Sly Stone, the creative force of Sly and the Family Stone, an American multirracial band whose rock, soul and psychodelia mixture embodied the idealism of the 1960s and helped popularize Funk music, died at age 82, his family reported Monday.
Stone died after a battle against chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health problems, according to a statement from his family, who stressed that “although we cry his absence, he comforts us to know that his extraordinary musical legacy will continue to resonate and inspire the generations to come.”
His group was a regular of the lists of the United States in the late 60s and 70s, with successes such as “Dance to the music”, “I want to take you higher”, “Family affair”, “Everyday People”, “If you want me to stay” and “Hot fun in the summertime”.
However, he later fell out of favor and became addicted to cocaine, so he never triumphed again.
Stone played a fundamental role in introducing funk to a broader audience. James Brown had forged the funk elements before, but his festive, eclectic, psychedelic funk and rooted in the counterculture of the late 60s of Stone attracted new listeners.
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“They had the clarity of Motown but the volume of Jimi Hendrix or The Who,” George Clinton, leader of Parliament-Funkadelic, contemporary of Stone and another pioneer figure of the funk, once wrote.
Stone made his Californian band, which included his brother Freddie and his sister Rose, an integration symbol. In it there were black and black musicians, and women, such as the late trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, had prominent roles, something unusual in a music industry often segregated by races and sexes.
Stone, with his orbital Afro hairstyle and his vest worship, fringes and leather tight to the body, led the life of a superstar. At the same time, he allowed his companions to shine a collaborative and fluid approach that personified the hippie ethics of the 60s.
Born as Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, he moved as a child with his family north of California, where his father had a cleaning business.
He adopted the artistic name of Sly Stone and worked for a time like radio and producer disc-jockey for a small record before forming the band.
The band jumped to fame in 1968, when the song that gave title to their second album, “Dance to the Music”, sneaked into the Top 10, a year before her remembered performance in Woodstock before dawn.
In 1971, the band published “There’s a Riot Goin ‘On”, which became his only number 1 album.
Critics said the bleak tone of the album and the dragged voices denoted the growing influence of cocaine in Stone. But some considered the album a masterpiece, a praise of the time.
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Sly and the Family Stone’s albums of the late 70s and early 80s failed, and Stone accumulated arrests for drug possession. But his music helped shape disc music and, years later, Hip-Hop artists kept alive the legacy of the band sampling their musical hooks.
The group entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and Stone was honored at the 2006 Grammy gala. He took the stage with a blonde crest, but baffled the public by leaving the stage in the middle of the song.
In 2011, after starting what would become a legal battle of years to claim copyright that, according to him, had been stolen, Stone was arrested for cocaine possession. That year, the press informed that the artist lived in a recreational vehicle parked in a street in southern Los Angeles.
With Reuters information
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