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Sly Stone, pioneering funk and soul musician, dies aged 82
American songwriter lit up generations of dancefloors with his group Sly and the Family Stone
The 1971 album There’s a Riot Goin’ On, a moody reflection on civil rights and the corrupted idealism of the postwar era created predominantly by Stone apart from the rest of his band, is widely regarded as one of the greatest of the 20th century. As a young man he became well known in the fertile musical scene of countercultural San Francisco: a multi-instrumentalist and radio DJ who had a series of local bands and worked as a producer for garage rock and psychedelia groups such as the Beau Brummels. Difficulties with royalties meant that Stone spent many of his latter years in poverty; in 2011 he was living in a campervan in a residential area of Los Angeles – voluntarily, he claimed – and relying on a retired couple for food.
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