Two myths have to be put to rest about Grace Jones. The first is that she is not 'six feet' (1.89 metres) tall in her stockings (she actually stands at 1.73 metres) and the second is that her 'bad girl past' was just an artistic expression and nothing to do with her real life.
'Everyone thinks I'm a giant or something. I'm only five feet eight inches in my stockings. I wear very high heels - maybe three and a half or four inches - so I am six feet in heels.
But then, my legs are as long as someone who's six-four, so I think that's why everybody thinks I'm so tall,' Jones said.
And the bad girl past? 'No, not a real bad girl past. Bad girl fantasy past; maybe bad girl illusion past,' she said with a throaty laugh.
But, the queen diva of the nightclub scene would be the first to admit that her naughty reputation has helped make Grace Jones the indelible larger-than-life persona that she is.
'Oh yeah, that has certainly helped,' she purred, 'but my personal life is not at all like what my entertainment life is, that I usually keep very, very private.
'I just express myself very artistically in another way, intellectually too. There has to be something that lets me say 'OK, this is how I want to express myself' and I do that. But when I come home, I am a different person.' Jones was speaking over the telephone from Detroit where she has been performing in the musical The Wiz, a rock'n'roll spin-off on the classic L. Frank Baum tale, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.