Jewel's Biography

Soon after Jewel's birth in May 1974, the Kilcher family moved to the homestead in Homer, Alaska, founded by Jewel's Swiss grandfather. Her grandfather, Yule, drafted the Alaskan constitution and served as the state's senator. Jewel's grandfather also invented the snowmobile and designed a power plant in Alaska so innovative that almost all power plants in America have been modelled after it.

Jewel's official biography described how her parents, Atz and Nedra, were musicians and when her parents divorced, she went touring with her father from the age of eight. According to Jewel: "We sang in biker bars and lumberjack joints. If the cops were ever called, I’d hide in the bathroom till they were gone."

When she was 18, Jewel lived in a car and had sick kidneys that meant she had to drink 2 gallons of purified water a day. This would later inspire her to found Project Clean Water, an organization to bring safe, clean drinking water to impoverished communities worldwide.

Jewel Kilcher has sold tens of millions of albums. Her first album, Pieces of You, came out in the USA in 1994 and sold 11 million copies.

As well as being a singer, Jewel is also an actress. In 1999, she starred with Tobey Maguire in Ang Lee's civil war drama Ride With The Devil.

In 2008, Jewel released her first country record, Perfectly Clear, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.

In Dancing with the Stars season 8, Jewel was due to partner Dmitry Chaplin, but she discovered both of her legs were fractured and had to pull out.

Jewel was married to Ty Murray who was also one of the Dancing with the Stars season 8 celebrities.

In July 2011 Jewel and Ty Murray had a baby son, however the couple broke up in 2014.