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 five. When he was seven years old, his mother placed him onstage to open for Loretta Lynn. His mother and father later divorced, and afterward, he moved to live with his father.

I Thought It Was You, his second album, was released in August 1991. Also certified platinum, it produced three more chart singles: the No. 4 title track, followed by the number 1 "A Jukebox with a Country Song" and "Come In Out of the Pain" at No. 3. "A Jukebox with a Country Song" spent two weeks at number 1, thus becoming his only multi-week number 1 single. Stone co-wrote the track "The Feeling Never Goes Away" with Kim Williams and Phyllis Bennett, and then-labelmate Joe Diffie co-wrote "Burning Down the Town". Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an "A", saying that it contained "sex-and-smolder ballads" comparable to Conway Twitty. Mansfield was less favorable, saying that Stone "seems to wallow in sorrow".  In early 1992, Stone began experiencing dizziness and pain in one of his arms. He also began feeling chest pains which he initially thought were heartburn. After feeling disoriented at a concert in Oregon, he canceled an appearance at the Academy of Country Music telecast. 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. Following the surgery, Stone changed his diet and began exercising, in addition to touring in support of his third album, From the Heart, released that August. The album's title was seen by many music writers, including Irwin Stambler and Grelun Landon of Country Music: The Encyclopedia, as ironic in the wake of Stone's heart surgery.  With a gold certification for shipments of 500,000 copies, From the Heart produced two more number 1 singles in "Too Busy Being in Love" and "Why Didn't I Think of That". The other two singles were "Warning Labels" and "Made for Lovin' You", at No. 4 and No. 6 respectively. The latter had previously been recorded by both Dan Seals and Clinton Gregory. Mansfield thought that From the Heart was more consistent than Stone's previous two albums, saying that his "voice is at its pain-wracked best" on "Warning Labels" and that "The heart references take on a special meaning given the open-heart surgery that preceded this album". Nash criticized the album as "sappy, lightweight tales of infatuation and starry-eyed courtship". One month after From the Heart, Stone released a Christmas album titled The First Christmas. Although this album produced no singles, "Sailing Home for Christmas" was made into a music video. Stone was nominated in both 1992 and 1993 for Star of Tomorrow by Music City News, and Top Male Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music, winning the former award in 1993. He toured in 1992 with Patty Loveless, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Hank Williams, Jr.

Was it a success?
Also certified platinum, it produced three more chart singles: