Jewel shines on the race track

Linda McAvoy

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Careening around a racetrack at 240 km/h is likely not how most fans picture singer-songwriter Jewel.

Yet the 33-year-old songstress actually did climb behind the wheel of a 650-horsepower stock car in North Carolina, repeatedly, last year while filming the television reality series Fast Cars & Superstars.

Jewel held her own against 11 other celebrities including former NFL quarterback John Elway (the eventual winner), actor William Shatner and tennis star Serena Williams.

Jewel's longtime boyfriend, rodeo champ Ty Murray, with whom she lives on a ranch in Stephenville, Texas, also took a turn in the driver's seat for the competition.

"This isn't something Ty thought I'd like doing at all, 'cause I don't like loud noise and I don't like gas fumes... But what I found to be really fun was the competition," enthused Jewel during a recent interview via phone from their ranch.

"It was a pretty even playing field as long as you had courage and skill."

Two attributes that Jewel Kilcher seems to have relied upon throughout her life; while growing up on a remote ranch in Alaska, through her years as a struggling singer, homeless and living in her car, to her current success in the music industry having sold more than 35 million albums worldwide.

The three-time Grammy-nominated singer, who has also had several acting roles and authored two books, will release her seventh album, Perfectly Clear, in early June.

Jewel spoke to Wheels about her experiences on the road and behind the wheel.

Q: So, what was it like driving the stock car?

A: When you get there and you really see how fast you really are going, and how close to the wall you drive and that it really is more dangerous than you sort of even imagine, I think it took a lot of people's breath away.

Q: Some of your lap times were clocked at 145 m.p.h. (235 km/h), was that overwhelming or did you enjoy that?

A: Oh, it was great. They had rev limiters on there so all of our cars only went a certain speed, which was a little bit frustrating but also probably good, we probably would have all killed ourselves if we would have just pushed it to the limit.

Q: Well I know that some drivers did hit the wall.

A: I did too actually.

Q: In one of the time trials?

A: In my first time trial I actually had the fastest speed of anybody on the track and I remembered the line that I drew and tried to just make sure I really did that every time around the track.

When it came to accuracy (hitting marks and stopping in a box painted on the pit road), I did really good and I was leading it, but I came into the box too fast and I screeched out of it, which I got points taken away for it.

So I went into the finale in last place, it was a speed trial and I thought "Great, I have the fastest speed time so all I have to do is what I did that first day," so I cranked it into the corner ... Your brain tells you you're going to die if you do that but you learn that the car can hold it ... But the difference was they didn't give us as many warm-up laps, which meant my tires weren't warm, which meant that my tires didn't stick to the track the same.

Well, I didn't know enough about racecars to know all that, so I went into that first corner as fast as I had and my tires wouldn't stick and I slammed up and hit the wall. I think at that point they had me clocked at about [260 km/h].

Q: Obviously that was physically jarring, but did it deter you?

A: No, it was just starting my first lap so I had a lot to go. So I tried to hit the wall just as flat as I could so my car wouldn't, you know if I hit it with the front or the back, it would have sent me into spinning, so I tried to just really line up the car flush with the wall and just sort of slide off of it, eased off it, and then went on to finish the race as fast as I could.

Q: What do you drive in your daily life?

A: I drive a Jeep. Everybody makes fun of me in L.A. because I have a 1998 Jeep Cherokee and the valet men give me dirty looks 'cause it's not a nice enough car.

Q: And on the ranch, what do you drive?

A: A Jeep Cherokee as well

Q: What was the first car you ever owned?

A: It was a little Datsun 510 hatchback that a friend gave me and that's the car I ended up living in actually when I ended up homeless.

Q: I've read a couple different accounts about you living in a Volkswagen van.

A: It was first my car and then that car got stolen, then I borrowed $1,000 from somebody to buy this van.

I got kicked out [of the place I was living] because my rent was due and I'd been late on rent. Every penny was going to rent. I couldn't even afford food or anything and I was scraping food off of people's plates where I worked as a waitress.

I had another job answering phones somewhere and this guy, the boss, asked me to have sex with him and when I turned him down, he decided not to pay me my paycheque and my landlord kicked me out 'cause I couldn't pay the rent. That's how I ended up living in my car.

Q: You spent a lot of time on the road right after the release of your debut album Pieces of You.

A: I just had a little rental car ... For years I was doing 40 cities every 30 days. I'd do multiple cities, you know, in one day continuously. I was doing four shows at least a day. Radio appearances in the morning and then in stores, at record stores, I did a high school show in the morning.

I'd open for somebody like Peter Murphy in the evening and then I would do a coffee shop show on my own at midnight. And I pretty much did that in every city I went to. It took a lot of grassroots to break my album.

Q: Was all that driving a particularly good activity for introspection and lyric writing?

A: I would sort of recruit friends to help drive, which was always a comedy of errors. You should really hire professionals.

Q: You grew up on a ranch in Homer, Alaska, so does that mean you were driving long before age 16?

A: Yeah, I grew up like most ranch kids where you drive farm equipment. I grew up driving tractors and things like that.

Q: When you're at the wheel, are the tunes blaring or is it silent?

A: Silent

Q: Is that because you're thinking of lyrics and poetry or you just enjoy the silence?

A: Oh, both. I'd like to say lyrics are always coming to me but they're not.

I have Sirius radio and an MP3 dock.

Q: Worst day on the road?

A: Years ago, I was in San Diego on a five-lane freeway and there was this little low-rider blue pickup going like (80 km/h) in the fast lane in front of me, so I blinked my lights to have him scoot over and when I passed by, it was this guy and he made it very clear he was unhappy with me and it started like a high-speed chase down the freeway.

He chased me for probably (16 km), was throwing things out of his car at my car, like beer bottles, full beer bottles, trying to break my windows. He'd get in front of me and slam his brakes trying to make me rear-end him. I mean it was horrible. I finally got away from him but I was rattled.

Q: Has that deterred you from flashing your lights at people?

A: Yeah, I kind of decided that it wouldn't be a good idea anymore.

Q: Best day on the road?

A: Oh gosh, any time you get anywhere safe I guess is my best day.

It's fun, I've spent a lot of my life on the highways of America. I have a real romance and love affair with it, it's a great way to see the country, driving, even on a tour bus, looking out the windows. It's always been pretty good to me.

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