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

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.

[6] 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.

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

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

[11] 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.

[3] In addition, the single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song,[12] and the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of one million copies.

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

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.

[7] Following the surgery, Stone changed his diet and began exercising,[6] in addition to touring in support of his third album, From the Heart, released that August.

[7] He toured in 1992 with Patty Loveless, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Hank Williams, Jr.[23] His fourth album, More Love, was released in November 1993.

It also included different session musicians than his previous albums, such as guitarist Dann Huff and backing vocalist Curtis Wright.

Also receiving a gold certification,[7] the album comprised nine of his previous hits and the new song "Little Houses", which debuted on the charts in October 1994 and peaked at No.

[2] After its release, Stone made his acting debut in the 1995 film Gordy, in which he starred as Luke McAllister, a struggling musician.

[3] Stone suffered a nearly-fatal heart attack in December 1995[2] and a mild stroke in 1996,[31] reducing his ability to record and tour.

"[35] Also in 1999, Stone and Skip Ewing co-wrote "In the Name of Love" on the only album released by female country duo Redmon & Vale.

[36] In December 1999, Stone was aboard an airplane which skidded off a snowy runway at O'Hare Airport in Chicago; there were no injuries.

[38] In March 2000, he suffered a broken left ankle, cracked rib, concussion, and bruised kidney after crashing his plane in Robertson County, Tennessee, and was briefly hospitalized before he resumed touring.

[40] After the September 11, 2001 attacks, rumors circulated that Stone had been on one of the hijacked planes; a spokeswoman for the singer confirmed that he was at home with his family that day.

[6] The couple separated in July 1994, and Cohen filed for divorce two months later, accusing Stone of alcohol abuse and infidelity.

On March 29, 2015, Stone married fiddler Jade Jack in Greenville, Texas,[51] and both have a daughter together, born April 14, 2016.

"[1] Steve Huey of Allmusic wrote that Stone "made his name as a lonesome baritone balladeer, though he's also adept at hard uptempo country.

"[2] Zell Miller, author of They Heard Georgia Singing, wrote that Stone has "established himself as a mellow country crooner who is known as 'Mr.

Sensitive'" and "the Dean Martin of country music because of his unique flair for communicating the fragility of a broken heart with his delicate baritone voice and laid-back style.

He compared "I'd Be Better Off" and "Warning Labels" favorably to Haggard as well, and thought that the change of producers on More Love gave him a "much beefier sound".