Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius) (2025) Movie Script

1
[Sly Stone] Okay, okay.
We'll do the whole thing again.
[rhythmic tapping]
That was cooking though, man.
That was a good, that was...
- [guitar playing]
- Don't worry about it, let's do it again.
One. Two.
One, two, three!
["Sing a Simple Song"
by Sly and the Family Stone playing]
Sing a simple song
Yeah, yeah, yeah
[crowd cheering]
Many people think of him as their hero.
Making music that sounded
like no one else's.
The most innovative musician
on the rock scene.
- Hit after hit after hit.
- The one and only Sly Stone.
You're in trouble when you find
it's hard for you to smile
A simple song
might make it better for a little
Yeah
Sing it with your sister, sing it
sing it sista, yah, yah
It can't be overstated
how massively popular
Sly and the Family Stone was.

[George Clinton]
At that time, a mixed group
of Black and white
girls and boys was a new thing.
Hey, music lover
They sounded
like nothing else sounds.
- All I want to do
- They was doing psychedelic.
- R&B,
- Pop. Rock.
- [George] Church.
- Blues.
- Soul.
- Funk.
Sly and the Family Stone
was a family.
We were friends.
- But Sly was the creator.
- Writer.
- [Jimmy Jam] Producer.
- Multi-instrument.
- Player.
- Composer.
- Songwriter.
- Thinker.
- Poet.
- He opened a portal like,
"Oh, yeah, come this way."
Thank you for letting me
be myself again
[Greg Errico]
He was an innovator.
He was the first artist to use
a drum machine in a hit record.
- It's a family affair
- It's a family affair
We were all heavily influenced by Sly.
There's no Prince and the Revolution
without Sly and the Family Stone.
His songs have been sampled
by tons of artists.
Ahh
I'm gonna knock you out
Huh!
The drums reign supreme
in this motherfucker.
[laughing]
That's how that shit sound.
You can make it if you try
He didn't have just hits.
He had culture-changing hits.
I am everyday people
[Novena Carmel]
He was the highlight of Woodstock.
- Want to take you higher
- Higher
[Vernon Reid] Sly was bringing people
together at a time when this country
was tearing itself apart.
We want a fight.
[Jerry Martini]
He is a bona fide...
- Groundbreaking.
- Brilliant.
...genius.
In the beginning,
it was all about the music.
Then it became all about other things.
- Pressure.
- [D'Angelo] Fear.
- Guilt.
- Love.
- Pain.
- Fame.
- Doubt.
- Identity.
- Anxiety.
- Insecurity.
- Struggle.
- Survival.
[crowd screaming and cheering]
[tape glitching]
[buttons clicking]
[crew member] You know, Sly,
let me do this.
So, I don't want you
to get out of your light.
- Okay.
- Does that screw you up?
- No, I'm fine. Yeah.
- You can still use that?
Hey, Jimmy, can I have a drink?
- What's this?
- Uh, rum or something like that.
- Rum?
- Yeah, or something.
- [interviewer] Okay? Okay.
- [crew member] We're rolling tape.
- [overlapping chatter]
- [interviewer] You have speed?
- [crew member] Yep.
- [interviewer] Alright.
Sly, you were born Sylvester Stewart,
and your music career
goes all the way back to the age
- of something like four years old.
- Right.
You formed Sly and the Family Stone
- in the late '60s.
- Yeah.
You've been called by everybody
that I've interviewed
and everything that I've read,
a musical genius.
You are at the place
that every aspiring musician
- in this country wants to be.
- Mm-hmm.
There are, uh, guys and girls
all over this country
trying to get to the top.
Then you get there,
and you blow it.
I didn't say all that.
- No, I'm asking you.
- I didn't blow nothing.
- Where'd you hear that?
- But were you
consciously trying to do that or...?
No, no.
[Questlove] So, I have a theory that
for Black artists in America,
success can be more frightening
than failure.
You know, the world's watching you,
analyzing you, projecting stuff onto you.
And I think that Sly
was kind of the first Black artist
to go through that so publicly,
at a level where there was a burden
that came with his genius.
So, I want to start there.
Can you tell me
what you think Black genius is?
[exhales, chuckles]
Black genius?
- [Questlove] Can you define Black genius?
- [chuckles]
Wow. Damn.
[Questlove]
What is Black genius?
[laughing]
[laughing]
Fuck...
[Questlove] Do you believe
in the concept of Black genius?
I love it when it happens.

[narrator]
San Francisco is a swinging place.
[trolley bell ringing]
[Greg] Early '60s,
it was an amazing time in San Francisco.
It was an international
intersection of cultures.
There was music all up and down
Broadway Street.
[jazz music playing]
Down here, we're loving life
[Greg] There was a lot
of experimentation musically
coming out of the Bay area.
And a lot of diversity.
There was so much possibility,
you felt it.
And Sly was in the middle of it.
He had a very popular radio show.
I used to listen to him.
Everybody did.
[Sly] [on radio]
Sly Stone, KSOL San Francisco.
I definitely want you
to be a magnificent stone.
[Larry Graham]
Everybody everywhere knew Sly.
He was the most popular DJ
in the Bay area.
Sly Stone is my name
Playing records is my game
[Larry]
He did things that nobody else was doing.
- [tires screeching]
- [Sly] Oh, look what you've done. Oh!
[Joel Selvin]
On the radio, Sly was fantastic.
You felt like you were tuning in
to a different world.
[Sly] Do you believe in flying saucers?
Are we being invaded from outer space?
[Jerry] When Sly was a DJ,
I used to go over there
and hang out with him a lot,
you know, because he was funny.
[caller]
Fifty-six degrees in San Francisco,
and I think it will rain tomorrow.
So, Sly doesn't even know
what he's talking about.
[Jerry]
But he was serious about music.
I'd write on the radio, that's what I did.
I wrote songs.
Now I get up
when the sun goes down
I dress real tough,
go out on the town
[Jerry] He was playing on Broadway
in a lot of bands,
and then he started producing
several other bands
with Tom Donahue and Bob Mitchell
at Autumn Records.
[Sly]
Tom Donahue gave me a break.
Tom gave me a chance to produce
Bobby Freeman.
[Bobby Freeman]
Okay, baby, let's hear that one time.
- [producer] Swim one, take three.
- [Sly] One, two, three, four.
["C'mon and Swim"
by Bobby Freeman playing]
Kinda like the monkey,
it's kinda like the twist
Pretend you're in the water
and you go like this
Now, baby, swim, a-baby, do the swim
[Jerry]
Sly was a natural producer,
and that was Sly's first gold record,
and he was only 19.
And then I produced The Beau Brummels,
a song called Laugh, Laugh.
I thought I'd die,
it seemed so funny to me
Laugh, laugh, you met a guy
[Joel] The Beau Brummels
was our version of the British Invasion.
Sly was able to get in the driver's seat
with that sound.
[Sly] Come on in
and get around the microphone.
[Grace Slick]
Sly was the first producer I ever met.
[Sly]
Let's do it again.
[Grace]
The Great Society was my first band.
We were not great musicians.
We had practiced as best we could
with the ability we had.
[laughing]
Which was very little.
Sly says, "Okay, you know,
play your stuff."
[Sly]
Let's hear that up to now.

[Grace] He could have been really mean,
but he went to each person
and he said,
"Maybe a little bit like this.
How about trying that?"
[Sly] Don't worry about it.
Let's do it again. One, two!
Don't you want somebody to love
[Grace] And he plays
every instrument beautifully.
I just stood there
with my jaw on the ground.
He helped us realize how to make a record.
[Sly] Bud's just mad 'cause he won't
be around when it's a hit.
[Sly laughing]
[Joel] He ended up with
the original version of Someone to Love,
and this guy that worked
for Tom Donahue at Autumn Records
blew everybody away
with what a brilliant, incandescent,
and ebullient young man he was.
[Vernon]
Sly Stone had a gift.
He had huge ears,
and he was taking in input at all times.
He was able to flow
between R&B music,
British Invasion music,
and the beginnings
of American psychedelia,
and that was totally unprecedented
at the time.
[interviewer] Wasn't it pretty unusual
for someone, an artist,
who was a DJ
and who was also a producer?
Weren't you one of the first to do that?
Probably, but I didn't know it.
I didn't know
that I was one of the first.
- [interviewer] Mm.
- I had no idea.
[Questlove]
When Sly's starting out,
he's pretty much the hardest-working man
in San Francisco.
Why do you think he had to do
two, three, four times as much
just to make a name for himself?
It doesn't matter whether you're
doing music,
sports, or anything that you do.
We as Black folk,
we gotta always be three, four,
five steps ahead of everybody else
in order just to break even.
It's just always been that way.
- [Questlove] Why?
- Why ask why?
There is no why, Yoda.
You know that.

