Our Story
After fifteen years in the music industry — sleeping in tour buses, running festivals, living out of suitcases — I found myself longing for something real. Not in the vague, romantic sense. I mean real — the kind of real you feel when you make something yourself. Something you can feel and smell.
I had the privilege of working with artists who'd helped define me — high school heroes and legends. Some of those connections turned into friendships, and I’ll always be grateful for the wild ride the industry gave me. But over time, the noise lost its pull. I started craving stillness. Craft. Substance.
Backstage with Tom Morello before Rage Against the Machine took the stage.
What I missed most was simplicity. Ritual. Scent.
When I was on the road, one of my more random complaints was never being able to find a soap I liked. They were too drying or smelled like a car freshener.
I'd remember the old soap my grandfather used — it was a strong, earthy, no-frills bar that that left you clean and moisturized. But I couldn’t find anything like that anymore. Everything was synthetic, watered down, or chasing trends I didn’t care about.
So I decided to make the soap I’d been searching for.
Passed out on the tour bus in the middle of a fourteen hour drive and a forty hour work day when tour managing Devotchka. (Photo by Ren Burke)
That’s where Big Stone Soap Co. began — not as a business plan, but as a return to roots.
I grew up on my grandfather's farm where the work was hard, the land was stubborn, and you learned to respect both. My grandfather, Bill Stone, was the kind of man who didn’t say much, but taught you everything you needed to know just by how he lived. Steady hands. Early mornings. Do it right, or don’t do it at all. He wasn’t called "Big Stone" — he was the Big Stone. The foundation. The grit and grace that held everything together. He's the man who taught me how to be a man.
My grandpa, Bill Stone (Photo by Heather Stone Smith)
I named this company after him.
Every bar we make is built in that spirit: rugged, honest, rooted in tradition. Scents that speak. Soaps that work. No shortcuts, no nonsense — just good craft from the ground up.
This isn’t just soap. It’s legacy you can hold in your hand.
— Adam
Flood waters came up quick. Grandpa rescuing the cattle during the Flood of '84. He had to make multiple trips over a mile in nine feet deep waters.
