Joss Stone Feels Bad For Britney

10/22/03 4:30pm

She's 16, tall, blonde and so genuinely delightful — both musically and in conversation — that it would be easy to cast England's Joss Stone off as a label creation or post-Britney cutie-pie. But plain and simply, you'd be wrong to do so.

See, while Joss Stone has outrageous beauty, quick wit and incredible humbleness, she also has a voice so soulful that when her debut record, The Soul Sessions, was first slipped into the ChartAttack CD player, we were unsure of the singer's vintage. Until reaching the slowed-down, sexy revisiting of The White Stripes' "Fell In Love With A Girl," I for one was pretty certain that Joss Stone was some forgotten singer from the late-'60s or '70s, unearthed by some canny exec.

And though Stone is the protege of S-Curve Records president Steve Greenberg (who also signed Hanson and produced the Stax/Volt box sets), she seems grateful for the help rather than under his thumb.

"I couldn't have done any of this without help and everyone involved has been so supportive," says Stone while sipping on soy milk — which reminds her of her dad's brief flirtation with health food when she was a child — in a Toronto vegetarian restaurant. "And sometimes it seems too good to be true. Like when we talked about how great it would be to have Angie Stone [no relation] sing back-up on the record, then one day I was in the studio and in walks this woman and I'm like, 'Is that Angie Stone?' I never thought we'd get her and it was weird. She shouldn't be singing back-up for me; I should be backing her up!"

Stone's lack of arrogance is genuine. She actually blushes when I compare her voice with that of '60s soul chanteuse Dusty Springfield. How endearing is that?

"Really? You think I sound like her? That's brilliant! I love her music."

Perhaps it's her upbringing in the small town of Devon in the English countryside that caused her to be so dang nice. Or perhaps it's her shock at becoming an overnight critical darling for a voice that even she's surprised to have.

"I'm the only person in my family that can sing," she says. "My dad sings around the house and isn't bad, but my mum! She can't sing a note! It's funny because she'll have songs in her head and she'll try to explain how they go and only I'll be able to understand her. Then I'll sing and she'll say, 'Oh, I wish I had a voice like yours.' But they say these things are passed down, so maybe I'm the first and I'll pass it down to my kids."

Getting set to complete the follow-up to The Soul Sessions, Stone remains cautiously optimistic about the future.

"I was really worried about The Soul Sessions because it was all covers and I thought people would be upset that I ruined the songs, but then everyone liked it. Now, I'm worried that they won't like my own songs," Stone says. "But I think there will be people who like my voice whatever I'm singing. At least I hope so."

And while Stone's next album is due to have more of a hip-hop/contemporary R&B flavour, don't expect Stone to become a pop puppet.

"I feel bad for Britney," Stone says with concern in her voice. "I really like her and people are so mean to her. It's, like, whatever she says or does, people are there to criticize her. I don't really understand it and I would never want to be in her position. She's just growing up; it shouldn't be as shocking as people make it out to be."