About Allen Stone

A self-described "hippie with a soul," Allen Stone has never been afraid, or unable to express himself to a crowd of people.

Stone has had a lot of practice getting those pipes warmed up for a larger audience. He started singing in church by the age of 3, played guitar by the time he was a teen, and spent a great deal of his youth collecting classic albums from the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, a lot of people think it was Stevie Wonder's album "Innervisions" that convinced Stone to give it a go in the music business, but instead it was the success of a friend just a year older that convinced him to make music a career.

Stone left home at the age of 18, and really never looked back. He cites his influences as everyone from Marvin Gaye to Aretha Franklin and James Morrison. And Stone's drive to be as successful as those household names has pushed him through two self-released records, "Last To Speak" (2010) and the self-titled "Allen Stone" (2011).

Stone has carved out quite a following , thanks to cross-country tours for a few years prior to his first album release. By the time his eponymous project hit store shelves, it was backed by Raphael Saadiqu's rhythm section and Miles Davis' keyboardist Deron Johnson. That album peaked at No. 2 on the R&B/Soul charts on iTunes and hit No. 9 and No. 35, respectively, on the Billboard Heatseekers and R&B/Hip Hop Album charts.