Frank Arellano, Charlie Gebhardt, Charlene Imhoff, Ria Boldway, Vern Gebhardt and Sylvester Stewart.
Gallery of Sly Stone
The Viscaynes
College/University
Career
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
Psychedelic soul group "Sly & The Family Stone" pose for a portrait in 1968: Rosie Stone, Larry Graham, Sly Stone, Freddie Stone, Gregg Errico, Jerry Martini, Cynthia Robinson. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
New York, New York, United States
Drummer Gregg Errico and musician Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone work on an album for the Spaulding Wood Affair which Sly was producing on June 25, 1968 in New York, New York. (Photo by Don Paulsen)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
New York, New York, United States
Freddie Stone, Sly Stone, Gregg Errico, Larry Graham, Rose Stone, Jerry Martini, and Cynthia Robinson of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone pose for a portrait session at CBS Studios on August 1, 1968 in New York, New York. (Photo by Don Paulsen
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
London, United Kingdom
American pop music group, Sly and the Family Stone shown shortly after their arrival in London, the start of their first Britsh tour.
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London W1J 7QU, United Kingdom
American band Sly and the Family Stone at Hatchetts Club in Piccadilly, London, 11th September 1968.
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
Psychedelic soul group "Sly & The Family Stone" pose for a portrait in 1968. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
New York, New York, United States
Sly Stone and Freddie Stone rehearsing for a performance on the TV show 'Kraft Music Hall' on June 27, 1968 in New York, New York. (Photo by Don Paulsen)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1968
New York, New York, United States
Sly Stone and Rose Stone rehearsing for a performance on the TV show 'Kraft Music Hall' on June 27, 1968 in New York, New York. (Photo by Don Paulsen)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1969
Singer Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone walks down the street with a woman on March 9, 1969. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1969
Larry Graham, Gregg Errico, Freddie Stone, Cynthia Robinson, Rose Stone, Sly Stone, Jerry Martini - posed, group shot (Photo by GAB Archive)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1969
Sly & The Family Stone
Gallery of Sly Stone
1969
Bethel, New York, United States
Musician Sly Stone performs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival on August 17, 1969 in Bethel, New York. (Photo by Warner Bros)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1969
Sly Stone tries on a necklace on March 9, 1969. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1969
San Diego, California, United States
Sly Stone sits aboard a plane in San Diego to do a radio interview on March 26, 1969 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1970
Sly Stone poses for a portrait with record executive Clive Davis in 1970. (Photo by Don Paulsen)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1971
Burbank, California, United States
Guitarists Freddie Stone and Sly Stone perform on the TV show 'The Midnight Special' in 1971 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Richard Creamer)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1971
Burbank, California, United States
Psychedelic soul group Sly & The Family Stone performs on the TV show 'The Midnight Special' in 1971 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1972
Sly Stone poses for a portrait sesion with record executive Clive Davis on September 27, 1972. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1972
79 N Harvard St, Allston, MA 02134, United States
Sly Stone performs at Harvard Stadium, Brighton, Boston, Massachusetts, 1972. (Photo by Spencer Grant)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1972
Sly Stone poses for a portrait sesion at home on September 17, 1972. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1972
Sly Stone poses for a portrait sesion at home on September 17, 1972. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archive)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
San Francisco, California, United States
Sly Stone and his manager and producer Bubba Banks of the psychedelic soul group Sly and the Family Stone rides a chopper on April 3, 1973 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
London, United Kingdom
Sly Stone of Sly And The Family Stone posed in London on 16th July 1973. (Photo by Michael Putland)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
