Does Jewel Have Regrets?

Jewel answered several questions from her Twitter followers on her blog at MySpace (@jewel) on Friday (December 4), including one asking if she regretted anything in her career. The singer songwriter responded:

There are things I regret. That if I was who I am now, I think I could have enjoyed myself more. When I was a child, I went from being homeless to needing bank accounts and fast! There were a lot of bad people around me with bad motives, but I could not see it. It was a recipe for disaster! And I was kept on the road and so isolated and exhausted, I never knew what I had built in a lot of ways. I wish I could go back in time and put the team I have around me now, around me then. I wish I could have worried less and balanced the rapid success better so I wasn’t so sleep deprived and delirious through it all. I wish I had some friends at the time, so I could have shared it with someone who loved me. I was so alone and told to work so much, that it felt like I was surviving, and not experiencing fully the fact that I was pulling some stuff off that very few musicians do. The cover of Time magazine, hit albums and hit book releases, award after award- it was all so great- and I had no one around me to be proud of me, and so I was hardly proud of myself. I never even saved magazine covers or took pictures of amazing things, like when I sang at the Vatican, because the people around me made me feel as if I were arrogant if I did such a thing.

So that’s it. I wish I could have been surrounded by someone who loved me then, and who could have helped me enjoy and relax a little. I was always such a fierce fighter- I fought on- inexhaustible.

Musically, I have no regrets. The album people act like was shocking (0304) is in my mind, one of my best written albums. I think it is a smart and clever pop album, and I’m happy that with time, more folks can see that.

And the good news is I do now have Ty, who really does love me and helps me enjoy what I have. He is proud and takes pictures and reminds me to be proud, too. I never had parents who did that, and so it feels good when he does. Together we stay grounded in our careers and in our lives.