Last Saturday, despite Hurricane Danny’s wet efforts, the Barefoot Wine Beach Rescue Concert – a “thank you” concert for the Surfrider volunteers who spent the soggy day cleaning our beautiful beachfront – blew everyone away with performances by Grammy nominees Joss Stone and Gavin DeGraw (”I Don’t Want to Be”).
Before taking the stage at Convention Hall (my absolute favorite place to see a concert), singer and activist, the beautiful and soulful Joss, took a moment to answer some of my pressing questions.
MEETING IN THE STEAMROOM…WATERMARK’S GREY GARDENS CONNECTION…A NEW GREY GARDENS PRODUCTION…TEX LOGAN, GLORIA GAYNOR, FELIPE ROSE AND…A FLOGGING BUSINESSMAN…ALL IN ‘YOU SAY WHO’ THIS LABOR DAY WEEKEND
TBP: It’s so fab to have you in Asbury Park honoring the wonderful volunteers who tidied up our beach on this muggy, rainy day. Do you have any great beach memories to share?
Joss: Going to Putsborough (beach in the UK on the coast of North Devon) when I was young with my siblings and good friend Bonnie. I loved going to the beach then and still do.
TBP: How have you seen the loss of Michael Jackson effect the music industry?
Joss: It’s affected the music industry as much as when we lost James Brown. It is very sad but his music still lives on.
TBP: What was your fave Michael Jackson Song?
Joss: All of Michael’s songs are great.
TBP: I wrote recently that a friend was at Whitney Houston’s listening party for her new CD (see “Whitney’s Back Baby”), where Whitney announced to the audience that if she was not singing again she would “be selling fruit from a stand somewhere in the Caribbean” with her daughter. Seriously. If you were not a musician and singer, what would you be doing?
Joss: I’d be a carpenter, midwife, potter or baker.
TBP: Interesting. You are a vegetarian – its one of the things I admire most about you. Every vegetarian I have met has stunning skin, shiny hair and sparkling eyes, as do you. Any advice for people considering the vegetarian lifestyle?
Joss: I would say just stop eating meat…it’s really not that hard. It’s just food.
TBP: You don’t seem like the rock-star Jaegermeister-swilling type of gal. I envision you delicately holding a glass of sparkling wine. What type of wine is in your cellar?
Joss: It depends on what kind of moment it is. I lean more towards Barefoot Wine’s white wine but then sometimes I like red. Sometimes, with my friends, we mix the two together and have a rose.
TBP: What’s the funniest item in your contract rider?
Joss: My foot spa – so I can clean my feet after I get off stage. (Joss is known to perform barefoot…very beachy).
TBP: My friend Emily Manni just loves you in Showtime’s “The Tudors”, playing the role of Anne of Cleves. Any scoop? Jonathan Rhys Meyers is so painfully hot.
Joss: I’ll be back in “The Tudors” soon.
TBP: Busy lady…you have a CD on deck to release, too.
Joss: Yes, maybe in October is the word I hear, but this could change.
TBP: You have a huge following in the GLBTI community. Would you like to say anything to your gays in Asbury Park?
Joss: Thanks for your support. Be you – regardless of anyone else. Just be you.
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Отправлено: 18.10.09 19:08. Заголовок: Интервью с Джосс Jos..
Интервью с Джосс Joss Stone: "When I'm done shooting The Tudors, I'll start my own bakery"
Joss Stone is known mainly as a talented singer all around the world, so being offered a part in The Tudors was shocking for her. Especially when she learned that she was going to play the "ugly German". "My character doesn't like music, but I'll always be more a singer than an actress," says Joss in an exclusive interview for MF DNES, whose reporters had the opportunity to visit the shooting sets of the historical project.
When have you learned that The Tudors wanted you?
I was on the tour. Personally I was very excited, but my manager ruined it for me, he was a bit of a bastard, you know. (laughs) I was really sad, I already saw myself in the beautiful dressess playing an aristocrat. So I called them back and told them that I was willing to play anybody if there was any other chance in the future. And they called me a year later telling me that I was going to play the queen. I jumped with joy, it was a dream come true. But after a week of immense happiness I reminded myself to find out what role they were talking about. And I saw that it's Anne of Cleves, the most ugly woman ever being on the show. And German!
