Jewel answered several questions from her Twitter followers on her blog at MySpace 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.
Check out the rest of the questions and responses here.