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New York Post
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Nile Rodgers recalls becoming 'really close' with the late Sly Stone
It takes one music icon to know one. Nile Rodgers, the legendary producer and Chic bandleader, worshiped Sly Stone long before he became friends with the funk pioneer, who passed away at 82 on Monday, June 9. And he has the receipts to prove it. 5 Songwriters Hall of Fame chairman Nile Rodgers helped welcome the class of 2025 on Thursday night. Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame 5 Sly Stone was the genius behind Sly & the Family Stone classics such as 'Everyday People' and 'Family Affair.' Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame 'I still to this day have my ticket [from when] I saw Sly & the Family Stone at the Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park,' Rodgers, 72, exclusively told The Post on the red carpet of the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday at NYC's Marriott Marquis. 'Check this out — the price of the ticket? One dollar. General admission was one dollar. I still have it. It was that great of a day to me,' he said. And that's not the only way that Stone took a young Rodgers higher. 'I remember when he released, I don't know if it was the second album or the first album, I remember going to my friend's house — he was the only one who could afford the album — and we all sat around smoking hash and listening to the record all day,' he recalled. 5 Jimmy Jam (left) and Nile Rodgers joined Songwriters Hall of Fame president/CEO Linda Moran on the red carpet. Redferns As fate would have it, the Songwriters Hall of Fame chairman would end up meeting and bonding with the genius behind Sly & the Family hits such as 'Dance to the Music,' Everyday People,' and 'Family Affair.' 'Later on in life, I became friends with Sly in California. It was really sad for me because he was living in a car,' he said. 'So every night we would meet at the China Club when it moved to Los Angeles, and we would talk, and for some reason, we became really close.' In fact, Stone asked Rodgers to be the music director for the Sly & the Family Stone tribute at the 2006 Grammys that included Maroon 5, John Legend, Steven Tyler and Joss Stone — as well as a brief appearance by the funk god himself. 5 With Sly & the Family Stone, Nile Rodgers said that the late Sly Stone 'changed music.' Redferns Another legendary producer, Jimmy Jam, recalled sampling Sly & the Family Stone's 1970 chart-topper 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)' on Janet Jackson's 1989 hit 'Rhythm Nation.' 'I don't think people really put that together,' he told The Post. 'For me, it was so obvious that it's Sly. But he was a tremendous influence, [and] still continues to be. His music is singular. 'And his influence [was] not only me but certainly on Prince in the way that he made his band up — like, it was multiracial, multi-gender,' said the former Prince protégé. 'All of that came from Sly.' 5 Sly Stone of Sly And The Family Stone performs on stage in London on July 15, 1973. Getty Images Stone's impact on Rodgers was formative, too. 'Honestly, to me, Sly is on the same level as [John] Coltrane, Miles [Davis], Charlie Parker, Nina Simone, all the people I grew up with. Sly was my R&B example of that,' he said. Indeed, with Sly & the Family Stone, Rodgers said that Stone 'changed music.' 'They changed the way that America saw black musicians,' he said. 'They changed everything.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Funk-rock music pioneer, frontman of revolutionary band dies at 82
Sly Stone, the frontman of the revolutionary band Sly and the Family Stone, has died following several health issues. He was 82. 'It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved dad, Sly Stone of Sly and the Family Stone,' his family said in a statement, according to PEOPLE. 'After a prolonged battle with COPD and other underlying health issues, Sly passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend, and his extended family,' the statement continued. '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.' Born March 15, 1943, in Denton, Texas, Stone helped pioneer the emerging psychedelic soul movement in the 1960s and '70s with his genre-blending group. Sly and the Family Stone is considered rock's first group to incorporate the sounds of funk, soul, R&B, rock and psychedelic music. 'James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone perfected it,' AllMusic wrote. 'His alchemical fusion of soul, rock, gospel, and psychedelia rejected stylistic boundaries as much as his explosive backing band the Family Stone ignored racial and gender restrictions, creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds.' Sly and the Family Stone is also considered the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup. Originally formed in 1966, the group's core lineup consisted of Stone alongside his brother, Freddie Stone, sister Rose Stone, Cynthia Robinson, Greg Errico, Jerry Martini and Larry Graham. Sly and the Family Stone racked up more than a dozen songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including five top 10 hits. The group's three No. 1 hits are 'Everyday People,' 'Family Affair' and 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)'/'Everybody Is a Star.' The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and were ranked 43rd on Rolling Stone's list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time' in 2010. Three of the group's albums — 'Stand,' 'There's a Riot