The (Newnan, Georgia) Times-Herald: Doug Stone

Stone benefit concert Saturday

By NICHOLE GOLDEN
Staff Writer

Published in The Times-Herald 6/10/02

Country musician and former Newnan resident Doug Stone will perform his hits from past years, as well as new songs, for hometown fans Saturday.
Stone, who now lives in Springfield, Tenn., will appear in concert at Newnan High School’s Drake Stadium Saturday night to benefit the American Red Cross.
“And they say you can’t go home again,” Stone mused while chatting by cell phone and washing his motorcycle Tuesday afternoon.
The singer-songwriter who at the age of 35 suffered a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery says he doesn’t want to talk about the heart problems anymore, but assures fans that his health is good. “I feel great,” he added.
Stone finished recording his new CD last week and said, after conferring with his “manager,” that it would be titled “The Long Way.” Stone’s fans can expect its release in September.
“They’re great songs” he said of all of the CD’s singles.
Stone’s last two CD’s “Make Up In Love,” and “Harmful To The Heart” were released in 1999 and 2001 respectively. “Harmful to the Heart” includes the song “P.O.W. 369.” It’s my tribute to the armed forces,” said Stone.
With a full schedule of concerts this summer and fall, Stone will be traveling more. “That’s a good thing,” he said.
The evening before his Newnan concert, Stone will appear in Columbus. The following weekend he performs at the Browns Town Summer Fest in Detroit, followed by a packed calendar of tour events through November.
Stone has also been busy with other projects this year. He did voice work for the pilot of the cartoon Saddle Rash, which appeared in March on the Cartoon Network.
“I’ve never been a cartoon character,” quipped Stone.
Stone is clearly looking forward to visiting Newnan again. Born in Atlanta, Stone moved to Coweta County at the age of 12. The singer jokes that since he hit puberty in Newnan, he calls it home.
Stone recalled both good and bad times while growing up in Newnan, even being kicked out of the chorus at Central High School.
Raised as Doug Brooks, Stone opened for Loretta Lynn when he was 7 years old. At 16, he left home and began a life of his own, remodeling a trailer to accommodate a recording studio. He later moved into a 12 foot by 12 foot well house, where he and his family lived for seven years.
Doug Stone’s debut single, “I’d Be Better Off (In A Pine Box)” entered the charts in 1990 and placed him into country’s top five artists.
Each of Stone’s first 15 singles peaked inside the top five, with eight songs hitting No. 1, including “In A Different Light,” “I thought It Was You,” “Too Busy Being In Love,” “I Never Knew Love,” and the Grammy nominated, “I’d Be Better Off (In A Pine Box).”
Tickets for Doug Stone’s Newnan concert may be purchased at the Coweta County Chapter of the American Red Cross on Greison Trail, Southtowne on Bullsboro (both locations), Scott’s book store on the Court Square, Newnan Music at 50-D Bullsboro Drive, A Major Music Center located at 128 Bullsboro Drive and Backstage Music at 41 Newnan Station Drive in Newnan as well as Peachtree City, Griffin, Lovejoy, Riverdale, Douglasville and LaGrange.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. The stadium will open at 5:30 p.m. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m., rain or shine.
Organizers of the event hope to raise $100,000 to fund programs that directly benefit Coweta County. The money raised will benefit the American Red Cross.