London, United Kingdom
Sly Stone of Sly And The Family Stone posed in London on 16th July 1973. (Photo by Michael Putland)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
London, United Kingdom
Sly Stone of Sly And The Family Stone posed in London on 16th July 1973. (Photo by Michael Putland)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
London, United Kingdom
Sly Stone of Sly And The Family Stone posed in London on 16th July 1973. (Photo by Michael Putland)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
London, United Kingdom
Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone, London, 16th July 1973. (Photo by Michael Putland)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
London, United Kingdom
American singer-songwriter and musician, Sly Stone, of Sly and the Family Stone, London, 16th July 1973. (Photo by Michael Putland)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
San Francisco, California, United States
Cynthia Robinson, Sly Stone and bassist Rustee Allen of the psychedelic soul group Sly and the Family Stone record in the studio on April 3, 1973 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1973
San Francisco, California, United States
Sly Stone, Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini record in the studio on April 3, 1973 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1974
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, United States
American musician and singer Stevie Wonder (right) with funk musician Sly Stone at Madison Square Garden, New York City, 25th March 1974. (Photo by Bernard Gotfryd)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1974
Musician Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group "Sly And The Family Stone" poses for a portrait holding in circa 1974. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1974
New York City, New York, United States
Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone in fashion designer Halston's studio standing behind a model wearing his future wife's gold wedding dress on June 19, 1974 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1974
Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone and Kathy Silva wedding on June 5, 1974. (Photo by PL Gould)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1976
Burbank, California, United States
Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone performs on the TV show 'The Midnight Special' with pop singer Tom Jones on December 17, 1976 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Richard Creamer)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1976
Burbank, California, United States
Sly Stone performs on the TV show 'The Midnight Special' on December 17, 1976 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Richard Creamer)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1984
2124 Broadway, New York, NY 10023, United States
Bobby Womack and Sly Stone backstage at the Beacon Theater in New York City on June 23, 1984. (Photo by Ebet Roberts)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1984
2124 Broadway, New York, NY 10023, United States
Sly Stone performing with Bobby Womack at the Beacon Theater in New York City on June 23, 1984. (Photo by Ebet Roberts)
Gallery of Sly Stone
1984
617 West 57th Street, New York, New York, United States
Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone during Party at The Red Parrot Club at The Red Parrot Club in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella)
Gallery of Sly Stone
2006
Sly Stone pictured at the Grammys in 2006.
Gallery of Sly Stone
2010
81800 51st Ave, Indio, CA 92201, United States
Musician Sly Stone performs during day 3 of the Coachella Valley Music & Art Festival 2010 held at The Empire Polo Club on April 18, 2010 in Indio, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay)
Gallery of Sly Stone
2015
99 Monmouth St, Red Bank, NJ 07701, United States
Sly Stone makes a rare appearance performing his song "If you want me to stay" with The Family Stone during Hippiefest 2015 at Count Basie Theater on August 23, 2015 in Red Bank, New Jersey. (Photo by Mark Weiss)
Gallery of Sly Stone
2015
99 Monmouth St, Red Bank, NJ 07701, United States
Sly Stone makes a rare appearance performing his song "If you want me to stay" with The Family Stone during Hippiefest 2015 at Count Basie Theater on August 23, 2015 in Red Bank, New Jersey. (Photo by Mark Weiss)
Gallery of Sly Stone
2015
Oakland, California, United States
Sly And The Family Stone's Greg Errico and Stone pictured at Love City in Oakland, California in 2015.
