Jewel has a new memoir coming out (like everyone else) called Never Broken, which will detail her twenty year music career. Twenty years? Time really gets away from us. Jewel found fame in 1995 with her debut record, Pieces of You, and she’s also preparing to release a bookend album called Picking Up The Pieces. The title likely alludes to the end of her marriage (in 2014) to Ty Murray. She also tells Parade that both the memoir and the album acted as “my mechanism to do what I called an archeological dig back to my essential self.” This is her 12th record, which is also amazing.

Jewel has a new interview with People about the sexual harassment she experienced long before she found fame. She used to sing in her childhood Alaska town (Homer) and even sang in biker bars, but she says businessmen and executives have always harassed her too:

On sexism in entertainment: “The music industry is a very male-dominated business. I never slept my way to the top, ever. There was never one time I’ve ever compromised anything. I was always willing to walk away. … And I think that type of spirit that you bring just informs everybody that’s around you. You know, I’ve heard plenty of stories that the opposite happens. I saw what women would give up for a compliment. I felt men were willing to take advantage if they saw something vulnerable. I’ve had men hitting on me, sadly, since I was really young. At 8, I had men putting dimes in my hands saying, ‘Call me. It’d be so great to f*** when you’re older.’ And just horrible stuff.”

Using he prior experience after she signed a record deal at 18: “In the music business, it ended up serving me very well. I learned to keep my energy to myself, where there’s nothing about me that seemed approachable. And as men did approach me, I got very good at handling men in a way that sort of didn’t anger them. … And at the same time using wit and usually humor to defuse the situation and to inform them, ‘P.S. Not available that way.’ ”

On being homeless as a teen: “I’ve never been more propositioned by businessmen in my life. It was almost like they were sharks that could smell blood, like of vulnerability. I’d go back to my car, writing songs, and men would literally come up and proposition me. They would be like, ‘Hey, do you need rent money?’ you know and things like that. It was pretty wild. I never took anybody up on it, but it was interesting to see this side of men that basically would prey on somebody vulnerable.”

[From Hollywood Reporter]

Jewel also says her homelessness was a result of being fired by her boss after she refused to sleep with him. Then she slept in her car until someone stole it, and the sexual harassment continued throughout and long after she became successful. Ugh. Jewel never mentions Sean Penn in this interview, but people often credit the guy for “discovering” her. There are rumors that they had a relationship, but who knows. It sucks that Jewel has had to put up with harassment for her entire life, and especially when she was only a kid. Creepers really are everywhere.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet