Joss Stone gets intimate on Morristown-bound Less Is More tour

TINA TURNBOW

JOSS STONE

“It’s like sitting down in your living room with your mates and having a little chat,” says Joss Stone of her current “unplugged” tour, which is titled Less Is More, and will come to The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Oct. 7.

Her time onstage may represent the most relaxing part of her day. As has usually been the case throughout her 25-year career, she has a lot going on. She is also writing songs for a new album; her last (not counting the holiday album Merry Christmas, Love) was 2022’s Never Forget My Love, produced by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. She co-hosts a podcast, “A Cuppa Love,” that focuses on relationship advice. She is developing a new line of baby products. And she runs her own Joss Stone Foundation, which supports more than 200 charities around the globe.

Acting is also on her resume, with roles in several films (“Eragon,” “Tomorrow”) and TV series (“The Tudors,” “Empire”), though no more acting projects are currently on the horizon.

Most importantly, she gave birth to her fourth child in June, and recently moved from Nashville back to the country where she grew up, England.

I talked to her about her upcoming show in Morristown, and more, via Zoom.

Q: Can you tell me about the stripped-down format of the show, and why you’re doing it this way?

A: Absolutely. We started the Less Is More stripped-down tour because I was pregnant with my daughter, who has just been born, and I thought, “Oh my God, I’ve got all these gigs booked. I think I need to make the show so I don’t have to be bouncing around like a crazy person onstage.” So I was like, “Okay, how about we do a Total World Tour-inspired version?”

I did a tour called The Total World Tour (from 2014 to 2019), which included every country in the world, and it basically was me and a guitar player for the majority of it — I would say, for 70 to 85 percent of it. When we did that, we realized how beautiful it is when it’s so stripped back. Because the production on most of the albums is pretty full. I have never done an acoustic album. So it was like, “God, these songs are gorgeous.”

So I thought, “Well, why not let’s do that?” And it was such a nice thing to do. Easier for me on my body, which is great. But, yeah, I just think it was really lush and people really reacted well to it. So we decided to do some more. And it’s kind of nice because now the baby is out. She’s on the other side of the tummy and she’s going to be with us, and it’s just really exciting to do this with her able to sort of react to it.

Joss Stone’s Morristown show is part of her Less Is More Tour.

Q: So it’s just you and a guitarist?

A: No, it’s me, a guitarist, a bass player and backing singers. So, pretty close to (The Total World Tour), but not exactly that. No drums, no electric guitar, no organ, no horns, which is what we usually have.

Q: Does this format allow you to do more talking between songs? Is it that kind of intimate show where you talk about the songs and things like that?

A: Yeah. It’s just a totally different vibe. It’s like sitting down in your living room with your mates and having a little chat. “Intimate” is the word people use a lot. It really is just like a chat. I actually even have a cup of tea and I’ll make the audience a cup of tea and then just talk, and tell stories about the songs. It just seems more … I don’t want to say “raw,” because my show’s usually raw anyway, but it’s just raw in a different way. It’s more like as if you went round to someone’s house and they were like, “Hey, let me play you this song.” And they sat on the sofa, and that’s what they did. We even have sofas (laughs). We sort of made it like a living room, which is quite sweet — quite a nice, refreshing way of hearing it. For me and for the audience.

Q: I know you recently toured with Melissa Etheridge. What was that like for you?

A: That was amazing. I was just about to pop then — seven months, eight months pregnant. And what I did was I split the styles. I wanted to bring my full band on, but I didn’t want to make the whole show that, so I had, like, half of the show was Less Is More style, and the other half was real band. A lot of it was sat-down, and then I got up and the band came on and we sung our little asses off and it was great. And the drummer was absolutely incredible and it was just, like, an explosion of sound.

Q: Did you learn anything just by watching Melissa Etheridge every night?

A: Oh, man, I’ve learnt from her since birth. My mum went to her concert when I was in her tummy in 1987. So I’ve been listening to her, literally, since before I was born So, yes, I definitely have learned from her. And she always has something really beautiful to give.

A poster for Melissa Etheridge and Joss Stone’s Spring 2025 tour.

Q: Can you give me any example of something like that, from this tour?

A: I spoke to her a little bit about parenting. I said it’s really hard to leave my kids, and she was like, “Honey, the more you do what you love, the more they will do what they love.” No one’s really said it to me like that before. I’m so consumed with the fact that I’m not with them for the two-week period, you know? That, to me, feels like two years. So I struggle with it. And I think I was a bit emotional about that. And what she said reminded me that my girls are going to be influenced by what I do, not by what I tell them. And the same goes for my husband Cody. It’s like, monkey see, monkey do. It’s not like, you can tell a child, “Hey, be polite, don’t swear,” and then you’re rude and you’re swearing and expect them not to do it. You have to act in the way that you want them to act, whether that be super polite, with decorum, or whether that be adventurous and bold and brave. So I have to be that.

I just think that needed to be pointed out to me at the time, because I didn’t see it like that at all.

Melissa has a tendency to remind me of important things. She’s really good like that.

