Posted March 2, 200817 yr Men's Health Woman -- Joss Stone Win Her Heart, With Soul The songbird Joss Stone knows there's logic in the lyrics of love songs. Learn it, and your woman won't start singing the blues By: Stephen Armstrong, Photographs by: Jason Bell http://www.menshealth.com/media/MH_Static/images/2008/01/1200604612149/0803_jossstone1_200x200.jpg Joss Stone should be mad as hell. She's just spent a whole day in an exhausting photo shoot without even a break for lunch. In an hour, she needs to start rehearsing for tonight's show, but before that she has to talk to me. She asks, not unreasonably, if she can grab a bowl of stew while we chat. Trouble is, the 18th-century London townhouse we're shooting in is owned by an interior designer. His one rule: no food outside the kitchen. But the kitchen is crammed with yammering people, so there's no way we'll have a decent conversation in there. "That's fine," she shrugs with an easy grace. She tables her food and leads the way to a quieter room upstairs. Wait -- a young sensation who's not a diva? That...that can't be. Although she's just 20, this Grammy winner is already on her third album. The willowy siren from a small town 200 miles west of London sings with a voice that tears up sweet soul music as if she's lived a whole lifetime of loving and losing. Her first release, The Soul Sessions, consisted mainly of reworked classics. Her second -- Mind, Body and Soul -- saw her working with songwriters but delivering much of the same Stax-type sound. Her third, 2007's Introducing Joss Stone, sounds a little bit Philly with a pinch of hip-hop and a healthy dollop of old-school funk. It debuted at number two on the Billboard charts, the highest ever for a female British artist. But the album almost never happened. "I had to fight tooth and nail to write and record my own songs," says Stone. She's sitting cross-legged on a couch as she chats with me like we're old friends, offering up a deep, husky, sexy laugh every few minutes. "They were, like, 'No. Absolutely no way. You're a singer. You stay a singer.' But if I'm just a singer, then that's kind of $h!t. I want to expand and do more." So she took off to the Bahamas to record -- no cellphone, no e-mail, just her band. "I wanted to do this without outside influences," she says, "just to see what's actually going on in my own head. Otherwise, I'd never find out." She recorded the entire album without letting the people at her label hear a note. Then she brought it back, dumped it on the table, and said, "Here, release this!" They did, and the result was what she'd hoped for. Stone manages her own life in the same way: privately. She won't say whom she's dating--"I've decided not to talk about that anymore. I'm really bad at not talking about things, and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble recently." She is, however, happy to provide a description to help identify suspects: "For a man to be attractive, he has to be a man," she says without a hint of hesitation. "It's that simple, guys. Just be strong and make your woman feel looked after. Let her be a lady. Be the strength that a woman needs. Let me know I'm cared for and I'll provide everything else for myself." http://www.menshealth.com/images/MH_Static/images/2008/01/1200604612149/0803_jossstone2_200x200.jpghttp://www.menshealth.com/images/MH_Static/images/2008/01/1200604612149/0803_jossstone3_200x200.jpghttp://www.menshealth.com/images/MH_Static/2008/02/1202840451957/0803_jossstone_4_200x200.jpg
