careful shapes. I certainly didn't. I was raw and unshaped still and just shocked by what was happening. The idolatry scared me as much as the haters. Over the years it became easier as I grew more comfortable,and realized that you could adjust
your career to fit you. It could be on your terms. It helped when I realized my fans would let me be myself too, and that I didn't ever have to pretend to be something I wasn't. I could be honest about my shortcomings and my growth, and have a genuine artistic life, and authentic emotional life.I always looked at longevity and how to have a long career and how to keep writing well over a long career.

Contemplation Illumination(Painting #2)

Interviewed during her Almost Famous Tour(Solo Acoustic)3/27/09-5

Many songwriters don't write well after their 20's. I think a lot of it has to do with lifestyle. They get distracted by fame and stop learning. That is why I have tried to live a life that feeds an artist and I have tried to make career decisions that allow longevity.Arrogance is the death of art because to be arrogant is to think you have nothing to learn.When you don't learn, there is nothing new to feed art so you become unoriginal soon and your art becomes rigid and lifeless. To be a good artist you have to be sensitive and supple-something not always easy to maintain with fame, as fame requires a thick skin to survive usually. You have to
keep learning and getting new information- this is the food that feeds the artist. That is why I go away between albums and disconnect, or go to a new place with new surroundings,so that I can fill up and learn and grow.I don't feel any different now than before I was famous.Istill see the world through the eyes my life has shaped. I am deeply sensitive and feel the longing and beauty and pain and ugliness that is around us all. And I am still inspired by words, and by fitting words like puzzle pieces to describe the indescribable.When I am on stage it is such an interesting feeling because I can feel all of you so clearly. In the anonymity of the dark theatre, I can feel everyone's hearts open, and a flood of information pours in.While I am singing I feel the energy change and shift and respond and I learn about everyone even though you are silent. It is very loud and very clear to me.

Future Dreaming (Painting #3)

Interviewed during her Almost Famous Tour(Solo Acoustic)3/27/09-6

I feel a deep longing and a deep hope, and how special everyone is. That sounds corny. It's hard to describe. Each town feels different slightly. And I love to sift through the feelings that shoot up at me. I love feeling such a variety of people out there.Over my career, I am proud that I have managed to bring so many walks of life together to one room. There are conservatives, rednecks,bikers, hippies, liberals, gays,Dylan fans in their 60's, dance music club kids in their 20's, and small children with eager eyes and open hearts all in the same room, all getting something different out of the same lyrics.All of us come together around the same thing being human and trying to do the best we can in our own ways. That's what makes us great. We each peruse our own liberties as we see fit, and I am just so humbled that you all let me get to know you and feel you in your lives.I have always seen myself in everyone. I guess my life has taken me from ranches to project developments to food stamps to caviar parties, from biker bars to the Vatican, and I see myself in everyone. I feel like were circumstances different I could have been any of these people, in a way.For me the best part of being famous is that it has allowed me to travel the world and see more than I ever thought I would get to see. It has allowed me and my pen to travel around the entire world and get to know revolutionaries and racists and senators and heirs and shopkeepers and transvestites and see that we are all the same.

Road Weary but Optimistic (Painting #4)

Interviewed during her Almost Famous Tour(Solo Acoustic)3/27/09(end of interview)


Truly we are the same. We are just different expressions of the same thing, and I just love them all. I have such a passion and compassion for how hard everyone- each of us- works at being alive, striving for happiness and love and satisfaction.It's a great journey. It's deeply private, and yet when we share our stories, it makes the journey seem less lonely.It's what Neruda and Rilke wrote about. I try to add my scribbles to the same cause.So, what is fame? It's lightening that strikes some people.It's lightening that some people seek. It's luck and timing and hard work.It's a tawdry flashlight that shines on your soul and reveals to you your truest character and puts gasoline on your greatest flaws.It delivers treasures that can add beauty or corrupt you with that same beauty. But I can promise you a person who is famous is no different than anyone who reads this. In the end there is only a great life lived,or a life squandered, whether it was a public life or not. That is something each of us share.xxj

Big Machine Records was founded in late 2005 by music industry veteran Scott Borchetta, who serves as President & CEO. The company is headquartered in Nashville, and its artist roster includes Jewel,Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood, Jack Ingram, Danielle Peck, Sunny Sweeney, Fisher Stevenson, Adam Gregory & Kate and Kacey Coppola. Universal Music Group Distribution, which ranks Number One in home entertainment,is the company's exclusive distributor.