You have something against Germans?
Not at all, I was just scared of speaking with German accent. So, I apologize to all Germans, I did everything I could to master the accent, but I think they laught at me anyway.
How did you cope with not playing the king's favorite?
Let me correct you. Not only Anne wasn't Henry's favorite, he even said she was disgusting and repulsive. But you know historians, they add stuff and exaggerate, so maybe it wasn't that bad. Anyway Jonathan's effort to make me not take it too seriously was touching. He kept telling me: Honey, Anne wasn't ugly, it's just that Henry was crazy. Jonathan is a sweetheart.
I can't not ask now: did you enjoy the love scenes with Jonathan?
Enjoying sex with a syphilitic with a rotting leg? Are you crazy? (laughs) Jonathan's mask was very convincing, there's nothing to envy at all.
I don't think the female fans would believe you. Jonathan is one of the most attractive men in Hollywood.
I know it's hard to believe but I really didn't enjoy it. You know, I find it weird to be in bed with somebody I don't know. Furthermore, as my colleague Annabelle Wallis says: usually you wear no make up in bed, so you don't even look very good. And when the most attractive man in Hollywood closely watches you and you look like a gorgon, it's a terrible feeling.
Will you sing on the show?
Absolutely not. My character doesn't have one musical bone in her body. Anne doesn't know music, doesn't understand it, doesn't like it. I don't understand it, by the way. But I wrote a song about The Tudors. What was it like... (tries to remember words, sings a few tones). Sorry, I can't remember. But Jonathan would play it for you, I think he recorded it. It was a short funny song about Henry and heads being cut off. By the way, do you know Jonathan is a musician? Quite good actually. And he sings really nice. He was in fact singing all the time we were shooting.
Won't you sing a duet with him?
That would be amazing, it's a great idea. It could be such fun! But I don't think he would want to, he's very shy.
Jonathan? He didn't seem shy to me at all.
Sure, he wouldn't tell you. But I say he is shy. Really. Sometimes I'm making fun of him and say, come on, let's jam together. And he just whispers: Please, no.
Was there any chemistry between you two?
At the end of the shooting, yes, surprisingly. But I think everyone has some sort of chemistry with him. He's got it in him.
Is there anyone who could get jealous of Jonathan?
Is that your way of asking me if I have a boyfriend, right?(laughs) You know, a couple of weeks ago I decided not to speak about my private life. No details. Until I get married, I mean. Once I get engaged, I'll definitely let you know. I couldn't handle it when people talked about who I was dating. Young people meet and break up, that's completely natural. But people just don't get it. When I was 18 and I broke up with my then boyfriend, a completely strange woman came to me and cried on my shoulder: "You were my most favorite couple. How could you break up?" Do you understand it? She was a complete stranger!
OK then. Does the creative inspiration come easier when you're in love, or when you miss someone?
That's a difficult question. I constantly miss someone. When I'm in England, I miss my friends from New York. When I'm in New York, I miss my family and my mum. The pain of being lonely definitely helps when I create, because you can concentrate only on yourself and what's going on inside you. But truthfully, I can't say what it's like when you're happy and in love. Not that I never was, I just don't know how to describe the feeling. Love is so difficult to depict in words. How to express your love for someone so that it doesn't feel fake and makes others feel the same way as you do? If you could help me, I'd be very grateful.
Are you more an actress, or a singer?
Singer, certainly. I was just asked to do something different for a while, that's all. There's nothing more to my "acting". I can't imagine my life without singing, it's just part of it. You sing when you're happy. When you're sad, you let it out through singing.
What's more difficult, acting or singing?
Definitely acting. When you act, you have to convince so many people of being someone else, and I can't do it. Actually I find it a bit crazy. And also, singing is faster. It's over before you even notice saying something, you just open your mouth and that's it. Acting, it's just hours of waiting, rehearsals and nerves. I'm very nervous.
Nervous of what? You must be used to singing in front of people...
I'm nervous that can't do it. Sure, I know that I should. I can do it. But still there's this voice inside of me saying: what if I mess up? Yes, there's the editor to cut the mistakes, but I know it from recording - when I have to re-sing something, it'll never sound the same way as the first time. And I hate it, I usually only do two or three takes.