[Jerry]
I was in awe of him.
He liked bands
that I never thought he would.
I was a white guy trying to be Black,
and he was a Black man
being everything.
[interviewer] Were you conscious of people
searching for a different type of music?
I was conscious that I was searching
for a different type of music.
I just dug Dylan, and Charles,
and Aretha Franklin
and the Staple Singers,
and the Beatles.
It's all music,
and it should all be together somewhere.
And I decided if I'm going to do music,
it'll be my music.
Stop the tape, man.
Let's do it again.
[slide projector clicks]
[host]
Sly Stone, it's so good to have you here.
I've always wondered
where it all started,
and where you came from,
where your roots are, you know.
[Sly]
Yeah, from Denton, Texas.
I was three months
when I came to California.
[host] So, Vallejo, California,
is where you ended up?
[Sly]
Yeah.
[Mark Anthony Neal] Sly's family
was part of the Great Migration,
a pivotal moment in American history
and the changing demographics,
racial demographics of the country.
Black folks migrated
from the Deep South
and moved up north
and to the West Coast
to be able to get jobs, and buy homes,
and have the kind of lives
that they couldn't have in the Deep South.
But if this moment for Sly's parents
was an opportunity,
I think for Sly's generation,
it's a different kind of opportunity
to really push the culture
and the society forward
in ways that their parents would have
never thought of in that period.
- He's calling me
- He's calling me
Don't you know he's calling?
[host]
You were coming up in the church there?
[Sly] Yeah, I played guitar,
and bass, and drums
in church six, seven times a week.
Monday night, we had union meeting.
Tuesday night,
we had choir rehearsal.
Wednesday night,
we had usher board meeting.
Thursday night, there was prayer
and Bible band.
Friday night,
there was regular worship service.
Saturday night, there was
an inspirational service
with different choirs
from around the cities.
And Sunday, three times a day
and sometimes five times on Sunday.
[Cynthia Robinson] The first time
that I saw him in a youth choir,
when Sly would sing,
it was just on another level
that caused joy in your heart.
I never forgot him.
[Mark]
He's in the Black sanctified church.
It was a learning lab for him
to learn how to run a band,
how to run a choir,
how to integrate harmony
with melody and rhythm.
Oh, once, I was a civilian
Ooh
[host] You formed a, a gospel group
around that time.
You know that I'm on
the battlefield for my Lord
[host] Do you remember
the first time that you as a kid
- recognized the power of music?
- [Sly] Yeah.
[Sly laughing]
[host]
And you've been running ever since?
- Heavenly angels
- Angels
[interviewer]
So, you w ent through grade school
and then you started a group
in high school called The Viscaynes?
Yeah, well, I was in a group.
I didn't start it.
- Angel
- All the time
[Jerry] I dug watching the Viscaynes
on Dick Stewart's Dance Party.
He was interacting with white people
like I've never seen a Black person do.
[announcer] Moving ahead with confidence
in the future of California
is a goal of junior college.
[interviewer] After you got out of school,
you had been a producer and a DJ.
You formed Sly and the Family Stone
in the late '60s.
[clearing throat] Jerry Martini
is the guy that really started it.
[Jerry]
I see the songs he's writing.
I say, "If we do a band,
we'll all be famous."
I don't know what to say, I'm a noodge.
My mother was a noodge.
My grandmother was a Russian Jew.
They were all noodges.

[Sly]
This is an original tune.
Nobody
I ain't got nobody
If you need somebody
[host] How did you decide
who to have in your group?
[Sly]
Well, my brother Freddie plays guitar,
and my sister plays electric piano,
her name is Rose.
So, nepotism.
[Freddie Stone] I had a group,
Freddie and the Stone Souls.
Sly came to me one day, he says,
"Look, get the very best musicians
"that you have out of your group,
and I'll get the very best
musicians I know."
I said, "Look, I got the drummer."
I was 17 and a half.
I'm still in high school.
[Sly] Cynthia, the trumpet player,
I knew in school.
She naturally was
the first person I thought of.
[Cynthia]
Sly said, "I'm getting a group together,"
and I'm thinking something in my life
is gonna be different.
[Sly]
Larry Graham played bass.
I had not worked with a drummer in years.
When I was 15,
I played with my mother
as a duo, no drums.
That's when I developed the style
of thumping the strings
to make up for not having drums.
So, I thought, this is either
gonna be a train wreck...
[laughing]
...or something is gonna happen,
I don't know.
[Greg]
We hit it off, there was chemistry,
and when we started playing,
I go, oh yeah, this is different.

[Jerry]
Sly already had it in his mind
that we were gonna have a mixed band.
There were guys, and girls,
and Black, and white.
So, you get all that input,
so you get all that sound.
[Greg]
This is December of 1966.
A lot of things going on in the country
that didn't necessarily support the idea
that male, and female,
and Black, and white
should get together
to start a music group.
You've got to keep the white
and the Black separate.
- We are not white, we are Black.
- [cheering and applause]
We rehearsed every night,
and we started playing six nights a week
at Winchester Cathedral.
[band playing "Try a Little Tenderness"]
Hey, hey, hey
[vocalizing and shouting]
[Cynthia]
Even though we played cover songs,
Sly would put his original stamp on it.
You got-got-got to...
[vocalizing]
Yeah, whoo, you got to try
a little tenderness

Yeah
[David Kapralik]
I went to the Winchester Cathedral
and had my mind blown away
by this extraordinary talent.
This tour de force.
The integration of Afro-Americans
and Caucasians,
the girls, the boys.
I just knew in my bones.
[laughing]
This was happening music,
and I loved it.
- [band playing]
- [applause]
[Sly]
David Kapralik dug us,
and he signed us up,
and we signed him up.
[Clive Davis]
David Kapralik brought the group to me,
and I was excited by the music
from the very beginning.
In those days,
music was very, very segmented.
You had pop.
Falling in love with love
Is falling for make-believe
[Clive]
You had R&B.
The love that I have belongs
to the woman with soul
[Clive]
You had rock.
Girl, I want to be with you
[Clive]
But with Sly,
we get this totally unique
blurring of genres.
Ahh, ahh
I know,
I know you need attention
I got, I got attention for you
I know,
I know you need affection
I got, I got affection for you
If somebody told me,
if I knew you liked to
[host] You've played in front of
a lot of different kinds of audiences.
Is it different playing for an all-Negro
as opposed to an all-white audience?
[Sly] Yeah. Sometimes if, uh, we didn't do
a tune that was R&B enough,
some Black people had to wait
for the next two or three songs
before they decided that they'd stay.
And then, there were
some white audiences
that if we didn't get into a jam
quick enough, then they would split.
So, you just got to go and play,
and just hope that, uh,
most of the people want to stay.
I'm on a trip to your heart
[Clive] I thought,
here, you have a creative genius
who was going to make
a permanent mark on history.
So, I signed him.
[Jerry] And we did our first album
in Los Angeles
at CBS on Sunset and Gower.
[engineer] This is it.
Quiet, everybody.
[Sly]
Yeah. Are we taking this?
[Clive]
Sly's work ethic...
- [Sly] Two, one.
- [Clive] ...was intense.
He wanted to work 24/7,
seven days a week.
When the rhythm section was laying a part,
the horns would be sleeping.
The horns get ready to play their part,
then the other people would be sleeping.
We were fanatics.
And that's the way
it ought to be, too, by the way.
[Greg] Our first album
was totally out of the box,
and we were like an anomaly.
Hey, dig, I know how it feels
to expect to get a fair shake
But they won't let you forget
that you're the underdog
And you got to be twice as good,
yeah, yeah
Even if you're never right,
they get uptight
When you get too bright
Or you might start thinking
too much, yeah
Yeah, yeah
[Mark] In a broad sense,
the band is an underdog,
coming out of the West Coast with
this multi-racial, multi-gendered band,
something that we've never seen before.
Say I'm the underdog
[Mark] It's hard not to also think
about that song
in the context
of the race politics of the moment.
[Vernon]
As a Black man in America,
he's taking that persona on
of the underdog.
"I got nothing to lose
and everything's against me, so let's go."
I know how it feels to get demoted
When it comes time
to get promoted
'Cause you might be
moving up too fast
Yeah, yeah, yeah
[Mark] Sly was still trying
to figure out his sound.
Are they gonna be read as a rock group,
or are they gonna always be seen
as a Black group?
[Jerry] The first album, I thought
it was gonna be a smash hit.
But it was a complete flop.
It broke Sly's heart.
[David] The album A Whole New Thing,
it was a dud.
Sly came into my office
completely dejected.
I heard myself saying to him,
do you need a hit single?
[Jerry] Dave Kapralik said he wanted us
to sound like the bands
that were out there already.
He said, "I want you guys to play
in a nice club and dress nice."
And, and Sly said two words to him,
which I'm not gonna repeat.
Hey, get up and dance to the music!
[band playing "Dance to the Music"]
Get on up and dance to the music.
[band vocalizing and harmonizing]
Dance to the music
Dance to the music
Dance to the music
[Larry]
Dance to the Music was a hit record.
So, I thought we're gonna be it.
All we need is a drummer
For people who only need
a beat, yeah
[drum solo]
I'm gonna add a little guitar
And make it easy
to move your feet
[Jimmy] The first time I hear d
Dance to the Music,
it was like, oh, my God,
it's the greatest thing ever.
It sounded like nothing else
on the radio at the time.
I'm gonna add some bottom
So that the dancers
just won't hide
You might like to hear my organ
I said ride, Sally, ride now
Writing a hit song
is almost impossible,
but Sly had an uncanny ability
to make every part of the song hooky.
The rhythm,
it's implied four on the floor.
[drumbeat]
It's close to the Motown beat.
Can't help myself
But it ain't.
[Terry Lewis]
There's a bass playing one note.
[imitating bass guitar]
You add that to the little licks
that come along with it.
[saxophone playing]
Those nice little horn parts.
[horns playing]
Each person gets their moment.
I'm gonna add
a little guitar
I'm gonna add some bottom
They have unison vocals.
Dance to the music
They had harmony vocals.
[band singing a cappella harmonies]
He's got some magical way
of weaving things together.

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Cynthia and Jerry got a message
they're saying
Sing, all the squares go home
[Vernon] Sly's inviting you
to something extraordinary.
He's learning to be inclusive.
Listen to the voices
[band vocalizing]
[Vernon] And it felt like
the carnival has come to town.

That song changed everything.
It was a paradigm shift.
The gigs got better.
The first time we played
the Fillmore East in New York,
it was Jimi Hendrix Experience,
Sly and the Family Stone,
one show, $7.50.
Hello?
[chuckles]
- [cheering and applause]
- Hey, hey, hey, hey
["M'Lady" playing]
M'lady
M'lady
A smile of pleasure,
beautiful and kind
[David] They were a smash, they were
the hot sensation of New York.
Give her some time, yeah
Time, time
- Give her some time
- Time, time
[David] And word spread,
and then everything broke open.
Now, here for the youngsters
is Sly and the Family Stone.
Don't hate the Black.
Don't hate the white.
If you get bitten, just hate the bite.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah
- The music's getting longer
All I want to do, yeah
- I want to take you higher
- Higher
I'm 18 years old. I'm thinking,
this is where I seen the Beatles.
This is where I seen Elvis Presley.
And I said, here we are.
This could be significant.
Tomorrow could be different
than today.
- Wanna take you higher
- Higher
- Higher
- Higher
Up and away, now
Up, up and away

[Larry] For him and Rose to go out
into the audience,
who would do that
on the Ed Sullivan Show,
go out in the audience, right?
And doing the hambone.
[laughing]
Go on, Sly. Yeah!
Work, Sly.
Work, Sly.
[audience clapping in rhythm]
[Jerry] And all those people
in suits out in the audience
clapping on one and three?
- [crew laughing]
- They loved it.
[rhythm clapping
and music continues]
And that meant that America loved it.

