'It was almost like they were sharks that could smell blood': Jewel explains how she has fought off sexual harassment from men since she was just eight-years-old

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The Alaskan singer first started performing with her father aged 8
Revealed men would give her dimes and tell her to call when she's older
Says the harassment continued after getting her first record deal at 18
'I never slept my way to the top, ever,' she told The Hollywood Reporter
Jewel's 12th studio album, Picking up the Pieces, is released Friday

Published: 22:31 EST, 10 September 2015 | Updated: 00:13 EST, 11 September 2015

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She's commanded a stellar career spanning over 20 years and 12 studio albums, but singer-songwriter Jewel says the dark side of the music industry has followed her since she was just a little girl learning the ropes.

The 41-year-old has explained how she has fought off sexual harassment from men since she was just eight, and that it only worsened as grew older and became more successful.

'I've had men hitting on me, sadly, since I was really young,' the four-time Grammy nominee told The Hollywood Reporter.

'At 8, I had men putting dimes in my hands saying, ''Call me. It'd be so great to f--k when you're older''. And just horrible stuff.'

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'I've never slept my way to the top': Jewel, 41, has revealed she was just a little girl when men started offering her money for sex, and that the harassment didn't stop as she got older and more successful

Alaska's favorite daughter came from incredibly humble beginnings.

She grew up in a saddle barn on a 600-acre homestead in Homer, a fishing town in Kenai Peninsula Borough, with no heat or running water.

Her family would live off what they could kill or find themselves and would pick berries to make jam.

My boss fired me because I wouldn't sleep me and I ended up homeless for a year

She started singing at eight-years-old, becoming a duo with her father, Atz Kilcher, following her parents divorce.

'We sang at Veterans clubs and bank openings, and biker bars and honky-tonks all over the state,' Jewel wrote in the biography on her website.

'My dad is a good performer. He taught me not to use a set list, but instead just to read the crowd.'

At 15, she moved to Michigan to attend a fine arts school on a partial scholarship, raising the rest of the money by working several jobs and performing a benefit concert at the local high school.

She 'drifted' after graduation and ended up in San Diego, where she worked answering phones in a computer warehouse, but not for long.

'My boss fired me because I wouldn't sleep with him, and I ended up homeless for a year,' she wrote in the biography.

The Alaskan singer-songrwiter, who has sold over 27 million albums worldwide, went from meager beginnings to super stardom, but says the journey was tough in the male-dominated music industry

Desperate, Jewel was forced to live in her car, where she would write songs to pass the time.

She told THR that men would constantly approach the car and hit on her.

'I've never been more propositioned by businessmen in my life,' she said.

'It was almost like they were sharks that could smell blood, like of vulnerability.

'They would be like, ''Hey, do you need rent money?'' and things like that.

'I never took anybody up on it, but it was interesting to see this side of men that basically would prey on somebody vulnerable.'

She started singing her songs in a coffee shop, The Inner Change Cafe, and developed a following.

However no one knew she was homeless.

After a local radio station played a demo of hers, record label executives started to come and watch her perform.

'There was a bidding war between several labels for me!' she recalls.

'I couldn't believe it!

'I went with the label that didn't want me to change and let me be a simple songwriter.'

That label was Atlantic Records and Jewel was 18 when she signed with them.

The songs she was playing in the coffee shop would become her 1995 debut album, Pieces of You, which to date has sold over 12 million copies in the US.

The record is considered one of the best-selling debuts of all time.