Jewel talks about her abusive father, poverty stricken childhood and scheming mother

Jewel has opened up about her childhood trauma and her mother’s abusive behavior that continued well into her adulthood.

In an interview at the Verywell Mind Podcast With licensed therapist Amy Morin, the 48-year-old singer, whose tour bus caught fire in August, spoke about her journey to better mental health.

The artist was born Jewel Kilcher in Payson, Utah in 1974.

Her parents, Atz, 75, who is a star of the reality show Alaska: The Last Frontier, and Lenedra Carroll, 67, moved Jewel and her older brother, Shane, to Alaska shortly after she was born, where they lived. in a big house with no electricity or plumbing.

“My mom and dad got divorced when I was eight years old and we went to live with my dad,” she explained. ‘Nobody told me it’s because my mom didn’t want to be a mom. She left us, so my dad took over raising us. He didn’t know it at the time.

‘My dad was this volatile alcoholic who beat me up, very relatable as a “bad boy.” My mom seemed the opposite. She was calm, she was soft, she never yelled, she obviously never hit me. And I didn’t realize that she was being abused in another way at the time,” she said.

Jewel said that when she went to her mother for support, she would find ways to ignore Jewel, without the girl knowing.

“Let’s say when I would show up at her door, she’d say, ‘Your mind is so powerful. Our minds are just tap, we use like 10% of our brain power. Our minds are so powerful and I think you, Jewel, are so powerful.’ I think you could sit here and look at this light bulb and you could turn it off with your mind.”

Looking back, the “Who Will Save Your Soul” singer said those interactions made her “feel loved” at the time. It wasn’t until much later that she discovered: ‘What it really was was that my mother didn’t want to stay there and be with me, and she was taking care of me by making me look at light bulbs. So sometimes the appearance of an attached figure is not what it seems.

The You Were Meant for Me singer began acting at a young age. She and her father used to sing and sing in bars and taverns to earn money.

‘I was singing in a bar when I was eight years old. He was surrounded by predators, he had a very scary life. I had a very scary life. And I had a life in which adults were not safe people, being in contact with people was not safe.’

It was Jewel’s talent that allowed her to break out of bars. She won a partial scholarship to study operatic singing at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. Her hometown of Homer met here and held an auction to raise the rest of the money.

He learned guitar while in music school and moved to San Diego after graduation.

There, he lived out of a van while writing songs and performing. She paid the bills by working in a cafeteria and as a telephone operator in a computer company until she was discovered.

His debut album, Pieces of You, rocketed to success, going 12 times platinum.

The artist’s second collection of songs, Spirit, debuted on the Billboard 200 at number three, but was not as successful as Pieces of Me.

Jewel’s mother was close enough to have access to the singer’s finances.

“I didn’t really realize what my mother was until I was in my 30s. I woke up and realized that she embezzled all my money, more than 100 million dollars, ”she admitted.

“34 years old, I realize I am $3 million in debt, I realize my mother stole it, I realize everything I thought my mother was is not what she was, very difficult psychological thing to accept”.

To help vulnerable children and teens, Jewel helped create the non-profit Inspiring Children in the early 2000s, which includes the singer’s free in-person and online mental health program, Jewel Never Broken.

The program includes survival techniques that the artist taught herself to overcome anxiety and depression.

Jewel often speaks about the importance of good mental health on her personal social media account and on the Inspiring Children and Never Broken accounts.

The MTV Music Award winner recently launched a new mental health app, Inside world.

The free platform offers peer-to-peer support groups in the virtual world where users can interact as avatars, along with 100 weekly events.

Jewel will lead a series of events, including using anxiety as an ally and teaching a course on the topic of emotional dyslexia and how she personally overcame emotional challenges.

“I didn’t have a confident figure (growing up),” she explained. “But that’s also why I formed our youth foundation, because there’s real hope for kids like that.”

The hitmaker said the app is useful for anyone who might struggle, regardless of background.

It doesn’t mean they’re broken either. There are so many tools and things we can do to help us with a bit of guidance.’