Jewel supports Chappell Roan's harassment comments: 'I've had hundreds of stalkers'
Jewel is coming out in defense of Chappell Roan.
Showing her support for the "Hot to Go" singer, the Grammy nominee shared her own experiences with harassment and how she has dealt with overeager fans "as an older stateswoman."
In a TikTok clip, the "Foolish Games" singer, 50, took off a green hat to reveal her gray roots, noting she first began to get gray hairs "overnight" after dealing with her "first stalker" at 21.
"It was so scary. This person was leaving firebombs outside my house. I was getting death threats saying I would be shot from the stage," she said. "I've had hundreds of stalkers in my career."
Jewel looked back on stepping back from her career due to the harassment and how it made her relive trauma from her childhood. "Fans grabbing me, touching me, turning me around, crowding me, just wasn't good."
It was "just too much," but eventually, she said, she was able to manage fan interactions.
"I learned with time that I could talk to my fans and say, 'You can't come within six feet of me,'" she said. "I was in Beverly Hills a couple of weeks ago. A fan, to this day, put their hand out to show me a safe gesture, only came six feet from me, and said 'I just want to tell you how much I love your music.' That was so nice, it made me feel so safe. I could choose to take a picture safely."
In the text captions on her video, Jewel noted not everyone is a "real" fan, and some people, especially men, are angry and lash out at famous people due to their own issues with worth or to "level" some sort of score.
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Jewel pointed out how Roan has had to turn off comments on her posts after a two-part TikTok in August, in which she called out abuse and harassment she says she has experienced from fans.
In the clips, Roan, 26, slammed people who feel "entitled" to a celebrity's time, saying she doesn't care if fans think it's "selfish" for her to say no to a photo or a hug.
"That's not normal," she said. "That's weird. It's weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online or you listen to the art they make."
Roan has experienced a sudden surge in popularity this year after the release of her 2023 album "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess," her stint as an opening act on Olivia Rodrigo's Guts World Tour and festival spots at Coachella, Bonnaroo and a record-breaking Lollapalooza set last month.
She has opened up about struggling with the onslaught of attention, telling a crowd during a performance in June that she felt "a little off" and was "having a hard time" because her career has "gone really fast, and it's really hard to keep up."
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In her August TikTok, Roan asked viewers to consider if they would treat a "random woman on the street" the way people have been treating her recently. She indicated that fans have yelled at her from car windows, harassed her in public, bullied her, stalked her family and gotten mad at her for not wanting to take photos.
"I don't care that abuse and harassment, stalking, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous, or a little famous," she said. "I don't care that it's normal. I don't care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job, the career field I've chosen. That does not make it OK."
Contributing: Brendan Morrow
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jewel defends Chappell Roan amid fan harassment