Fan has pass

By ALEX McRAE
Staff Writer

Published in The Times-Herald 6/10/02

Country music superstar Doug Stone is coming to Newnan on June 15, but his biggest fan can’t buy a ticket. Don’t worry, though. Jean Waddell, of Warm Springs, will still be there. Chances are, in the front row. As for the ticket, Waddell can’t buy one because Stone won’t let her.
“He says my money’s no good,” Waddell explains, who should have known better than to try and buy a ticket anyway. After all, she has a permanent backstage pass to attend any Doug Stone concert anywhere, anytime.
If it sounds like Jean Waddell is getting the VIP treatment, she is. But she’s earned it.
Years ago Waddell became acquainted with Stone’s mother and stepfather, Gail and Bill Menscer, who lived just a Stone’s throw away from Waddell in Warm Springs. In 1987, after fibromyalgia caused Waddell to give up her nursing career, she opened an herb and gift shop in Warm Springs and became even closer to Gail who owned a collectibles shop nearby.
In the mid 1980s, when Gail Menscer began telling Waddell that her son, Doug, was an aspiring musician, country music fan Waddell took an immediate interest. “I knew he had a band and that he played in honky tonks, but that’s about all,” Jean says. “And I knew I wanted to hear him.”
Stone had quit high school at age 16 to move out of his father’s mobile home and support himself by working a variety of day jobs and playing the music he loved at night. Stone and his band soon became familiar faces at the Newnan Elk’s Club, Moose Lodge and VFW hall.
The crowds were rough and the venues were small, but Stone stuck with it. In 1988 he brought his band to Warm Springs to play a concert in the parking lot of the Warm Springs Hotel, where his mother’s shop was located. Stone and his band played from 10 in the morning until ten at night with a glass jar out in front to collect tips.
It was the first time Waddell had ever heard him and she was hooked from the first note. “He was a little rough and scruffy looking back then, with a baseball cap on backwards and all,” she says, “But he had the most beautiful; voice I think I’ve ever heard. I just couldn’t believe how good he was.”
In 1989 Stone signed a record deal and in 1990, his first hit “I’d Be better Off In A Pine Box,” soared to the top of the charts. At age 34, after almost 20 years of paying his dues, Doug Stone quit his job repairing lawn mowers at the Newnan Country Club and prepared to cash in. There was only one problem.
Stone hit the scene along with a flood of other new artists who created the “New Country” sound of the early 1990s. Artists like Newnan’s Alan Jackson and a fellow from Oklahoma named Garth Brooks.
The Brooks thing was a problem. Not just because Garth Brooks had already emerged as a megastar, but because at the time, he had the same last name as Doug, who was born and raised Doug Brooks. Fearing that two Brooks’ on the scene could confuse the fans, Doug’s managers urged him to change his name. Stone’s middle name was Jackson, but that was a potential problem because of Newnan’s Alan Jackson, so he chose Stone as his new last name and didn’t look back.
As Stone’s career took off, so did Waddell’s traveling pace. She followed him to every concert venue she could reach and still be back at work the next day. She once drove 12 hours to see him perform at a county fair in Kentucky.
When Stone came to Warm Springs to visit his mother he became better acquainted with Jean, and she soon became like a member of his extended family. Stone not only adores Waddell, but her children too, especially Waddell’s granddaughter, Ashley. Stone brought Ashley on stage and serenaded her on her 13th birthday. Jean has the pictures to prove it.
But Stone’s early success was short lived. As the pace of his professional life picked up, his heart started to slow down. Stone was aware of weakness and dizzy spells, but assumed it was simply a result of the heavy touring and appearance schedule. A trip to the doctor revealed severe blockage to the major heart arteries and almost before it began his career began, it was put on hold as he underwent quadruple bypass surgery that kept him off the stage for months.
Doug didn’t realize it was just the beginning of his troubles. After the surgery, depressed, angry and still smoking, Doug tried to come back too soon. After a short time back on the road, it was obvious that even though the heart might be fine, something else was not.
His voice had started to fail.
“We didn’t know what was wrong,” he said during an interview with The Times-Herald during a tour several years ago. “Doctors looked at it for three years and my voice was getting worse and worse, but nobody could find a problem.”
One day a doctor looked down Doug’s nose instead of his throat and discovered polyps in the tissues of his soft palate. They were removed, but by that time it didn’t matter. The singer was silent. “I couldn’t sing, so I didn’t,” Doug said.
But as his voice came back, so did his ambition. In 1995 Stone felt ready to tour again. But before he could hit the road, an old problem resurfaced and he suffered a second heart attack. He finally gave up smoking and made a complete recovery, but the heart attack, coupled with management problems and a second divorce, made for anything but a vintage year.
“If they could take ‘95 out of the history books, I’d be fine,” he quipped.
In fact, ‘95 was so bad, the stroke he suffered in ‘96 seemed like a minor aggravation.
“I was in Shreveport waiting for a show and I’d fallen asleep watching tv,” he recalled. “When I woke up, I saw a black spot in the middle of the screen and I thought the tv was busted.
“Then I looked around and the black spot was there, too.”
Doctors diagnosed a small stroke and administered “clot-buster” drugs immediately. He did not suffer any permanent impairment from the stroke, but it was the final reminder that if he were to continue, health and career would have to be equal partners in his act.
Doug Stone finally learned to take it easy and spent most of 1996 through 1998 recovering his health and developing a new career plan.
The two years of enforced withdrawal were tough for Jean Waddell and she was happy as lark when her favorite star began to rise again.
When Stone began his comeback in 1998, Waddell and her fellow Stone fans traveled to Fan Fair in Nashville and were thrilled to see their favorite star back in action and sounding better than ever. “My heart just jumped,” she says. “When i heard him up there i just knew he was back on track again and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.”
But Waddell’s joyous trip to Fan Fair ended on a sour note. Shortly after she returned to Warm Springs, her husband Johnny, almost died after suffering a massive heart attack. Instead of following Stone, Waddell spent the better part of the next years by her husband’s side as he went through extensive rehab and cardiac conditioning.
But two years ago her husband decided he was strong enough to fend for himself and Jean Waddell, along with her three best friends (and fellow Stone fans), hit the road again following Stone.
Wherever she shows up, she’s always welcomed warmly by Stone and his entire entourage, who have all come to know her personally. In addition to the permanent admission ticket to Stone concerts, Waddell has a permanent backstage pass which allows her and her friends unlimited access during pre and post concert meet-and-greet sessions. And even after his mother died, Stone always makes a point to stop and visit or call Waddell when he’s in Warm Springs or nearby.
As you’d imagine, Waddell has every Doug Stone trinket imaginable, including cassette tapes of all his albums. She even has some autographed CDs. One day she plans to get a CD player to go along with them.
Stone has just signed with a new record label and his career appears headed for the top once again. Waddell plans to be right there with him. Already this year she’s caught a number of performances, most recently an April benefit concert in Columbus Stone threw which raised $41,000 for a local hospice program.
This coming week, Waddell’s Doug Stone schedule is even busier than usual. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday she and her three amigos will be in Nashville schmoozing with Stone and other country music stars at Fan Fair. On Friday Waddell will follow him to a supper club just outside Columbus and on Saturday, June 15 she’ll be at Stone’s concert to benefit the American Red Cross at Newnan’s Drake Stadium.
“I can’t get enough of him, says Waddell. “He’s not just a great singer, he’s a great person. I wish folks knew him like I did.”

Stone's resolve strong through tribulations

The country music singing star, who grew up in Newnan as Doug Brooks, is remarried and has returned to the stage after a lengthy absence caused by health problems. Area fans may have seen him at his Concerts in the Country show at Lanierland June 13.

In 1991, Stone underwent quadruple bypass surgery, then suffered a heart attack in 1995.

The singer said that his serious medical history has changed the way he looks at life.

"There's no doubt that I'm gonna die - one day," he said. "It's living that I'm worried about now. I'm living life to the fullest."

Stone, who spent his teenage years playing low-paying shows throughout Newnan, said the opportunity to perform his music for others is reward enough for the long hours he logs each day.

"You work your tail off," he said. If it's what you want to do with your life, it's worth it."

Music has been the singer's first love since he was old enough to crawl in front of the family stereo. Stone's mother, a guitarist and vocalist with a performing history of her own, taught him to play guitar and sing.

When Stone was 7 years old, his mother arranged his first performance - opening an Atlanta show for country music legend Loretta Lynn.

"I shook Loretta's hand and said hello, then went out to do my thing," he recalled. "I was too scared to sing, but I knew how to play E, A and B real good on the guitar. So I went out and played these three chords, all the time looking over at my mother with an 'am I finished playing yet' look."

As Stone's mother continued to steer him toward music, his father became less and less fond of the idea of Doug becoming a performer. The singer said his father had little regard for musicians, placing them among the "sorriest people in the world."

"Daddy said it was okay for a man to have a dream as long as he worked his tail off at something that would earn him a living," Stone said.