Goin' On' and 'Greatest Hits' — were also included on Rolling Stone's most recent list of the '500 Greatest Albums of All Time.' Despite Sly and the Family Stone fizzling out by 1975, Stone continued to record and tour with a new rotating lineup. He released his debut solo album 'High on You' that same year. Stone remained active in the industry until drug problems forced his effective retirement in 1987. His final solo album, 'I'm Back! Family & Friends,' was released in 2011. Founding member of chart-topping '80s R&B group dies at 68 Legendary hip-hop duo's first US tour in 15 years to start in Mass. Festival fans demand refunds after headliner's set slashed over weather delay Live Wire: Two Northampton music series return in time for summer 'Devastated' music legend cancels more shows due to health issues Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Thank You, Sly Stone
Let us begin with gratitude. Thank you, Sly Stone, for being so generous with your music before your death on Monday at the age of 82 — for the wealth of durable hits that includes 'Stand!,' 'Sing a Simple Song,' 'Everyday People,' 'Dance to the Music,' 'Family Affair,' and, yes, 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again).' Thank you, Sly, for effectively inventing 1970s funk and the career of Prince with that last song. Thank you, Sly for pulling together the Family Stone, a band of players and singers Black and white, male and female, that served as a music-world version of the original Sesame Street cast, bright with the 1960s promise of a multicultural future unbound by racial or genre distinctions. More from The Hollywood Reporter Kendrick Lamar Was the Top Winner at the 2025 BET Awards Tyler Perry Calls Out Hollywood Studios at BET Awards: "This Is Not the Time to Be Silent" SHINee's Key on K-pop Stardom After 30 and Reuniting with U.S. Fans And thank you, Sly, falettin me into your life in 2007. Permit me to explain. I grew up besotted with the music of the man born Sylvester Stewart in 1943. His songs defined my primordial years, osmosing straight into my bloodstream. In 1996, the year I became a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, I screwed up the courage to pitch the editor, Graydon Carter, the idea of my profiling Sly. Mr. Stone was in a bad place then. Actually, no one seemed quite sure what place he was in, having removed himself from public life after a bad 70s and 80s in which drugs and indolence robbed him of his joy and spark. It wasn't typical Vanity Fair material. But to my delight, Graydon said yes. Terrific! I started making phone calls. I got in touch with Greg Errico, the Family Stone's founding drummer, who invited me to watch him jam in a Bay Area rehearsal space with fellow original band members Freddie Stone (guitar, Sly's brother) and Jerry Martini (saxophone). Stonewalled by Sly's then manager, Jerry Goldstein, I reached out to his fellow record-industry machers Lou Adler and Richard Gottehrer, to advocate on my behalf. Despite their efforts, Goldstein was unmoved. Years passed. My wife and I welcomed two children into our family. A new millennium dawned. Then, early in 2007, I heard that the youngest of Sly's sisters, a singer born Vaetta and known as Vet, had coaxed Sly into performing a few dates with her band that coming summer. I contacted Vet and related to her my decade-plus of travails. She told me that if I was serious, I should get to Las Vegas pronto to see her band's show at the Flamingo Hotel. Sly, she said, was going to play. I asked her, given the predilection for no-shows that did in his career as a touring musician, if she was sure. 'All I can say is that I'm his little sister and he's never lied to me,' she said. Sly did show up — in a bizarre ensemble pulled from the Me Decade's dress-up bin, wearing platform boots, wraparound white sunglasses, and spangly newsboy knickers. It was a chaotic show in which he performed only a few songs. But when he sang a soft, unplugged version of 'Stand!,' with its affirming message In the end you'll still be you/ One that's done all the things you set out to do, he held the crowd rapt. It was evident that, whatever he had done to himself bodily and mentally, his voice and musicianship were intact. My reward for turning up was the first major interview he had granted in a couple of decades. We met in a motorcycle shop in his native Vallejo, California, called Chopper Guys Biker Products. I had a million questions. He answered them gnomically. When I asked him what he had been up to all these years, and if he was watching Seinfeld and American Idol like the rest of us, he said, 'I've done all that. I do regular things a lot. But it's probably more of a Sly Stone life. It's probably… it's probably not very normal.' The comeback that my Vanity Fair profile was meant to signal failed to materialize; he still had drug and business issues to sort out. But between then and now, he did finally get sober. Vet emailed me a photo of Sly contentedly dandling a grandson in his lap. In Questlove's excellent documentary released earlier this year, Sly Lives! (a.k.a. The Burden of Black Genius), his younger daughter, Novena, laughs at the unlikely circumstance to which she now regularly bears witness: 'He's kind of just like… a standard old Black man.' That he lived to become that is hope-giving. Sly is often upheld as as an avatar for how the utopianism of 1960s America curdled into solipsism, cynicism, and bad vibes. I am reminded of the title character's reproach of the Dude in The Big Lebowski: 'Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost!' But in the long run, Sly won. He found redemptive happiness. His library of music remains as alive and vibrant as ever and shall forever transcend the circumstances of its making and what came after. Once again, Sly, thank you. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Forever No. 1: Sly & the Family Stone's ‘Everyday People'
