Music / Doug Stone

Douglas Jackson Brooks (born June 19, 1956), known professionally as Doug Stone, is a Country Music singer hailing from Marietta, Georgia.

Stone got into music early on, opening for Loretta Lynn at age seven. A myriad of local performances ensued over his childhood and teenage years, ultimately leading to a demo session that secured him a deal with Epic Records in 1990.

His debut single, the Grammy-nominated "I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)", launched his career that same year. He would record five studio albums for Epic, including a Christmas project. In an example of irony, he underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 1992 shortly before the release of an album titled For the Heart. This would not be the only health problem that would plague Stone, as he had a nostril blockage removed in 1994 as well.

In 1995, he starred in Gordy as a struggling musician named Luke McAllister; the movie also featured original songs by Stone himself. Due to its failure, he never took up any more acting roles. Later that same year, he was transferred to Columbia Records for one unsuccessful album, Faith in Me, Faith in You. In addition to the singles from this album failing at radio, Stone suffered a heart attack followed by a stroke, further impacting his abilities to record and tour.

Atlantic Records picked him up for another unsuccessful album in 1999 after he had recovered from his health issues. The label soon closed its Nashville branch, leading Stone to record independently ever since. Although he has not cut an album since 2007, he has continued to tour.

Stone's music is dominated by his reedy crooning baritone voice and frequent recording of tender ballads, although songs like "A Jukebox with a Country Song" and "Addicted to a Dollar" show that he can go musically tougher when he wants.

Not to be confused with the anime voice actor.

Albums

• Doug Stone (1990)
• I Thought It Was You (1991)
• From the Heart (1992)
• The First Christmas (1992)
• More Love (1993)
• Faith in Me, Faith in You (1995)
• Make Up in Love (1999)
• The Long Way (2002)
• In a Different Light (2005)
• My Turn (2007)

Tropes present in his work:

• Beautiful All Along: The woman in "In a Different Light", whom only the narrator has seen outside her usual "tailored tweed", tied-up hair, and glasses.
• Bowdlerise: "Addicted to a Dollar" muted "hell" in the line "The more money that I'm making, hell, the less I can call mine", even though country radio usually lets that word slide.
• Irony: Stone underwent heart surgery in 1992... during the release of his album From the Heart and its hit single "Come In Out of the Pain".
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The title of "Fourteen Minutes Old" changes to fifteen, and then sixteen, as the song progresses.
• Lyrical Dissonance: For a song about being flat broke, "Addicted to a Dollar" is surprisingly upbeat.
• New Sound Album: More Love and Faith in Me, Faith in You are more electric guitar-driven, due to James Stroud taking over production duties from Doug Johnson.
• Non-Actor Vehicle: His only acting role to date was Gordy.
• Office Romance: "In a Different Light". The other people in the song only know the woman for her conservative, buttoned-down appearance, but the narrator lets on that he has had a romantic encounter that shows a different side of her (although no one else in-song knows this).
• invokedRenamed to Avoid Association: He changed his last name from Brooks to Stone so as to avoid confusion with Garth Brooks.