Doug Stone

Doug Stone (born Douglas Jackson Brooks; June 19, 1956) is an American country music singer and songwriter.

Stone was born as Douglas Jackson Brooks on June 19, 1956, in Marietta, Georgia.

His mother, who was also a country music singer, taught him how to play guitar when he was 5.

When he was 7, his mother placed him onstage to open for Loretta Lynn.

His mother and father later divorced, and he moved to live with his father.

He found additional work singing as a teenager: first at local skating rinks, and then at local bars, and later as one member of a short-lived trio; in addition, he and his father worked as mechanics to make ends meet.

He also built a recording studio in his house, while performing in local clubs.

By 1982, Stone was suffering from depression brought on by his musical career, when a friend introduced him to Carie Cohen, who would later become his second wife.

He played various local venues, and was discovered by a record label manager while singing at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.

The manager asked him for demos, which she then sent to Epic Records.

He chose to record under the name Doug Stone, so as to avoid confusion with Garth Brooks.

Record producer Doug Johnson played three tunes for Epic Records producer Bob Montgomery, who disliked the first two that he heard but enjoyed the third one.

Through Montgomery's assistance, Stone signed with Epic in 1989, thus becoming the only artist that Montgomery ever signed without seeing perform live.

He debuted in 1990 with the single "I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)", the first release from his 1990 self-titled debut album for Epic Records.

After suffering a heart attack and stroke in the late 1990s, he exited the label and did not release another album until Make Up in Love in 1999 on Atlantic Records.

Stone has charted twenty-six singles on Hot Country Songs, with his greatest chart success coming between 1990 and 1995.

In this timespan, he had eight No. 1 singles on the Hot Country Songs charts including "In a Different Light", "A Jukebox with a Country Song", "Too Busy Being in Love", and "Why Didn't I Think of That".

He is known for his neotraditionalist country sound and frequent recording of ballads.

Stone's self-titled debut album was released in 1990 with Johnson as producer.

Mac McAnally, Mark O'Connor, Paul Franklin, Brent Rowan, and Willie Weeks were among the session musicians on it.

Both this album and its successor, 1991's I Thought It Was You, earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Contributing songwriters included David Lee Murphy, Larry Boone, Randy Boudreaux, A.L. "Doodle" Owens, Johnny MacRae, and Keith Palmer, who would later chart two singles for Epic in 1991.

Its first single, "I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)", spent twenty-five weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and peaked at No. 4. In addition, the single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song, and the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of one million copies.

The album's next two singles were both Top Ten singles as well: "Fourteen Minutes Old" at No. 6 and "These Lips Don't Know How to Say Goodbye" at No. 5. Following these songs was "In a Different Light", co-written by Dickey Lee, which became Stone's first number 1 on Billboard.

Stone received three music award nominations in 1991: the Horizon Award (now New Artist Award) from the Country Music Association, Star of Tomorrow from Music City News, and Top New Male Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music.

Brian Mansfield gave Doug Stone a four-and-a-half star rating out of five in his review for Allmusic.

His review praised "I'd Be Better Off" in particular, calling the song a "towering expression of self-pity that most singers could spend a career trying to top," also saying that Stone "came close" to matching that song's quality in the album's ballads.

I Thought It Was You, his second album, was released in August 1991.

Also certified platinum, it produced three more chart singles: the No. 4 title track, followed by the number 1 "A Jukebox with a Country Song" and "Come In Out of the Pain" at No. 3. "A Jukebox with a Country Song" spent two weeks at number 1, thus becoming his only multi-week number 1 single.

Stone co-wrote the track "The Feeling Never Goes Away" with Kim Williams and Phyllis Bennett, and then-labelmate Joe Diffie co-wrote "Burning Down the Town".

Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an "A", saying that it contained "sex-and-smolder ballads" comparable to Conway Twitty.

Mansfield was less favorable, saying that Stone "seems to wallow in sorrow".

Two more albums for Epic, 1992's From the Heart and 1994's More Love, are each certified gold.

Stone moved to Columbia Records to record Faith in Me, Faith in You, which did not produce a Top Ten among its three singles.

In early 1992, Stone began experiencing dizziness and pain in one of his arms.

He also began feeling chest pains which he initially thought were heartburn.

After feeling disoriented at a concert in Oregon, he canceled an appearance at the Academy of Country Music telecast.

He then underwent quadruple bypass surgery at Centennial Medical Center to alleviate four severe arterial blockages near his heart which had initially gone undiscovered by doctors.

Following the surgery, Stone changed his diet and began exercising, in addition to touring in support of his third album, From the Heart, released that August.

The Long Way was released in 2002 on the Audium label (now part of E1 Music), followed by two albums on the independent Lofton Creek Records.