Hey music lover
[Andr 3000] To me,
one of the greatest things about Sly
is he's letting us
peer into something very free.
The appearance, the clothing,
even the wigs,
it was from another world.
When they came together
as the sound, it was so future.
Higher

[music stops]
Thank you for letting us be ourselves.
Thank you.

- [music ends]
- [cheering and applause]
[Jerry] I still have dreams
about when it was the fun days.
[cheering and applause fades out]
We used to hang together.
We would rent bicycles
and ride around bicycles in New York City.
[car horns honking]
[Greg] Being in the group
was a musical experience,
but it was also personal friendships.
I think we spent more time together
than we spent with our family members,
or their girlfriends, or wives.
We were making a little money,
we were able to buy toys.
[engine revving]
Bought motorcycles
and went riding together.
We all got dogs together.
- [dogs barking]
- I had Egyptian Salukis.
Freddie had an Irish wolfhound.
Sly bought a pit bull.
Rose had an Afghan.
Greg and Jerry had Saint Bernard
and Great Pyrenees.
[Greg]
We'd go to the movies together.
We went to see this movie called
2001: A Space Odyssey
that just came out.
I think we took some mescaline
or something like that,
some mushrooms or some psychedelics,
so it was quite--
it was quite the experience.
We were family. Period. Simply.
[Larry]
I felt like part of the family.
Sly was like
a big brother I never had.
[Jerry]
He was a leader.
We all loved Sly,
especially Cynthia.
She was in love with Sly.
[Cynthia] He was the first guy that
ever treated me with real respect.
He made you want to be there together
and to do this together.
[Greg]
We were all inspired by Sly.
We were also inspired
by what was going on in the country then.
[protesters shouting]
[reporter]
Demonstrators in San Francisco
protest the Vietnam War.
[protester]
U.S., get out!
America is shocked by the brutal slaying
of Doctor Martin Luther King.
[Greg]
It was an intense time in '68.
We were on the tour bus one time.
It was the middle of the night
and we had to get gas.
We're downtown Detroit.
[Cynthia] Everything was out.
The store lights were out.
We were like, what's going on?
[Greg] Then all of a sudden,
we're surrounded by jeeps and tanks.
[reporter] The body
of Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.,
viewed by mourners and followers
this morning.
Detroit tonight is under a curfew
and National Guard troops
are on duty there.
The next thing,
we're up against a building.
[Jerry]
I thought we were gonna die.
Sly was not afraid at all.
I was afraid.
But Sly just had the guitar out
going like this, you know.
They goes,
"Tell that... down there,
tell him to shut up
or we'll shoot his ass."
[Cynthia] And then, they took me
and Rose, and Sly's girlfriend,
who was Caucasian,
and put us in the truck.
And a service guy walked past Anita
and said, "nigger lover."
This is a moment in history
where you have these assassinations
A stain of bloodshed that has spread
across our land.
[staff member] A doctor!
We need a doctor right here.
[reporter] Senator Kennedy
is shot in the head.
You have an unpopular war.
[gunfire]
[news reporter]
Troopers took a lot of casualties.
You have campuses where students
are protesting these wars.
[protesters shouting]
You have police brutality
against people of color.
And there's always this threat of violence
that's associated with anybody
who speaks out in this moment.
[interviewer] Just about everything in
this country, late '60s, was in disarray.
Did that make your job
as a musician, as a writer,
- more difficult or easier?
- Easy.
That-- those are the kind of things
that make you feel like, uh, working,
or writing, or playing,
or doing what you do.
We're really trying to say something
after playing some other tunes
that didn't mean anything.
And with the members of the group,
all you got to do
is inspire them
in the right way and let 'em go.
[musicians practicing]
In the studio, the spark
for the songs would come from Sly.
[Sly]
Oh, wait a minute!
[Freddie]
Sly is up here at the helm,
and he would give us
the skeleton of a song,
and then he would say,
"Okay, what do you do with that?"
[Sly] Okay, okay, we'll do
the whole thing again.

Songs would develop.
The arrangements would develop.
- [band playing]
- [band member speaking indistinctly]
[Sly] Come on, I think we got a chance
to get something done here.
They would morph,
sometimes significantly different
than where it started.
[Sly] Okay, Greg. Okay, this is
Some People, 102290, take one.
Sly wasn't cracking the whip.

- [music stops]
- [Sly] Let's try it again.
But we did spend long hours,
because if we didn't get it,
we'd keep going over it again.
[band playing]
[Sly]
One-- one more time.
- [band playing]
- No. Take five.
[band playing]
Take six.
- [band playing]
- What happened?
You guys aren't together,
Cynthia and Jerry.
[trumpet playing]
Rose, play the same thing
you're playing now, an octave higher.
[piano and guitar playing]
[Mark]
We talk about catching fire in a bottle.
Sly and the Family Stone were in sync
with what was happening
culturally, socially, and politically.
[Sly] Wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute.
They're playing the wrong notes.
[chuckles]
Let's try again. Take 100.
["Everyday People" playing]
Sometimes I'm right,
and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker,
the drummer, and then
Makes no difference what group I'm in
I am everyday people
There's a certain power
hearing unison vocals.
There is a blue one
Who can't accept
the green one for living
[Jimmy]
Everybody singing the same note,
doing the sing-songy,
nursery rhyme-ish melodies
made it easy for the listener
to sing along with.
And so on and so on and
scooby-dooby-doo
[Terry] That unison creates the vibe
that pulls everybody in
to that one-minded concept.
We got to live together
I am no better
and neither are you
We are the same
whatever we do
You love me, you hate me,
you know me, and then
But when they sing in harmony,
oh, boy, it felt like church.
I am everyday people
Yeah, yeah
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
Different strokes
For different folks
And so on and so on...
[Vernon]
With Everyday People, Sly came along
as the Black hippie Pied Piper singing,
"We are the same, whatever we do."
We got to live together
[Vernon] That's the first time you hear
that sentiment from a Black artist.
Won't accept the Black one that
won't accept the red one
[Vernon] There was a utopianism
that people were ready to buy into,
that female, and male, and Black,
and white can create another world.
Being so tuneful and just being
great music, that was the validation.
That was the proof of concept
that it was possible.
I am everyday people
Yeah, yeah

[Vernon]
But at the same time,
that message could be perceived
as problematic,
because, you know, these people,
they got their knee on my neck.
They're shooting brothers up.
[overlapping shouting]
[George] The hippies
was trying to do love and peace.
You know, we're from the ghetto,
we don't believe that.
You got to watch out for your back.
A policeman in a Black community
is a licensed killer.
[Mark]
In the late 1960s,
the civil rights movement
is at a crossroads.
We no longer have with us
Martin Luther King.
We've lost something,
and we feel it deeply.
[Mark] So, the movement
is kind of at a standstill,
except for this radical edge.
We have to got to get...
[crowd] Black Power!
Let Black people defend themselves
from racist pig cops,
who shoot up windows and murder
Black people in the Black community.
[Mark]
Sly is kind of walking the line
between the civil rights world
of his parents
and the Black Power world that's emerging.
So, Sly gives a love letter
to both sides of this moment--
what happened before,
and what's possible in the aftermath.
Stand, in the end,
you'll still be you
One that's done all the things
you set out to do
Stand, there's a cross
for you to bear
Things to go through
if you're going anywhere
Ooh
Stand for the things
you know are right
It's the truth that the truth
makes them so uptight
At 16 years old,
I was a sub-section leader
in the Black Panther Party
in Lower Manhattan.
When we first heard Stand!,
it was so powerful for us,
as activists, as revolutionaries,
listening to Sly talk about
the way the world should be.
Stand!
[Niles Rodgers] You were one way
before you heard the record.
Then after you sat there for a few hours
listening over and over and over again,
that feeling of transformation,
it was magical.
Stand, you've been sitting
much too long
There's a permanent crease
in your right and wrong
Stand
It was one of the only
empowering songs that there were,
you know, out there for young people,
and we weren't getting a lot of that.
We were getting a lot of
"I love you, baby."

- Stand!
- [Dream Hampton] In Detroit,
that album was like The Chronic,
you know, for my parents.
It was like every car on Belle Isle
was riding around playing Stand!
as an anthem.
Stand, stand
[Jimmy]
Stand! is such an amazing arrangement.
It's the same melody
in different registers,
and then it's back to the beginning again.
[singing melody]
It sounds like something's gonna happen,
but it doesn't.
It goes right back to...
Stand
So, it teases you
like there's gonna be a release.
There's like a tension that happens.
But then, it just--
it doesn't let it go.
Well, at least in your mind
if you want to be
[Jimmy] And then, finally,
at the end of the song,
you've been waiting, waiting, waiting,
anticipating something.
All of a sudden, it goes into a whole
different change where it's...
[singing melody]
And it's like a whole 'nother song.
Stand!
Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, na-na
And it's like, oh, shit!
What the-- oh, my God.
It's like a-- it's like a musical orgasm.
- Can I say that on camera? Yeah.
- [Questlove laughing]
It's like a-- it's like a musical--
I swear to God.
Na-na-na-na-na, na-na
[George]
By the time he got to Stand!,
he knew perfectly what would work
on the radio,
in the hood, and in the pop culture.
[Larry] We were all very happy
about our success,
but now, we had set the bar
really, really high
for our live performances.
So, our next show, we gotta-- we gotta
get that high, you know, or higher.
[helicopter whirring]
[announcer] Nearly half a million kids
jammed onto a 600-acre dairy farm
near Woodstock, New York,
in August '69,
to dance, sing,
smoke, and make love.
[interviewer] Do you recall
your experience at Woodstock?
At first, I was scared,
to tell you the truth.
Well, I usually am, though,
before a concert.
I'm always scared before a con--
you know, kind of, um...
I want to hurry and get it on,
'cause I can't wait,
you know, that kind of thing.
- [interviewer] Mm-hmm.
- And, you know, it kind of wears me out.
But, um, the Woodstock thing,
I walked in the audience, I remember that.
There were so many people
that I thought, man,
we better not make a mistake.
And then I thought, well,
this is no way to walk down that,
- you know, that thing in my stomach.
- Mm-hmm.
[crowd shouting]
Right before we went on,
Sly, he poured out a pile of blow,
you know,
with a pinch of mescaline.
We all got our dollar bills and hit it.
And then it seems like we're on...
[snapping]
and we...
we were on,
or almost we'd had never gotten off.
That was it.
- I wanna take you higher
- [crowd] Higher
- Wanna take you higher
- Higher
- Higher
- Higher

