Roland Stone born 12 August 1941

Roland Stone (12 August 1941 – 22 December 1999) was an American rhythm and blues and pop singer who performed and recorded in New Orleans between the 1950s and 1990s. OffBeat called him "R&B singer extrordinaire." Robert Palmer in Rolling Stone referred to his "rich marvel of a voice. Singer Aaron Neville described him as "the singingest white guy I've ever heard". His untimely death was all the more tragic since his career had been restarted a few years earlier after half a lifetime away from music. 

He was born Roland LeBlanc in New Orleans, and in his teens played guitar in a Warren Easton High School band, The Jokers. In 1959 he was invited by Mac Rebennack (later known as Dr. John) to join his group, The Skyliners.. This led to the release of his first record, "Preacher's Daughter" (a re-working of the traditional blues 'Junco Partner'), on Spinett, a label owned by Frankie Ford and his manager, Joe Caronna, who in turn became LeBlanc's manager and for contractual reasons changed the singer's name to Stone. 

                            

Switching to Johnny Vincent's Ace label, "Something Special" which was written and produced by Rebennack, and arranged by Allen Toussaint, helped establish his name on the East Coast, and was followed by "Just A Moment" (Ace 629), which became a local hit and sold an estimated 100,000 copies in the South. 

Further Ace releases followed, including an LP (called "Just A Moment"). However, later records in the early 1960s, some released on Cosimo Matassa's White Cliffs label, failed to sell and following a final single on Cosimo Matassa's White Cliffs label in 1964, "Remember That", LeBlanc quit the music business. He worked in New Orleans and then Texas – where he performed occasionally under his real name until the late 1970s – before returning to his home city in 1979 to work in his uncle's dry cleaning business. 

Following an approach from record producer Carlo Ditta, he recorded again with Dr. John in the 1990s, releasing two albums on Orleans Records, Remember Me (1994) and Live on the Creole Queen (1997). He also performed at local clubs and festivals, while working with his brother in a galvanized metal company. 

He died  22 December 1999, in New Orleans at the age of 58. A compilation of his Ace recordings was issued in the UK during that same year.

(Edited from Wikipedia & This Is My Story)