The Long Way

You're talking to the most unworried person in the world right now." he says with a laugh, but Doug Stone is not kidding -- he doesn't take the business side of the music industry so seriously anymore. "When you've just about died two or three times you kind of get the idea you're gonna."

A run of serious health scares began in 1992 when at the age of 35 he faced major heart surgery. That was followed by a stroke a year later and a heart attack in 1995. In 1997 he survived a harrowing plane crash. The events were life-changing.

"I decided life was too dang great, and I wasn't ever going to worry about it ever again. I'm not going to worry about selling records ever again, if someone wants to buy them that's great. I'm doing what I like to do, and hopefully they'll like it too."

"I'm just glad to be in the business. I had a career as a mechanic. I look at this as living my life how I want to live it, the way I've always wanted to. I want to go out and play on the weekends and come home and be with my family. Enjoy what's here to enjoy."

A perfect match for his current mindset is his new record deal with Audium Records. When his producer and long time friend, Chet Hinesley, offered to approach Audium label head, Nick Hunter, to see if they'd be interested in signing him, Doug gave the okay. "I said, just holler at him, and see if he wants to sign somebody. We went over there, he talked good, we talked good and we decided to do it."

Making records has never been this easy for Doug, who was used to having to 'pass' material before recording on his previous contracts. "About all I got to do, was 'Yeah, okay, I'll do that one.'" The appeal of working with Audium is simple. Creative control. "This is the first time in my career I've got the reins on it." he says "They didn't hand me the first song to sing or nothing. I like that. I'll go find my own material, write my own material. Put on the album what I want on the album. That's pretty cool."

His career seemed to ignite with spontaneous combustion in 1990, with the red-hot self titled album that included the mega hit "I'd Be Better Off (In A Pinebox)." His career then led a straight path to a Grammy nomination, eight number ones and fifteen op five songs, but from a first person perspective Doug Stone points out a couple of misconceptions about his career, the first being that he was an overnight success. "I feel lucky and I feel worked to death. This overnight success only took 26 years. There ain't nobody out there like that, that I know of. Everybody that I know that's made it has worked their ass off after it, and decided that's what they wanted to do for a living."

He feels that the key to any career success that he's happened upon is due to one thing. "A lot of people just give up and go away. It's called determination.." he says without hesitation. "It's not as much about talent, as it is determination. 'Okay, let him in. I'm tired of hearing him beat on the door! I won't ever forget the first loan I tried to get. The woman wasn't going to give me the loan, I just kept going there everyday until she did."

The other fallacy is the perception that he's dropped out of sight for awhile. "People say I've been away from country music for awhile, but my last album was in 1999 -- and it's only 2002. I've played the states continuously, I never slowed down. I had one in '99, one in '95 and about six before that. That's not the way to do albums  if you ask me. Try to do one a year and tour to it? That's crazy."

His latest release, "The Long Way" has been in the making for a few years. " The song selection takes the longest. I've been looking for songs for three years. That's why when they said they'd do this album I said I've got the songs, let's go!" Doug brought his longtime friend, Chet Hinesley, along with him for the ride as producer. "It's his first album for a major artist and it was pretty cool to be able to bring him to the table."

Given the time he's devoted to choosing the right songs, his purpose has always been single-minded. "For any album I've ever done -- I want albums that sound like you could have done it yourself. You could have been there, been in that situation. If you listen to any of my albums there's a story to each one, and a meaning. It's not about the beat or anything else, it's about the words."

The first single out to radio will be POW 369 -- and although the theme is obviously patriotic, it's a song that Doug's been wanting to release for about three years, and he dismisses the notion that there are some who may think the song's release is some form of jumping on the jingoistic bandwagon. "I don't care. If had my druthers it would have been out three years ago, before September 11th. I'll be honest with you. I found the song about three years ago, and I did an album myself and cut it on it. I thought to myself no one's ever said this. The line 'I bet he's got some stories he could tell, if he ever makes it back from hell", when I hear that I can just imagine the stories he could tell. That's what really hits me -- when I heard that line.

The rest of the album is a mix of new and re-released material. Remember me telling you about that other album I made? I just took five songs of it put them on there, took two more that I found and redid the other three." Plans are to release the title track, co-written by Billy Yates and Monty Criswell, after POW 369.The song seems to be tailor made for him and contains significant promise to be able to bring yet another Doug Stone song to the radio airwaves.

He's also include a revamped version of his signature song, Pinebox. It's been twelve years since that songs been out and people have grown up half their lives. "he laughs "I thought it would be pretty cool to release it again in this acoustic form.

As we end our conversation and he head's off to go camping with his family a week after his album is released, Doug Stone's philosophy is clear. "Nothing's hard if you don't let it be hard. That's where I'm at. I've been out there, playing ever since I started and it's really what I want to do. When they quit letting me play I'm going to be mad." he laughs "I want to be like Ray Price and them guys, still out there kickin' it when I'm seventy or eighty."

I'm placing my bet in his favor.