Pioneering psychedelic soul legend Sly Stone has died at the age of 82. The news was confirmed in a statement from Stone's family.
"After a prolonged battle with COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family," the 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.
“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."
Born in Denton, Texas, in 1943, Stone formed Sly & The Family Stone in 1966. Arguably the first truly interracial major rock group, they mixed rock, gospel, funk, pop, jazz and psychedelia into a heavy-duty mix that was as influential as it was innovative. Hits like Dance To The Music Everyday People, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) I Want to Take You Higher, Family Affair and If You Want Me To Stay – and the albums Stand! and There's a Riot Goin' On were an inspiration to more than one generation of musicians.
"The big turning point for me was when I first went over to America with my band Trapeze in the very early 70s," Glenn Hughes told Classic Rock. "I turned on the radio and heard Sly & The Family Stone. The likes of Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding and Donnie Hathaway had influenced me vocally, but Sly Stone’s music had a deeper resonance. Especially on [fifth album] There’s A Riot Goin’ On. Thank You For Takin’ To Me Africa, Family Affair… songs like that. It sounded just superhuman to me.
"When Sly sang he used two or three different voices, which influenced the way I started to sing, from real deep down to kinda screamy – that was just me. Well, it was going to be me.
"When you play [Deep Purple’s] Stormbringer and you listen to You Can’t Do It Right, Hold On and Love Don’t Mean A Thing – the way Ritchie [Blackmore] played, it’s funky. The way Ritchie hooked in with me, Paicey [Ian Paice] and Lordy [Jon Lord], that’s some funky stuff. We didn’t use the word ‘funk’ then because that might’ve offended some rock fans. But it’s the whole core of who I am. Thanks to Sly Stone, when I joined Purple I added a swagger that wasn’t there before. I feel good about that".
"We listened to Sly & The Family Stone on a reel-to-reel, which we had before we had a turntable." Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan told us. "Greatest Hits came out in about 1970, and all of that different instrumentation and all those fucking great backbeats were like magic to me. I was just a kid!"
"All the music I grew up listening to was soul music: Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, James Brown," Gov't Mule's Warren Haynes told us. "Eventually, when my eldest brother got Stand!, that started building a bridge to rock’n’roll for me. When I got a guitar in 1972, I would spend hours listening to records like this, trying to figure out what they were playing."
On stage, the band were phenomenal, with appearances at both Woodstock and Monterey Pop giving them instant credibility, but by the mid-70s a litany of cancelled shows, disrupted tours and terminal drug abuse had rendered the band all but unemployable, with an erratic Stone battling both addiction and mental health issues.
"We went to San Francisco to do some recording and we were stuck in a hotel for 10 days and never saw him," Jeff Beck told Classic Rock. "Eventually we got into the studio and Sly saw Carmine [Appice]’s drums and said: 'You can take half of that away, we don’t need that.' Then he disappeared into a back room and never came out again."
Multiple attempts to revive Stone's musical career faltered. His bizarre live shows in 2007, when Stone would arrive late onstage and leave early, contained occasional flashes of very real brilliance and suggested there was still gas in the tank. However, his most recent release, the 2011 solo album I'm Back! Family & Friends, contained just three new songs.
The last interview Stone gave was in 2007, although he surprised many by publishing a memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), in 2023. And this year, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), a movie directed by Roots drummer and Tonight Show bandleader Questlove?, was released to great acclaim. It was a film he deserved.
