<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Anthony Hamilton\u2019s phone rang with a call from an old friend. D\u2019Angelo, the visionary soul artist who died<\/a> Oct. 14, was reaching out for one last conversation with the singer whom he lovingly called Ant-eezy.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the time I got to the phone and realized it was him, I called him back, he didn\u2019t pick up,\u201d Hamilton tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. As soon as he heard news of D\u2019Angelo\u2019s death, he started to wonder what he might\u2019ve missed from their final talk. He imagines that call could have been a chance to thank the artist he sees as one of his most important mentors: \u201cMan, I come from a good school.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Before launching a Grammy-winning solo career, Hamilton flanked D\u2019Angelo for eight months as one of the background singers on the Voodoo<\/em> world tour in 2000. As a member of the Soultronics, as the 13-person touring band was called, Hamilton stood harmonizing and improvising behind the man who was crafting a new foundation<\/a> for soul music. \u201cEvery night, you\u2019d see people come out there just to be engulfed in something so powerful that they couldn\u2019t even get their breath right,\u201d Hamilton recalls. \u201cYou didn\u2019t know whether you were feeling church, rock & roll, blues or whatever it was. You just knew it was something that you hadn\u2019t felt in 100 years or more.\u201d<\/p>\n The Voodoo<\/em> tour was Hamilton\u2019s first. He says it was an opportunity that blossomed from a failed record deal and a canceled debut album, called XTC, <\/em>which would have come out around the same time as D\u2019Angelo\u2019s own debut, 1995\u2019s Brown Sugar. <\/em>\u201cThat\u2019s how he became aware of who I was as an artist,\u201d Hamilton says. \u201cI got the call once he realized my album didn\u2019t come out and Uptown Records had folded.\u201d The 77-show tour took him across the U.S. and to South America and Europe. \u201cI came back better,\u201d he adds. \u201cI learned a lot from watching from that perspective, from the background. You learn how to be a leader when you can follow somebody as great as D\u2019Angelo.\u201d<\/p>\n In later years, as Hamilton went on to make his own albums, featuring R&B hits like \u201cCharlene\u201d<\/a> and \u201cPoint of It All,\u201d<\/a> he took the lessons he\u2019d learned from the complex arrangements he was part of on the road. \u201cOn our lunch breaks, instead of going to eat just to be eating, we\u2019d be going over parts, like \u2018This motherfucker got some shit,\u2019 <\/em>Hamilton recalls. \u201c\u2019I\u2019m grateful that I had the opportunity to be a part of that and to learn it the way I did. I didn\u2019t go to a four-year college, but that was actually 16 years of university for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Stretched across the first year of the new millennium, the Voodoo<\/em> tour began two months after the release of the Grammy-winning album it supported. At many shows, Hamilton says, the last song was \u201cUntitled (How Does It Feel),\u201d the hit that became a double-edged sword as its music video<\/a> skyrocketed D\u2019Angelo\u2019s fame but also gave the artist complex feelings around being seen as a sex symbol. As each show ended, the chorus would repeat, with one member of the Soultronics unplugging their instrument and walking offstage after each \u201cHow does it feel,\u201d leaving D\u2019Angelo as the last one to say goodbye to the crowd. Hamilton, who was often the second-to-last onstage, says the memory gives him chills. \u201dSuch a spiritual moment,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019d be the last one playing, and he\u2019s singing, and it\u2019s just ringing out \u2026That was genius. What a big loss.\u201d<\/p>\n Hamilton, who is currently on a run of his own called Soul on Tour, plans to carve out a piece of his show in dedication to D\u2019Angelo with a rendition of \u201cUntitled\u201d added to the setlist. Hamilton says his band the Hamiltones will sing and perform it in a way that brings \u201cthe spirit of D\u201d to the audience. \u201cHe loved me,\u201d he says, remembering the embraces D\u2019Angelo would give him before showtime. \u201cI know he loved me, and he was proud of what I represented for the Black culture and music, and he thought my voice was something special.\u201d<\/p>\n As D\u2019Angelo is remembered in the coming months, the singer hopes that anyone who\u2019s not familiar with his life\u2019s work takes away the right lessons. D\u2019Angelo\u2019s memory teaches that \u201cit\u2019s OK to be naturally and authentically Black in your music,\u201d Hamilton says. Thinking of some of today\u2019s younger musicians, he continues, \u201cI don\u2019t think they know how to reconnect with love and passion and still be funky, still be gangsters, still be hood, you know, and make it beautiful. Put respect back into the music. Put music back into the music. And it\u2019s OK to take your time.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two weeks ago, Anthony Hamilton\u2019s phone rang with a call from an old friend. D\u2019Angelo, the visionary soul artist who died Oct. 14, was reaching out for one last conversation with the singer whom he lovingly called Ant-eezy. \u201cBy the time I got to the phone and realized it was him, I called him back, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2095566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[367385,394265,314737],"class_list":["post-2095565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-anthony-hamilton","tag-dangelo","tag-rolling-stone"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Anthony-Hamilton-on-What-He-Learned-From-DAngelo-\u2018Im-Grateful.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2095567,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095565\/revisions\/2095567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2095566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}