Higher now
Do it higher, oh yeah
Wanna take you higher
Unh, wanna take you higher
Higher
- Wanna take you higher
- Higher
- Higher
- [inaudible]
Higher
[cheering and applause]
[interviewer]
What effect did it have on you?
Wow, it was a little too big.
It was almost too big to happen.
You know, I thought we would happen,
but at the time, it was, whew.
Almost too much all at once.
[Andr 3000]
Success can equal certain freedoms.
But I don't think anybody
is totally free the whole time.
I think there are moments of-- and I think
that's what we're attracted to.
Like when we see what we call a rock star,
it's almost like they are making
a sacrifice for us,
and that's why we hail them.
But sometimes, it starts to work
against why and what you're doing.
The same thing that made you great
becomes the thing that kills you.
Everybody is a star
Who could rain
and chase the dust away
Everybody wants to shine
[Joel] After Woodstock,
Sly and the Family Stone
was just this explosive
monumental event
every time they were on stage.
[Suzanne de Passe] The first time
I saw them live was so unbelievable.
No Motown act, no--
nobody had ever rocked me
the way that concert did.
I left there thinking he could run
for president and win.
[David] John Lennon is an icon.
Elvis Presley is an icon.
Sly Stone became an icon.
[Terry] Sly opened the floodgates
for all musicians of color
to just do whatever they felt like,
because at one point, you might have felt
like you could only do Motown.
Sly gave everyone
this whole psychedelic thing.
Shoot, even The Temptations
went psychedelic.
You have so many different groups
coming about
that are being more free with the music.
That brand-new 21st-century funk,
we got it from Sly.

Miles Davis
just absolutely worshiped Sly.
Miles used to follow him around,
he used to come to our gigs.
[Vernon]
Miles had a young wife, Betty Mabry.
She took her old-ass husband
and was like, "You know what?
Pops, check this out.
This is what's up."
And he takes it in,
and his mind is blown.
I mean, there's no On the Corner
without his exposure to Sly Stone.
Fast forward into the '80s.
["1999" by Prince playing]
Sly's influence on Prince is infinite.
[Jimmy]
Prince had a female keyboard player,
eventually a female guitarist.
It was multiracial.
I was dreaming when I wrote this,
forgive me if it goes astray
The vocals in 1999 gave everyone a part.
But when I woke up this morning,
could have sworn it was Judgment Day

So tonight I'm gonna party
like it's 1999
Whoo!
[Terry] Prince, being our mentor,
used to always say
we should all be trying
to make visual records.
Just like how Sly's music
took you someplace.
It took you to a place
apart from where you were
and dropped you off into a place
that you might have dreamed of.
[cheering and applause]
["Hot Fun in the Summertime" playing]
Them summer days
Those summer days
I cloud nine when I want to
Out of school, yeah, yeah
A county fair in the country sun
And everything is cool
Oh, yeah, yeah
Hot fun in the summertime,
oh, yeah
Sly post-Woodstock
is the darling of the rock world.
First of the fall
and there she goes
[Dream]
There was an idea that a big rock band
wasn't necessarily a Black thing.
And Sly comes into that space
and owns it.
That's not him
crossing over into that sound.
He's crossing other audiences
over to him.
[Mark] Little Richard, Chuck Berry,
even Ray Charles
never had access to both white mainstream
and the Black audiences
the way that Sly does by 1970.
He found himself
on the cover of Rolling Stone.
[Larry]
By that time, the focus was on Sly,
because he's the up-front person,
he's the spokesman.
So, he had a tremendous pressure
and weight on his shoulders.
[host] The money must be sort of
pouring in on you people at this point.
What is the main thing you're doing now?
[Sly] Doing an album,
and we're gonna do concerts.
And we're getting a lot of money,
and it's nice to have a lot of money.
But I don't want to turn into the kind of
person that, because of an extra dollar,
turned into the kind of person
because of an extra dollar.
[Questlove] Oftentimes when Black artists
are held in the limelight,
they're automatically expected
to represent their people.
Yeah, man, some people do want
to put you on that pedestal.
Like you are the spokesperson
for all Black people.
They're depending on you,
and they're counting on you.
It's enough just, um, navigating
and coping
through the change
in your life that happens
when you become a celebrity,
or somebody that is, you know,
quote-unquote, "famous."
Just that within itself
is a huge paradigm shift.
- [chanting indistinctly]
- [Al DeMarino] At one point,
the Black Panthers
approached Sly for his involvement.
[chanting continues]
They were trying
to make us be one of them.
We weren't a political band,
but we were singing about racial issues.
So, I can see why people labeled us
as a political movement.
Don't call me nigga, whitey
Don't call me whitey, nigga
[Al] With the Panthers,
what does involvement mean?
Does it mean contributing
to the food pantry?
Does it mean showing up
somewhere for a rally?
All power to the people.
[Sly laughing]
[Mark] Sly's getting these pressures
from the Black Panther Party,
but he's not a Black nationalist.
He doesn't believe that
at face value, right?
So, he presents a song, a sound, right,
that just speaks palpably to Blackness.
Sly and the Family Stone.
[cheering and applause]
["Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin"
playing]
Looking at the devil
Grinning at his gun
Fingers start shaking
[Vernon]
Sly is in this incredibly creative space.
Nobody is coming up
with funk like this.

That was the first time you would hear
the thumping and plucking on the bass.
I begin to stop
I didn't realize the impact that would
have on other bass players.
And little by little, more and more
bass players are doing it
because folks could physically see
what's happening,
'cause by now,
we've done a lot of live shows.
We're on television.
Here are Sly and the Family
known as Stone.
Thank you
falettinme be mice elf agin
Ooh, ooh
Thank you falettinme
be mice elf agin, yeah
Thank You felt like it was just
moving things forward.
It's just all these intricately beautiful
little moments all working together.
Stiff all in the collar
People love riffs, you know.
[singing melody]
People know that.
[Jimmy]
In 1989, when we were working
on the song Rhythm Nation with Janet,
we had the concept that
Rhythm Nation should be an anthem.
People uniting under the banner
of music to heal the world.
We had the concept,
but what we didn't have was a track.
[Terry] So, I think Jimmy
and Janet went to dinner.
[Jimmy] At a little
Italian restaurant in Minneapolis.
And, you know, there's always music
playing in the background.
They're in the middle of dinner,
and Thank You came on.
[Jimmy] And I think to myself,
oh, I love this record.
But then all of a sudden,
when the little bridge part comes in.
[Terry and Jimmy singing melody]
- And I just said...
- Jimmy said...
"Can I get the check? Can I get the--"
I mean, I was out of there.
[Terry] Went back to the studio
and he started to sample...

...just that piece of it and cut it up.

And I remember putting it into
a little AMS sampler that only--
I think the sampler
might have had six seconds
of sampling time.
But it was enough to get in...
[singing melody]
And I literally would trigger--
I just triggered it off the drums.
I just would go...
[singing melody]
[repeating melody]

- ...over this beat.
- [music loop playing]
It was amazing.
Janet walked into the studio
and I said, listen to this.
And I just played it.

- And she said...
- [both] Is that Rhythm Nation?
And I said, yes. And she said...
[both]
Yes. [laughing]
With music by our side
to break the color lines
Sly created this musical unity
for my generation.
And to be able to sample that,
and then create that
for the next generation of listeners
is an amazing thing.
It was everything the song needed.
So, thank you... [chuckles]
for making that lick.
We are a part
of the rhythm nation, whoo!
Mama's so happy
Mama start to cry
At that time, the white world
was starting, "You know what?
That Sly Stone is doing something."
But if he was gonna keep
the large audience,
he was in a position where he couldn't
show any cracks in the media.
Dyin' young is hard to take,
sellin' out is harder
[Vernon]
As a Black man in America,
when you have the microphone
in front of you, what you gonna do?
Are you gonna embarrass us?
What do you have to say for yourself?
His appearance on The Dick Cavett Show,
it's extraordinary,
because Dick Cavett
had this habit of one-upsmanship.
He's gonna be
the smartest guy in the room.
Mister S-- Mister--
What do I call you, actually?
Just Misters Misters.
[Dick Cavett]
Just, you like the way I did.
[laughter]
There's this whole mind game
that's being played.
Sly is high as a Georgia pine.
He's high as a Georgia pine,
but his mind is right.
I know you're responsible
for all the music that you do
and you-- that you write it,
but do you sit down and write it?
- Do you...
- Sometimes I stand up.
[laughter and applause]
And in the middle of this thing,
Sly says to him,
"You know, I'm not-- I'm not going
into a battle of wits with you."
You know that Hemingway wrote
on the top of the icebox.
- I'm not trying to match wits.
- No, no, I know.
I say there are writers
who write standing,
- and there are those who write--
- I write in the mirror.
- [Dick] Meaning?
- Looking at a mirror.
[scattered laughter]
[laughter and applause]
- Is there something I don't get about...
- [Sly] No, do--
The reason why I do that is because, uh,
I can somehow, uh,
uh, be a great critique,
you know, for myself.
- [Dick] Yeah.
- You know, I can react spontaneously
before I realize that I'm going along
with what I'm doing.
- [scattered laughter]
- And, uh, dislike it or like it
before I realize that I'm doing it.
[Vernon] Sly, as high as he is,
is completely aware
of the game that's being played.
And he's like, uh, "I know what
you're trying to say about me,
but, you know,
I'm not taking the bait."
This is kind of a serious question,
kind of a silly question at the same time.
Could I dress like this
and play with your group?
- [Sly] Any way you like.
- Wouldn't it look funny, though?
I mean, to see somebody
dressed with a tie?
With the people that were judging
the way you were dressing.
[Dick] Yeah.
There'd probably be a certain
pressure on me, I suppose, to...
- [Sly] There's a pressure on all of us.
- Oh, right.
[applause]
[Mark] In America at that time,
with Black artists,
no one else has ever been
elevated to these heights
as Sly Stone was being elevated,
not just musically,
but broadly in American culture.
If you're Sly Stone,
there is no blueprint
for what comes next.
There's nobody for you
to go talk to, right?
There's never been a Black Elvis, right?
So, you can't go
to this mythical Black Elvis
and ask, "What do I do next?"
[Dream] For Black artists,
a big part of success is guilt.
The guilt of not just being chosen,
but you're necessarily
going to be leaving the hood.
You're gonna be leaving your family.
You're-- you're, you're about to go
on this journey.
If you're in a band,
maybe some of your bandmates
are gonna come with you,
but you're about to go on a journey
that's about to be pretty lonely.

