Jewel was born May 23, 1974 in Payson, Utah, the second child of Attila Kuno "Atz" Kilcher and Lenedra Jewel Kilcher (nee Carroll). At the time of her birth, her parents had been living in Utah with her elder brother, Shane; her father was attending Brigham Young University. She is a first cousin once removed of actress Q'orianka Kilcher. Her father, originally from Alaska, was a Mormon, though the family stopped attending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after her parents' divorce when she was eight years old.

For a time, Kilcher lived in her car while traveling around the country doing street performances and small gigs, mainly in Southern California. She gained recognition by singing at The Inner Change Cafe and Java Joe's in San Diego; she would later make her debut record at Java Joe's when it was in Poway, where she had worked as a barista. Her friend Steve Poltz's band, The Rugburns, played the same venues. She later collaborated with Poltz on some of her songs, including "You Were Meant for Me". (He also appeared in the song's second, better-known video.) The Rugburns opened for Jewel on her Tiny Lights tour in 1997. Poltz appeared in Jewel's band on the Spirit World Tour 1999 playing guitar.  Kilcher was discovered by Inga Vainshtein in August 1993 when John Hogan, lead singer from the local San Diego band Rust, whom Vainshtein was managing, called to tell her about a girl surfer who sang at a local coffee shop on Thursdays. Vainshtein drove to The Inner Change with a representative from Atlantic Records, and after the show they called Danny Goldberg, the head of Atlantic Record's West Coast operations, and asked him to pay for her demo, since at the time she was living in a van and lacked the means to record any of her own music. Vainshtein, who at the time was working as a film executive at Paramount, eventually became her manager and was instrumental in creating a major bidding war that led to her deal with Atlantic Records. She continued to manage Jewel until the end of the first album cycle. Her debut album Pieces of You was released the eponym of Jewel, in 1995 when she was 21 years old. Recorded in a studio on singer Neil Young's ranch, it included Young's backing band, The Stray Gators, who played on his Harvest and Harvest Moon albums. Part of the album was recorded live at The Inner Change Cafe in San Diego, where she had risen to local fame. The album stayed on the Billboard 200 for two years, reaching number four at its peak. The album spawned the Top 10 hits "You Were Meant for Me", "Who Will Save Your Soul", and "Foolish Games". The album eventually sold over 12 million copies in the United States alone.  In the late 1990s, Mike Connell created an electronic mailing list for fans, known as "Everyday Angels". Although Jewel herself does not subscribe to this mailing list, she maintained communication with her EA fans. On July 18 and 19, 1996, she gave a two-day concert known as "JewelStock" at the Bearsville Theatre. Jewel allowed the concert to be taped, and fans circulated the concert without profit.

Ask a question about this article.
How did her career begin?