What direction are you heading now, Joss? You tried so many things so young. What will you do when you're 50?
I'd love to open my own bakery and have a puppy dog farm. My friend does have one and it's an amazing job.
Bakery?
Sure, I love to bake. Not that I know how, but that doesn't matter, it's fun.
So you'll bake cakes and sing?
Yeah, that's a nice image. And don't forget the puppy dogs running around.
Aren't you scared of being overwhelmed by fame?
You're right, young people get that easily. But it depends on your values. Working in showbusiness has three sites: business site, aristic site and the "celebrity" site. When you concentrate on the wrong site too much, that's a problem. I sing because I want people to feel good. I don't have any other motive. If my thirst after fame came as more important than this, it'll be bad. This thirst removes you from your initial goal, influences your music and your lyrics, your writing is bad and you become a sad, hating and dissatisfied person. Luckily I'm not like this.
What are you like, then?
I live the real life. But that's because I want to, that's what my parents taught me. I could be a bossy star, but why? I'm happy the way I am. On the countryside where it's calm and quiet.
Do you really feel so comfortable on the countryside? At your age?
It's beautiful there, I love it. If you only could see it! It smells so wonderful, people are so beautiful there. I can write when I want to, because in a beautiful place full of kind people it comes so easily. When I want to go out, I don't have to think about make up, I just go and it's so cool.
Sounds like a perfect place.
It is! (laughs) I almost forgot, I have two dogs and five cats. Really. It's a funny story how I got those cat, do you want to hear it?
Of course.
I had this dream - well, it wasn't really a dream, more like a feeling - that a girl I knew was pregnant. I just finished The Tudors, and I called my friend in the States: Are you pregnant? And she panicked, like: Wait, I have to go check it. She wasn't pregnant. Then I called my sister: Are you pregnant? She said she wasn't and that I should stop acting silly. I called every girl I knew and none of them was pregnant. And then I arrived at my mum's who has a cat, opened the closet and there were two kittens. Unbelievable. And I found one kitten by the road on my way home. I already had four cats by that time, I knew having another one would be crazy. I took the kitten intending to give it to someone. But of course, she stayed with me.
Didn't you say you wanted to have puppy dogs?
I have dogs, too. Initially I had seven of them, but they got missing and I've got only two left. One of my dogs went for a walk by the river and never came back. Someone ate other one of my dogs, what a horror. About the rest, I can't really remember. Yeah, and I have three fish.
I'm imagining you at home: baking cakes, singing, with lots of animals around.
That's exactly what it looks like. When I come home, I cook, play with my pets and write.
What about another tour?
I just finished my european tour. But my new album is about to be released, so there'll be another tour. Only in America at first, but I'll come back to Europe. I love playing live. Do you know I started learning to play guitar?
What brought you to that?
The tour. There's so much organisation stuff that bothers me. I'd love to get into my car, all alone, take my guitar and go on the tour myself. Completely independently. So that's why I'm learning.
How does it go?
Not very well. I'm completely lost when I have to learn something that's according to rules or a system. I have a very good teacher, fortunately, our guitar player. He's tremendously patient. And mainly, I'm patient with myself because I know what's waiting for me in the end: my freedom.
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Отправлено: 19.10.09 23:01. Заголовок: Joss Stone gets scol..
Joss Stone gets scolding from label for recording new album on a whim
By Victoria Ahearn (CP) – 5 hours ago
TORONTO — When Joss Stone has a musical itch, she has to scratch, even if it means getting into trouble with her label.
The powerhouse British soul singer says her new album, "Colour Me Free," is coming out Tuesday after months of delays because her U.S. label, EMI, was upset that she had recorded the tracks on a whim without telling them.
"Oh God, that wasn't very good," Stone said in a recent phone interview. "They didn't love that too much."
It was about two years ago, after the release of her self-titled third album, that the 22-year-old Grammy and Brit Award winner got the urge to hit the studio and jam again.
"I just woke up and was like: 'Man, I really want to make an album,"' said Stone, who has performed on stage with scores of legends including James Brown and Donna Summer.
"It was just a really nice day and I was feeling really energized and it was just cool and my (musician) friends were down, because we were writing.
"I thought: 'Hey, you guys are here, let's do it. Let's make the music."'