[Greg] Around that period,
we were all still living in the Bay area
when Sly announced
that he was gonna move to LA.
His rationalization for it made sense.
It was the center
of the music business.
Go down there, meet all the right people.
[Stephani Swanigan] When he decided to
take up residency in Los Angeles,
we got a big house, Bel Air.
[Jerry]
Bel Air. It was amazing.
It was huge, it was six acres.
[Stephani] So, we ended up
with people staying for a week,
two weeks, just hangers-on.
Also, Sly brought in friends
who came from the streets
that he'd known for a long time
that he was loyal to,
and that were loyal to him.
[Bubba Banks]
Sly was my friend from way back.
And when I got out of jail,
Sly called me.
He said, "Man, why don't you
come down here?"
He said, "You can have
anything you want."
We get to Los Angeles, man,
the house is full.
This is Sly's newfound set.
And I haven't been around no white dudes.
Now, I look like
I'm at a Klu Klux Klan meeting,
and I done came in the wrong fucking door.
But somebody say, "Bub!"
Me and Sly, we embrace each other.
And he said, "Bub, take over."
I came with a crew,
and we did take over.
And from that point, Sly knew he can do
whatever the fuck he wanted to.
[Questlove]
Is that a form of separation anxiety?
Like being separate
from your-- your roots?
Yeah, that-- that is a form
of, uh, separation anxiety,
because, especially as Black people,
we have this thing
where you always kind of
want to be good in your hood.
You know, you kind of always
want to be understood,
acc-- accepted in a way.
So, I think that's always on your mind,
and I think sometimes
it's detrimental to some artists.
[Freddie] There were a lot of people
all the time, always partying,
a lot of drugs.
[Greg] I can remember the rest of us
looking at each other
and thinking, this might not be good.
Sly was a vulnerable individual.
He had incredible
creative capabilities.
I think to be that capable,
you have to be that vulnerable too.
[host] Have you gone through
different kinds of changes
- with all the money coming in?
- [Sly] Yeah.
[host]
How?
[Sly]
Well, um, the values change a little bit.
The values change a little bit.
Uh, I know...
Ask me that question later, okay?
- [host] Okay.
- [Sly] Would you do that?
- [host] Alright.
- [Sly] Alright. Okay.
[Greg] Sly still had the pressure
of making the next record,
so the label did Greatest Hits.
[Stephani] He started collaborating
with different people.
Not much got produced.
They did music
and got high at the same time.
[Bobby Womack]
Me and Sly, Billy Preston,
Buddy Miles, and Ike Turner,
that was the crew.
We'd come in.
You know, we can get high.
But we create some shit that we can say,
"Okay, let that play."
[Greg] At the same time,
the touring got pretty intense.
[interviewer]
You were on tour.
You were doing thousands of cities.
Every day, you were somewhere different.
Something started to go.
- Mm-hmm.
- What went?
Um, uh, being late for concerts.
[crowd shouting and booing]
Uh, where's Sly?
[indistinct]
[crowd continues shouting]
[Ruth Copeland] Around that time, I was
on tour with Sly and the Family Stone.
My band were the original members
of Funkadelic,
Bernie Worrell, Tiki Fulwood,
Eddie Hazel, and Billy Bass Nelson.
You had everything, babe,
a man could want
Did a gig in Paterson, New Jersey.
We were supposed to go on
right before Sly,
and it started to rain,
and we had done one set.
And Sly's promoter
came over to us and said,
"Sly is in the toilet.
You're gonna have to go on again
if you want to do the rest of the tour."
[crowd booing]
That was really scary because the crowd
was getting a little upset
and they started to boo.
And I just screamed into the mic
out of nowhere, like, "Shut up!"
I was pissed off at Sly.
I said, "Sly has been in the toilet
for an hour and a half,
and he's not coming out."
So, we played for another 20 minutes
and then we figured we'd hang around
and see how he handles this,
Mr. Big Sly.
Sly came out
and the crowd was booing.
[Sly]
It was my fault that we late.
I am sorry, I apologize.
[chuckles]
[Ruth]
But he was so sure of himself.
[Jerry]
Sly had a special power.
He could control our audience.
[Sly laughing]
[Sly]
Yeah. [laughing]
He can make you sit down,
he can make you stand up.
[Sly] Stand your booty up.
You know what I mean?
He could cause a riot.
The Chicago riot show.
[laughing]
I was really too young to be there.
I snuck down there some kind of way,
yeah, I worked it out.
[reporter] It was one of a series
of free rock concerts
put on by Mayor Daley
in the park district.
But all hell broke loose.
[reporter]
The crowd surged toward the stage,
angry because the featured group
had not yet appeared.
[interviewer]
Did you lose the desire to perform?
Was it not as much fun
as it had been in the early days?
Well, it's not as much fun if you get,
you know,
accused of, uh, doing things like that.
I was there when it was
advertised that I wasn't.
And a few of those kind of times
can get on your nerves.
[Ruth] After that, the real inclination
to be late became a habit.
And of course,
then it progressed from there
to where he didn't show up at all.
[Stephani]
More than anything, it was anxiety.
He would get nervous.
And I'm like, "What is wrong with you?
How can you be nervous
and you do this all the time?"
[Greg]
He wasn't one to let on to being anxious.
He always seemed to handle it,
like, "Okay, I got this," you know?
When the drugs became more dominant,
it wasn't the case.
- [band member] I'm relaxing, man.
- Okay, what about you?
- [band member indistinct]
- Huh?
- [band member] Otto.
- Otto?
- Otto... [indistinct]
- Otto.
- [band member] Right.
- Oh, you came-- you came from Kenya.
[people chattering]
- Are you the boss?
- [speaker] I'm the boss.
You ain't no boss.
- [people chattering]
- [Sly chuckles]
[Jerry] Sly kind of stayed
in his bedroom a lot,
and there were pounds of blow
coming in.
[Bubba]
But when Sly was on that PCP shit,
that's when it started fucking up.
[announcer]
Angel dust, PCP.
There are severe
and sometimes lasting reactions.
[Ruth]
At that time, I was living with Sly.
He was a really good guy
who had a big heart,
and he was generous and kind.
But at that point, he would take
barbiturates to go to sleep,
and still do coke.
It was like watching something
fall over slowly.
You basically were his mother,
watching out for him,
making him eat
when he would wake up.
You had to get some food into him,
because if he got the coke into him
before the food, he wouldn't eat.
And then, you know, I was like
all the other women in his life
who loved him, tried to get him to stop--
to stop the drugs.
I couldn't stop him.
I couldn't.
Nothing-- the drugs
were more important.
The most important thing in his life.
[Questlove] So, you've had
personal experience with this.
Um, why would someone turn to,
say cocaine,
as a coping mechanism?
[Chaka Khan]
This is the '60s and '70s.
Those were pivotal times
in the use of certain drugs.
Um, but, um, to self-medicate,
and to self-soothe,
and to try-- trying to attain
a false sense
of everything's okay, when it's not,
you know, um, that's dangerous.
[Greg]
With the no-shows and the drugs,
it was just chaos.
The existence of the band
was a little bit over five-year period.
In the beginning,
it was all about the music, period.
And then, it became
all about other things.
Those weren't all good things.
And then, when I felt that I just...
that I couldn't affect that any longer...
I just-- and that, that you know,
wasn't comfortable,
and things were--
weren't happening good,
and, um, that's--
so I made my decision to leave,
and that's what I did.
Matter of fact, I didn't leave
to go do something else.
I took off a year.
I was-- I just would-- had to stop.
- [keyboard music playing]
- [engine revving]
[Cynthia] Greg leaving, I mean,
I got sick to my stomach.
[Jerry]
We were all brokenhearted over it.
[Ruth] At that point, Sly was doing
a lot of the tracks himself.
He played all the instruments,
and he would lay down tracks
upstairs in his studio,
which was in the attic,
and then he would bring in some
of the guys to put in some extra stuff.
[Sly] Okay, man, you splice
the best way you can.
[Jerry] Freddie'd come down there
and knock it out.
Larry would fly in, knock it out.
I was already there.
I'd go do my horn part.
[Sly] Hey, can we splice something in?
Hey, man, play the last thing, okay?
[Ruth]
They were demoralized.
They were feeling
like they weren't needed.
[Sly] Hey, hey, hey, hey.
What are you doing?
After I left, Sly kept calling,
and I didn't-- I didn't participate.
So, he started using
a drum machine.
- [electronic drumbeat playing]
- It was called the Rhythm King.
Drum machines weren't sophisticated
like they are today.
It was a pretty simple
and uninspiring thing.
It had cha-chas and stuff like that.
It would-- you'd hear it in a lounge
in a Holiday Inn.
[Greg]
So, Sly took this little rhythm machine,
and he started using it
very cleverly, actually.
He took the rhythm, which wasn't anything
sophisticated, or funky, or fun,
he turned it around,
and he would start the one--
instead of on one, two, three, four,
he'd start the one on two,
or on three,
which took the rhythm
that it was producing
and turned it inside out.
It made it s--
"Oh, that's interesting now," you know?
And so, he actually created
an iconic thing with it.
It became... [chuckles]
a game-changer again.
["Family Affair" playing]
It's a family affair
It's a family affair
It's a family affair
It's a family affair
One child grows up to be
Somebody that just loves to learn
And another child
grows up to be
Somebody you'd just love to burn
Mom loves the both of them
You see, it's in the blood
Both kids are good to Mom
Blood's thicker than the mud,
it's a family affair
- It's a family affair
- It's a family affair
- It's a family affair
- Over there
I had always heard Sly
on the pop white radio, basically.
But when Family Affair came out,
the R&B stations went on it right away.
The Frankie Crockers
and the Georgie Woods,
they went on that one right out the box,
and it was one of them club records.
You know, you go by the bar
any time of day.
Newlywed a year ago
But you're still checking
each other out, hey
Nobody
It was like that anthem
that everybody would sing,
but lyrically, what he was trying to say
is a little sad for me.
[Vernon] He was just laying out
the dysfunction of family.
Talking about it's a family affair.
You know, you don't understand it,
you don't get it.
That had never been a subject
of a popular song before.
You can't cry
'cause you'll look broke down
But you're cryin' anyway
'cause you're all broke down
- It's a family affair
- It's a family affair
[David] There's a Riot Goin' On.
It took two and a half years
for Sly to produce that album
because everything was falling apart.
The record company
was on my case, big-time.
So, I created a campaign called
"Two and a half years
is a short time to wait
for a work of genius."
[David laughing]

