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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sly Stone, Family Stone Architect Who Fused Funk, Rock, and Soul, Dead at 82
Sly Stone, one of the most influential and groundbreaking musicians of the late Sixties and early Seventies who smashed the boundaries of rock, pop, funk, and soul, died on Monday. He was 82. The cause of death was a 'prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues,' according to a statement by his family. 'It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved dad, Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone,' Stone's family said. 'Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend, and his extended family. While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come.' More from Rolling Stone Wayne Lewis, Founding Member of Atlantic Starr, Dead at 68 George Wendt's Cause of Death Revealed Hear Sly and the Family Stone Rock a Small Club in 1967 With Funky 'I Gotta Go Now' The family added that Stone 'recently completed the screenplay for his life story, a project we are eager to share with the world in due course.' At the peak of his success, when hits like 'Dance to the Music' and 'Everyday People' were high on the charts, the wildly inventive musician and singer presented a glowingly optimistic image in step with the times, bringing together Black and white audiences, uplifting crowds with electrifying shows. But the unpredictability that was the core of his genius gave way to a long decline, as his personal demons destroyed what he had once been. Born Sylvester Stewart in Texas in 1943, Stone started making music with his siblings as a child: The Stewart Four (Sylvester, his sisters Rose and Vaetta, and his brother Freddie) made their first single, 'On the Battlefield,' in 1952. He moved to California with his family as a kid, and later became a familiar voice in the Bay Area's music scene. As a staff producer at Autumn Records, he put together hits like Bobby Freeman's 'C'mon and Swim'; he also produced 'Somebody to Love' by Grace Slick's pre-Jefferson Airplane band, the Great Society. He was also a DJ on KSOL and KDIA, and later noted that 'in radio, I found out about a lot of things I don't like. Like, I think there shoudn't be 'Black radio.' Just radio. Everybody be a part of everything.' Stone's own band, Sly & the Family Stone, came together over the course of 1966 and 1967. It really was a family of sorts: Sly and his siblings Rose and Freddie were joined by cousins Greg Errico and Jerry Martini, as well as bassist Larry Graham and trumpeter Cynthia Robinson. The Family Stone's breakthrough hit was 1968's 'Dance to the Music,' in which their voices and instruments, high and low, each took a turn in the spotlight. A racially mixed band with male and female members, playing soul-infused rock together was a rare sight at the time — a utopian vision of what pop music could be. Hits like 'Life,' 'Stand!,' 'Everyday People,' and 'Hot Fun in the Summertime' followed: all anthems of solidarity and joy that acknowledged the pain and frustration of the times and encouraged their audiences to transcend it. Sly & the Family Stone's soaring performance of 'I Want to Take You Higher' at Woodstock in 1969 was a triumph of that era, and the band finished the decade with an enormous hit: 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' whose joyful funk masked the existential horror and lacerating sarcasm of its lyrics. Their next album was supposed to be called The Incredible and Unpredictable Sly & the Family Stone — a sideways reference to Stone's habit of blowing off gigs. He finally released his masterpiece, There's a Riot Goin' On, in late 1971. Recorded with help from Bobby Womack and an early drum machine, it was a bleak, scarred, wobbly vision — the soured remains of the Sixties dream. 'I think that's kind of his like, help the medicine go down approach,' Questlove told Rolling Stone in March. 'He paints a very dark, lyric, paranoia, self-confessional thing almost in every record, but it's so happy-sounding.' The Family Stone disintegrated over the next few years, as Sly sank deep into drug abuse and became even more erratic. He married Kathy Silva on stage in front of a crowd of 20,000 at a sold-out Madison Square Garden show in 1974, but within months, the band had broken up, and the marriage, which produced a son, Sylvester Jr., didn't last much longer. 'He beat me, held me captive, and wanted me to be in ménages à trois,' Silva said years later. 'I didn't want that world of drugs and weirdness.' Sylvia left in 1976. Sly had two more children, Sylvette and Novena Carmel. Sly persevered, making one attempt after another to win back the public: His 1976 album was called Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I'm Back, and the one that followed it three years later Back on the Right Track. After 1982's half-finished Ain't But the One Way, he never released another album of new, original material, despite persistent rumors that he was working on the magical record that would get his career back on its feet. He collaborated with George Clinton, on whom he'd been a huge influence; he turned up for guest vocals on records by the Bar-Kays and Earth, Wind and Fire. Stone's personal troubles continued. He was arrested for cocaine possession multiple times in the 1980s, and he served 14 months in a rehab center beginning in 1989. Between Sly & the Family Stone's 1993 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the 2006 tribute to them at the Grammy Awards (for which Sly appeared for a few minutes with an enormous blond mohawk, then wandered off), he all but vanished. Interviewed by Vanity Fair in 2007, he claimed he had 'a library' of new material, 'a hundred and some songs, or maybe 200.' In 2011, the New York Post reported that he was living in a camper van in Los Angeles; that same year, he released I'm Back! Family & Friends, mostly lackluster new rerecordings of his Sixties classics. But the specter of his glory years remained. Stone's great 1960s and early-Seventies records inspired Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to incorporate electric instruments and funk grooves into jazz; Prince and the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Roots have all covered Sly & the Family Stone songs. A little over a year after the release of Stone's autobiography, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), a documentary, 2025's Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius), reexamined Stone's legacy. The film, directed by Questlove, focused on how Stone's legacy and influence continues to reverberate through popular music along with how Stone carried the weight of that influence personally until it became a burden. 