And so they did, using a Wellington, England night club that was owned by her mother at the time as their studio, where they recorded live off the floor in about a week.
Problem was, EMI didn't know about it and when Stone told them, "The initial reaction was: 'Hang on a minute, you're supposed to ask us for approval on every single section of everything that you do, are you crazy?"' she recalled.
"So I said: 'Oh, whoops, so sorry, my bad,' and it really was. I didn't ask for approval, I didn't tell them I was making the album.
"I didn't do any of those things so it really was essentially my fault."
The idea of someone trying to control her art was a "horrible feeling and makes you not want to do it at all," admitted Stone, whose vocals often draw comparisons to Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin.
"But then from a business side of things, I kind of get it ..." she said. "They feel like that's their property and they want to control how the property looks and how it works."
In the end, the two sides worked things out and the tunes weren't changed.
Stone even hit the studio again to do a few more tracks for the album with artists including Nas, Sheila E and Jeff Beck. The result is a rich, organic blend of soul, funk, R&B, disco, gospel hip-hop and even reggae that Stone co-produced.
"Now everybody's on the same page," she said.
With the label woes behind her, Stone has a positive outlook on the situation, saying she likes to "scare" herself into getting things done.
"It actually helps me," she said. "I've got this weird kind of obsession with the way that I do things - I feel the need to do it with a massive amount of pressure and unless I have that pressure, I don't bother."
Such was the case with CBC's "The Tudors," the widely adored series about King Henry VIII, played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Stone signed on to the current season to play Anne of Cleves, the king's fourth wife, without ever having acted on TV before (she has acted on film, though, first in 2006's "Eragon" and then "Snappers" in 2008).
Being on the show was "scary," she said, but she "loved it" as she got to learn a lot in a short period of time - just as she likes it.
"It helps me to just say, 'Look, I have to do this, there's no choice in this,"' said Stone, whose character becomes prominent in the Nov. 4 episode.
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Отправлено: 14.11.09 20:16. Заголовок: Joss Stone, 22, is a..
Joss Stone, 22, is a multi-platinum selling, Grammy award-winning soul singer who has achieved success on both sides of the Atlantic. Her new album, Colour Me Free, is out now despite a bitter argument with her record label over its release.
Congratulations on the new record. Did you feel any pressure to emulate the success of your earlier albums? Not really, everyone, including my record label EMI, has been telling me it’s such a bad record and messed me around with the release date (originally April), I’d kind of let go of my feelings and couldn’t give a f***. But I loved the songs and was passionate about releasing them. I was so determined I offered to give up my house in return.
Why was the label against it? They told me the album wasn’t commercial enough. I understand they are running a business, but I couldn’t give a f*** about churning out No.1 pop hits, I was doing something I believed in. I got my way but with a catch – no budget – well that’s fine by me.
Do you think it had something to do with not telling them you were recording it? It would be fair to say this isn’t a conventional record in the way it came about. I woke up one morning and decided to write the album. I’m not sure where the inspiration came from. I recorded the whole thing in a week at my mum’s new studio in Exeter and it must have been fate because all of my band members were available.
Didn’t the cover art get banned because it was ‘offensive’? Oh my God, I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. It was just me contorted behind some bars. In the end I had to go with simple text.
You rework Candi Staton’s You’ve Got The Love. It seems to be flavour of the month. Oh gosh, who else has covered it?
I couldn’t give a f*** about churning out No.1 pop hits, I was doing something I believed in
Florence And The Machine are releasing it as a single this month. Well, I didn’t know that but the reason I did it is that I needed one more song for the album and my brother pleaded with me to cover it. I hope I’ve done it justice and sorry Florence, I promise I won’t put it out as a single, but you will hear it live.
How did you manage to get so many big names involved in the album when it only took a week? Jeff Beck is on there. I called him up and he was like ‘cool man’, so he came and jammed. Nas is someone I’d met in America so my people sent his people some stuff. The amazing Sheila E, who used to drum with Prince, is on it too.
You’ve been called a wannabe American, aren’t you just a squeaky clean West Country girl? I know how I’m portrayed, but you know what, f*** it, I don’t really care. If my mates want to take the p***, that’s fine, because they’re my mates.
