NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - The Drink with Kate Snow: Jewel

Episode Date: December 18, 2022

Outside of singing, Jewel is on a mission “helping people want to live.” She tells NBC News’ Kate Snow about the Not Alone Challenge, a mental health campaign that reminds people they are not alone during the holidays. 

Hi everyone, this is Kate Snow. So happy to share a great conversation that I had with Jewel, the musician, over mock scotch, yes, mock scotch, for my series The Drink, which is always about how people got to the top of their career. Jewel tells me about her journey from Alaska to living in her car in San Diego to musical success beyond belief. We talked about her Not Alone Challenge as well, which is all about mental health and raising awareness that you are not alone this time of year. And wait till you hear her tell me about the weirdest thing about her. I'm telling you, it's weird. You can hear a lot more stories of success from top artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. You can find them all at NBCNews.com slash The Drink. There's always a moment for all of us where things kind of hit a fork. And yeah, that sounds like that changed. I think my major fork was

realizing nobody was coming for me. All right, Jewel. Hi. Hi. Multi-award winning artist and mental health advocate. What's our drink here? Well, I think we have some mocktails. We're looking forward to trying this. It looks amazing. Me too. Cheers. Cheers.

It's mock scotch, yeah? Mmm. That's tasty. What is it? I don't know. It actually tastes really good. It tastes really good. The drink is all about how you go from growing up in Alaska to, you know, as I said, award-winning

musician. We're at the Pig & Whistle here in Manhattan. How did you get, in summary, how did you get from Alaska to here? I grew up in Alaska. My family are all musicians. You didn't have running water, right, as a kid? Yeah, I grew up on the homesteads. We had an outhouse, no running water.

There was a log cabin. I grew up in a saddle barn. In a saddle barn? Yeah, we converted a saddle barn into a living space. Yeah, we had a coal stove. We only ate what we could kill or can. And we would walk two miles out of the road to be able to catch a bus to go to school. That's a really different upbringing.

Very different. Than most of the road to be able to catch a bus to go to school. That's a really different upbringing than most of the lower 48. But my grandmother had taught all of her eight children to write, to sing, to play instruments. So music was a part of your life really early. All the arts, writing, all of my family are incredibly talented. My dad, I guess, sort of picked up where my grandmother left off and he started making albums when I was a young kid. And then my mom left when I was eight. And then I moved out really young at 15.

You moved to Michigan, right? You moved to a really famous music academy. Yeah, I got a partial scholarship. At what point do you start thinking, I could pick up a guitar, I could write some tunes? I was writing the whole time. I fell in love with songwriting at school, but it was just my own private thing. I'd always written poems. I was starting to have anxiety attacks, panic attacks, and the way I was soothing myself was just by writing. It was like a self-soothing tool, like a coping mechanism.

You finish in Michigan, and you get your degree, and then you move to San Diego. Is that about right? When I graduated, my mom was in San Diego. She wasn't doing well. She was sick, and so I went to take care of her. And I just started working as a barista and working some dead-end jobs. You have rent.

Yeah, I have rent. I'd been late quite a lot, and my landlord had said, if you're late again, I just can't help you out. And so I had to tell my sick mom that we are getting kicked out. And so we started living in our cars, thinking I would get a new job and I would get back on my feet. How long did you live in your car? Let's see, the whole thing lasted a year, but my car got stolen that I was living in.

So I ended up on the street for a while. I was shoplifting a so I ended up on the street for a while. I was shoplifting a lot during the time, and I realized I would end up in jail or dead if I kept shoplifting. And I was trying to understand the patterns of addiction. I knew that when I moved out at 15, kids like me repeat the cycle. Your dad had alcohol issues, had substance abuse issues. And abuse ran in my family generationally. So I started developing exercises to try and figure out how to affect my panic attacks, how to affect my agoraphobia, and how to affect stealing. And I started noticing changes.

So even though I was homeless, I started really figuring out how to create changes in my well-being. And then I couldn't get a job anywhere because I started looking homeless. And I saw a coffee shop going out of business. And I just said, hey, you know, if you can keep your doors open, would you let me, if I can bring people in, can I keep the door money? That's a huge pivot in your life, right? Like there's always a moment for all of us where things kind of hit a fork. And yeah, that sounds like that changed everything. I think my major fork was realizing nobody was coming for me and that I was coming for me. I think a major pivot was realizing nobody owes me happiness.