Forever No. 1 is a Billboard series that pays special tribute to the recently deceased artists who achieved the highest honor our charts have to offer — a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single — by taking an extended look back at the chart-topping songs that made them part of this exclusive club. Here, we honor Sly Stone, who died on Monday (June 9) at age 82, by looking at the first of Sly & the Family Stone's three Hot 100-toppers: the simple, yet profound 'Everyday People.' Sly & the Family Stone, a genre-fluid, interracial, mixed-gender group (at a time when all three things were unique) was formed in San Francisco in 1966. The group was led by Sly Stone, a musical prodigy who was just 23 at the time. His main claim-to-fame at that point is that he had produced a string of hits for the pop/rock group The Beau Brummels, including 'Laugh, Laugh' and 'Just a Little.' More from Billboard Sly Stone Dead at 82 DJ Akademiks Denies Taking Payola From Drake During Kendrick Battle Raekwon and Ghostface Killah Release Trailer for 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx' Documentary Sly & the Family Stone made the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1968 with its first chart hit, 'Dance to the Music.' That funky celebration of dance music wasn't topical at all, but after the stunning events of 1968 – a year of assassinations, riots and a war without end in Vietnam – acts almost had to say something, and Sly & the Family Stone did on 'Everyday People,' which was released that November. The song is a plea for understanding and racial unity, which is so understated in its approach that it's easy to lose sight of just how progressive its sentiments seemed in 1968. The record has a gentle tone and a disarming opening line: 'Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong/ My own beliefs are in my song.' Who ever starts out a conversation by conceding 'I can be wrong?' The sense of urgency and passion picks up on the proclamation 'I am everyday people!' which is repeated three times during the song, and then on the call to action 'We got to live together,' which is repeated twice. Stone, who was born Sylvester Stewart, wrote and produced 'Everyday People.' His genius move on this song was to simplify the discussion to the level of a childhood playground taunt – 'There is a yellow one that won't accept the Black one/ That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one/ Different strokes for different folks/And so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby.' The unspoken, but unmistakable, message: Isn't all this division really pretty childish? Sly makes the point even more directly in the second verse: 'I am no better and neither are you/ We are the same whatever we do.' The reasonableness of his argument instantly disarms any detractors. The song's politics are expressed most directly in the third verse, in the song's depiction of counter-culture types vs. establishment types; progressives vs. conservatives. 'There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hair/For being such a rich one that will not help the poor one.' The bridges of the song contain the line 'different strokes for different folks,' which was initially popularized by Muhammad Ali. It became a popular catchphrase in 1969 (and inspired the name of a 1978-86 TV sitcom, Diff'rent Strokes). Sly wisely kept the record short – the childlike sections, which are charming in small doses, would have become grating if the record had overstayed its welcome. The record runs just 2:18, shorter than any other No. 1 hit of 1969. Three Dog Night took a similar approach on 'Black & White,' which was a No. 1 hit in September 1972 – putting a plea for racial unity and brotherhood in simple, grade-school language. Three Dog's record isn't as timeless or memorable as 'Everyday People,' but it shows Sly's influence. 'Everyday People' entered the Hot 100 at No. 93 for the week ending Nov. 30, 1968. You might assume that a record this catchy and classic shot to the top quickly, but it took a while. In the week ending Jan. 11, 1969, it inched up from No. 27 to No. 26, looking like it might not even match 'Dance to the Music''s top 10 ranking. But then it caught fire. The following week, it leapt to No. 15, then No. 5, then No. 2 for a couple of weeks behind Tommy James & the Shondells' 'Crimson and Clover,' before finally reaching the top spot in the week ending Feb. 15. It stayed on top for four consecutive weeks, the longest stay of Sly's career. The song was of a piece with such other socially-aware No. 1 hits as Aretha Franklin's 'Respect' (1967) and The Rascals' 'People Got to Be Free' (1968). 