Do you think Britain is outgunning the US in terms of solo female talent with Alexandra Burke et al? I’m glad you said Alexandra. We’re great friends and I’m glad she’s finally getting her chance. The US really still does hold the most amazing talent even if it hasn’t reached us here yet. Fantasia Barrino is probably the closest thing to Aretha Franklin I’ve ever heard.
I’m told you’re a Liverpool fan. Did you see the beach ball incident at Sunderland? Um, no, what happened?
Sunderland scored thanks to the football deflecting off a Liverpool beach ball on the pitch. No way! How could they let the goal stand, man? The ref must have been a p***k to allow it.
You won rave reviews for your part in The Tudors, any plans to expand the acting portfolio? I just want to go with it and see what happens. I’m not auditioning, but it’d be cool to do some more.
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Отправлено: 28.11.09 17:55. Заголовок: No sooner have I sat..
No sooner have I sat down with Joss Stone on the patio of a fashionable Hollywood restaurant than she pulls out a packet of cigarettes. "Do you mind?" she asks. "Not at all," I reply. "But the waiter might." We are, after all, in California, the world capital of health paranoia.
People don't smoke here, ever. It's almost certainly illegal and... "Bollocks!" she says, sparking up. "That's the spirit," I tell her. What I'm actually thinking is: "This is very naughty and you're going to get us arrested," but she takes such pleasure from small acts of rebellion that it seems churlish not to play along.
Amazingly, no one complains. Either this is because the place is almost empty, since it's mid-afternoon. Or Joss escapes censure on a technicality: the patio is virtually outdoors. Either way, she goes on to tell me that her cigs are a brand called Parliament Lights, but she usually smokes roll-ups "because I live in Devon". She likes the fact that "you can put a roll-up down and smoke it later". Also, "it doesn't smoke itself, so it's cheaper, and they taste better." There is, I realise, something of the student about her.
At 22, Joss could easily pass for an undergraduate. She's dressed in campus chic: maxi-dress, purple leopard-print shawl, trademark nose ring. But, as we all know, university never happened for the talented Miss Stone, who was born Jocelyn Evelyn Stoker. Instead, she shot to fame, just after her 14th birthday, singing gorgeously rich soul music – and has been a full-time multi-millionaire pop sensation ever since. The previous night, I'd seen her in action, rehearsing a charity gig in Los Angeles, with Dave Stewart and Roger Daltrey. "How did it go?" I ask. "They fucking loved it!" she replies.
"They" were a mostly American audience. This is important, since in the US, almost everyone loves Joss to bits. In Britain, by contrast, she gets a mixed press, partly because of an unfortunate PR debacle at the 2007 Brit Awards, and partly because she was unfortunate enough, on her journey from child star to grown-up entertainer, to acquire a feisty personality and a handful of personal opinions. She's a natural gossip, dropping bloke-ish exclamations like "way-hey!" and "havin' a laugh!" and swearing with abandon. When I ask how this affects her image, she laughs: "Well, I'm supposed to be a diva bitch."
Joss also has a habit of falling out with fellow celebrities and some of her colleagues in the executive ranks of the record industry, about whom she takes a delightfully dim view. Adding to her rebellious image, she's got some discreet tattoos and sometimes dyes her hair pink. She has also, repeatedly, been accused of selling-out and "going American". We'll discuss this at length in a minute, she says.
First, along comes a waiter. Joss orders iced tea and an ashtray, and fumbles around in her enormous handbag. Since I've not yet lunched, she tells me to get food (her exact words are "Go on: have a munch!"). Then we settle down to talking about her latest album, Colour Me Free!, which has just been released and is being supported by a mini-tour of the US and Europe. It's her fourth record, in a career that began with The Soul Sessions in 2003, and represents something of a comeback: she's been off the radar since 2007's Introducing Joss Stone, which for various reasons didn't do all that well.
The new album is, on the face of it, classic Joss: full of ballsy, retro soul and R&B numbers delivered in a deep, husky voice that sounds like it ought to belong to a vast, middle-aged black woman but is instead owned by a petite white girl. It has garnered plenty of buzz, on both sides of the Atlantic, thanks to some arresting tracks, including a deft collaboration with Jeff Beck, a song called "Governmentalist" adopted by the US Democrats during Barack Obama's election campaign, and a hugely catchy original track called "Could Have Been You". I also love her cover of the classic soul tune "You've Got the Love".
