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Black America Web
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Funk Pioneer Sly Stone Dead At 82, Social Media Remembers His Greatness
Source: Michael Putland / Getty Sylvester Stone, who, along with his band The Family Stone, had a major impact on rock, funk, R&B, and hip-hop music, has passed away. He was 82. His family says that the musician passed away after a health battle that included COPD, a progressive lung disease. 'After a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend, and his extended family,' his family said in a statement obtained by Variety. '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.' In the '60s, Sly and the Family Stone released groundbreaking albums including Dance to the Music and There's a Riot Goin' On from 1967 to 1974. The multi-racial band included his brother, Freddie, on guitar and vocals, and his sister, Rose, on keyboard and piano, as well as Cynthia Robinson on trumpet and Larry Graham on bass. Their big hits included 'Dance to the Music,' 'Everyday People,' and 'I Want to Take You Higher.' Not only was the band one of the first of its era to feature both male and female instrumentalists, but it was also one of the first to include both men and women. Stone, born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, on March 15, 1943, moved to Northern California with his family as a child. His musical career started with his siblings as the gospel group the Stewart Four. After studying music at Vallejo College, he became a radio personality at San Francisco's KSOL Radio and then moved on to producing artists at Autumn Records. He formed Sly and the Family Stone in 1966, and they soon reached the pinnacle of the music world in an era when rock and psychedelia dominated. They combined genres, incorporating funk, R&B, and soul, to craft their own unique sound in a world where rock stars were predominantly white and male. They, along with Jimi Hendrix and others, played the legendary Woodstock Festival in 1969. The band was considered a direct influence on Prince's most commercially successful group, The Revolution, with which he performed during the Purple Rain era. It also included Black and white musicians and women who played instruments. Graham played in The New Power Generation, Prince's band in the 1990s, and remained connected to him throughout the latter part of his life. A proposed collaboration that Stone mentioned in his 2023 memoir never materialized, but the men shared mutual admiration for each other, and Prince often played covers of Stone's music in his live shows. Hip hop musicians sampled Stone as well. Dr. Dre and Snoop used 'Sing a Simple Song' for 'Deep Cover.' KRS used it as well for 'Sound of Da Police.' LL Cool J's song, 'Mama Said Knock You Out,' incorporates 'Trip To Your Heart.' Sly and the Family Stone were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Earlier this year, Questlove of The Roots directed a documentary on Stone called Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) for Hulu. Stone's career was derailed by drug abuse after the original Sly and the Family Stone broke up unofficially around 1975. He was at one time living in a van and was homeless, then spent years out of the public eye. However, Stone resurfaced in recent years, playing select live shows and contributing to the writing of his memoir and the documentary. His family's statement concluded, 'Sly was a monumental figure, a groundbreaking innovator, and a true pioneer who redefined the landscape of pop, funk, and rock music. His iconic songs have left an indelible mark on the world, and his influence remains undeniable. In a testament to his enduring creative spirit, Sly recently completed the screenplay for his life story, a project we are eager to share with the world in due course, which follows a memoir published in 2024.' Funk Pioneer Sly Stone Dead At 82, Social Media Remembers His Greatness was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Sly Stone, pioneering funk legend, dies at 82
Sly Stone , the visionary musician whose genre-defying work with Sly and the Family Stone reshaped popular music in the late 1960s and 1970s, has died at the age of 82. Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, passed away surrounded by family after battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other ailments, his publicist Carleen Donovan confirmed on Monday. A revolutionary force in music Formed in the Bay Area in 1966-67, Sly and the Family Stone broke new ground as the first major band to feature Black and white men and women, embodying the spirit of an era marked by social upheaval and hope. Their music—a vibrant fusion of jazz, psychedelic rock, soul, doo-wop, and the emerging sounds of funk—captured the euphoria and turbulence of the Woodstock generation. The band's breakthrough came with the 1968 single 'Dance to the Music,' which hit the Top 10 during a week marked by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Their anthems, including 'Everyday People,' 'Stand!,' and 'Family Affair,' became rallying cries for unity and non-conformity, with the phrase 'different strokes for different folks' entering the popular lexicon. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The price of dental implants may surprise you Dental Implants | Search Ads Search Now Undo Enduring legacy Sly and the Family Stone released five Top 10 singles—three of which reached No. 1—and three million-selling albums: 'Stand!,' 'There's a Riot Goin' On,' and 'Greatest Hits.' Their electrifying 1969 Woodstock performance and Stone's flamboyant stage presence left an indelible mark on music and culture. Stone's influence extended far beyond his brief peak from 1968 to 1971. Artists as diverse as George Clinton, Prince, Rick James, and the Black Eyed Peas drew inspiration from his work, and his riffs have been sampled by hip-hop legends like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. In 2023, his memoir 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)' was published, and in 2025, Questlove released the documentary 'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius).' Live Events Sly Stone's innovative sound and message of inclusivity continue to resonate, cementing his place as a true architect of modern music.
