'That was such fun! I played a song with Roger Daltrey then one with Dave Stewart then we all played a couple of songs together. It was awesome. It was at someone's little house – well, someone's big house. It was like a garden party."
Joss Stone is explaining how she recently came to share a stage with two of the best-known names in British pop at a $2,500-a-head charity fundraiser in California.
"I love Roger," she says. "What a cool guy. I sang My Generation for him last year
at the Kennedy Center honours (the USA's "annual national celebration of the arts" held in Washington DC]. I sang for James Brown the first time I did it then I got to sing with him too. I'm a very lucky girl."
Right now it would seem things couldn't really be better for Devon's 22-year-old queen of soul – that is if it wasn't for the fact that she's just spent months embroiled in a high-profile battle with her record company EMI.
Despite career sales of eight million CDs worldwide label chiefs put their foot down when Joss wanted to release a new album of songs she'd written and recorded at her mum's live music venue in Somerset.
EMI, now owned by a private equity firm, complained that Colour Me Free wasn't commercial enough. A stand-off ensued during which Joss reportedly offered the company £2million to escape her record contract. "It got to the point where I said, 'Take my house and release the record'," she says.
In the end the label relented – but with a pay-off. Colour Me Free would have no budget at all.
"The thing is I just made an album and I wanted people to like it," says Joss. "I did not think anything of it. Why did it have to be a big deal? Why does it have to focus on being a No.1 song? F*** that, I can't be bothered."
She understands "why EMI would say, 'Look, hold on a minute. We're running a business. It's not about you having a lovely time in the studio'" – the issue for her is more fundamental, it's about her creative rights. "So it's got a low budget? That's fine by me. I just wanted to have artistic freedom."
If that means she has to do the promotional donkey-work herself, then so be it. "I'm tired of all the silliness," she sighs.
I suggest the album's old-school soul feel reminds me of the work of Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder. They were an influence, Joss agrees – "When it comes to vocals those are the people that I love" – but, she says, her tastes are broader. "There's other genres – hip-hop, especially Lauryn Hill, reggae, gospel."
She hadn't intended to record an album at her mum Wendy's venue Mama Stones – then in Wellington, Somerset, now relocated to Exeter – it just happened to fit the bill when she wanted to make a "raw record" relatively quickly. Having her mum present was just like when she was starting out as a 16-year-old. "It was nice to have her opinion," she says.
EMI may not be throwing money Joss's way but that didn't stop her bringing in a stellar cast of guests, including guitar hero Jeff Beck, former Prince drummer Sheila E and hip-hop star Nas, to help her out.