That, however, tells half of the album's extremely convoluted story, which began when Joss made it at the start of 2008. She was supposed to be taking a year off at the time, "but it was a really sunny day, and I woke up at home in Devon, and said, 'I think I should make an album'," she recalls. It was produced, with her backing group, in a home-made studio at her mother's jazz club in Exeter. "It's a very raw record. We just jammed and wrote stuff, and finished the entire thing, artwork and all, in a week, which was fucking great!"
Unfortunately, Virgin, Joss's record label, didn't see the project that way. In fact, they were positively outraged by it. When you sign a record deal, you see, part of the arrangement is that men in suits from the music company get to liaise with you. They sign off recording expenses, write big cheques, and in return are allowed to push your career in whatever direction they feel would help make money. Typically, this involves getting you to record tracks that might get played on Radio 1, which apparently still dominates the comically generic listening habits of today's music-buying public.
Joss neglected to allow the firm to do that. And they duly got very cross indeed. "I just made a record. I didn't invite them down to the recording sessions. I didn't ask what songs I should sing. I just made the album, and gave it to them, and said, 'Look, here we go, here is my album.' " It was a big mistake. "They turned round and said, 'Hang on a minute. We have had no creative input into this.' I said, 'Why would you? You're not musicians.' That started the most enormous row."
Over the ensuing year or so, Joss traded insults, mostly in private, with Virgin, which is owned by EMI. Her chief sparring partner was the firm's head of A&R, Nick Gatfield. Lawyers became involved. Tantrums were thrown. At one point earlier this year, newspapers reported that she offered to pay £2m to be released from her contract. "They told me that there were no hits on the record, and demanded 'input' on three of the songs," she recalls. "I got their point. I had to. I was in breach of contract. But in the end, I couldn't let them just do that."
In this creative dispute, the Gaza Strip, so to speak, involved attempts by Mr Gatfield and his colleagues to bastardise some of Joss's tracks so they sounded more commercial. "They took two of my songs from the album and re-mixed them. The tracks were 'Could Have Been You' and 'Free Me'. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry ... They used fake drums. Put effects on my voice. Made it sound like a pop song of today. But it just sucked the soul out of it ... So I refused to have it. The fight went on for ages. It actually made me quite ill at one point."
Eventually, a resolution was reached. Joss isn't allowed to say exactly how, but insists Colour Me Free! remains as she originally intended. Reading between the lines, the album will not count towards the quota of records she's contracted to produce for EMI, and will be marketed as a "creative" venture. Tensions are still simmering, though: earlier this month, it even emerged that her cover design for the album (a picture of Joss behind bars, intended as a sly dig at the label for not releasing her from contract) had been replaced.
The very fact that Joss is happy to volunteer information about this long, damaging dispute tells you some important things about her. She is impulsive, free-spirited, honest and occasionally eccentric (down to her career-long refusal to wear shoes when performing). She is also proud, fiercely protective of her work, and has an instinctive mistrust of authority. Amy Winehouse, a white British soul singer who arguably followed in her artistic footsteps, may be pop music's smack-taking bad girl du jour. But Joss, whose leisure pursuits involve nothing more exotic than the occasional spliff and lots of red wine is, in her own way, just as rebellious.
These character traits – which are all, it must be said, to be generally applauded – conspired in 2007 to produce what we shall call the Brit Awards debacle. It saw Joss stride on-stage, at UK pop's showpiece event, in a flamboyant mini-dress, and criticise the event's host, Russell Brand, for cracking a joke at the expense of Robbie Williams. The papers tore into her with glee, wondering how a small girl who had been bought up in rural Devon had suddenly morphed into a feisty 20-year-old with what appeared to be a transatlantic accent.
When I ask about this, Joss gets extremely animated. It's a subject she is anxious to lay to rest. "So I had a funny accent. Deal with it!" she said. "It's not a deliberate thing. It's not like I was rejecting the UK, which is what the papers said. It's just that when you spend a lot of time in your formative years around an accent, you're going to pick it up. I had been living in LA for a bit and that's what happened." It was disapprovingly noted at the time that she was shacked up with an older, American boyfriend. He is now long gone (she currently claims to be single but "dating") and her accent is back to normal. But she adds: "You know what? I may pick up an American one again. So what?"
