Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Jewel started playing to drunks when she was eight

I think angels, personally

Suggest to a 20-year-old that she might be naive, and you’re likely to get your head chewed off. Ask Jewel Kilcher how she got signed to a major label and she answers, “I think angels, personally.” She’s not kidding, and she doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her rainbows-and-unicorns attitude.

Jewel

Apparently her attitude is going over well. Last month, San Diegans saw her on a bill that included the Rugburns and Bob Dylan. This Sunday, Sunfesters will see her at the Open Air Theater. The first time I see her, Jewel is backstage at the ornate Warfield Theater in San Francisco, about to open the show for one of her heroes, indie darling Liz Phair. Jewel is a slight figure with blonde hair parted exactly down the center, dressed in faded jeans, a black T-shirt, black pointy-toed boots. She frets endlessly about this outfit -- I've really got to get back to the hoteI and put something more glamorous on -- and then promptly changes her mind -- - "Oh, this'll be okay, don't you think? No one cares what I look like. They're here to see Liz."

She professes a bad case of nerves, moaning, "If Liz thinks she gets nervous, she should try opening for her!" By the time she takes the stage, however, Jewel is implausibly composed. Her aplomb may come from her long experience dealing with rough crowds -- she started playing to drunks when she was eight.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"Singing in the bars that early taught me so much," Jewel tells me before her set. We're in a bleak, fluorescent-lit cell the Warfield calls a dressing room. She is curled up in a corner of a ratty couch, clutching both knees to her chest. Her voice is so soft that it's nearly swallowed up by the bouncing acoustics of the high-ceilinged room.

"I used to get so bummed because people wouldn't listen; I'd pout on stage. The one time, a drunk came up. I leaned down and he says, 'Stop looking so goddamned depressed!'" She laughs. "It taught me that even if there's only three people in the bar, you've got to be professional. Still, there's things I wouldn't put up with. At a really young age, guys would come on to me, tell me 'Call when you're 16.' Yeah, right."

She clutches my hand for emphasis, wanting to be sure she's getting complete attention. "I'd see all these guys, and you're young so you think they're sincere -- you think they're really going to come through. So you sleep with them -- like this one friend of mine, with this club owner who came on to her. But then it gets really weird. Really bad.

"I always knew," she claims, "that it was just talk."

Sounds more tough cookie than rainbows and unicorns. Before our interview, she related a breakneck story about her recent vacation in Mexico that involved federales, mountains of other people's pot, driving down an airline runway, guns, language barriers, handcuffs. She speeds through what sounds like a B-movie script, screeching to the tale's happy ending before the tape recorder can be set in motion.

The tough cookie continues. "There was this guy that came in when we'd play, and every night he'd do the same thing. He'd lay his money out in piles: 20s, 10s, 1s, 5s, and two pitchers of beer. Every night he'd request the same three songs: 'Aint Gonna Study War No More,' 'Cotton Fields Back Home,' and "House of the Rising Sun.' Sad songs. He'd just sit there and drink. He'd get through one pitcher by the end of our first set, and then he'd call me over and tell me to pick any bill I wanted. I'd always take a 20 and get a Shirley Temple with it. And he'd get hammered." Her eyes are cloudy, fixed on a point somewhere below a peeling strip of paint on the wall.

"One day he didn't come in. . I guess he got really drunk one night and the bartender took him home; made him a pot of coffee, even tucked him into bed. Then when he left, the guy shot himself in the face. I found out he'd been a medic in 'Nam when he was 18, and he didn't know how to do surgery. So he basically killed people until he learned." She sighs. "He didn't have family, so we gave him a fundraiser to get him a coffin.

I remember thinking that I don't want to hide behind things. I decided right then and there that I never wanted to drink."

So who are you calling naive?

Jewel writes and performs with an assuredness to sweep away the most acerbity. She writes lilting songs and belts them so that the hokey phrase "old soul" come to mind. It's a bit spooky, in combisation with that face and unspoiled sparkle. Maybe there's a bit of dirt here somewhere.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Top Websites To Buy Instagram Likes + Bonus Tip!

