Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone was killed in a rollover car crash in the early morning of Saturday, March 1, at the age of 63. The “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” singer, who was also a member of the iconic hip hop trio The Sequence and sang the theme song for the hit sitcom Girlfriends, was the only fatality in the accident that involved her crew and backup singers.
Stone had performed at a Mardi Gras event in Alabama on Friday, February 28. The singer and her crew had left the performance in Montgomery early Saturday morning when their vehicle “flipped over and was subsequently hit by a big rig,” Stone’s longtime manager, Walter Millsap III, told The Associated Press.
According to Alabama Highway Patrol, Stone and her team’s 2021 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van turned over on Interstate 65 around 4:25 a.m. and was subsequently hit by a 2021 Freightliner Cascadia truck. The truck was driven by a 33-year-old Texan man. The collision took place about 5 miles outside of Montgomery city limits. Stone was pronounced dead at the scene, while the van’s driver and the seven other passengers were taken to Baptist Medical Center for treatment.
Millsap told AP that he learned the news from Stone’s daughter, Diamond, and Blondy (Gwendolyn Chisolm) from The Sequence.
“Never in a million years did we ever expect to get this horrible news,” Stone’s children, Diamond Stone and Michael Archer, said in a statement shared by the SRG Group, per AP. “We are still trying to process and are completely heartbroken.”
“We are truly devastated by this unexpected and unfortunate tragedy,” Millsap added, “and there are simply no words to express how we feel.”
Stone was scheduled to perform at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association men’s Championship basketball game on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. A moment of silence was held for her during the event.
The Sequence was the first all-woman group signed to Sugar Hill Records. Members Stone, Chisholm, and Cheryl Cook went by the names Angie B., Blondy, and Cheryl The Pearl. Stone was the group’s lead singer and rapper, and the trio were high school friends. Their three albums came out from 1979 to 1985, and they made hits like “Funk You Up,” which was later sampled in Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and Dr. Dre’s “Keep Their Heads Ringin’.”
Stone’s solo music career began in the 1990s, with her debut album, 1999’s Black Diamond, going gold in the US. “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” came out in 2001 and became one of her biggest solo hits. Another success for Stone was “No More Rain (In This Cloud).” Stone and The Sequence are regarded as pioneers of hip hop music, and she was a major player in the neo-soul movement in the late 1990s alongside Erykah Badu, Macy Gray, and Lauryn Hill. The musician dabbled in acting a bit as well. Onscreen, Stone appeared in titles like The Hot Chick and Ride Along.
Stone was married to musician Rodney Stone, who performed as Lil’ Rodney C with the rap group Funky Four Plus One, in the early 1980s and welcomed daughter Diamond in 1984. They divorced a few years later, and in the 1990s Stone was in a relationship with neo-soul artist D’Angelo. Their son, Michael D’Angelo Archer II, was born in 1998.
Stone is survived by her children and two grandchildren.
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