After his parents divorced, Stone moved with his father and two brothers from the family home in Marietta to a trailer in Newnan. His father taught him the ropes of the mechanics trade and he soon began earning his living repairing every type of engine from large diesels to lawnmowers.

The hum of motors did not drive the singer's heart like the rhythm of country music, however, and he soon set out to prove his father wrong by "working his tail off" at making a living with his dream.

At age 16, Stone bought his own mobile home, knocking out a wall to make roam for a studio - one of five he would eventually build. Music often got in the way of work, however, as the singer plodded through a series of jobs.

When Stone fell behind on rent payments, the finance company repossessed his mobile home. Not to be deterred from making a living from music, he moved into his 12-by-12-foot well house.

Stone later added on to the structure and continued to live there for seven years.

"I could do other jobs," he said. "But after my eight hours were up, I'd go home and stay up all night recording in my studio."

The singer formed a band with his best friend and began playing gigs at the local skating rink. At $5 apiece, the band hardly earned a living, but Stone was playing music and loving every girl-impressing minute of it.

"I was singing a song I had written called Sugar," he said. "It was the stupidest thing I've ever written, but this girl started crying and I thought, 'Yeah, I'm doing something here.'"

Stone said his music matured as he did. Situations he experienced began to shape his songs and give them deeper meaning.

"I'd sing these songs, but I was just a kid. I really didn't know what I was singing," he said. "Then I started growing up and experiencing life's pain."

"The songs I'd been singing really came alive to me," Stone added. "I started singing from the heart and it's never changed."

The singer's break came one night in 1987 as his band, Mainstreet, played a regular show at the Newnan VFW Club. Phyllis Bennett, a former Newnan resident with connections in Nashville, came to hear Stone play at the advice of a friend.

"She listened to me and said it blew her away," Stone recalled. "We talked about a contract and about a year later she returned with one."

Bennett's first move as Stone's new manager was nailing down an appointment with Nashville producer Doug Johnson. The singer recorded three songs which Johnson played for legendary CBS Records producer Bob Montgomery.

Stone said Montgomery, who had produced such megatalents as Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins and Verne Gosdin, balked at the first two tunes, but became interested in the third.

Johnson talked the producer into scheduling an appointment to hear Stone sing the songs with only his guitar for accompaniment.

"I sang the three songs and Bob said he wanted to do and album," Stone said of the session. "I was in the right place at the right time."

The timing must have been right for the singer. After his appointment, he became the only artist Montgomery ever signed without seeing him perform in concert.

Stone's first single, I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box), rocketed up the country charts after becoming the highest debuting song of the year. It eventually climbed to number four in Billboard magazine. He was TNN/Music City News Star of Tomorrow 1993.

In 1995, Stone starred in the film, Gordy. Centered around a talking pig, the film was shot partially in Coweta County.

With his dual careers going wide-open, Stone said that he will never be too busy for his family. A top priority is spending time at his Tennessee home with wife, Beth, children Chanse and Kala, and his and Beth's new arrival Bailey Rebecca born the third week of June 1998.

"We're buddies. We have so much fun," Stone said. "He's a wild man. Every time we get on the Harley, he screams for me to go faster."

Stone also is taking better care of himself these days, eating better and doing without his old smoking habit. All are changes for the better, he said.

"I'm happy to be around," he said with a familiar laugh in his voice. "More than ever, the things I sometimes took for granted mean everything to me, particularly the people in my life - my wife, my family, my friends and the fans."

Full Legal Name: Douglas Jackson Brooks (Reason for name change, to avoid confusion with Garth Brooks.)

Children: Michelle, Daniel, Chanse and Kala, all from previous marriages; Bailey Rebecca born June 1998

Hobbies: Golf, rafting, camping, shooting pool, cooking, and watching old movies

Fan Club: P.O. Box 128, Orlinda, TN 37141, FAX: (615) 254-5488. Preisdent, Beth Brooks.

By Gary Leftwich
Times-Herald Staff Writer,

July, 1996

It takes more than a heart attack to slow down Doug Stone.

After quadruple bypass surgery in 1991 and a mild heart attack last December, Stone is back on the road, touring the country from one end to the other. The country singer, who grew up in Coweta County, said that his serious medical history has changed the way he looks at life.

