Devon sent

It is true that Stone, 17, is no longer partmanaged by her mother Wendy. For the giant task of releasing and promoting September's Mind Body & Soul, her first album of co-written original material, fasttalking American Ron Stone (no relation - Joss's real surname is Stoker) was appointed, a music business veteran whose past charges include Bonnie Raitt and Belinda Carlisle.

But if Mum is bitter about this development, she is hiding it well as she sits beside Ron, enjoying a posh version of an egg sandwich in the discreetly luxurious Lancaster Gate Hotel where her daughter is entertaining Europe's press for the day. 'My mum's not my manager or my chaperone any more,' says Stone, curled up on a large sofa in the next room, the toes on her shoeless feet painted alternately pink and yellow. 'She's just my mum, and it works much better that way.'

As for her estimated £4.5 million fortune, it is true that her mum and her dad Richard, who runs a dried-fruit business, have agreed to let the spending spree commence when she hits 21 instead of the original 25. But even if she had it all now, it is hard to believe she would buy anything but the usual teenage fare of hair products and mobile phone top-up cards. It has been pointed out plenty of times before, but it's still a shock to discover exactly how ordinary Joss Stone is in person.

She giggles and swoons when talking about her boyfriend Beau Dozier, unfazed by the fact that as he is the son of legendary Motown songwriter Lamont (their relationship makes them the Golden Couple of soul). When she talks, there is a slight huskiness to her voice --she admits that the combination of singing and constant record company meet-and-greets does not keep her vocal cords healthy - and a hint of an American twang after spending so much time in the country that discovered her, but she still has the same flickering attention span and forthright opinions of any young girl. On the day we meet she has received a large, flattering live review on page three of this paper, and her only concern is that the picture makes her look 'fat'.

With typical teenage insecurity, she is not keen on being looked at. 'If I could remove one thing from this job I'd take out the photos,' she says. 'I hate all that, especially when everyone else in this industry is so perfect. I do care how I look, because I'm a girl, but I don't want people to listen with their eyes. I don't want to sell my album on how I look, because that way I'll never know if I'm a good singer or not.'

For the record, she is a superb singer, with a deep, soothing voice that she uses with admirable restraint. Due to the overpowering novelty of such a muscular noise emanating from a blonde Devon teenager, there is a danger of showboating - on unrepresentative hit single 'You Had Me' she strays dangerously close to becoming a white soul belter like Anastacia. But elsewhere, on standout new tracks such as the mellow 'Jet Lag' and the horn-packed, summery 'Don't Cha Wanna Ride', she displays impressive self-control.

Stone is dismissive of her efforts, perhaps unsurprising when she finds herself being compared not to her contemporaries Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne, but to legends such as Etta James and Aretha Franklin. 'I'm just not a very good singer,' she confesses. 'A lot of people can sing for a really long time, but I'm not able to. My voice is busted every time I do a gig.'

She laughs at the Aretha comparison, as would anyone whose ego was smaller than Jupiter. Why would people want to buy a Joss Stone album when Aretha's works are still in the shops? 'That's the whole point,' she counters. 'It kind of pisses me off that people want to market me to adults because they already know soul music, but a lot of people my age don't. The reason I did the EP covering all those old soul songs was so that kids would go out and look for albums by all the people I covered. Music is something to be shared - it's not a competition.'

The 'EP', as she calls it, was her first release The Soul Sessions, 10 cover versions of vintage soul songs by the likes of the Isley Brothers and Bettye Swann and, to add a contemporary twist, a White Stripes number. It is an EP as it doesn't count as part of her five-album deal with her American mentor Steve Greenberg's label S-Curve Records, who originally intended to put out just five of the songs. Delightfully off-message throughout our interview, Stone is blunt about it. 'It was recorded in eight days. It sounds horrible,' she says, incorrectly.

Greenberg decided to release all 10 tracks at the end of 2003, when American hype over the girl from 'the little English town of Devon'

became impossible to ignore, and The Soul Sessions went on to sell 2.5 million copies worldwide. Not bad for someone discovered at 13 after winning BBC talent show Junior Star For A Night under the watchful eye of cruise ship singer Jane McDonald, Sonia from EastEnders, Barbara Windsor and one of Atomic Kitten.

Today, she keeps rather more impressive company. She has sung twice in front of George 'Dubya' Bush, and singers she has duetted with on stage include Elton John, Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight. The latest man to share her microphone is Mick Jagger - their rendition of Jagger and Dave Stewart's co-composition 'Lonely Without You (This Christmas)' appears on the Alfie soundtrack and should be a strong contender for the Christmas number one spot.

Tom Cruise is also a personal friend, having loved The Soul Sessions so much he simply called her up and invited her and her mum over to his place. 'He's just a guy,' she says. 'The thing is, because I'm young I hadn't really heard of all these big American things like Rolling Stone magazine or Letterman or VH1 Divas, so when I do them it doesn't really seem like that big a deal to me. When I do Top Of The Pops I'm really nervous.'

However, regardless of their status, surely all this hanging around with old people would get any 17-year-old down after a while? When it does, Stone is, as usual, very matter-of-fact about her plan to get some youth back into her life. 'If I start to get bored of this singing thing, I'll just go and do something else,' she says. 'I always wanted to be a midwife, but you have to go to school again, right?'

Joss Stone , Tue 9 Nov, Carling Academy Brixton, 211 Stockwell Road, SW9 (0870 060 0100)

Joss Stone