'My intent was always to use Sly Stone to tell our story, my story, D'Angelo's story, Lauryn Hill's story, Frank Ocean's story,' Questlove told Rolling Stone. 'When you're talking about 'blowing it,' a lot of times the fear of failing or the fear of returning to where you came from — which is the very bottom — causes you anxiety about your future, and then causes you to fumble it.' The film featured commentary from George Clinton, Chaka Khan, D'Angelo, Q-Tip, and Family Stone members Larry Graham and Jerry Martini, among several others. 'I feel like a piece of my heart left with Sly. We were best friends for 60 years. He credits me with starting the band, but it was his musical genius that made music history,' Martini said in a statement to Rolling Stone. 'He will always be in my heart and I will continue to celebrate his music with the Family Stone. We extend our sincere love, condolences and prayers to his children and his family. Rest well my dear friend. You will be greatly missed.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sly Stone, Bay Area funk pioneer and Family Stone frontman, dies at 82
Sly Stone, the kaleidoscopic genius who turned San Francisco into the pulsing heart of funk-rock with his groundbreaking band Sly and the Family Stone, has died at 82. The trailblazing musician who transformed popular music in the 1960s and '70s and beyond with such hits as 'Everyday People,' 'Stand!' and 'Family Affair,' passed away peacefully, according to a statement from his family, after a long battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health issues. 'Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family,' said the statement, released Monday, June 9. 'While we mourn his absence, we take solace in knowing that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire for generations to come.' Born Sylvester Stewart on March 15, 1943, in Denton, Texas, and raised from infancy in Vallejo, Stone's journey from Pentecostal gospel prodigy to countercultural icon defined an era of musical transformation and social upheaval. He was the second of five children in a close, religious family who became 'Sly' after a teacher mistakenly spelled his name 'Slyvester.' Vallejo remained a touchstone in his life and career, where his early talent emerged through church music and adolescent doo-wop outfits. By his early 20s, Stone was a Bay Area fixture — spinning genre-defying sets as a disc jockey at KSOL and producing hits for local acts at Autumn Records. He had a gift not only for performance but also for collapsing boundaries, musical and otherwise. Through his radio industry connections, Sly Stone began producing top San Francisco acts, including the Great Society, the band Grace Slick fronted before joining Jefferson Airplane. Working alongside early mentor and local DJ Tom 'Big Daddy' Donahue, he produced a mix of rhythm and blues and rock hits — among them Bobby Freeman's 'C'mon and Swim' and the Beau Brummels' Beatles-inspired 'Laugh, Laugh.' At the same time, he was quietly assembling his own group, drawing in family members and local talent, eventually naming the band Sly and the Family Stone in 1966. 'Sly's sound was totally integrated, not just musically, but sexually and racially,' wrote former Creem magazine editor and music critic Dave Marsh. 'Everyone did something unexpected, which was the only thing the listener could expect.' Its lineup, diverse in race and gender, embodied the spirit of its city and its time. The group's blend of rock, funk, soul and psychedelia birthed anthems like 'Dance to the Music' and 'Higher.' Their vibrant sound, forged in San Francisco clubs and immortalized on the mud-slick stage at Woodstock in 1969, helped rewrite the DNA of American pop. Stone's legacy echoed far beyond the Bay Area. His innovations in multi-tracking and drum machines laid the groundwork for artists like Stevie Wonder, Prince and hip-hop pioneers like the Roots. 'Sly created the alphabet that we are still using to express music,' said the Roots drummer and filmmaker Questlove, who documented Stone's life in the recent film 'Sly Lives: aka the Burden of Black Genius.' But the same intensity that fueled his artistry also led to a spectacular unraveling. In the 1970s, amid growing paranoia and drug use, his music darkened, and Stone's once-electric live shows became sporadic or nonexistent. The landmark album 'There's a Riot Goin' On' captured this shift — a brooding, drum-machine-driven masterpiece reflecting the national mood and Stone's inner turmoil. By the 1980s, Stone had receded into infamy and isolation, his public appearances more cautionary tale than triumphant return. Sly and the Family Stone were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and honored at the Grammy Awards in 2006. But after the early 1980s, Sly released only one album: 'I'm Back! Family & Friends,' which mostly featured updated versions of his earlier hits. He lived at times in motels and vans, battling addiction and chasing legal claims for unpaid royalties. But his influence remained magnetic, his sampled grooves a bedrock of hip-hop and funk revivalism. In recent years, Stone had resurfaced in fits and starts. His memoir, 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),' published in 2023 with help from Questlove and co-author Ben Greenman, offered a sharp, playful account of his storied past. 'You couldn't take turns with freedom,' he wrote. 'Everyone had to be free all the time or no one was free at all.' Stone had three children, including a daughter with Family Stone trumpeter Cynthia Robinson. In 1974, he wed actress Kathy Silva on stage at Madison Square Garden, a marriage that ended in divorce shortly afterward.
