| POP ENTERTAINMENT.com It's all the entertainment you need! FEATURE STORIES MOVIE REVIEWS MUSIC REVIEWS BOX SET REVIEWS ... AVAILABLE IN BOOK STORES EVERYWHERE! J ewel Portrait of a Young Artist by Jay S. Jacobs POPENTERTAINMENT.COM Archives- We spoke with superstar Jewel Kilcher in June 1996, just as her first album Pieces of You was starting to explode. It's a Sunday afternoon at the Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia. Employees are rushing around setting up for this evening's show. This is the first Philadelphia headlining performance for 21-year-old Alaskan folk singer Jewel Kilcher or just plain Jewel, as her friends, family and fans call her. Through the closed doors of the theatre waft the sounds Jewel's band practicing. In the bar area are a group of local rock journalists. That's a scary sight at any time, made particularly daunting by the fact that they are catching an artist on the cusp of the wave of her career. Jewel walks into the bar smiling, looking comfortable in a pair of jeans and a white top. Looking much more blonde than you would expect from someone from the tundra state (due to Swiss descent,) she smiles and greets the throngs of press. Obviously, even at her young age, she's getting used to all the attention. As you talk to her, Jewel radiates a true happiness and trust of human nature the type that could get annoying if not for the obvious strength and passion Jewel puts in these beliefs. Born to musical parents Jewel's dad was a well-known local pub singer and mom a music teacher she took up music early. Playing with her dad and band as a young child, Jewel grew up on stage. As a teenager, Jewel decided to move to the mainland, ending up in San Diego. There she waitressed, wrote poetry and songs, surfed, played local coffeehouses and lived in the back of her '79 V.W. Van. | |
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