[Vernon] With There's a Riot Goin' On,
I don't think that Sylvester Stewart
could face doing another
Everyday People.
["Luv N' Haight" playing]
Hippie Nation, they got co-opted.
The civil rights dream,
it didn't happen.

The anxiety, the pressure,
the drug use
pushed him
into this whole other space.
Feel so good inside myself
Don't want to move
Feel so good inside myself,
don't need to move
As I go up, I'm going down
And when I'm lost,
I know I will be found
- Feel so good
- Yeah, yeah
- Oh, don't want to move
- Yeah
Feel so good inside myself,
don't need to move
Riot is the grime, it's dirt,
and it's him grabbing his nuts on it.
The title itself is an answer to
Marvin Gaye's What's Going On,
which was so beautifully seductive.
Riot is raw.
It's raw as fuck.

I hear a person
that is reimagining his own music
at that time to stay interested
and try different things.
With Thank You for Talkin' to Me, Africa,
he was doing chopped and screwed
before chopped and screwed.
Thank you falettinme
be mice elf agin
[Q-Tip] 'Cause he had huge pop success
from Woodstock,
I could see Sly wanting to say,
"Now, wait a minute now.
"I'm-- I'm still a brother, you know.
"I'm still a nigga,
you know what I'm saying?
I'll still fuck y'all niggas up."
I can see Sly being on
some shit like that.
[Andr 3000]
There's a Riot Goin' On album cover.
That red, black, and white flag
inspired the Stankonia album cover.
To wrap that flag around you
is interesting
when you see a Black person do it,
because you know our version of America
is-- is different from the rest
of the world's view of America.
We're in an America,
but then we're in a Black America too.
We're in two different realities.
My only weapon is my pen
And the frame of mind I'm in
With Riot, some people felt
fundamentally betrayed, you know?
They said,
"Oh, well, we thought you were--
"We thought you were an integrationist.
We thought you were an accommoda--
Uh, we thought we were-- we thought
we were good, we were cool," right?
And there's some shocking things
that critics had to say about him.
Yeah, a poet
The sharpness of those critiques
says that he was being punished.
Said the things I flash on every day
Black musicians were still,
in the eyes of many, just entertainers.
Reflect on what I say
[Mark]
And part of what the critics are saying
in their critique of Riot
is, "Just entertain us."
What is this self-indulgent,
uppity nigga shit?
[Questlove] Do you think
there's a double standard
where some artists are allowed
to change, and grow, and evolve,
and then some artists
aren't allowed to do that?
Well, if you think about somebody
like David Bowie,
he was allowed to have the space
and the comfort to be able to go
through his chameleon-like
creative and artistic changes.
That space is not the same for Sly.
I think with Black innovation,
you're risking people looking at you,
thinking that you're weird and you're odd,
and you're on to some other shit.
It may fuck with you.
[Vernon] Sly was starting to sing
about unsettling things
in a way that would creep up on you.
Runnin' away to get away
Ha-ha, ha-ha
You're wearin' out your shoes
He's really talking about, "Yo, yo, dude,
the walls are closing in on you, ha-ha."
The deeper in debt,
the harder you bet
He-he, he-he,
you need more room to play
[D'Angelo]
"The deeper in debt, the harder you bet."
That in particular always gets to me.
- Look at you foolin' you
- [D'Angelo] "Look at you foolin' you."
It's like you're speaking
to your own subconscious.
[Ruth] I think he had a lot
of insecurity, a lot of fear.
He never talked to me about fear,
because he was very proud.
But I think his fear started
when Greg left the band,
because he never thought anybody
in the band would leave.
[Bubba] Paranoia might have set in.
You know, people start losing it.
Little petty things start happening.
Anything that's negative.
I always have a tendency
to, you know, drift away from that.
[Stephani] I didn't see any issues with
Sly and Larry at the beginning,
but there were people around
that stirred up stuff.
[Rustee Allen] There was rumors
that Larry was afraid for his life,
'cause, you know, Bubba and some--
some other stuff.
[Larry]
When you're in a family,
there just comes a point
where you leave home.
When it was time to go, I just left.
It wasn't complicated.
[laughing]
It's just, I'm gone.
[Questlove]
What's your definition of self-sabotage?
There are a million ways
to self-sabotage as an artist.
Some of them are self-harming,
you know, through overuse
of drugs and alcohol.
Not showing up for shows,
not showing up on time.
The biggest way, though,
is to ruin relationships,
because most art
requires collaboration.
[cheering and applause]

After that, I felt like,
what more could happen?
Sly would bring in new members.
Rustee learned all of Larry's parts.
He's a hell of a bass player.
Bullets start chasin'
[Jerry] He hired Pat Rizzo.
He was a great jazz player.
I begin to stop, ow
Andy Newmark came in.
He was a badass drummer.
Thank you falettinme
be mice elf agin
[Jerry]
We were still a great band.
But the original band
could not be duplicated.
All you can do is just make shit work.

[Stephen Paley] Sly didn't need the band.
He needed the band to tour
because the audience
needed to hear the hits.
But for the music
that Sly had in his head,
the band wasn't necessary.
[Vernon] The sense of collectivism
had completely vanished,
and he had become
the subject of the music.
His self-inflicted wounds,
the ways in which he messed up,
the ways in which he could
have died of a drug overdose.
Yeah, oh
Sunday morning,
I forgot my prayer
I should have been happy,
yeah, I still be there
- Something could have come
- Thankful
And taken me away
- But the main man felt
- Thoughtful
Syl should be here another day
The words and the music are indicative
of the life that I live.
So, it's the truth, so--
and you can't really get around the people
when they hear the truth.
If you live long enough,
they'll find out
whether you're telling the truth
or whether you're jiving.
There's a mickey
in the tasting of disaster
- In time
- In time
You get faster
[Vernon] Fresh is the last great
Sly and the Family Stone record.
As if he has to
In many ways,
that's the purest Sly that we hear.
Not driven by the market,
looking inward.
Something moving in the brain
[Stephen] But the music was going
in a different direction,
and it was not reaching
white people anymore.
Feel a little newer
[Vernon] Even with all of his
sophistication and his charm,
he was so isolated with his virtuosity.
One, two, three, unh.
["If You Want Me to Stay" playing]
Faster! Faster! Faster!
[grunting rhythm]
Yeah, alright, uh-huh.
If you want me to stay,
I'll be around today
To be available for you to see
I'm about to go,
and then you'll know
Want me to stay here?
I got to be all me
By that time,
Sly became a little less relevant.
He had influenced
so many different artists,
but new supersedes old, always.
So now, the same musicians
influenced by Sly Stone
became his competition.
So, he had to figure out
how to stay on the train.
[reporter] Guests were here
at Madison Square Garden last night
where 30-year-old Sylvester Stewart,
better known as Sly Stone
of Sly and the Family Stone,
was married to his 20-year-old sweetheart,
Kathy Silva.
Sly and Kathy already have
a nine-month-old son.
[Ruth] As a publicity thing,
I thought it was stupid.
In all reality, I don't know
if I should even say this on here,
but that's the only way we could
still sell out the Garden.
By the power that is invested in me,
I pronounce that
they are husband and wife.
In the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost.
[cheering and applause]
[band playing]
My baby
[Stephen] The wedding was the height
of Sly's celebrity,
but his career
was on a downward trajectory.
His appearances on talk shows,
hosting music awards.

Oh, they still do the polka
In Milwaukee
Still do the waltz in Tennessee
All this ridiculous shit
that we see him doing.
We're standing here with the table tennis
men's doubles champion.
Get him, Sly, get him.
Get him, Sly.
It's part of the spectacle of him
trying to remain relevant
when the culture
has passed him by, musically.
[slapping]
[laughing]
[applause]
[Cynthia]
When the band officially broke up?
Probably Radio City Music Hall,
New York.

