Unofficial Biography	Written By Joss Stone United Kingdom
Joscelyn Eve Stoker, or Joss Stone, as she's known to the world, was raised in the small town of Ashill, deep in the heart of mid-Devon, something you would not have guessed from listening to either her platinum-selling debut album, "The Soul Sessions," or her latest release, "Mind, Body & Soul." In fact, from listening to either disc, one would probably have guessed that this was the voice of a girl brought up in the deep south of America, not the south-west of England. Something else that shocks is that Joss is actually only 17, having been born on 11th April 1987, possessing a God-given voice, wiser and older than her years. And let's not get started on those who judge Joss by her appearances, for this girl is gorgeous, with luscious blonde hair and brown eyes, looking more like Britney Spears than soul divas such as Aretha Franklin and Betty Lavette.  Joss's success story begins in 2001 when she was 14, when she auditioned for the popular BBC show, "Star For A Night." Joss performed the Aretha Franklin classic, "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman," and was signed to an agent right away, blowing everyone away with her unmistakably mature, soulful vocals that differed so much from the fellow contestants, who were performing current hits. Joss and her mother, Wendy, decided that she should have a catchy name to accompany her new-found fame status, replacing Joscelyn Stoker with Joss Stone, Joss being an abbreviation of Joscelyn, and Stone being an adaptation of "Stoker." Joss and Wendy then flew to New York to meet with Steve Greenberg, CEO of S-Curve Records, who signed her immediately and wanted her to start work on her debut album for the label. Joss started work on "Mind, Body & Soul," officially in 2002, recording and helping to write tracks for, what she assumed would be, her debut album. Things began to change for Joss once Steve Greenberg introduced her to Miami soul legend Betty Wright to help hone her raw vocal talent. In turn Joss was introducted to some of the defining icons of soul music including guitarist Little Beaver, organist Timmy Thomas and keyboardist Latimore. After meeting and recording with all these soul legends, Steve had inspiration to record a side project. “He had the idea of doing an EP, like three or four tracks, with these soul legends, with Betty Wright,” Joss says. “Steve loves Betty Wright. Then it turned into this whole album thing, it got bigger and bigger and bigger. It was just meant to be an introduction to my album. Steve had loads of different songs cut onto a CD, like, I don't know, thirty or forty. We would listen to them, and I would pick the ones I liked, and Betty would pick the ones she liked. And she brought a few songs to the table, too. We all sat around in a ring and decided on the songs.” Joss listened to the originals in order to get a feel for the tracks, but always intended to bring something new to to the tracks. “I basically try to forget the original melody and make up my own. You know, as much as I could! To tell you the truth, I'm just making it up as I go along. Seriously, I'm just singing it how I think it should sound. I'm not using any special techniques. "Joss even collaborated with the Roots and Angie Stone on one last track for the CD - a cover of the White Stripe's "Fell In Love With A Girl," handily renamed to "Fell In Love With A Boy."  Having already started work on her debut album, recording tracks with these legends was a different experience for Joss, as each track was recorded live and mostly cut in one take, rather than recording each song note by note, and editing them to have a good result. The EP-which-grew-into-an-album was released to the US public in September last year, entitled "The Soul Sessions," and receiving rave reviews from all areas of the music press, including "Rolling Stone" magazine and "The New York Times." It was eventually released a few months later in the UK, where it was a sleeper hit, that is up until the promotion began for the first single from the album, Joss's interpretation of "Fell In Love With A Boy." The sultry video introduced her to the UK public, and the single hit the UK top 20 upon its release in January. The album was then released in Europe, Australia and Japan, where it also performed well, causing for a second single to be released.  "Super Duper Love" was chosen as the second single, being the ultimate radio-friendly summer track, and accompanied by a funky, retro, yet fresh video from David LaChappelle (famous for directing "Dirrty" for Christina Aguilera, "Everytime" for Britney Spears, and for his controversial photo shoots). This single further established Joss worldwide and increased album sales of "The Soul Sessions" immensely, pushing it into the UK top 5, and also giving it platinum status, and gold status in Australia, the USA and a lot of European territories. Joss was touring the world at the time, and even got to fulfill her ambition of playing the UK Glastonbury festival. Joss had previously cited her reasons for playing there: "it just seems like a fun thing to do and all my friends would be there," she said back in mid-2003. Having toured on and off for the most of 2004, supporting Erykah Badu and Simply Red, Joss also found time to finish recording her "proper" debut album, "Mind, Body & Soul." Working once again with the team that made "The Soul Sessions" such a success, and using some of the recording techniques employed on that album, Joss co-wrote 11 of the 14 tracks, and says that having the experience of recording her first album gave her increased confidence in her writing and singing. "I think my singing is so much better on this album and I had a lot more confidence in myself as a writer than I would've had a year ago. Your voice can't ever be the same, once you've started singing live as much as I have over the past year." Joss adds that this album is much more contemporary, saying, "There's more of a mix. There'll be like, a reggae track on there, and some hip hop influences as well. But, it's still soulful. I can't sing without soul. I try to keep a little bit of soul in there, because that's what it's all about.” Even the album title puns on her previous release, using the phrase, "Mind, Body & Soul," the three elements that have to "work together to provide a healthy harmony." "Mind, Body & Soul" sees Joss collaborating and working with many different artists. Joss co-wrote "Spoiled," a highlight of the record, with Detroit soul songwriter Lamont Dozier and his son Beau, whom she is currently dating, and co-wrote "Killing Time" with a Devon neighbour, Beth Gibbons, of Portishead. The lead single from the album, "You Had Me," was co-written by Eg White and Betty Wright, along with Joss and her mum, Wendy, and is Joss's biggest hit single to date, after it debuted at #9 in the official UK top 40 singles chart. Other highlights include the reggae-tinged, "Less Is More," the funk-filled "Don't Know How," and "Jet Lag," written with two British songwriters, Connor Reeves and Jonathan Shorton. The album debuted at #1 in the official UK album chart on release, and also went top 20 in many international territories, including reaching #11 in the official US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In late 2004, Joss released the second single from the album, "Right To Be Wrong," which answered critics (and incidentally was also recorded in Spanish before Joss had released her album by another Desmond Child collaborator, on her album, "Lipstick"), who said she was too young and inexperienced to be singing soul music. The single helped keep the album charting over the Christmas period, and went top 30 in the UK singles chart. The success also lead to Joss being invited to perform in the collaborative effort to raise money for third world countries stricken in poverty, a re-make of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" featuring current British acts coming together under the "Band Aid 20" title, just as their 80s counterparts had done. Others involved included Dizzee Rascal, Natasha Bedingfield, Daniel Bedingfield, Jamelia, Will Young, Travis, Dido, Robbie Williams and more. Following her involvement in the record, Joss was also asked to perform at the Live 8 concert in London (which also saw Madonna, Mariah Carey, U2, Robbie Williams, Dido, Ms. Dynamite and many more take to the stage) in July 2005 (both having been organised by Bob Geldof), which aimed to help Make Poverty History, by encouraging the leaders of the world's biggest 8 countries to increase aid, make trade fair and write off debt, pushed by the UK's Tony Blair. Before this, "Spoiled" had been released as the third release from "Mind, Body & Soul," at around the same time as the BRIT Awards ceremony, which saw Joss scoop two awards - Best Female Artist and Best Urban Artist (the latter of which was voted for by viewers of MTV Base). Following this, Joss received nominations at the Grammy Awards, which unfortunately she did not win, but she performed a medley of "Cry Baby" and "Piece Of My Heart" at the ceremony with Melissa Etheridge, who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time. The performance was released as a download single on the US iTunes service, and debuted in the US Billboard Hot 50 singles chart. Following this, in the summer of 2005, Joss released "Don't Cha Wanna Ride" as the fourth single from "Mind, Body & Soul."