Psychedelic soul group "Sly & The Family Stone" pose for a portrait in 1968: Rosie Stone, Larry Graham, Sly Stone, Freddie Stone, Gregg Errico, Jerry Martini, Cynthia Robinson. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Drummer Gregg Errico and musician Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone work on an album for the Spaulding Wood Affair which Sly was producing on June 25, 1968 in New York, New York. (Photo by Don Paulsen)
Freddie Stone, Sly Stone, Gregg Errico, Larry Graham, Rose Stone, Jerry Martini, and Cynthia Robinson of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone pose for a portrait session at CBS Studios on August 1, 1968 in New York, New York. (Photo by Don Paulsen
Sly Stone and Freddie Stone rehearsing for a performance on the TV show 'Kraft Music Hall' on June 27, 1968 in New York, New York. (Photo by Don Paulsen)
Singer Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone walks down the street with a woman on March 9, 1969. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Psychedelic soul group Sly & The Family Stone performs on the TV show 'The Midnight Special' in 1971 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Sly Stone and his manager and producer Bubba Banks of the psychedelic soul group Sly and the Family Stone rides a chopper on April 3, 1973 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Cynthia Robinson, Sly Stone and bassist Rustee Allen of the psychedelic soul group Sly and the Family Stone record in the studio on April 3, 1973 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001, United States
American musician and singer Stevie Wonder (right) with funk musician Sly Stone at Madison Square Garden, New York City, 25th March 1974. (Photo by Bernard Gotfryd)
Musician Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group "Sly And The Family Stone" poses for a portrait holding in circa 1974. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone in fashion designer Halston's studio standing behind a model wearing his future wife's gold wedding dress on June 19, 1974 in New York City, New York. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives)
Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group Sly And The Family Stone performs on the TV show 'The Midnight Special' with pop singer Tom Jones on December 17, 1976 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Richard Creamer)
617 West 57th Street, New York, New York, United States
Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone during Party at The Red Parrot Club at The Red Parrot Club in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella)
Musician Sly Stone performs during day 3 of the Coachella Valley Music & Art Festival 2010 held at The Empire Polo Club on April 18, 2010 in Indio, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay)
Sly Stone makes a rare appearance performing his song "If you want me to stay" with The Family Stone during Hippiefest 2015 at Count Basie Theater on August 23, 2015 in Red Bank, New Jersey. (Photo by Mark Weiss)
Sly Stone makes a rare appearance performing his song "If you want me to stay" with The Family Stone during Hippiefest 2015 at Count Basie Theater on August 23, 2015 in Red Bank, New Jersey. (Photo by Mark Weiss)
Sly Stone is an American singer, musician and songwriter. He is known as the frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, a band, that made a great impact on the development of soul, funk, rock, and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s.
Background
Sylvester Stewart was born in Dallas, Texas, United States in March of 1944. He began his recording career early - at age four - as a vocalist on the gospel tune "On the Battlefield for My Lord." In the fifties his family moved to the San Francisco area. Stewart and his brother Freddie learned to play various instruments and made music under the name the Stewart Four. Stewart also played and sang with doo-wop groups.
Education
A musical prodigy, Sylvester Stewart became known as Sly in early grade school, the result of a friend misspelling ‘Sylvester.’ He was adept at keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums by age eleven, and went on to perform in several high school bands. One of these groups, the Viscaynes, boasted an integrated lineup, a fact that did not go unnoticed in the late 1950s. The group cut a few singles, and Sly also released a few singles as well during that period, working with his younger brother Freddie.
Into the early ’60s, Sly’s musical education continued at Vallejo Junior College, where he added trumpet to his mixed bag, and mastered composition and theory as well.
At a show in 1964 Stewart met Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue, a disc jockey from San Francisco. Donahue told him about a record label he had formed with another former DJ. Stewart agreed to join the new venture, Autumn Records, and after cutting a few records of his own began to develop his talents as a producer. Working with bands like the Beau Brummels and the Great Society - the latter's singer, Grace Slick, would later front the psychedelic supergroup Jefferson Airplane - Stewart honed the studio skills he would later put to considerable use with his own group. In 1966, though, he left Autumn Records and became a disc jockey at radio station KSOL in San Francisco. He soon gained notoriety as one of the more eccentric voices on radio, blending sound effects with public service announcements and mixing soul singles with rock and roll records by Bob Dylan and the Beatles. According to Irwin Stambler in the Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul, by the time Stewart moved over to Oakland's station KDIA "he was generally considered the top R & B commentator" in the area.
At the same time, he was writing and playing with his own band, the Stoners. The group broke up in 1966, so Stewart and ex-Stoners trumpet player Cynthia Robinson formed a new ensemble. Stewart enlisted brother Freddie as guitarist and his sister Rosie to play piano. With the addition of saxophonist Jetty Martini, bassist Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico (Martini's cousin), the Family Stone was born.