[laughing]
- Okay, come on, man.
- Okay, we shooting?
We're gonna-- you're gonna be
at the, uh, hall, right?
We're gonna play.
We got the best group in the world.
- [chuckles]
- [laughing] Okay?
I heard that! [laughing]
Aren't you gonna ask me about Kathy,
or the baby, or something?
Exactly. What is happening
with the wife and the baby?
They're doing what I tell 'em to do.
'Cause there's rumors that you broke up.
Tell me how you felt
when you were at the Garden--
There were rumors that I wasn't
gonna be at Radio City Music Hall.
[interviewer laughing]
[sing-songy]
But you got that wrong
[laughing] Okay?
Those performances ended up
being pretty disastrous.
- [electrical buzzing]
- [Jerry] It was empty.
There was maybe 200 people.
It was the worst show
that Sly and the Family Stone,
in my opinion, ever played.
It was a lousy gig.
My chops weren't up.
We hadn't been playing.
[Sly laughing]
I went back to my hotel
and Sly left, he-- he got out of town.
But I never got paid,
and so, uh, I was stuck.
I couldn't pay my hotel bill.
[Cynthia]
I didn't think that anybody in this crew
would ever want to not play
with each other.
But everybody walked away from it.
[Questlove]
As a Black artist, how hard is it
to be vulnerable in front
of a world watching you?
It's really hard.
It's-- it's the hardest thing to do.
The hang-ups, baggage, guilt,
and the pain and the shame
that comes with it, you know?
And if you don't know how to handle it,
if you don't...
have your soul centered,
and people around you
that you really trust,
and people that really know you
and that's really down for you...
Yeah, man, it can be...
could be unbearable, man.
Yeah.
You-- It'll make-- it'll turn you
into an unwilling participant.
And that's-- that's equivalent to hell.
[reporter] Sly Stone was on the top
of the music scene for ten years.
He had eight gold records,
toured the world several times,
caused mob scenes
wherever he went, sold out concerts,
and packed Madison Square Garden
for his wedding.
But for the past few years, Sly has become
less than a household word.
Well, whatever happened to Sly Stone?
[Sly]
It's nice to be missed.
It makes you feel like
you're on the right track
if somebody says,
"Well, where is Sly?"
I've been relaxing.
- You mean, you've sort of been on a break?
- Yes.
If you were just a disc jockey,
say at KSOL still,
and not Sly Stone, rock star,
do you think that pressures in the--
in lifestyle would be less, maybe?
I think that I was-- if I were doing
anything else, I'd be bored.
So, I just take it-- it all in stride.
You know, I-- I have to do
what I do anyway,
'cause that's what I want to do.
[chuckles]
So much, you know?
So, it's like, I'm trapped
doing what I want to do anyway.
Okay, play it.
[singing melody]

[Stephen] At this point,
when Sly would try to recreate
what he did in the past, it was pathetic.
It's like a woman or a man
dyeing their hair.
You can't bring it back.
I mean, it looks dyed.
Feels like family again
[Vernon] It sounds like Sly's struggling
to make optimistic records.
But to make an optimistic record
when you don't feel optimism
is the worst.
[Suzanne] Toward the end of the '70s,
we almost signed him to Motown.
His gift was abundant,
but he was damaged goods
at that point.
[Questlove] How does that make you feel
to see other artists become addicts
in order to cope
with what they're going through?
If you've been on this heightened,
explosive life,
your body
has taken in so much energy,
you've given out so much energy,
and you stop.
Where does that go?
Where's that energy go?
Or what are you feeding from?
What's taking up that space now?
[interviewer] Sly Stone, where have you
been the last few years, man?
[laughing]
You haven't been doing much.
Are you-- you gonna--
Are you guys gonna be working out
together now, or what?
- Really?
- Yeah.
[Sly]
No.
[George]
Me and Sly, we was tight.
So, when it came time
for P-Funk to go on tour,
we got Sly to open up for us
on the very first Mothership tour.
Time is passing, I grow older,
things are happening fast
All I have to hold onto
is a simple song at last
- Well, let me hear you say
- Ya
- Ya-ya-ya, ya
- Yeah, whoo, sing a simple song
[George]
We still had fun until we didn't.
But he did his same habits.
If the promoters got him
pissed off enough,
you know, he might not come on.
- Yeah, we got...
- [George] Sly.
Ya-ya-ya
Hey, Sly, shake what
you brought with you.
Ya-ya-ya, ya
- Everybody...
- I'll be-- I'll be back.
[George]
Yeah, yeah!
Yeah, Sly Stone, y'all!
[Questlove] You and Sly are hanging out
a lot in the '70s and '80s.
What was that relationship like?
90% of the time,
chasing the drugs.
I know you want to
By then, the crack thing come
and Me and Sly,
well, I'll put it like that.
We were crackheads.
[reporter] Crack-- the cheap,
highly addictive form of cocaine.
[Questlove]
What is that feeling like?
Like, what's the-- what's the power
you feel, the rush you feel?
Almost like getting a nut.
[Questlove laughing]
[George chuckling]
[George]
And the fact is that after that first one,
it don't happen no more like that.
You are hooked at that time.
[Questlove]
Would you ever talk to him about like,
"Maybe we should slow down
a little bit or..."?
[laughing]
Why?
No, no, hell, no.
I mean, that was-- that--
I think that might have been our problem.
We was like two kids.
Once we got together,
when we got busted together...
[Questlove]
You guys got busted together?
[George] Yeah, the police,
before they even said anything to us,
"Oh, no, Sly Stone and Dr. Funkenstein.
Oh, hell no."
[Vernon] Sly was a master
at transmitting parables,
and it had to be incredibly difficult
to find yourself in the middle
of a parable yourself.
[Bryant Gumbel] Audiences couldn't get
enough of hits like Everyday People,
Dance to the Music,
I Want to Take You Higher.
But behind the scenes,
Sly was taking himself higher, with drugs.
The effect on his career
was devastating.
A story of incredible promise
and great success,
leading to a kind of,
you know, public tragedy.
Sly Stone of the 1970s rock group
Sly and the Family Stone,
who was arrested last summer
for possession of cocaine,
pleaded no contest.
[Vernon] He was an eyesore.
He was shameful.
This person was a renegade,
and America always loves it
when renegades are brought to heel.
[Dream] In the early '80s,
we're entering into a conservatism,
not just in the media,
but in the general public.
Drugs are menacing our society.
Just say no.
[Dream]
So, I'm not surprised that in Sly's case,
the reporting was so joyful and gleeful.
[reporter] He also lost a small fortune,
blamed on, depending who you talk to,
high living, bad management,
swindling promoters
and record producers, and drugs.
[Vernon] Sly was a great person
to be made an example of,
and he did himself no favors.
[Mark] By the 1980s,
Sly Stone gets totally divorced
from his contributions to the culture
that were so powerful and palpable
in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
- You ready to get real good and serious?
- Sure.
- Yeah, I want to get serious.
- [guest] Sure, anything.
- Any-- any way you want to go.
- [Sly sighs]
- Were you into the drug scene?
- Y-- A bit. A bit.
What did you take?
What were you into?
I smoked marijuana.
I tried angel dust, which is--
- [host whistles]
- I wanna do-- I wanna do
a public service spot for everybody.
Do it right here.
Do it on this show.
- Well...
- Do it right now on angel dust, please.
I didn't smoke a long time,
I just tried-- tried the mess.
- Please do it for me--
- It's about nothing.
It's about nothing.
And the worst thing
that it could be about if--
when I tried it,
is that there are a lot of people
that like to be about somebody
that they dig, you know what I mean?
- [guest] Mm-hmm.
- And just because maybe my brain
did not collapse, and thank God--
All praise is due to who?
You know what I mean?
It's too-- it's bad for other people
that may admire you.
My part on this Earth is to be
an example, and it's very hard.
It's a lonely trip sometimes.
It is.
[Mark]
Mike Douglas is pushing Sly,
"Can you say to the crowd
why angel dust is bad,"
but never asking him,
"Where were you in your life
that you felt the need
to have to take on angel dust?"
There's a desire for Black folks
to blow up in public.
And unfortunately,
it's not just white folks.
There are Black folks
who are complicit in this also,
because it's human nature.
[Q-Tip]
The first part of it is jokes.
Then the second thing is usually
some sort of just, like, tear-down.
And then, lastly, the finishing blow.
[chuckles]
It gets violent, where it's like,
"Fuck that motherfucker."
[Greg]
He had gone into rehab once.
I remember, um, hearing from a few people
I knew that were in there,
"Man, Sly looks great."
And he was doing great.
It was really happening.
The place is a, uh,
a rehabilitation center.
Uh, you get a chance to, uh...
to, uh, find out about getting up
early mornings, doing chores.
You get great therapy.
There's nice counseling
to find out things about yourself
that maybe for some reason,
you could have forgotten.
And, uh, and I'm straight now.
It lasted for, I don't know,
several months, maybe six months.
And then, things went back
to the way they were, unfortunately.
I've been so high
I touched the sky
And the sky says,
Sly, won't you just try hard to get by
[Sylvester Stewart, Jr.]
As a kid, hearing about him
being arrested, or, you know,
for drugs or whatever...
um, I didn't like it.
I always wanted him to be the person
that I was always told he was
when I was a baby.
My parents separated
around the time I was two.
They had the divorce a few years later.
He was a rock-and-roller,
and she didn't want me
to grow up in that life.
[Phunne Stone] I think that my dad
is really actually shy,
and I think drugs helped him be fearless.
My parents are Cynthia Robinson,
the original and only trumpet player
of Sly and the Family Stone
and Sylvester Stewart, a.k.a. Sly Stone.
My mom loved him
more than any man.
She never dated another man
after my dad.
But he wasn't always around.
And when I lived with my mom,
I was the only kid around,
just in an adult world,
to where I thought I was grown.
One time, I was playing house
with my friends,
and my dad had just came by,
and every time he would leave,
there'd be about four
or five razor blades,
you know, splattered around the house.
So, I went and grabbed me one,
and my box of chalk,
and I said, "We gonna do
what the grown folks do."
So, I got my chalk, and I chopped up
about 37 lines of chalk out there,
got the Monopoly money, rolled it up.
Okay, I had the kids out there.
We out there...
[snorting]
About 19 lines.
We sneezing and shit, and...
[laughing]
My mama came out and was like,
"What are you doing?"
We got-- I mean, it's green and pink,
'cause you know,
the chalk be different colors.
And I'm talking about, "Nothing!"
She beat the brakes off me.
[Novena]
I don't know when I became aware
of my dad's issues with the law
or with drugs.
I didn't have a lot of interaction
with my dad when I was a kid.
My mother and my dad were together
till I was only about three years old.
When I was maybe 10 or something,
I called his house,
and he was so out of it
that he didn't even know who I was,
and it was just like, I didn't like that.
It was not a good feeling,
and I wanted-- at that point,
I wanted something better for him.
["Crazay" by Jesse Johnson
feat. Sly Stone playing]
Whoo!
In the years that I was with Sly,
he always wanted to create new music.
He never focused on his old songs.
I think I wanna feel ya,
I just wanna thrill ya
Girl, gotta make you mine
[Arlene Hirschkowitz] He thought in order
to make new money, generate new income,
you have to make new music,
and to make another hit record.
I needed attention and money,
and I-- I needed to do songs.
Yeah. Are you gonna be recording
again soon, or are you working--
- I'm gonna make some hit records.
- Make some hit records.
Those-- those are the kind
to make, by the way.
- Yeah.
- [audience laughter]
[Arlene]
Business-wise, it was a big mess.
Most of his royalties have been sold off.
And those old songs,
he didn't even care about anymore.
They meant nothing to him.
He never understood,
and I didn't understand
until later, myself,
that those old songs
could generate money today,
and they'd play on commercials,
or in a movie,
or in a television show,
and you can make money
using those songs.
Not a clue.
[dog barking]
[music playing faintly in distance]
[emcee]
Say what?
I can't hear you.
I can't hear you.
[Mark] The crazy way that Black music
traditions are passed down,
is that very often,
younger folks are gravitating
to the music of older artists,
and older artists are absolutely oblivious
to the fact that it's occurring.
[emcee] Sly and the Family Stone
in the place to be,
the sixth annual
Zulu Nation anniversary.
[Mark] So, there's some irony
to the fact that at the same time
Sly Stone is trying
to reignite his career,
there are kids in the Bronx
listening to hip-hop, making hip-hop,
digging deep in the crates
in the archive of the music
that Sly had produced previously.
["Sing a Simple Song" by
Sly and the Family Stone playing]
[Q-Tip]
It was so easy for me to sample this.
- Right side is the drums.
- [drumbeat playing]
Just the fucking backbone
of the whole joint, you know what I mean?
Sing a Simple Song
was just the break of all breaks.
[singing]
We did it, we did it, we did it
[singing melody]
That drum pattern...
[imitating drumbeat]
like that talk between
the kick and the snare,
that pattern was a precursor to hip-hop.
Ba-dum.
For hip-hoppers,
Sly set us all up
for what we were supposed to do
for the next 40, 50 years, and today.
Sly, man, and Greg, man,
it's like...
- [drumbeat playing]
- This shit's just stomping.
Like he putting foot
on this motherfucker.