"There's no doubt that I'm gonna die - one day," he said in a 1993 interview with The (Newnan, Georgia) Times-Herald. "It's living that I'm worried about now. I'm living life to the fullest."

Stone, who spent his teenage years playing low-paying shows throughout Newnan, said the opportunity to perform his music for others is reward enough for the long hours he logs each day.
"You work your tail off," he said. If it's what you want to do with your life, it's worth it."

Music has been the 40-year-old singer's first love since he was old enough to crawl in front of the family stereo. Stone's mother, a guitarist and vocalist with a performing history of her own, taught him to play guitar and sing.

When Stone was seven years old, his mother arranged his first performance - opening an Atlanta show for country music legend Loretta Lynn.

"I shook Loretta's hand and said hello, then went out to do my thing," he recalled. "I was too scared to sing, but I knew how to play E, A and B real good on the guitar. So I went out and played these three chords, all the time looking over at my mother with an 'Am I finished playing yet?' look."

As Stone's mother continued to steer him toward music, his father became less and less fond of the idea of Doug becoming a performer. The singer said his father had little regard for musicians, placing them among the "sorriest people in the world."

"Daddy said it was okay for a man to have a dream as long as he worked his tail off at something that would earn him a living," Stone said.

After his parents divorced, Stone moved with his father and two brothers from the family home in Marietta to a trailer in Newnan. His father taught him the ropes of the mechanics trade and he soon began earning his living repairing every type of engine from large diesels to lawnmowers.

The hum of motors did not drive the singer's heart like the rhythm of country music, however, and he soon set out to prove his father wrong by working his tail off at making a living with his dream.

At age 16, Stone bought his own mobile home, knocking out a wall to make room for a studio - one of five he would eventually build. Music often got in the way of work, however, as the singer plodded through a series of jobs.

When Stone fell behind on rent payments, the finance company repossessed his mobile home. Not to be deterred from making a living from music, he moved into his 12-by-12-foot well house. Stone later added on to the structure and continued to live there for seven years.

"I could do other jobs," he said. "But after my eight hours were up, I'd go home and stay up all night recording in my studio."

The singer formed a band with his best friend and began playing gigs at the local skating rink. At $5 apiece, the band hardly earned a living, but Stone was playing music and loving every girl-impressing minute of it.

"I was singing a song I had written called Sugar," he said. "It was the stupidest thing I've ever written, but this girl started crying and I thought 'Yeah, I'm doing something here.'"

Stone said his music matured as he did. Situations he experienced began to shape his songs and give them deeper meaning.

"I'd sing these songs, but I was just a kid. I really didn't know what I was singing," he said. "Then I started growing up and experiencing life's pain."

"The songs I'd been singing really came alive to me," Stone added. "I started singing from the heart and it's never changed."

The singer's break came one night in 1987 as his band, Mainstreet, played a regular show at the Newnan VFW Club. Phyllis Bennett, a former Newnan resident with connections in Nashville, came to hear Stone play at the advice of a friend.

"She listened to me and said it blew her away" Stone recalled. "We talked about a contract and about a year later she returned with one."

Bennett's first move as Stone's new manager was nailing down an appointment with Nashville producer Doug Johnson. The singer recorded three songs which Johnson played for legendary CBS Records producer Bob Montgomery.

Stone said Montgomery, who had produced such megatalents as Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins and Verne Gosdin, balked at the first two tunes, but became interested in the third.

Johnson talked the producer into scheduling an appointment to hear Stone sing the songs with only his guitar for accompaniment.

"I sang the three songs and Bob said he wanted to do and album," Stone said of the session. "I was in the right place at the right time."

The timing must have been right for the singer. After his appointment, he became the only artist Montgomery ever signed without seeing him perform in concert.

Stone's first single, I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box), rocketed up the country charts after becoming the highest debuting song of the year. It eventually climbed to number four in Billboard magazine.

In 1995 Stone starred in the film, Gordy. Centered around a talking pig, the film was shot partially in Coweta County.

Visit the official Doug Stone site

Current tour schedule

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