Stewart changed his name to Sly Stone, and the band soon attracted the attention of Columbia Records A&R executive David Kapralik. The group signed with Columbia, releasing its debut LP, A Whole New Thing, in 1967 on the Columbia subsidiary Epic Records. The album didn't fare particularly well - according to Timothy White's book Rock Stars, it "lacked the fizzy familial feel of their live shows" - but the group's single "Dance to the Music," released early in 1968, became a solid hit and provided the title for the group's next album. Charles Shaar Murray asserted in Crosstown Traffic that the song "changed the course of popular music. It was succeeded by a clutch of pop-soul crossover hits which somehow contrived to meld James Brown's funk with the Beatles' tuneful optimism, records as universally accessible as anything since early Motown."
In an essay included in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll, rock critic Dave Marsh noted that "Dance to the Music" exploded the formal categories of soul and R & B because the vocals and the instruments "fought it out for space, right on the disc." Sly Stone had created a rock band that played in the traditions and spirit of soul music. "Dance to the Music" was the harbinger of hits to come; it reached the Top Ten of both the pop and soul charts, followed by a string of other hits. "Everyday People" - a song from Life! that gave the group its first Number One hit and helped popularize the slogan "different strokes for different folks" - "Stand!" and "I Want to Take You Higher" all increased the visibility of Sly Stone and his band. Stand!, the album containing the latter two singles, appeared in 1969. It also included the influential non-hit "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey."
The band, in its composition as much as its sound, crystallized much of the idealism and revolutionary thinking of the period. As Marsh observed, "Here was a band in which men and women, black and white, had not one fixed role but many fluid ones. The women played, the men sang; the blacks freaked out, the whites got funky; everyone did something unexpected, which was the only thing the listener could expect." A 1987 Rolling Stone piece devoted to "The Top 100" rock albums included Stand! - as well as two subsequent Sly and the Family Stone records. "On Stand! Stone's talent seems boundless," the magazine declared, calling the album's best songs "anthems you can dance to, soaring hymns of equality and self-determination set to a sweaty gutbucket beat." According to White, " Stand! ... was the album-length masterwork that 'Everyday People' had presaged; in one fell stroke it gave black music a new inner complexion while revolutionizing every other rock rhythm section extant."
The year 1969 brought more hit songs, most notably "Hot Fun in the Summertime" and the phonetically titled "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again" ("thank you for lettin' me be myself again"). Greil Marcus described Stone's peak in his book Mystery Train: "Sly was a winner. It seemed he had not only won the race, he had made up his own rules. Driving the finest cars, sporting the most sensational clothes, making the biggest deals and the best music, he was shaping the style and ambition of black teenagers all over the country." The group's moment of greatest visibility came in 1969 when they performed at the Woodstock festival, the gigantic concert in New York state that stood as the summit and symbol of the hippie generation. A supplement in Rolling Stone advertising the Woodstock movie noted, "Many of [Stone's] songs have social consciousness, yet they are able to appeal to both black and white, short-haired and long-haired people of all ages."
Sly and the Family Stone's rendition of "I Want to Take You Higher" looked for a brief time like the embodiment of a generation's dreams: black and white musicians bringing an activist throng to its feet with irresistible rock and roll music. Marsh claimed in a 1973 Creem review that Stone "was almost forced into the role of house nigger for the Woodstock Nation" - someone who, as Marsh later claimed, "could make race a safe issue" - but the audience's thunderous response and its flashing the peace sign at the word "higher," as per Stone's instructions, suggest that Stone's message and appeal were hardly apolitical.
In 1970, riding on the wave of his hits, Stone began to cancel many of his shows and appear late for others. "According to his agent," reported Rolling Stone, "he canceled 26 of the 80 engagements scheduled for him in 1970." Some blamed the excesses of his lifestyle - Stone's regalia, onstage and off, was ostentatious to say the least and matched by his alleged fondness for drugs.
More difficulties, more cancellations, and more accusations surfaced in 1971. Rolling Stone reported that by October Stone had "canceled 12 shows out of 40" and was "late for two shows." In November the band at last released a new album.
Despite the political edge and apparent lethargy and struggle of There's a Riot Goin' On, however, it went to Number One on the album chart and yielded three hit singles, "Family Affair," "(You Caught Me) Smilin'," and "Runnin' Away." It also featured a slowed-down and provocative rendition of "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again," retitled "Thank You for Talkin' To Me Africa." Furthermore, according to Marsh and Marcus, Aletti's initial thought was correct: this was the new urban pop sound. A slew of politicized and skeptical if not downright pessimistic soul songs overtook the airwaves in the wake of There's a Riot Goin' On.