Irish Examiner
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Sly Stone, pioneering funk and soul musician, dies aged 82
Sly Stone, the American musician who lit up generations of dancefloors with his gloriously funky and often socially conscious songwriting, has died aged 82. 'After a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family,' a family statement reads. '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.' With his group Sly and the Family Stone, Stone tied together soul, psychedelic rock and gospel into fervent, uplifting songs, and became one of the key progenitors of the 1970s funk sound alongside James Brown and others. The group's hits include three US No 1 singles – Everyday People, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) and Family Affair – plus Dance to the Music, I Want to Take You Higher, Hot Fun in the Summertime and more. The 1971 album There's a Riot Goin' On, a moody reflection on civil rights and the corrupted idealism of the postwar era created predominantly by Stone apart from the rest of his band, is widely regarded as one of the greatest of the 20th century. Born Sylvester Stewart to a Pentecostal religious family in Texas in 1943, Stone grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. His first music came in a gospel quartet with three siblings, the Stewart Four, who put out a locally released single in 1952. As a young man he became well known in the fertile musical scene of countercultural San Francisco: a multi-instrumentalist and radio DJ who had a series of local bands and worked as a producer for garage rock and psychedelia groups such as the Beau Brummels. In 1966, he fused his band Sly and& the Stoners with his brother Freddie's group Freddie and the Stone Souls, to form Sly and the Family Stone. Their breakthrough came the following year with Dance to the Music, and success was fully established by their fourth album in two years, Stand! (1969), which eventually sold more than three million copies. The band's stylistic and racial diversity attracted a broad audience, and they played both of the defining music festivals of 1969, Woodstock and the Harlem cultural festival. Hits continued more fitfully during the early 1970s, and the group – notorious for no-shows at concerts – slowly fractured amid increasing drug use. Stone would record There's a Riot Goin' On predominantly on his own, applying one of the earliest uses of a drum machine; albums such as Fresh!, with its Richard Avedon portrait of Stone on the cover, were also primarily his work. The band split entirely in 1975, though Stone continued to use the band name for solo releases. Despite having laid the rhythmic groundwork for disco, Stone couldn't sustain his career in the late 1970s, and his addiction to cocaine worsened. He continued to perform with peers such as Funkadelic and Bobby Womack, but album releases dried up after 1982's Ain't But the One Way. He was arrested in 1983 for cocaine possession, and for driving under the influence of cocaine in 1987, prompting him to flee California for Connecticut. He was apprehended two years later, and sentenced to 55 days in prison, five years' probation and a fine. His difficulties meant that he was little seen during the 1990s, and it wasn't until 2006 that he performed in public again, at a tribute to Sly and the Family Stone at the Grammy awards. He performed with the Family Stone on a tour the following year, but often erratically, and made a lacklustre appearance at 2010's Coachella festival. His final album, I'm Back! Family & Friends, featuring re-recordings of old songs alongside three new tracks, was released in 2011. In 2015 he was awarded $5m in a lawsuit against his former manager and attorney, successfully arguing that royalty payments had been diverted from him, though he ultimately wasn't awarded the money due to the terms of a 1989 royalties agreement with a production company. Difficulties with royalties meant that Stone spent many of his latter years in poverty; in 2011 he was living in a campervan in a residential area of Los Angeles – voluntarily, he claimed – and relying on a retired couple for food. 'Sly was a monumental figure, a groundbreaking innovator, and a true pioneer who redefined the landscape of pop, funk, and rock music,' the family statement added. 'His iconic songs have left an indelible mark on the world, and his influence remains undeniable. In a testament to his enduring creative spirit, Sly recently completed the screenplay for his life story, a project we are eager to share with the world in due course, which follows a memoir published in 2024.' That memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), was praised in a Guardian review: 'The charm, playfulness, humour and personality of Stone's songs come through in his on-page voice'. In a 2023 interview with the Guardian accompanying its publication, he said: 'I was always happy if someone took the things I was doing and they liked them enough to want to do them on their own. I'm proud that the music I made inspired people.' He was married from 1974 to 1976 to Kathy Silva, with whom he had a son, Sylvester Jr. He later had two further children: Sylvyette with Cynthia Robinson, and Novena Carmel. - The Guardian Read More Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg, ministry says
