Before soul began to experience a revival during the latter half of the 2000s, there were only a few modern artists keeping it relevant. One of them was Joss Stone, whose singles such as “You Had Me”, “Right To Be Wrong”, “Tell Me ‘Bout It”, and “Super Duper Love”, which was originally done by Willie “Sugar Billy” Garner, hit various global charts.

The Dover, England native is still performing and recording, and she has a show coming up in at the Park Theatre in Cranston on Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. There isn’t an opening act, so attendees arrive on time to get the whole experience.

We talked ahead of the performance about her latest single featuring a line that’s inspired by a comedy classic, the most important thing she’s learned during her career, and making sure to get a new album done and released by next year.

Rob Duguay: Last month, you released a new single titled “No Thank You”, and on your website you mentioned that it has a lyrical reference to the ‘90s Adam Sandler comedy “Happy Gilmore”. The sequel to that film came out around the same time as the release of the song, so was that planned out beforehand? How did this track come to be?

Joss Stone: Literally, I was just messing around when I wrote that track, it was just a joke. I sang it back to my friend who said, “That’s ridiculous”. I said, I know, it’s silly, but I just left it to one side. Then I saw that “Happy Gilmore 2” was coming out, and you’ve seen the original, right?

RD: Yeah, I have.

JS: There’s a line in that film that always made me laugh where the guy goes, “I eat pieces of s*** like you for breakfast”, and then Happy goes, “You eat pieces of s*** for breakfast?”. It made me laugh when I first saw it, and it still makes me laugh whenever I watch it. For some reason, it tickled me, so it ended up in a lyric. My fans are always asking me for new music, and I literally don’t have any new music because I got no bloody time, so I figured I’d put this song out as a way of colliding it with the second “Happy Gilmore”. I thought it would be funny, but it would only make sense to people who know the film.

If they didn’t know it, it would make zero sense. It’s just a silly thing. (laughs)

RD: You mentioned last year that you’ve been working on a new album with a disco sound, and “No Thank You” definitely has that vibe along with some hip hop, so what initially inspired you to go into this artistic direction?

JS: I wasn’t that thoughtful; it was just some music that I wanted to share. It wasn’t like I felt that I needed to change my sound or anything like that, I wasn’t thinking that deeply about it. I wrote it with a producer and writer I’ve worked with for a while who doesn’t want me to say his name because he doesn’t like the lyrics to the song.

RD: You’ve been making and recording music ever since you were a teenager, which has practically been for half of your life now, so what would you say is the most important thing you’ve learned so far in your career either on the artistic side, from a business standpoint or just your overall vision?

JS: I think it’s to just go with your gut, honestly. I think that’s the most important thing I’ve learned because if you make a mistake, and it was your gut that told you to do it, yours, not someone else, then you can learn from the mistake. If it’s from someone else’s instruction, you can’t learn from it because you didn’t do it, you can just be pissed off that you let someone else take control, and that’s annoying. It’s your life, it’s your career, and if you’re going to make mistakes, let them be your own.

RD: That’s great advice. What are your thoughts when it comes to performing in historic venues like The Park Theatre? The establishment recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.

JS: I don’t know what the venue is like, but I imagine that it’s probably lovely and whoever made it probably cared a lot and took their time, because that’s what they did back then. My husband is from Rhode Island, so basically half of my family is from there and I really appreciate how old everything is there, it’s kind of cool. I haven’t spent time in Cranston, my husband is from North Kingstown, but he’s told me about it, and he always makes fun of the accent, which is great. Hopefully I’ll see some family and friends there.

My mother-in-law went to the venue to pick up tickets and she told me that it’s nice so I’m looking forward to seeing it. When you have a building that has been filled with music and good feeling for a very long period, you can kind of feel it because people are happy when they are in places like that. It’s sort of like a church, it’s like a place of worship, and it’s the same thing with football stadiums. People are there and they’re giving a lot of energy, maybe the floor or the walls remember that I don’t know.

RD: Going back to recordings, are you working on anything else to follow up this single you have out?

JS: “No Thank You” was written amongst all of the other songs that I’m making for the album. It ended up just being a vibe, so I decided to put it out by itself. I wasn’t going to include it in the whole, so it was always going to be one of those songs that get left out, but I’m glad that we put it out so people can hear it. Over the years when you go make an album, there’s little stragglers that don’t fit, and you’re wondering why they get left out. It’s a shame that nobody hears them, so I’m glad we did that. For the whole album, I don’t know what’s going on with it.

I had a plan for it, and it’s honestly like herding cats, so I have to go with my gut and not wait for other people. I really hope next year it happens because I know my fans are waiting for an album. They’re not waiting for little tidbits, they’re like “Give me some new music!” and they’re very much asking for an album, so with or without the help of others, I’m going to bloody make it happen.