'Everyday People' remained on the Hot 100 for 19 weeks, a personal best for Sly, and wound up as the No. 5 song of 1969 on Billboard's year-end chart recap. The song was included on the group's fourth studio album, Stand!, which was released in May 1969. The album reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 102 weeks – also a personal best for the group. The album, which also featured 'Sing a Simple Song,' 'Stand!' and 'I Want to Take You Higher,' was inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2014 and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015. The band included 'Everyday People' in their set at Woodstock on Aug. 17, 1969. Fun Fact: It was the only No. 1 Hot 100 hit performed by the original artist during that landmark three-day festival. The song is widely acknowledged as a classic. Rolling Stone had it at No. 109 on its 2024 update of its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Billboard included it on its 2023 list of the 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List. (We had it way down at No. 293, clearly proving the wisdom of Sly's opening line, 'Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong.') While Sly was bedeviled by personal demons that shortened his run at the top, he lived to get his flowers. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 (in its first year of eligibility). On his own, Sly received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2017. Numerous artists covered 'Everyday People' in the wake of Sly's recording. Between 1969 and 1972, the song was featured on Billboard 200 albums by The Supremes, Ike & Tina Turner, The Winstons, Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Supremes & Four Tops, Billy Paul and Dionne Warwick. Spend any time on YouTube and you can also find cover versions of 'Everyday People' by everyone from Peggy Lee to Pearl Jam (who performed it in concert in 1995). Other artists who took a stab at it: Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers, William Bell, Belle & Sebastian, Maroon 5 (on a 2005 remix and cover album Different Strokes by Different Folks) and the unlikely team of Cher and Future, who covered it for a 2017 Gap ad that has recently gone viral. A couple artists even had Hot 100 hits with their new spins on the song. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts covered the song in 1983 and took it to No. 37. Arrested Development drew heavily from the song for their 1993 hit 'People Everyday,' which reached No. 8. (The song used the chorus and basic structure of the original, with new verses written by lead singer Speech.) Sly & the Family Stone nearly landed a second No. 1 hit in 1969, but 'Hot Fun in the Summertime' stalled at No. 2 for two weeks in October behind The Temptations' 'I Can't Get Next to You.' 'Hot Fun' wound up at No. 7 on the aforementioned year-end Hot 100 recap, making Sly the only act with two songs in the year-end top 10. Questlove, who directed the 2025 documentary Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius), shared a touching tribute to the icon on Instagram on Monday. 'Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, left this earth today, but the changes he sparked while here will echo forever … He dared to be simple in the most complex ways — using childlike joy, wordless cries, and nursery rhyme cadences to express adult truths.' That last part was a clear reference to 'Everyday People.' Questlove also recalled what he called that song's 'eternal cry' – 'We got to live together!' Said Quest: 'Once idealistic, now I hear it as a command. Sly's music will likely speak to us even more now than it did then. Thank you, Sly. You will forever live.' Later this week: Two additional Sly & the Family Stone No. 1s take the group into darker and murkier territory, with similarly spellbinding results. 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The Star
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Funk-rock pioneer Sly Stone dies at 82
Sly Stone passed away after a prolonged battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health issues, his family said. Photo: AP Funk master and innovator Sly Stone, whose music drove a civil rights-inflected soul explosion in the 1960s, sparking influential albums but also a slide into drug addiction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 82. The multi-instrumentalist frontman for Sly and the Family Stone -- rock's first racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup -- "passed away peacefully, surrounded by his three children, his closest friend and his extended family," after a prolonged battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other health issues, his family said in a statement. "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," it added. With his vibrant on-stage energy, killer hooks and lyrics that often decried prejudice, Stone became a superstar, releasing pivotal records that straddled musical genres and performing a set that enraptured the crowd at Woodstock. But he retreated to the shadows in the early 1970s and his personal struggles ultimately led to the group's disintegration. He emerged sporadically for unfulfilling concert tours, erratic TV appearances and a flopped 2006 reunion on the Grammy Awards stage. An effervescent hybrid of psychedelic soul, hippie consciousness, bluesy funk and rock built on Black gospel, Stone's music proved to be a melodic powerhouse that attracted millions during a golden age of exploratory pop -- until it fell apart in a spiral of drug use. Over the course of just five years, his diverse sound cooperative left an indelible impact on American and world music, from the group's debut hit Dance To The Music in 1967 and their first of three number one songs, Everyday People a year later, to the 1970s rhythm and blues masterpiece If You Want Me To Stay . For many, Sly was a musical genius creating the sound of the future. It was "like seeing a Black version of the Beatles," funk legend George Clinton told CBS News of his longtime friend's stage presence. "He had the sensibility of the street, the church, and then like the qualities of a Motown," Clinton added. "He was all of that in one person." – AFP
