Sly Stone, the visionary musician who blended soul, funk, rock and psychedelia into an unmistakable sound that reshaped American music, died at age 82, his family announced.
According to a statement released by his family, Stone died peacefully following a long battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other health issues.
He was surrounded by his three children, his closest friend, and extended family.
“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 said.
The family also shared that Stone had recently completed a screenplay about his life, which they hope to share publicly in the future.
Born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas, in 1942, Stone was raised in Vallejo, California, where he immersed himself in gospel and learned multiple instruments.
He would go on to form Sly and the Family Stone, one of the first major integrated bands—racially and gender-diverse—in American pop music history.
Stone’s music burst into the mainstream with the 1968 hit “Dance to the Music,” followed by the landmark 1969 album Stand!, which included the No. 1 hit “Everyday People.”
His sound—grounded in heavy bass lines, soaring horns, and multi-layered vocals—became a template for future generations of musicians.
Prince, George Clinton, and Stevie Wonder all cited Stone as a key influence, and his work has been sampled extensively in hip-hop by Public Enemy, Ice Cube, and De La Soul.
“He created the alphabet that we are still using to express music,” said Questlove, who directed a 2024 documentary about Stone titled Sly Lives: aka the Burden of Black Genius. “Sly was the prototype.”
The Family Stone’s moment of triumph came at the Woodstock festival in August 1969, where the band performed in the early morning rain before a crowd of nearly half a million.
Their appearance, later included in the Oscar-winning documentary Woodstock, became a defining moment of the counterculture era.
But the pressures of fame, combined with escalating drug use, soon derailed Stone’s career.
The 1971 album There’s a Riot Goin’ On—recorded mostly solo—marked a darker, more introspective turn.
Though the record reached No. 1 and produced the hit “Family Affair,” it also foreshadowed the unraveling of the Family Stone.
As original members left, Stone’s output declined.
After two more charting albums—Fresh (1973) and Small Talk (1974)—his career spiraled.
By the early 1980s, his major-label days were over.
He was rarely seen in public in the following decades, except for erratic performances and legal disputes.
A 2011 New York Post report revealed that Stone had been living out of a van in Los Angeles, destitute despite his musical contributions.
“Please tell everybody, please, to give me a job, play my music,” he said at the time. “I’m tired of all this s—, man.”
Stone made brief returns to the spotlight, including an unforgettable appearance at the 2006 Grammy Awards and a lawsuit victory in 2015, when a jury awarded him $5 million in unpaid royalties.
But his days as a musical innovator were largely behind him.
Sly Stone’s legacy lives on in the DNA of modern music—from funk and soul to hip-hop and beyond.
His vision of a band and a world without fixed roles, where everyone could “get funky,” remains as radical and relevant today as it was in the late ’60s.
He is survived by his children, including L.A.-based musician Novena Carmel.
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