Next Article

San Diego's Uptown Planners challenged by renters from Vibrant Uptown

Two La Jolla planning groups fight for predominance

Suggest to a 20-year-old that she might be naive, and you’re likely to get your head chewed off. Ask Jewel Kilcher how she got signed to a major label and she answers, “I think angels, personally.” She’s not kidding, and she doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her rainbows-and-unicorns attitude.

Jewel

Apparently her attitude is going over well. Last month, San Diegans saw her on a bill that included the Rugburns and Bob Dylan. This Sunday, Sunfesters will see her at the Open Air Theater. The first time I see her, Jewel is backstage at the ornate Warfield Theater in San Francisco, about to open the show for one of her heroes, indie darling Liz Phair. Jewel is a slight figure with blonde hair parted exactly down the center, dressed in faded jeans, a black T-shirt, black pointy-toed boots. She frets endlessly about this outfit -- I've really got to get back to the hoteI and put something more glamorous on -- and then promptly changes her mind -- - "Oh, this'll be okay, don't you think? No one cares what I look like. They're here to see Liz."

She professes a bad case of nerves, moaning, "If Liz thinks she gets nervous, she should try opening for her!" By the time she takes the stage, however, Jewel is implausibly composed. Her aplomb may come from her long experience dealing with rough crowds -- she started playing to drunks when she was eight.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"Singing in the bars that early taught me so much," Jewel tells me before her set. We're in a bleak, fluorescent-lit cell the Warfield calls a dressing room. She is curled up in a corner of a ratty couch, clutching both knees to her chest. Her voice is so soft that it's nearly swallowed up by the bouncing acoustics of the high-ceilinged room.

"I used to get so bummed because people wouldn't listen; I'd pout on stage. The one time, a drunk came up. I leaned down and he says, 'Stop looking so goddamned depressed!'" She laughs. "It taught me that even if there's only three people in the bar, you've got to be professional. Still, there's things I wouldn't put up with. At a really young age, guys would come on to me, tell me 'Call when you're 16.' Yeah, right."

She clutches my hand for emphasis, wanting to be sure she's getting complete attention. "I'd see all these guys, and you're young so you think they're sincere -- you think they're really going to come through. So you sleep with them -- like this one friend of mine, with this club owner who came on to her. But then it gets really weird. Really bad.

"I always knew," she claims, "that it was just talk."

Sounds more tough cookie than rainbows and unicorns. Before our interview, she related a breakneck story about her recent vacation in Mexico that involved federales, mountains of other people's pot, driving down an airline runway, guns, language barriers, handcuffs. She speeds through what sounds like a B-movie script, screeching to the tale's happy ending before the tape recorder can be set in motion.

The tough cookie continues. "There was this guy that came in when we'd play, and every night he'd do the same thing. He'd lay his money out in piles: 20s, 10s, 1s, 5s, and two pitchers of beer. Every night he'd request the same three songs: 'Aint Gonna Study War No More,' 'Cotton Fields Back Home,' and "House of the Rising Sun.' Sad songs. He'd just sit there and drink. He'd get through one pitcher by the end of our first set, and then he'd call me over and tell me to pick any bill I wanted. I'd always take a 20 and get a Shirley Temple with it. And he'd get hammered." Her eyes are cloudy, fixed on a point somewhere below a peeling strip of paint on the wall.

"One day he didn't come in. . I guess he got really drunk one night and the bartender took him home; made him a pot of coffee, even tucked him into bed. Then when he left, the guy shot himself in the face. I found out he'd been a medic in 'Nam when he was 18, and he didn't know how to do surgery. So he basically killed people until he learned." She sighs. "He didn't have family, so we gave him a fundraiser to get him a coffin.

I remember thinking that I don't want to hide behind things. I decided right then and there that I never wanted to drink."

So who are you calling naive?

Jewel writes and performs with an assuredness to sweep away the most acerbity. She writes lilting songs and belts them so that the hokey phrase "old soul" come to mind. It's a bit spooky, in combisation with that face and unspoiled sparkle. Maybe there's a bit of dirt here somewhere.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

20 Best Online Casinos USA For Real Money (2024 List)

USA Online Casinos: Top 20 Online Casino Sites of 2024
Next Article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.