Why Joss Stone wanted to be shown as a toon in her music videos

Singer Joss Stone says there was a time when she wanted to be depicted in cartoon form in her music videos, like the band Gorillaz, in order to protect her privacy.

Stone was just 14 when she signed a record deal. She asked the label boss if her music videos could be animated like those of the band Gorillaz.

"I said to Steve Greenberg, who signed me when I was 14, 'Steve, if we're gonna do music videos, can we just do a cartoon like the Gorillaz so nobody knows what I look like?' And he said, 'I didn't sign you to hide you'... How jealous am I of Sia?"," she said during a podcast. She referred to the singer Sia, who retains her anonymity by usually covering her face with a wig.

Joss, now 33, also opened up on the dangers of fame, after two men planned to rob and kill her in 2011.

She said: "If you put yourself out there in that way then guess what? They're gonna know what you look like and they might follow you and try to kill you, and they might call you all the names under the sun.

"Or they might fall in love with you and buy you flowers and turn up," she added.