A Look At Life Right Now For Grammy Winner Joss Stone

Photo Credit: Tina Turnbow

Joss Stone is a Grammy and Brit Award-winning artist who released her acclaimed debut album, The Soul Sessions, in 2003, at the age of 16. Over her career, she has released nine studio albums, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. Stone has performed and collaborated with legendary artists including James Brown, Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Sting, Van Morrison, Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, and Damien Marley, amassing over one billion streams in the US alone.

In 2014, she completed her audacious Total World Tour, performing and collaborating with local artists and charities in over 200 countries. Her 2022 release, Never Forget My Love, was her eighth studio album, written with and produced by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, with whom she also co-wrote music and lyrics for the West End musical The Time Traveller’s Wife.

In 2023, Stone embarked on her “20 Years of Soul” anniversary tour, during which she recorded her first live album, 20 Years of Soul – Live in Concert. She followed this with the Ellipsis Tour in 2024. Her latest single, “Loving You,” was released on August 9, 2024. Stone is currently working on a new studio album, scheduled for release in 2025. We caught after her gig in San Francisco to talk about her 20th anniversary, her tour, and what’s next.

Photo Credit: Tina Turnbow

Your hair is beautiful — you look like a mermaid.

It’s extensions! I was feeding my daughter, Violet, and she kept pulling my hair, and I was like, this is doing my head in. So I walked into my kitchen and into my bathroom, and I cut my hair off. I was so I was like, it’ll be cute, I’ll have a bob. And then I hated it. So I was like, that’s it. Hair extensions. Let’s go. And now those get pulled, too. Lots and lots. But now, I feel I feel more like myself again, you know what I mean? So I’m trying to grow it out.

Hair makes or breaks your mood. So I think whatever you need to do to feel good, do it.

It’s so true, isn’t it? Bloody identity.

Where are you right now? Are you in the UK?

No, I’m in San Francisco so I just played a gig last night at. It’s a really famous place — The Fillmore.  I just played Fillmore. They gave me free like stuff. Apparently, Willie Nelson’s part of the Fillmore, and he’s really supportive of all these artists. It was really cool. It was a really, really good show.

What’s been your favorite venue to play during your American tour? Is this one of them?

There was this bowl of apples at the venue, underneath a sign. I was like, what is this apple thing? And apparently back in the day, kids really wanted to come to the venue because it was really exciting, and they would spend all their money trying to get there on a bus, and then they wouldn’t have any money for food, so they gave people apples. I love the little the history of it. It’s just a very warm, giving, very welcoming, kind of venue. I would say on this tour it’s been like really the most special.

Where else have you loved?

I played Brown County [Indiana], and that was a shock, because I had no idea first of all, that anyone would come, because I’ve never been there before. And I just couldn’t believe the audience; I couldn’t believe how excited they were and how much fun they were. I find that when you go to play gigs in places that get regular entertainment, you may have a great crowd. Like we had a great crowd last night. San Francisco has regular entertainment, you know, Paris, London, LA, New York. These places get gigs often, so if you have hardcore fans, you have a great gig, but it’s a different type of gig. The country folk that don’t get that much entertainment, they’re crazy from the beginning because they’re so excited. It’s like, maybe they’ve been to see, I don’t know, two gigs in a year or three gigs in a year because not many people run through that place. So I have to say, those gigs are more fun for us because we get an immediate type of reaction. No matter what you do, it’s like, f**k it, we’re having a lovely time, you know? It’s great.

It’s all about energy though too. So like if you’re getting energy from the crowd, it’s going to amp up your performance, right?

Totally. It’s a circular thing. The audience, they are as much part of the gig as we are. We’re just providing the ingredients for the first bit. And then they give more and we give more and it’s it’s very much a a collaboration for the feeling. We’re all sharing it, you know.

Photo Credit: Tina Turnbow

You’re living near Nashville currently, correct?

I’ve been living in the States. It’s hard to really pinpoint when I moved here, but because I’ve been very nomadic, I sort of had been on and off, you know, since I was 14 — but mainly in England. And then probably five or six years ago, when I turned 30, I was living in Devon, England, and I didn’t have the right man. I was like, I want babies, I want a gorgeous husband, I want a life full of love and joy and I’m not finding it here in Devon, England. I’m from a tiny little village in a very country county. I woke up on my 30th birthday and was like, I’m with this guy that is so not the one. And I was like, this isn’t right. So I called my friend in New Jersey, one of my best friends. I was like, Brian, I have to move and I really want to go, and I want to go now, and I don’t know where to go, and I need you to help me. And he was like, ‘OK, babe.’ He’s one of those friends that just helps you with life. And he was like, ‘OK, I found a place.’ So I basically bought this house without even bloody seeing it. I just wanted to go. The house was  absolutely crazy. It was falling down. But I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. I got all my dogs, and I said to my mom, ‘Mom, I’m going to live in America, and I’m not coming back until I have a husband and a baby.’ And she was sort of upset, but she [ultimately was OK with it]. She knows if I was going to do something, I’m going to do it. The funny thing was, I moved there, and then it was like three years later that I bumped into [my now-husband] Cody, who did happen to be American, but I didn’t bump into him in America. I bumped into him in Belize. But when I saw him, I was like, ‘oh my God, oh my God, it’s you.’ It was like a movie. I felt like he just stepped out of a chick flick or something. It was magic, really. And then I did have my baby. So I’m ready to go home now. It worked out. Sometimes if you want a big change, you have to make a big change.