Q: Can you tell me anything about your next album? What’s it going to be like, and when it is coming out?

A: I don’t have one (laughs). I was supposed to have one, I started working on it, and then all the people that were supposed to be involved in doing it were just completely useless. I won’t bore you with the details of that, but the bottom line is, it never got recorded. It’s all like writing demos right now, so I really hope I can do it next year. It’s a crazy thing. It’s like herding cats sometimes, you know.

Q: Why is it like herding cats?

A: Because you’re dealing with creative people, and creative people are not standard, like, straightforward. Creative people are very emotional, so what I was trying to do was sort of organize everybody, so they would do something, creatively, that I thought was a great idea. And they were like, “Nah, I want to do it this way.” That was like person A. And person B was like, “Yeah, but I want to do it this way.” And then person C was like, “Oh, but guys, I actually don’t want to do it with any of you, I just want to do it my way” (laughs). That’s why I say people management is like herding cats. And going on the road, if you’re a tour manager on the road with a group of musicians and the crew, it’s the same thing. Creatives are not all the same. They’re going to go their own way.

Q: But then there are those moments, I think in anyone’s career, where you’re with a group of musicians and everyone is on the same page.

A: Yes. And that’s how you end up with a great piece of music. Those moments are the most special ones and those are the ones that I wait for and hope for. Without them, nothing good happens.

Q: So with the new album, you’re kind of starting from scratch and looking to put together a new group of musicians or collaborators?

A: Yeah, I paused it. I think I need to look at the songs I’ve got and rethink the approach. Which is actually not going to be too hard to do, because I’m in a different space now. I’m a year older. I’ve got one more child. I’m living in a different country. So a lot of things have changed from that time when I was writing the songs. So I feel like, naturally, I’m going to feel differently. So, yeah, I’m excited to see what it’s going to turn out to be.

The cover of Joss Stone’s 2022 Dave Stewart-produced album, “Never Forget My Love.”

Q: Would you ever work with Dave Stewart again?

A: Oh, yeah, I love Dave. Dave’s amazing. I actually lived just down the road from Dave when I was in Tennessee. He’s such a lush person. I love Dave Stewart.

Q: I didn’t realize you weren’t in Tennessee anymore. Where are you?

A: We just moved to England, two or three weeks ago.

Q: Where in England, if you don’t mind saying?

A: It’s where I was brought up, in a county called Devon.

Q: What’s Devon like? I’ve never been there.

A: Have you ever seen “The Lord of the Rings”?

Q: Sure.

A: And do you know the beginning of it when they’re in the Shire, with the little hobbits?

Q: Right.

A: It’s that. It’s, like, literally that.

Q: It’s a magical place.

A: Magical, yeah. Farmland, you know. Really, really gorgeous. I love it.

Q: Awesome. Why did you make that move?

A: I wanted my kids to grow up close to family. Cody, my partner, is from Rhode Island. His family are there, and we just had to pick one. For me, I really, really wanted to be near my mum. And we just discussed it. We were like, “Okay, so we want them to grow up with family. We don’t want them to be, like, on their own, out in the world. So what’s it going to be, Rhode Island or England?” And he said, “England.” And I was like, “Hallelujah!” Luckily I didn’t have to beg him to change his mind or anything. He was like, “Yeah, I want to go to England.” I was like, “Wow, that’s so cool.”

So now here we are. It’s a very special place. And my family are all very, very close. I mean, like, minutes away from each other.

JOSS STONE

Q: So are any other projects coming up that I should know about?

A: Yeah, I’m always doing something. I was making a maternity clothing line when I was preggers. I thought the best time to do it was when I was really pregnant. And the other thing I was doing was making baby products. That’s actually my big focus right now. I make, like, baby oil, moisturizing cream, bath soap — stuff like that. I’ve become a bit of obsessed with all that stuff since I’ve become a mum.

Q: And where would people find these products?

A: Well, they can’t yet, because I’m still sort of creating it. I’m about 10 months into the creative process, which is really interesting. I did one sort of like pow-wow with some mummies to try the products, and then I’m going to do another one at the end of this year. I want to create the formulations with other mums and parents, because I think it needs to be a bit collaborative. It can’t just be what I like, you know? So that’s kind of exciting, because it’s something very different from music.

Q: Any more acting projects? Have you thought of exploring that anymore?

A: No, not at the moment. I don’t have that much time. I wish I could. That would be fun.

You know, I was talking to somebody about doing, like, The West End. And they were like, “Yeah, it’s great. You know, now you’re a mom, you’re going to be in England.” And I was like, “Yeah, cool.” And they’re like, “Well, you have to do it every day, sometimes twice a day, and you can see your kids in between.” I’m like, “Okay, that’s not going to work.”

I have to be there for my babies. I can’t be doing all that. Maybe when they’re older: When they’ve all flown the nest.

When things like that come up, like acting gigs, if they sound fun and they don’t take up, like, a year — if they’re just a month commitment, or a couple weeks — then I entertain the idea of it. But it’s not in the front of my mind.

Joss Stone will perform at The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. Visit mayoarts.org.

_________________________________________