Why Jewel's Career Always Comes 2nd to Her Mental Health I Want to Be a 'Happy Whole Human'
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00:00You've obviously had struggles in your own childhood that you've been open about, but
00:03do you feel like if you had this even in music and dealing with fame and things like that,
00:06that it would have really helped?
00:08You know, I don't know why I was this way, but when I moved out at 15, I knew I had to
00:11learn about happiness and I pursued it.
00:15And when I was homeless, the same thing, I was having panic attacks, agoraphobic, I had
00:18to pursue how do I get a grip on these things, you know?
00:23And when I was discovered, my number one goal wasn't to be a musician, it was to make sure
00:27that I could learn how to be...
00:28I called it a happy whole human instead of a human full of holes.
00:31And so I always put my career second.
00:33And at the time, there weren't words like mental health, but after Spirit and my hit
00:37Hands, my second album, I quit for two years because I just couldn't handle it.
00:41I never wanted my mental health to be the price I paid for my career.
00:44And as we're seeing with so many, you know, celebrities and artists, we're losing too
00:48many people.
00:50This job is a difficult job, but so many jobs are.
00:52We have a lot of pressure that we're dealing with in the world.
00:55I know you know the name that comes to mind, obviously, the tragic news about Liam Payne
01:00from One Direction.
01:01I mean, like you said, it's so hard to kind of probably sustain, you know, dealing with
01:07so many different emotions, with the fame, with the celebrity, with the music and trying
01:11to cut to keep on that high level, I would imagine it's extremely difficult.
01:15Yeah, at Xact, it's a really high price and the industry isn't there making sure you're
01:20doing OK.
01:21They the industry makes money when you make money.
01:24That's how it works.
01:25So everybody's dependent on you to work, to get their permission.
01:28And it just isn't set up in a great way to encourage artists to pace themselves, to see
01:34how they're doing.
01:35I mentor probably 15 or 20 musicians, and a lot of it's about how do you pace yourself?
01:40How do you not believe the lie that if you drop out of the spotlight, you're going to
01:44be irrelevant?
01:45You know, that haunts people and it shouldn't.
01:47We have to pace ourselves.
01:48Yeah, I know.
01:49It's so true.
01:50I know.
01:51I know that you were on stage with Olivia Rodrigo not too long ago.
01:54Was she one of those people that you mentor?
01:57You know, not really.
01:58She's so great.
01:59It's so fabulous.
02:00OK.
02:01But yeah, lots of young artists like Rachel Platten or and a lot of young moms, too, like
02:05musicians that are females and learning to be parents in this industry has been really
02:11fun to help.
02:12We actually spoke to Rachel Platten not too long ago, and she said that I think one of
02:15her pre-show rituals is a prayer that you taught her that she says every time before
02:19she goes on stage.
02:20So I'm sure your words definitely mean a lot to a lot of people.
02:23It's sweet.
02:24But what is that piece of advice that you give those young artists right now that are
02:28kind of coming up and navigating this music world?
02:32I think that, you know, you have to know who and what you are irrelevant of external things.
02:38You know, if you don't have a hit, are you still a good person?
02:40Do you still like yourself?
02:43What price are you willing to pay and what price aren't you willing to pay?
02:46It shouldn't be at any cost.
02:47It shouldn't be at any price.
02:49And then just learning how to say no.
02:52We fight so hard to get going, all of our jobs, all of our careers.
02:55How do you actually start to say, I can't do this right now, and I'm okay saying no.
03:01And then for women, you know, there were no moms when I was young.
03:05You didn't see it.
03:06Women just kind of disappeared.
03:07Or they had kids, but you never heard about them.
03:10And so for me, learning to become a mom and help women that way and be like, no, you still
03:14get to have a job.
03:15You still get to do this.
03:17You're going to work differently, but it's going to work.