Hey, Summer Campers!
I was amazed to learn all the things I wrote about for the previous Blog post I wrote a handful of years ago about the famous singer/songwriter and performer, Jewel Kilcher (but better known as simply ‘Jewel’). She has quite an interesting past. She was raised in a lifestyle unlike most today. You can check out the last post about Jewel right here.
We learned certain things like how she grew up with no indoor plumbing and helped her father get money by singing with him in local bars. And we learned that she later attended camp at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Check out a few more things about this interesting lady:
The Musical Gene
Yes, I mentioned that she sang in bars with her father, but I didn’t mention what a musical family they all were! Her father Atz and her mother Nedra sang as a folk duo with two LPs—‘Early Morning Gold’ in 1977 and ‘Born and Raised on Alaska Land’ in 1978. Jewel’s brothers Atz Jr. and Nikos would make the rounds to the bars to sing with their father too.
Famous Mentors
In the midst of trying to make it in the music business, Jewel made herself some friends who were very much mentors for her. They were pretty famous themselves—Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Jewel played their supporting act. They went over lyrics with her and, at some point, she confessed to Neil that she was thinking of changing her sound to get herself airplay. Neil swayed her to keep at it with her natural style and, soon after that, her first song took off on the radio.
That first song to take off on the radio was called ‘You Were Meant for Me’. It hit the radio in 1995. That was 25 years ago. That means Jewel has been in the music business for more than two decades. Throughout her career, she has received four Grammy nominations and she’s sold over 27 million albums worldwide!
Are you a fan of Jewel? Go ahead and enjoy her music today and enjoy your path through life! Who knows where your journey will take you! As always, thanks for reading, Folks!
- John