Music Icon Sly From Family Stone Has Died At Age 82

Sly Stone, the remarkable, eccentric frontman, singer, songwriter and producer of his family group, Sly & the Family Stone, died in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9. The musical icon had been battling lung disease, according to a statement provided by his family. He was 82. “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,” the statement reads. Born Sylvester Stewart, the second of five children, he and his family moved from Denton, Texas to Vallejo, Calif. when he was an adolescent. The family was heavily involved in the Church of God In Christ. By age 8, Stone was recording gospel music with his siblings, Freddie, Rose and Vaetta as The Stewart Four. You can hear Stone as a child belting out “On the Battlefield of the Lord” on a single they recorded in 1952. He was still in grade school when a friend misspelled “Sylvester” as “Sly.” The nickname stuck. By age 11, Stone became proficient in keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums. In high school, he’d formed a multi-racial doo-wop group, The Viscaynes, which recorded some singles in Los Angeles. As a young man, Stone was a successful disc jockey for KSOL, an R&B radio station in San Mateo, Calif. His playlists included popular records by white artists such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. During this time Stone also worked as a record producer for Autumn Records, producing San Francisco-area bands. One of the Stone-produced singles was Bobby Freeman’s “C’mon and Swim,” which reached No. 5 on the U.S. pop chart in 1964. Stone and his brother Freddie merged their own bands together in 1966 to form Sly & the Family Stone. In it, women — notably — were not just vocalists but also played instruments, a rarity for the era. And it included both Black and white musicians. Within a few years, the group was turning out hits such as “Everyday People,” “Family Affair” and “Dance to the Music.”

Advertisements

Source: NPR