Doug Stone (born Douglas Jackson Brooks; June 19, 1956) is an American country music singer and actor. 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. Both this album and its successor, 1991's I Thought It Was You, earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. 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. 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. 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.
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 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.

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