Two weeks ago, Anthony Hamilton ’s phone rang with a call from an old friend. D’Angelo, the visionary soul artist who died Oct. 14, was reaching out for one last conversation with the singer whom he lovingly called Ant-eezy.

“By the time I got to the phone and realized it was him, I called him back, he didn’t pick up,” Hamilton tells Rolling Stone . As soon as he heard news of D’Angelo’s death, he started to wonder what he might’ve 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: “Man, I come from a good school.”

Before launching a Grammy-winning solo career, Hamilton flanked D’Angelo for eight months as one of the background singers on the Voodoo world tour in 2000. As a member of the

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