Because I got it like that, whoo!
[Vernon] Hip-hop preserves Sly's music
because DJs, crate diggers,
producers, they just hearing the grooves.
Hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey

- Riddle me this, my brother
- Can you handle it?
[Vernon] Hip-hop generation,
they're not connected to Sly's history.
They're not thinking about,
"Oh, this is a man destroying himself."
They're thinking,
"Oh, this is dope."
Ah-ah-ah-ah,
ah-ah-ah-ah
Don't call it a comeback,
I've been here for years
I'm rocking my peers, putting suckers
in fear, making the tears
[Vernon] It's a remarkable thing
when a fragment of music resonates.
not as nostalgia,
but maybe somebody will go back
and hear some of these tunes
and go, "You know what?
"I-- I've been waiting for somebody
to-- to say what that feeling is,
and this person has done it.
This band has done it."
[song ends]
[Stephen] In the early '90s,
Sly became reclusive.
He's given so much.
He's invented an alphabet,
and other people have written books
with his alphabet.
How much more
can you expect him to do?
Maybe he was just embarrassed that
he wasn't up to that kind of creativity.
And maybe if he can't be seen
at his best or heard at his best,
he'd rather not be seen or heard at all.
[faint applause
slowly increasing]
The one thing I've always wanted to see,
like most people want to see
the Beatles back together,
is to see Sly and the Family Stone
just standing somewhere in the same room.
- [chuckles]
- [cheering and applause]
[indistinct chatter]
January 12th, 1993,
Sly and the Family Stone
was inducted in
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Um, it-- this is really,
truly a great honor.
We all gave our little speeches.
I can't believe I'm seeing everybody
after all these years and everything.
It was like a happy night.
We became a family,
living up to the name.
But Sly wasn't there.
It was really sad
that some of the group members
or band members could not be here tonight.
All day long we were sitting
up there trying to figure out
whether Sly was coming to the show.
Nobody saw him.
As usual, it's just us.
[George] And then, he came
out from under the curtain,
and everybody went crazy.
[cheering and applause]
- [band member] Here he is.
- [Cynthia] You showed up!
[Rose Stone]
Oh, it's this guy here.
[cheering and applause continues]
[funk music playing]
[band members singing]
Thank you falettinme
Be mice elf agin
- [music stops]
- Thank you.
[cheering and applause]
I believe everything's
been said, probably.
I don't want to forget
anybody saying thanks,
and you know, and--
so, uh, thank you all very much.
I love you personally
very much, and, uh...
See you soon.
[cheering and applause]
[Greg]
It was great.
You know, I remember him saying,
"See you all soon."
Like, was his last comment.
And you know, he could have.
It could have happened,
but it didn't.
- [drums playing]
- [band member laughing]
[Sly] For about-- let's try it
about 12 more times.
[producer]
Stand!, take one.
[music begins playing]
[Questlove] So, I want to ask you,
is there a burden on Black genius?
[D'Angelo]
I think so.
I think the burden is that
you do have to do it for everyone,
you know, and that your--
everybody else's success
rides on your success,
and that's a lot of pressure
to put on one's shoulders.
Um...
Heavy is the head
that wears the crown, right?
It's a burden and wings.
I think people have two fears
when it comes to, like,
putting art out-- art out into the world,
or anyone who's ambitious.
A fear of failure and a fear of success.
And I think that the fear of success
should be the greater fear.
When things come in between
you and the work,
and they start becoming
more prevalent than the work,
the burdens will mount,
mount, become monster,
step on you, swallow you.
[Sly] Wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute.
Who's playing the wrong notes?
I don't know which one of you guys
are playing the wrong note,
but I know that one of you
playing the wrong note.
- Let's try it again.
- [producer] Rolling on take two.
[Mark]
Americans desire spectacle,
and Black artists are treated
as expendable, in this context.
We're just gonna eat you up
and we don't care...
what happens to you.
We're just gonna consume
what we need to consume from you,
and then we'll move on
to consume somebody else.
Sing your song and get out of here.
[laughing]
Here's your $20.
And go.
Go-- Go home.
When will we ever be allowed
to-- to be vulnerable?
To be human?
[Vernon] The one question that confronts
Black artists at whatever level,
is who do you think you are?
Who do you think you are?
What you think you doing?
We see the self-inflicted
wounds of trauma
being played out on stage
again and again.
The fact you are
exceptionally gifted, talented,
you can sing a song and play
multiple instruments,
none of that protects you.
What a burden for a human being
to have to carry.
[Sly]
I-- I just can't play it no more.
Let's try it again.
Take three.
[Novena] It is hard to see
how much genius and beauty
can come out of a person,
but they get sidetracked
from drugs or some other distraction,
and-- and we're like,
"No, it didn't have to go that way."
But it's also like our projection
of what we want from a person
who's been turned into this thing
that means so much to people.
[D'Angelo] I hate to say it,
but these white rock-and-rollers,
motherfuckers go out in style.
They go out paid.
They go out with their kids around 'em
like the fucking Godfather movie.
They died in their tomato garden
with their grandson, laughing and shit.
Shit taken care of,
generational wealth and shit
passed down to the children.
I mean, that's what
we're supposed to be doing.
[Sylvester] I don't have a lot
of normal stories with my dad.
I know that he spent a lot of time
under a tremendous amount of pressure.
A lot has been taken from him
over the years.
But I've always felt like I know
where his soul is coming from,
and I know where his heart is coming from.
[Phunne] Missing all that time with him,
it was rough.
But we rekindled our relationship,
and when we seen each other,
it was just like...
He cried, I cried,
everybody around us was crying,
and we was hugging, and shaking,
and all that, you know.
These last few years are
the most normal times I've had with him.
It was a long journey, but he finally
got clean and got off drugs.
[Novena] For his birthday,
I asked him what he wanted to eat,
and he requested a big pizza
with, like, all of the toppings.
He's also a big fan of westerns and cars.
He's kind of just like
a standard old Black man.
[laughing]
[Vernon]
We want the best for him.
He's given more to us
than we could ever give back to him.
We all have nothing but love for Sly.
Multiple generations of creators
have been influenced by Sly Stone,
by his fearlessness,
by his insouciance,
by his struggles with himself.
You can look at Sly as a cautionary tale,
and I think that that's not it.
Sly...
- Pioneered.
- Innovated.
- [Novena] United.
- Struggled.
- Inspired.
- Survived.
- Transcends.
- Lives.
That's a beautiful thing.
Stand, in the end,
you'll still be you
One that's done all the things
you set out to do
Stand, there's a cross
for you to bear
Things to go through
if you're going anywhere
[interviewer] Do you think
that you were judged too harshly
because you were a trailblazer?
No. Not at all.
I think I-- you deserve everything.
We deserve everything we get
in this life.
["Just Like a Baby" by
Sly and the Family Stone playing]

Just like a baby
Sometimes I cry
Just like a baby
I can feel it when you lie to me
- Hey
- Ooh
- Hey
- Ooh, yeah
Ooh-ah-hee
Oh

Hee-hee
Hee-yeah
Yeah
Hee-yeah, oh yeah

Just like a baby
Everything is new
New
Just like a baby
Come to find out I'm a whole lot like
You, too
Baby
Just like a baby
See the babies growin'
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Just like a baby
[vocalizing]
Ah, ah, oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Ah, well

[vocalizing]
[song fades out]