American musician, songwriter and producer Sly Stone who died on June 9, 2025 at the age of 82 was one of the most consequential contemporary pop artistes of all time.
He was the front man of Sly and the Family Stone, the band that pioneered an electrifying combination of soul and funk with psychedelic rock in the 1960s and early 70s.
His band’s performance at the Woodstock Music festival in 1969 is part of pop folklore, and the appeal of songs like Everyday People Family Affair, and Dance to the Music have endured across generations.
Born on March 15, 1943, in Texas, Sylvester Stewart grew up in North Carolina where he fell in love with music as a young boy as his parents played a variety of instruments.
The family group, the Stewart Four, sang the gospel of Mahalia Jackson, the Soul Stirrers, Brother Joe May and the Swan Silverstones.
At age of five, he performed in church for the first time and when the congregation surged towards the aisle, he thought they were coming to grab him.
“Now I see that they were feeling the spirit in the song calling them toward the stage,” he wrote in his autobiography, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again).
The title of the book, published in 2023, is taken from his 1969 single, an intentional mondegreen for “thank you for letting be myself again”.
During a school spelling bee, a classmate misspelled his name as Slyvetser. “Everyone started laughing but I took a close look. Sly: Not bad,” he wrote.
Stone was influenced by the singers with a gospel background who moved into the secular realm in the 1950s, like Sam Cooke, Clyde McPhatter, Jackie Wilson, Ray Charles and Little Richard.
In 1961, 17-year-old Stone joined the Viscaynes, one of the few racially integrated groups in the US at the time, and wrote his first song for the band, Yellow Moon. He joined Vallejo Junior College to learn music formally and worked as a presenter at a local R&B radio station in San Francisco. Sly Stone was his on-air moniker.
After he introduced a record during his show, he would sit at a piano and play along with it and as soon as the song ended, he was back at the microphone.
Though he was quite successful in writing songs and playing instruments for other artistes, he wanted his own band.
Stone, his brother Freddie (guitarist), sister Rose (keyboardist/singer), trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini and bassist Larry Graham, formed Sly and the Family Stone in 1966.
“I rehearsed the band every day, didn’t matter if it was Christmas or New Year’s or someone’s birthday. The rehearsals went on as long as needed,” he recalled.
They were signed to Epic Records, part of Columbia Records stable and released their debut album A Whole New Thing in 1967. Though it didn’t make the charts, it’s follow-up turned out to be an all-time classic. The single Dance to the Music hit the Billboard Top 10 charts and was the title track of the group’s sophomore album in 1968.
Their third album Life came as the band’s fame spread and they played before bigger crowds, but did not match the success of its predecessor. Amid the turbulence of the US Civil Rights movement, Sly and the Family Stone released Everyday People, a plea for interracial harmony in November 1968, the lead single from their fourth album Stand.
The single became their first US No 1 single and one of the most popular hits of the 1960s.
The Woodstock Festival in 1969, a three-day jamboree of music, in New York was a defining moment for the band. They took to stage just after 3am on August 17, 1969, driving the huge crowd ecstatic with their funky rhythms, electrifying bass and horns.
The band became one of the most in-demand live acts in the US, but they gained notoriety for missing shows or turning up late, leading to violent scenes from disappointed fans. Stone claimed that it was promoters who double booked, even triple booked, the group.
As his career hit its peak, Stone’s personal life took an unsavory turn.
“Drugs were accelerating by that point. I didn’t even have to buy them,” he writes.
“People gave me powder or pills because I was famous or they wanted my approval or they were trying to establish a relationship on that basis.”
Over the next two decades, he would have several run-ins with the law and frequent stints in rehabilitation. The group had effectively broken up by the mid 1970s and after that Stone’s solo recordings fared poorly.
In 1989, Michael Jackson bought up all the Sly and Family catalogue, though his publishing company later entered into a deal with Stone to allow him a minority interest in the catalog.
The music has also remained relevant across generation through samples used by hip-hop stars like LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Beatie Boys. Sly and The Family Stone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Stone rarely appeared in public in recent decades as he battled chronic lung disease. During a period of racial tensions and gender inequality, Sly Stone formed a band with black and white musicians and gave a prominent role to the women in the group who didn’t just provide vocals, but played instruments.
