Twenty-two years into a career that’s seen her headlining stages throughout the world — the entire world — British soul singer Joss Stone, a diva in every sense of the word, is making her first appearance in Fort Wayne on her intimate, acoustic Less Is More tour Saturday, Feb. 22, at The Clyde Theatre.

Off and running

Stone burst onto the international scene in 2003 at the age of 16, a girl from a small village in England, with The Soul Sessions, covering American classics, recorded with the best session players in historic studios in Miami, Philadelphia, and New York. Critics and the public were stunned, comparing her to a young Aretha Franklin, which is a lot to live up to.

She soon shifted into writing her own music, collaborating with ace songwriters and producers. Probably best known in the U.S. for her smoldering performance on “Right To Be Wrong” off her 2004 sophomore album Mind Body & Soul, Stone rocketed to international stardom. 

Today, with nine studio albums, she counts 15 million sold worldwide, and more than a billion streams in the U.S. alone. She’s performed or collaborated with the likes of James Brown, Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Sting, Van Morrison, Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, and Damien Marley.

Hospitality

Here in Fort Wayne, I was sitting on a video call when Joscelyn Stoker (aka Joss Stone) joined, to my astonishment, with her 3-month-old baby on her lap, from Nashville, Tennessee. Her husband came in to take their son, “and then I can talk to this nice man,” she said. 

I don’t know if she treats all journalists as houseguests, but that’s what I felt like for a candid 20-minute visit.

As has been widely reported, Stone and her husband, already parents of two, adopted their son, born premature and now doing fine. Shortly after the adoption, they learned Stone was pregnant. They’re elated, and she is expecting their fourth child in June.

Lucky for us, she’s working in a few tour dates beforehand, in a new format. 

Stone is known for powerful performances fronting an eight-piece band, but her Less Is More tour will present her with one acoustic guitarist, two backup singers, and a cellist. When we spoke, she was still choosing the players and had not started rehearsals, but told me, “The person that’s for sure there is Steve Down. That’s my guitar player and musical director of many, many years. And I toured the world with him.”

Stone’s recent albums feature huge arrangements with a full band, strings, and horns. How can she adapt those big power ballads to an acoustic format?

“Really, all you need is a big, powerful R&B singer for that,” she laughed. “So, I’ll do that bit! The reason why I think this will be beautiful is because I have tested it.”

A true worldwide performer

Let’s back up to that part where I said “the whole world.” 

Stone may well have performed in more countries than any musician in history. In 2014, she set out with a list of 204 countries and spent six years on the project.

“When I was doing it, I was like, ‘I have to do this because I don’t want to get to my deathbed and have not done it,’ ” she said. “I really want to treat everywhere and everyone the same, and every country is as valid as the next, whether it can pay you or not.

“And the reality is people say they go on world tours all the time. 

“Even though they pretend they go, they do not go.

“They only go to the countries that pay them. And there are many more that can’t pay them but would love to see them.”

She started with her full eight-piece band, but “I realized after about 30 countries, probably, this is really hard to fund. 

“So, that’s why I ended up just me and a guitar player for like 150 countries.”

You can find the list of stops on that six-year tour online. By my count it’s 198 nations, including every country in Africa, every tiny island nation across the Pacific, and, of course, big shows with her band in the large nations in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

As for the immediate future, Stone is co-headlining with Melissa Etheridge on 10 dates in April. “And those gigs, I’m going to take my full band, right? I mean it’s Melissa Etheridge! I don’t want to be like ‘la la la’ and then Melissa comes out and wipes the floor,” she laughed, with an epithet.

Recent albums

The product of her Nashville sojourn was 2022’s Never Forget My Love, co-written and produced by the great Dave Stewart, best remembered from his duo Eurythmics in the ’80s. 

She also released Merry Christmas, Love in 2022 and 20 Years of Soul Live in Concert last year. 

With Stewart, she co-wrote the musical The Time Traveller’s Wife, staged in the West End in London.

Despite reports otherwise, Stone told me there will be no new album this year.

“I really wanted there to be, and I started working on it last year. But the person I want to make it with wasn’t ready at the time,” she said.“But also I’m pregnant, and I’ve got two tours, and I’m moving back to England. So, there’s a lot going on. I think what I really would like to do is at least release a couple songs, but a full album? I don’t think that’d be ready this year.”

Stone asked me to mention that her new podcast, A Cuppa Love, will premiere on Valentine’s Day. It’s her follow-up to a three-year run with A Cuppa Happy, from 2020-2022, which was not about music, but conversations with cultural leaders and deep thinkers about life issues.

So, after criss-crossing the world for years, why Fort Wayne in 2025?

She said that having been based in Nashville the last five years, “I have a new agent and he books for a lot of country acts, right? So, last year we played places that we’ve never been before. And often in the interviews I was doing, they were like, ‘Of all places, why would you come here?’

“I’m really glad because I get to go to different places,” she said with staggering understatement. “It’s kind of nice.”