The Valory Music Co., owned by Scott Borchetta (President/CEO) is a sister imprint label of Big Machine Records. Current artists include Jewel, Reba, Justin Moore,and Jimmy Wayne."Our objective for The Valory Music Co. is to continue the momentum that has been achieved with Big Machine by not only replicating our current culture and our recent successes, but also by taking everything that we've learned over the last two years and pouring it into this exciting new venture," explains Borchetta. "We continually re-engineer what we think we know, and we feel like we've identified an incredible opportunity with the simultaneous availability of some incredible artists and record executives. The energy that has come together for this launch is truly incredible."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r7qddbHmm0&feature=player_embedded

Clean water is a necessity that we can no longer take for granted. Each year more people die of water related diseases than any other cause of death on this planet. With a higher rate of suffering and mortality than diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, or war; or any two combined for that matter! An entire economy is growing around water. Those without money are suffering the most and risk severe illness from contaminated sources.Project Clean Water targets villages around the world with clean water problems, and finds sustainable solutions to provide them with safe drinking water. For example, in Tanzania, one village's inhabitants had to hike for miles to get water from a muddy hole for their families and cattle.

We provided them with a solar paneled well system, and installed it with the tribesmen. In Tibet, one village's only water source was a stagnant amoebae filled pool. We installed a filtration system, which meant not only could they enjoy clean water, but also solved many of the health problems plaguing the village. Our aim is to work with communities and governments to protect clean water supplies while restoring contaminated sources.To date we have helped over 30 communities overcome their individual drinking water problems in 13 different countries, on 5 different continents. I have funded the project through ticket sales and donations. We run everything in-house, therefore I can personally guarantee the quality of our project.

I became interested in clean water when I was 18 and lived in my car. I had sick kidneys and had to drink 2 gallons of purified water a day. I could not afford to buy much bottled water, and it dawned on me that if it was this hard to get clean drinking water in the United States, then it was probably a huge global issue. Boy, was I right.Solutions and technologies exist to provide clean,affordable drinking water anywhere in the world. These solutions will save lives, reduce financial burdens, foster peace, and relieve millions of people from worrying about their next drink of water.xxj ;)

In addition to her music career, Jewel has taken on some acting roles.She made her debut in Ang Lee’s Civil War drama" Rides with the Devil"(1999), starring Tobey Maguire and Skeet Ulrich. On television, Jewel has appeared on such shows as The Lyons Den and Las Vegas.Jewel has also been devoting some of her time to helping others. She established Higher Ground for Humanity, a charitable foundation that handles projects in many different countries. Some of the organization’s efforts include helping to provide clear drinking water to communities around the world.

Jewel & Ty(Dancing with the Stars)ABC broadcast.

Los Angeles,CA April 16, 2009
BIO(Biography Channel): The Chris Isaak Hour

Jewel and Chris will be performing together on several songs, including Kris Kristofferson's classic "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and Chris' song "We Lost Our Way Together."

Excerpt from a "Night Without Armor" {Do you remember?}

How I'd worry and you'd press me tight against you.Extinguishing the red flame of my head against your shoulder.Smooth as chalk dust you'd laugh in the face of death and uncertainty.Do you remember?You'd say time knew nothing well now you're gone and time is all I have left.I MISS YOUR TOUCH! I miss your touch all taciturn like a migration of birds nesting momentarily upon my breast then lifting silver and quick--sabotaging the landscape with their absence my skin silent without their song a thirsty pool of patient flesh.

Excerpt from a "Night Without Armor" {INSECURITY}

You don't call.I check again I become uneasy--is this a frame?Suddenly I'm not so sure.I check my sources, each conversation becomes crumb how easily I'm led how stupid I've been to believe you could be loving me.You who can not be seduced by anything other than the temperance of need each one facilitating the next and suddenly I see my place the phone rings you say hello but I don't believe you SOMETIMES.Sometimes I feel my heart fall to vague depths between words there are such spaces that I can't help but feel My Heart fall between the pregnant pause of all you will not say
and all I can not ask.

Excerpt from a "Night Without Armor" {FATHER OF A DEAF GIRL}

Every time her hands began to stutter he became enraged. She threw these fits sometimes and he never took the time to understand what they meant.Her words were wasted on him. Her hands useless birds caged by their quietness, and he would immobilize them, tying her wrists together so they'd jump like awkward fish, gasping at the shock of air.Un-heard they'd dance like that for hours, her eyes full of silent desperation, on the other side of the closet door. He never even knew what they were saying.I want to fly from here! I want to fly from here! I want to fly from here! I want to fly from here! I want to fly from here! I want to fly from here!