Joss Stone on motherhood, touring and becoming more free in her music
When British singer Joss Stone is out on the road, there’s one performance she has to guarantee every night.
“I sing my daughter to sleep every single night, it’s the only way she gets to sleep,” she said of her 3 ?-year-old daughter. “It’s a magic thing for her.”
Stone checks in with her daughter and 21-month-old son every night on the road.
“They’re laughing and playing and when I get on the phone they talk to me,” she said from a tour stop in Germany. “I think I’m missing them more than they’re missing me. Which is the right way around.”
She had taken her children on tour and they enjoyed it, Stone said, but she didn’t want to pull her daughter from soccer and dance class for extended periods just so she could bring them on the road.
“It’s been quite interesting. I didn’t like that (stuff),” she said. “So now that I know they’re OK, I’m OK.”
Stone’s tour brings her to the Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane next week, part of a Midwest and Rocky Mountain swing. Her tours are shorter now, limited to two weeks at a time, but it makes up for a mammoth undertaking she accomplished.
“I did a world tour that included every country in the world, and it took six years, and it seemed like I went away, but it was crazier than I ever toured,” Stone said. “I didn’t talk about it and didn’t do any press.”
Now 37, Stone erupted on the music scene 20 years ago as a blue-eyed soul singer with her album “The Soul Sessions,” wearing her love for R&B, gospel, Aretha Franklin and James Brown on her sleeve.
“When I was learning my craft as a baby, I was just into old-school song music,” she said. “That’s all I wanted to do because that’s all I did. Soul is the backbone of who I am.”
Her music has changed through the years.
“It’s evolved a lot stylistically,” Stone said. “What it really has done is become more free.”
Touring, especially the world tour, helped with that evolution.
“I got inspired by all that and I can mix the soulful thing I do with all that. You’re free,” Stone said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
Stone, who recently released a concert album for the “Soul Sessions” anniversary, said she’s at the point in her career where she’s not winning over new fans as much as thanking the one’s she’s had for two decades.
“Now I’m just so happy to have the fanbase I have because they’re very hardcore and they stick with me,” she said. “They’ve stuck with me for 20 years. Most of the fans I see in the audience are the fans I’ve made since the first album. It’s like we’ve made our connection and it’s never gonna die. That’s really beautiful and I take a lot of comfort in that.”
That serenity is evident in her live performances, she said.
“Now I’m not as terrified as I was. That’s what made it hard,” she said. “Really that’s all I’ve ever wanted and that’s what I have. I’m very, very, very blessed with that. And there’s a certain level of calm that comes with that. I don’t freak out like I did in the beginning.”
Stone said she’s had to adapt to the way consumers get their music in the 21st century.
“You just have to say, ‘I’ve made a record, here it is, hope you like it,’” she said. “Some of my records were super-supported. Others, when I wasn’t in the mindset, I just put them out. The people who are really looking for my music will find it and those who aren’t, won’t. And that’s OK. I’ve made peace with it for a couple of records.”
She even released a world music album with musician friends and called the group Mama Earth, and fans still discovered it.
“It was beautiful world music, it was gorgeous,” she said. “We had some lovely people join us.”
Stone is also branching out to other endeavors. She and Eurythmics alumnus Dave Stewart wrote the music for “The Time Traveller’s Wife,” based on the book and movie, that played London’s West End last year.
“Working with Dave was so much fun,” Stone said. Asked about Broadway possibilities, she said “The producer would love to get it anywhere.”
Stylistically, Stone’s horizons are broadening as well.
“I’m in the midst of making a disco record,” she said with a laugh. “We have a bit of disco in the show, and I put mine in between some famous disco songs just to see how it fits.
“And it fits great. That’s exciting.”
JOSS STONE
When: 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9
Where: Kansas Star Arena, Mulvane
Tickets: $46-$81, from Ticketmaster