Her performance on the podium that night was, she said, inspired by loyalty towards Williams, who had recently entered rehab, so did not deserve to be publicly ridiculed. She has still not apologised to Brand ("Why would I?"), and it would seem that they do not exchange Christmas cards, either. "He's a disgusting pig. Mean, mean, mean. What he said about Robbie was horrible. You can't kick someone when they're down ... But that's the kind of person Russell Brand is. He's just unpleasant. Look at what he did with Jonathan Ross. I just think some people are genuinely nasty characters, and he's one of them. I'm glad I don't know him."
Another person whose behaviour she disapproves of is the rapper Kanye West, who recently interrupted country star Taylor Swift's moment of glory at an MTV awards show. "What Russell Brand did to Robbie is just like what Kanye did to Taylor," she says. "I don't care how talented you are: doing things like that is not nice. So fuck off ... Kanye just wants attention. As simple as that. He was like it before his mum died. So let's not make excuses. It's not fair to judge other people and to try to destroy their careers. Come on! Just stop it. Be nice!"
But we digress. The Brit Awards dispute came just weeks before the release of Joss's third album, Introducing Joss Stone. She blames it for the disappointing performance of the record which, in contrast to her first two albums, failed to break into the UK top 10. "My idiot record label decided it would be a really good idea to cancel all of my promo appearances because of what had happened," she recalls. "It actually made things worse. People started saying I was ignoring my country, making up stories about me. Ludicrous things, like that I throw tea on my assistants. I couldn't answer back."
Listening to all this, it's hard not to wonder whether what Joss really needs is a good, strict manager, to censor some of her more combative urges, and provide a buffer between her, her record company, and the music-buying public. But she doesn't have one (having previously sacked three managers). Instead, she runs her life with two PAs (one, Tasha, in the UK, the other, Courtney, in the US), with occasional help from her mother, Wendy, and father, Richard, who amicably separated a couple of years back, but allowed her to buy the family home in Culmstock, Devon.
Joss has organised her career this way since she came to public attention in 2001, aged 14, when with no formal training but an admirable quantity of pluck, she won a TV talent show called Star for a Night, a precursor to The X Factor. She was then signed by an American producer, and dropped out of school (which, as a dyslexic, she'd not much enjoyed anyway) to record her first album, The Soul Sessions. Released in 2003, it was a collection of cover versions, and became an instant hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
As a result, she spent her formative years largely in the company of elderly session musicians, who "gave a lot of advice and guidance, and maybe made me grow up quicker". This has possibly turned her into a musician who is unwilling to be shaped by the saccharine conventions of showbusiness. She despairs of most contemporary pop (with the exception of Kings of Leon, James Morrison and Paolo Nutini) and, despite her own path to fame, has little time for TV-talent-show stars and their brand of manufactured pop.
"I don't like listening to music that isn't real. When they take a voice and auto-tune it, I can hear that. It just makes me irritated. Music is just the most delicious thing in the world. So what makes you think a computer can make it better? A lot of times when I've been making albums, record labels will say, 'It's too complicated for the public. We want a simple hook. We want you to repeat it three or four times in a song. The verse pattern has to be eight bars.' Music executives seem to think the public are dumb. But they're not."
Hit or miss, Joss intends to continue her career in this impulsive, haphazard manner. She recently took an acting job on the TV series The Tudors, opposite Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and will shortly begin work on a second series ("I'm not very good at acting," she claims). Working hard now, she hopes to enjoy time off later in life. "When I have kids – and I want to have lots of them – I'm not going to do this. I'll hopefully go on tour for three months of the year, and the rest of the time I'll just be at home in Devon, being a mum."
It's a noble ambition. And given the woeful record that the entertainment industry has with its child stars, it's heartening to leave our meeting thinking that the talented Miss Stone has turned out OK. "If you remember one thing from talking to me," she says, shortly before we say our goodbyes, "remember this: I am just a girl who makes noises – and I'm incredibly lucky that people happen to like those noises. That's it. That's all I am. Done!" http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/www.independent.co.uk/article1827728.ece
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