Funk musician Sly Stone died at the age of 82

The American musician, composer and music producer Sly Stone has passed away. His family reports this in a press release on Monday. Stone was best known as foreman of the Funkband Sly & The Family Stone. That band was active in the sixties and seventies of the last century and knew a few hits, including the songs Dance to the Music,,  » Family Affair and Everyday People. The band also played an important role in the development of the Funk, Soul, R&B, Hiphop and Psychedelic music.

« After a long fight against COPD and other health problems, Slying went peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his best friend and his family, » his family writes. « Although we mourn for his absence, we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that his musical legacy will continue to resound and inspire for generations. » Stone was 82 years old.

Big hit

Sly Stone was born in 1943 in Dallas, Texas. His birth name was Sylvester Stewart, but he changed that to Sly Stone at a young age. In 1966, together with his brother Freddie Sly & The Family Stone, he founded. A year later they achieved their first big hit with the song Dance to the Music And in 1969 they performed at the Woodstock festival in the early morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN2PNLHVY8E

In the following years, the band released several influential singles and albums, which, however, had varying success in the charts. In the meantime, Sly & The Family Stone suffered from internal tensions and the drug use of his members, especially from Sly Stone himself. The band broke up in 1975; Stone continued to release music to an arrest and conviction for cocaine ownership in 1987.

Homeless in Los Angeles

In the years after his conviction, little was heard from Stone, and in 2011 reported The New York Post That the funk musician was homeless. Stone lived in a camper in Crenshaw, a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he still made music on his laptop.

Stone itself may have been in the publicity, its influence on contemporary music is all the greater. At the beginning of this year, the American channel Hulu released a documentary about Stone, produced by fellow musician Questlove (known from the hip-hop band The Roots).

About the number Dance to the Music The latter recently said to the American radio channel NPR that Stone « invented the alphabet with which the majority of pop and R&B music was written the sixty years thereafter ». « We are still drawing out of his dictionary. »

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