Loving parents were a great asset in his early life. His father, who has passed away, was a great piano player and a member of a well-known quartet called the Avalon Boys with Chill Wills. He played in many movies with such legendary performers as W.C. Fields and Mae West. His father, Don, was the inspiration behind Doug’s great song, “Daddy Won’t You play that Song Again.” And he wrote, “Mama’s Got Style” for his mother’s 90th birthday. Everyone affectionately calls her “Sis”. At 96, she still comes to work each day.

His greatest inspiration came when, as a very young man, he met Mary Blakemore who became not only his dearest friend but also his business partner. Her influence and philosophy of life is woven throughout his music. In 1992 when, due to heart failure and other complications, she became too ill to care for herself, Doug became her primary caregiver. It was an all-encompassing vigil of love, respect and affection for six years. It was during this period that he and Mary wrote “LAUGHTER IS THE BEST RECIPE”, a gourmet vegetarian recipe book. Doug has been a vegetarian for many years and when time permits, he loves to cook for everyone. It was Mary’s death in 1998, at the age of 91, which gave impetus once again to the music that he had stepped away from for 30 years.

Beginning his career at the age of 19, he started out, as Kenny Rogers did, first performing with a folk vocal ensemble called “The New Christy Minstrels” who recorded on the Columbia Record label at that time. Then he was accepted to another group, “The Good Time Singers” of Capitol Records. Public awareness grew when they were showcased on the Andy Williams Variety Show, the Christys for one season and the Goodtimers for three seasons. He was then offered to work as a singer on popular Variety shows of the time, such as The Danny Kaye Show, Red Skelton, The Hollywood Palace, etc. After a brief affiliation with a group under the name of Stone Country, which recorded on the RCA Label, Doug went out on his own as a single, appearing in clubs. He continued his recording interests under the Imperial and Republic Record companies respectively.

Several years later he left Los Angeles and the music business to come back east to live in a small town in New Jersey. This inspired his beautiful song, “She Took my Heart and Soul in Hand.” It’s about how a young man turns his back on life as he has known it with all the promises and lies that the world has to offer and truly begins to find himself. Another song, “Twenty Two Miles of Roses”, was also inspired by that period of his life.

Thirty years later he embraced his music once again with the multi-talents of pianist/recording engineer Tee Tasker and 4 time Gold Record and Grammy award winning arranger, Tony Davilio to produce two albums (TBA) “Hiding Behind Your Heart” and the inspirational “Let Go, Let God, You’re There”.

BBC Radio Host, Sam Harris said, “WOW! This guy has a great voice and sounds like my all-time favorite, Marty Robbins!” While others have compared his voice to that of the great balladeer Jim Reeves. James Jennings, AM970 WWYO Radio says, “Diamond Doug is fresh yet familiar, a tough combo to capture!”

He has recorded six CDs for the Frogtown label including two instrumental CDs & original material written and performed by Doug and Tee. He is an enigmatic performer whom critics have referred to as a “diamond out of the rough”. They have consistently agreed that Diamond Doug Brookins is the embodiment of that rare ability to create as many pleasant memories as those he brings to mind of when music was music.

In addition, he is the Producer of Frogtown’s Revival Radio, a series of three murder mystery CDs, “Who Shot Percy Pound”, “Get Lucky, a Circus Mystery” and “One Eye Must Die, The Hunt for Bluebeard”, performed by the Frogtown Ensemble Players, comprised of well known professional actors and musicians.

A Multi-talented entrepreneur, composer, arranger, singer and musician, he is also the Executive Producer and vocal ambient arranger of a new Frogtown Record production which presents sixties icon, Barry McGuire in “Mr. Hakk N’ Koff” and “I Pledge Allegiance”.