Joss Stone may not have made the Sunday Times "Rich List" this year, but she's not exactly barefoot in the streets.
Well, the barefoot part might be true.
But as for supposedly telling the Daily Mail that she was broke, Stone exclusively tells E! News, "She misquoted me there. The thing is, to say I was 'flat down to nothing' is absolutely not true."
"I have a house, it's nice," the British songstress said, smiling. "I actually bought my family home...I feel safe in the fact that I will always have that home—and, really, what else do I need?"
What is true is that Stone shelled out quite a bit to buy out her contract with former label EMI. A move she tells us was totally worth it when it came down to pleasing the bean counters or having artistic freedom.
The Soul Sessions: Volume II dropped Tuesday, and she marked the occasion with a performance on Good Morning America.
"I have to feel good about what I am doing," Stone said of her decision to make an album that, first and foremost, pleased her and would please her fans.
"When you alter what you're doing to fit a trend or label, if it doesn't sit well with you, you're bulls---ting your fans," she said. [EMI would get] "mad when you go off the path. You're messing with their business plan. When you sign a contract you have to stick to the same thing. It is happening less now, though, because real music is happening now. The artist has to be happy."
Artistically, she admitted, working with EMI was a boon for her career and she respects their position. "Without them I wouldn't have been where I am," Stone added.
The 25-year-old acknowledged that she did indeed have to "start again" when she left EMI, but she "buying back [her] freedom."
But she's not, as she mentioned before, "down to nothing" per se.
"I've got my home, I've got my pen, I've got my paper, Iv'e got enough money to make more music—what else do I need? "she told E! "I don't have millions, I don't have a load that I would technically be entitled to if I was in those [label] deals. But it doesn't matter. As long as you've got enough to make another record, what more do you need?"
Not to mention, we didn't too many paupers at the royal wedding last year. Yes, the singer was a guest on the groom's side.
"I was very honored to be invited to the wedding," Stone recalled. "I mean, it's not like I'm down at the pub with Will every Friday. When we do see each other, we just get along really well. All of them are lovely—Harry is very lovely, very cheeky and very polite and very nice. (BTW, that's Prince William and Prince Harry she's talking about as if they were regular people.)
"They're just really nice, normal people and I guess they just wanted to invite me. So I went!"
—Reporting by James Chairman