Jewel to release greatest hits album, head back on tour

It’s hard to believe that singer Jewel has never released a greatest hits album.

Now, 18 years after her first record, she said it was finally time for a compilation.

“I wanted to wait and really have a body of work that represented me. I always wrote a lot of style of music and I wanted to get a chance to get those out…” she told FOX 411.

For her greatest hits album, Jewel re-recorded some of her most-memorable tunes and reworked them.

“I re-cut ‘Foolish Games’ with Kelly Clarkson, who is one of my favorite singers, and she was kind enough to perform on that with me, and then I re-did ‘You Are Meant for Me’ with the Pistol Annies.”

But of all her songs, Jewel said “Go Save Your Soul” is probably her favorite.

“It was the first song I ever wrote, I wrote it when I was sixteen years old and I wrote it because I wanted to hitchhike in Mexico for Spring break like all parents hope their children do one day,” she joked. “I didn't think it would ever lead to anything, it just was a fun experiment and I ended up getting signed when I was eighteen and it changed my life.”

Lately, the singer has been busy acting and writing childrens’ songs and books.

“I did a kid's record called ‘The Merry Goes Round,’ and I wrote that for my son. He's eighteen months now and it was a gift for me to be able to share my writing and little stories and morals and give that to my son.”

But that doesn’t mean she is done with the country music scene.

“I'm taking the greatest hits on the road,” she said. “I'll be out March, April, May and June.”

Jewel said she is looking forward to touring as a new mom.

“Touring was always sort of lonely for me because I'm solo-acoustic and I don't go with a band very often and so it's pretty lonely and now that I have the baby I took all the bunks out of one side and I put his crib in and bolted it down and he comes with me and we go to children's museums during the day, and it's the best of every world. I tuck him in at night and then I go get on stage. It's really great.”