Jewel’s one-of-a-kind creativity and free spirit is very much thanks to her humble and rural upbringing in Alaska.
LISTEN NOW: Jewel shares her Alaskan upbringing with RHCP's Flea
The 48-year-old singer-songwriter recently sat down with good friend, Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers for an episode of his podcast, This Little Light, to talk about her upbringing in Alaska and how it shaped her music.
“One thing I really loved about my childhood — I didn’t love it at the time — was not having a television when other kids in town had televisions," Jewel said, admitting it forced her to find other means of entertainment. “Not having running water, not having electricity wasn’t so cool at the time but obviously, in hindsight, it forced me to be hyper-creative to myself and for entertainment.”
Music naturally presented itself to Jewel in her younger years as her entire family experimented with music. Her parents even played shows for tourists in the Alaska area, which Jewel eventually joined in on.
“The beauty about everybody in my family doing it was there was nothing intimidating about it, everybody had permission,” she said of musical expression within her family. “It wasn’t about being good, it certainly wasn’t about being professional, it was just sort of, like the same way you might play tic-tac-toe or hopscotch or something like that. It was just sort of a very unintimidating thing.”
Jewel’s musical creativity — clearly fostered by her environment — helped her relate to the world and eventually grew to support her throughout some of the most challenging times of her life.
Hear about some of her toughest times, how music healed her and more about her family’s history in Alaska by tuning into her conversation with Flea on the This Little Light podcast above.
Hosted by Flea, founding member and bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, This Little Light is a podcast about falling in love with music. Flea interviews musical guests from all genres to discuss the teachers who guided them, the influences that inspired them, and how the lessons they learned as young musicians have shaped their creativity, resilience, and careers. The podcast is produced by Cadence13 and Parallel, with proceeds benefiting the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a Los Angeles-based non-profit that Flea co-founded in 2001.
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