Stone's fans would have to wait until October 1973 for Fresh! The new LP contained "If You Want Me to Stay," which went platinum, and one other hit, "Frisky."
In 1974 Sly and the Family Stone released Small Talk, an album that sank without much fanfare. In December, Stone walked out on a Muscular Dystrophy benefit in Washington, D.C. More arrests and conflicts followed, and Stone's musical output dwindled.
In 1976 the band put out Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I'm Back, but the album was generally dismissed by critics as a half-hearted effort. Stambler reported that "for a time after 1976, [Stone] was essentially out of the music business." He signed with Warner Brothers after a couple of unproductive years and in 1979 released Back on the Right Track with many of his original band members. Epic, meanwhile, seized the opportunity to release a record containing several Sly and the Family Stone tracks rerecorded with disco instrumentation. Entitled Ten Years Too Soon, it repulsed many of Stone's fans and critics, who saw it as the most cynical business move imaginable by a record label. Epic also released Anthology, an updated greatest hits package, in 1981. That same year Stone made an appearance on The Electric Spanking of War Babies, an album by George Clinton's group Funkadelic.
After a 1987 single, "Eek-a-Bo-Static," failed to even chart, Stone instead made headlines for a cocaine bust that led to his incarceration. Despite Sly & the Family Stone being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, Stone failed to make a substantial comeback in the '90s, or in the new millennium.
Sly Stone was raised in a a deeply religious family. As children, Sly and his siblings performed gospel music in the Church of God in Christ and even recorded a single in 1952.
Sly told: "I'm religious, but I don't go all the time to church. I believe the church is within me"
Politics
Sly Stone's songs are well-known for their political and social themes. Such songs as "Stand!," "Everyday People", and "There's a Riot Goin' On" became iconic for 1960's and 1970's culture.
Views
Quotations:
"No more chance of going to jail than you think. I don't have those kinds of things to take care of. I write songs."
"I've got a few reasons why I've got to maintain stability. I've got into wanting people to hear my music. I've got something I want people to hear because I know they'll like it. They've gotta like it! The songs I've been writing are the sort of things you have to like."
"Stand, you've been sitting much too long, there's a permanent crease in your right or wrong."
Personality
Sly Stone had a distinctly rock 'n' roll character. That meant no small amount of screw-you attitude, an exhilarating focus on hooks, some seriously weird outfits and a tendency toward hedonism.
He never really accepted the generally accepted rules. "I was into everyone's records," he once told Rolling Stone. "I'd play [Bob] Dylan, [Jimi] Hendrix, James Brown back to back, so I didn't get stuck in any one groove."
Quotes from others about the person
When people ask me questions about what was going on behind the scenes and how did you make such great music, I tell them it was Sly writing what was coming out of his heart and soul. He is a true genius. I just tell people to do what they love doing. That's what we did." - Freddie Stone
"OK, that's Sylvester Stewart, he's a poet. And then there's Sly Stone, the street cat, the hustler, the pimp, the conniver, sly as a fox and cold as a stone...That's the strutter, the street dude who walks up there with that charisma that holds an audience captive, right? 400,000 at Woodstock and 25,000 at Madison Square. He's irresponsible, opportunistic and unethical and he pimps our minds if we let him." - David Kapralik, manager, for the Rolling Stone
"He made things very simple: to stand for what you believe in. That could be in any culture; you're going to need to do that. So, he knew how to touch upon subjects that meant something to masses of people." - Cynthia Robinson
Connections
In June of 1974 Stone married his girlfriend, Kathy Silva. The ceremony took place before television cameras at New York City's Madison Square Garden just before a concert. By the end of the year they were divorced, with Silva seeking custody of the couple's one-year-old son, Sylvester Bubb Ali Stewart, Jr.
He also have two daughters Sylvette Robinson and Novena Carmel.