I owe myself. What am I willing to do for myself? And when I started thinking like that, I started thinking about being skill-oriented, tackling bad habits, trying to create changes. Like, I can make myself better. I can do this. Yeah. And then it led to magical things

happening. First two people came to see me in the coffee shop and then it was four and then it was eight and then it was 20 and then it was standing room only. And then it was two shows every Thursday and then it was people standing outside windows just with their faces pressed. Wow. And then somebody tells a recording industry person, right, who comes and sees you. A radio DJ put a bootleg on air. I got requested in the top ten countdown, like as an unsigned act in a very big market. Labels started coming down. There was a huge bidding war. They competed with each other to get you.

Yeah, I was offered a million dollar signing bonus as a homeless kid. You didn't take it, right? Yeah. A million to get you. Yeah, I was offered a million-dollar signing bonus as a homeless kid. And you didn't take it, right? Yeah. A million-dollar signing bonus. Yeah. Why would you not take that? Well, I went to the library, and I looked up books on the music business, and I realized that it was a loan.

So it was a million-dollar loan against record sales. It ended up being a great thing. I turned the money down because I failed. I sold 2,000 records in a year and a half. I was solo acoustic trying to open for Bauhaus, which is an original goth band. I was opening for Grunjacks. People were throwing things at me. How does it go from people heckling you and throwing things on stage to everybody who discovers your music? I quit finally after almost two years on the first album. Start to make a second album. Bob Dylan asks me to tour with him.

I stopped the second album, I tour with him, and he really believed in me. He was like, don't stop. Neil Young took me out next, same thing. He was like, you keep going. I was like, yes sir. And then Conan put me on TV and then things started to really shift. And I went from selling no albums in almost two years to selling

a million albums every single month for over a year. And it got crazy big. Yeah. Yeah. And then people, people look at your career and say, you made some interesting choices. You took breaks when other people might not have. You didn't host SNL at one point when they asked you to host the show. Oh, yeah, so did. Yeah, you know, I made myself a promise when I was 18 that the only way I would sign my record contract is if I made my number one job to learn how to be happy, my number two job to be learned to be a musician.

And under that, the first priority was art over fame. Because we make 50 billion decisions in a day, I needed some kind of North Star to navigate by to help me filter through how to answer those questions. Did you have like a financial problem where you suddenly had a lot of money? Yeah, my mom was my manager, and I think anybody can just fill in some blanks there

about that went pretty predictably. To realize that everything was gone and that my mom wasn't who I thought she was, was an incredibly painful time. And so I really had to take several years again to learn how to heal, which it turns out caused me to develop a whole new set of tools that have incredibly been able to turn into a curriculum that helped thousands of kids. How do people find that? It's called inspiringchildren.org.

But this holiday season, as one of our fundraisers, we started a challenge. It's called hashtag not alone challenge. Hey, it's Jewel. And I started the not alone Challenge to remind everybody that this holiday season, they are not alone. Because we realized 50% of the people that need real scientifically proven mental health tools that you can practice aren't available. 50% of the people that need them don't have access to anything. And so through this, we're raising funds. People make little videos and they use hashtag Not Alone Challenge.

And it's wondering if you, I'm just going to put you on the spot. Would you join us? I will, yes. Yay! I absolutely will. Cheers to that. Cheers to that. It seems to me that a huge part of your life over the last couple decades has been helping others and trying to you know help folks find a path

you know being a musician being a rock star is really fun it's a cool job it's a cool job description it is a lot of fun to get on stage um touring this summer was amazing um but helping people want to live i just don't know a more fun thing helping other people makes you feel better it really does. You have a new album. There are no more sad songs, or just blue skies. And there are no more,

no more tears to cry. I wanted this album to really represent who I am now as a 48-year-old woman. I feel like I'm at the height of my singing abilities. I feel like I'm at the height of my singing abilities. I feel like I'm at the height of my writing abilities. I really wanted this album to reflect, not only more my technical ability and a new side of my writing,

but to have the songs really embody the empowerment that I feel. All right, lightning round. Do you only use your first name Jewel? My name's Jewel Kilcher, if anybody cares. Jewel is my real name. Weirdest thing about you? I can move every single muscle on my face.

What? Yeah, I can move my under eyelids. Are you ready? That's weird. Biggest obstacle you ever faced? I wish I trusted my own nature and that my nature was enough to get me through my life. What inspires you? Just being alive. It's a privilege to be alive. Every single day, right?

Yeah. Well, cheers. Cheers to that. Jule, thank you so much. Thank you.