And and now things are just beautiful all the time, right? Because you you you’re on a tour. You have this wonderful home life. You have a new album, you have a new single. Let’s talk about all that.

I’m always making music. I have this new single that I wrote when I first started dating Cody, actually before the babies turned up. The single is called “Loving You,” and it’s just a single; it’s not attached to an album. I’ve never really done that. I think it’s because I’m old or something, I don’t know, I’m just like, that isn’t how we were brought up. We were brought up to make a whole record. So I just wrote this song like very randomly, and it wasn’t part of a project, but it was about it was about Cody and also about the type of nights that I would have in Devon, England. We are country bumpkins. We’d light a big fire and everyone in the valley would come, not just a couple people, and we’d have a barbecue, and then whoever was a night owl would sort of stay up around the fire, drinking cider and chatting until the sun came up. That’s how I hang out. And Cody is not a night owl at all. He really tries, but when it gets to 1 a.m., he’s like, ‘this is crazy. I’m going to bed.’ He can’t hang like that, which is awesome for us because that means he does the kids in the morning and I get to sleep at night. So anyway, so I was in New Jersey. We had a little fire outside, drinking wine. Cody fell asleep, and I went upstairs and I wrote this song which basically talking about being around the fireplace and falling in love with someone and trying to get them to stay; you don’t want them to go home. The truth was, I didn’t want Cody to fall asleep so I could talk his ear off. But you don’t want them to leave, so you start, making up stories or trying to be funny or singing a song. It’s such a sweet love song; I sang it for the first time last night.

You were just talking about how back when you started, you couldn’t release singles, you only released with the album. So what else have you found to be true of the industry and how it’s changed? You’ve had some serious longevity in the industry.

It’s just by luck, I suppose. I think people that like my music are very supportive. The fans that I gained when I was young, I see them today in the audience. They’re still with me. It’s almost like we grew up together, like we’ve gone through all this together. And because I so blatantly discuss my life as as it’s gone on, it’s like I’ve been giving fans pieces of my diary throughout these years. I think people have gone through similar moments with me. We celebrated 20 years last year, and I decided to do a live album, which I called 20 Years of Soul, which I’d never done before, and I genuinely felt like I did feel emotional about it.

What to you is the greatest luxury in life and why?

The greatest luxury in life is time, obviously; to have extra time, not to have enough time. Because, you know, we try to make enough time for everything that we have to do. Like, I have to do this work. Right now I’m designing a school. [She shows me a diagram.] Doesn’t look like one, does it? But I’m bloody doing it because my little girl is going to school next year. And I’m like, well, which one is good enough for her? Which one is safe enough for her? Which one’s going to not make her sit down when she doesn’t want to? Which one’s going to teach her in the right, correct way for her specifically? And then my son, who’s completely different to my daughter. What school is going to be able to do that and that? They’re two different personality types.Where I’m going to live in England, which is down the road from my mum, I don’t know that they have that there. So I’m like, f**k it, I’ll make one. This to me has become a very important necessity. Now, I have to make time for that. I also have to make time to do my gig. I have to make time to warm up. I have to make time. The luxury is when you have extra.

God, you’re launching a school. Are you really building a school? Or is this like a dream for the very far future?

It’s a dream for next year. Violet is turning four in January, and I want her to be in school by four and a half. There’s so much gorgeous stuff you can do with school. I really didn’t enjoy school and so I didn’t get the benefit of it. I got the social benefit of it, but I remember waking up every day and just crying, crying, crying like I did not want to go. My poor mum had to send me because legally she felt she had to and by the time 3:00 came, I was all right, because I’d finally woken up. ‘m a night owl; I’ve always been a night owl — that’s who I am. And I wanted to sleep in the morning. I was like, f**k this, why am I doing this? I was diagnosed dyslexic [and they put me in a group for not-very-smart people as a result, which in England we called a ‘set.’ I was put in set six].  Set six is you need help, like you need someone to sit next to you and help you. I was put in set six, so I believed for sure that I was stupid. Like, there was no way I could get a job doing anything other than something like artistic or singing, you know? And luckily, I had that belief, because my mum instilled that into me. But I truly believe I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write, I couldn’t spell. But I can read, I can write, and I can spell.  I literally write songs for a living, but I didn’t have that in me because the way the school was set up wasn’t there for my type of brain. [I’m hearing this and thinking, my kids are not going to that type of school.] My husband is like, ‘girl, our children are going to school.’ I’m like, ‘I know, I know, I’m not saying that they’re not. I’m just saying I don’t want them to have that misery or that stress.’ If you are having fun, it’s because you’re learning. Learning is fun. It’s amazing and beautiful and inspiring.

That is a  really big undertaking.

Well, I haven’t done it yet, but the idea is there. I think if you can dream it, it can be, right?

Photo Credit: Tina Turnbow