When Jewel first emerged in the mid-1990s, she initially had a difficult time breaking through with her folk rock sound. It was quite different than the alternative, grunge, and indie rock sounds of the period. But with persistence and constant touring, she managed to soar to great success.
Videos by American Songwriter
Her debut album, Pieces of You, sold 11 million copies in the United States by 1999, and the follow-up album, Spirit, did a more-than-respectable 4 million units. She followed that up with the platinum selling Joy: A Holiday Collection.
So it would be easy to think that, after she stepped away from the music business for a short while, the lead single from her next album—“Standing Still” from the album This Way (2001)—might be about a career predicament. Where could she go from here? What was the next step? Was there a new direction to turn to? (The subsequent 0304 album, leaning towards pop, was probably not the answer.)
Where’s Jewel Going With “Standing Still?”
Jewel told Billboard in 2001: “It’s about the irony of how much a person travels in my job, and how it can really cause your emotional life to stand still. Fame really tolerates a prolonged adolescence, and your fame and career can outgrow your ability to handle it. You can really spoiled, and I wanted to get away from [that] and make sure I wasn’t standing still.”
The lyrics tell a deeper story. In fact, the wistful but cautiously hopeful “Standing Still,” as Jewel would later explain in 2013, was actually inspired by the man she was dating at the time, world champion cowboy Ty Murray, and about being unsure about where the relationship stood. It seems they were private about their relationship earlier on, which might explain the initial explanation above.
Murray actually appeared in the video for the song itself. In the clip, she is driving through a desert landscape and getting to a gig where she plays in front of an enraptured audience. Along the way, she sees her boyfriend on the side of the road fixing an overheated car—but it turns out he’s a mirage. At the end of the clip, he shows up to meet with her after her concert. They embrace, kiss, and everything is rosy.
Was Everything Rosy?
In real life, Jewel and Ty quietly got married in the Bahamas in 2008 after being together for a decade, and they had a son, Kase Townes Murray, in 2011. They ended up getting divorced in 2014, but for a time things worked out. Jewel told People that the duo planned a “loving split” and focus on the raising of their son. A mature way to handle things!
In a blog post about their divorce, Jewel wrote that the reason for their “tender undoing” was they both sought growth. Ironically, they were standing still as a couple.
“Oddly the very thing that Ty and I sought in coming together is the very thing we seek in separating,” Jewel wrote on her blog. “We both value growth. And growth became tragically and undeniably stifled as a couple, and we believe we can find it again in setting each other free. We truly believe we can find greater happiness apart than together, and this is why we are taking the enormous and heartbreaking step of divorce.”
And Where to Now?
Neither of them has been stagnant on the relationship front. Murray remarried to cookbook author and former sports reported Paige Duke in 2017, while Jewel was linked romantically to Yellowstone star Kevin Costner as of this 2024 writing.
Photo by Duane Prokop/Getty Images for The Wellness Experience by Kroger
