TORONTO -- Jewel Kilcher won't be gracing magazine covers perched nude on top of a horse, no matter how much begging goes on. The singer is intent on doing things her way whether it be the recording of a new album or a photo shoot.

"When I was on Rolling Stone, my second cover, they wanted me to be naked on a horse," Jewel says as she sits in her Toronto hotel room. "I was like 'Yeah right, this is not happening, dream on' but they begged me."

Jewel remained firm. She wasn't going to bare all for the music mag which has pimped the likes of pop idols Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera by shooting them in tiny outfits for previous covers.

"They can't make ya," Jewel says. "I'm not a model, they didn't hire me. Just do what you're comfortable with. I was raised to be very independent. I never held back an opinion."

As the singer most famous for her simple, folksy pop hits such as "Who Will Save Your Soul" prepared to enter the studio for her latest record, "This Way", her opinion was that this album had to belong to her, not to a famous producer.

"I just became aware before I did this record that I had to be more of an influence on it," she says, "or it sounds like your producer which is a trend right now...like hire Mutt Lang, hire certain club guys to get cool beats. I just wanted it to sound like myself."

Jewel says she auditioned and worked with "like 20 producers" for the album and even though she didn't end up "going with them", she took enough from their interactions to be able to produce much of "This Way" herself.

The result is an album that focuses less on her trademark chords, earnest voice and catchy, country-like lyrics than her previous work. The sound is still slightly bouncy and folksy but the chords are more complex, the back-up band is a bit grittier and she doesn't sound quite as sweet. Jewel's new album a bit more grown-up, an observation that she may have heard one too many times.

"People say that maturing thing to me," Jewel says. "I definitely mature, everybody does. At the same time, a lot of the songs that the critics are talking about seeing the maturation [in], I wrote when I was 17. 'Love Me Just Leave Me Alone' [from the new album] I wrote when I was 20. I think what I was able to do on this record was show myself better...more like a live show so you're able to see the diversity of my writing."

For Jewel, the answers to many questions about her career seem to make their way back to the subject of lyrics. The words, the way they rhyme, what they mean, how they sound, how they make her feel, seem to be the element that propels her career.

Jewel's love of lyrics means that although she is planning a world tour, she'll do fewer live performances for this album than she has in the past, "[I'll] probably make less money but for my art I need to spend as much time writing as I do promoting,". It means the words that don't fit into the "four lines per verse, return to a chorus," format will spill onto the printed page and make their way into books of poetry and prose such as the recent, "Chasing Down The Dawn" and the previous Jewel's previous collection of poetry, "A Knight Without Armor".

Her love of different types lyrics have and will vary and change from her former "clichE country lines" phase which found her pen the line: "She treated her men like she treated her dollars/there was always another bill that came along" to the collection of love poems she plans to create one day.

The singer's passion for the written word also means that she won't pose on top of a horse naked or prance around in a tube top.

"I don't feel any pressure to put on a mini skirt," Jewel says. "I'm like any girl, I mean you always feel like dressing up at some point, but I've never felt like 'Oh geez, I'd better show more cleavage so that people will like me better' and I've always spent so much time on my lyrics that I don't want anything to overshadow them. So I'm pretty careful about not being a cartoon."

Jewel admits that looks and clothes do play a part in the career of most female solo artists though.

"Looks really help," she says. "That's the way life is. Girls have a harder rap that way, the guy from Creed is not cute - sorry girls I know a lot of you look up to him and think he's a god but...I don't think he's cute. Looks really, really help and I think that part of that is women manipulating that, women who've removed ribs and gotten boob jobs and nose jobs to make themselves more perfect. Women have banked on their beauty in the industry for years and its created a standard, its partly our own fault."

But just in case there are young Jewel fans currently pondering nose jobs in an effort to break into the recording industry, Jewel is quick to reinforce the mantra that helped act as her own producer, write poetry and avoid naked horse-back riding.

"You don't have to compromise anything, your vision, your values, I've never been asked to change," she says.

Jewel has just signed on to appear at the My VH1 Awards 2001 on Dec. 2.

The pop singer is joining a list of performers that includes Mary J. Blige, Mick Jagger, Creed, Nelly Furtado, Destiny's Child, No Doubt, Sting, and Lenny Kravitz, MTV reports.

The show will be hosted by "Will & Grace" star (and new Emmy winner) Eric McCormack. Winners will be chosen by music fans who can vote for their pick on the VH1 website.

The awards ceremony will be held in L.A. and will air at 9 p.m. (ET).

Artists who have notched the most nominations for this year's awards are U2, Dave Matthews Band, and Gwen Stefani.

-- AllPop

Jewel's latest album, "This Way," was released last week and the singer is already filling her days with promotional appearances.

According to Sonicnet.com, this is the list of Jewel's upcoming TV appearances:

Rolling Stone magazine is handing an award to folk/pop singer Jewel for doing something.

The Do Something Award is given out each year to celebrities who participate in projects that better their community, Rolling Stone reports.

Jewel was picked as a recipient for the two, non-profit projects -- Higher Ground For Humanity and the Clearwater Project -- that she founded with her mother, Lenedra Carroll.

Higher Ground works on education, health care, and arts initiatives. Clearwater devotes itself to the issue of clean water.

Jewel will receive her award tonight (Thursday, Nov. 15) in New York.

The Do Something organization was created by actor Andrew Shue ("Melrose Place") in 1993. The organization is made up of youth who are networked through schools and community programs that get them involved with various charities.

-- AllPop

Folksy pop singer Jewel is returning to the music world.

The singer and sometimes actress will release "This Way", her first album since the Christmas recording "Joy: A Holiday Collection", on Nov. 13.

The first single will be "Standing Still", which will hit radio this week. A video is expected later this month.

"This Way" is the first time Jewel has produced herself.

"I wanted to focus on the craft of performing and songwriting," she said in a press release. "I've always been a live musician, and I wanted my voice to shine through. At the same time, I hope to stay relevant as a writer, which means staying honest about where you are. The most important thing to me is maintaining my authenticity. I'll always be curious musically and want to try new things, but above all, I want the music to sound honest and good in 20 years."

-- AllPop

Folksy pop singer Jewel is almost finished her latest album.

The album, scheduled for release on Nov. 13, is tentatively being called "This Way". The first single from the album will be out in October, MTV reports.

According to an e-mail update sent to Jewel fans, the singer has finished "the recording process" and the album is in the "final mixing stages".

Producers working on the album are describing some of the songs as "dangerous-sounding". Track titles include "Love Me Just Leave Me Alone," "Serve The Ego," "Shadows Play", and "Jesus Loves You".

Jewel's last album was her 1999 holiday release, "Joy: A Holiday Celebration".

-- AllPop

Pop star-on-the-rise Willa Ford and folksy pop singer Jewel are joining five wannabe-songwriters for a live performance on June 19.

Jewel and Willa will perform in Central Park along with five people who made it to the final round of a songwriting-contest, MTV reports.

The female finalists were picked from a group of 1,200, ranging in age from 14-24, who entered the contest by sending in one of their original songs. Pantene, which is organizing the contest, plans to fly the five finalists to New York for the June 19 show, where judges Sandra Bernhard, Tracy Bonham, Laurie Anderson, and Kathy Najimy) will hand out the grand prize.

The winner will receive a demo-recording deal, a car, a concert tour, and $10,000 for her school's music program.

-- AllPop