If you want to learn more, or get a memory refresh on Sly and the Family Stone https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2007/08/sly200708
Or, wait around for the memoir that is supposed to be published this year in October: "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"
and you might not know, but Sly and the Family Stone were a big effing deal at Woodstock, and their music paved the way for rock/soul/funk fusion. As a songwriter, Sly penned some of the most iconic anthems of the 1960s and ’70s, from “Everyday People” "Dance to the Music" and “Family Affair"
Drugs and fame, or vice versa, caused one of the greats to face plant and nose dive simultaneously - and though it wasn't entirely self inflicted, Sly was the cause of even the sabotage that plagued him from others that found they could profit from his fuck ups - as he was such a chronic no show to his own concerts, (missed 26 of 80 in 1970) that he had to put up bonds of as much as 50k, in case he didn't show - and the promotor split that with the guy that drove Sly to the events:
"Stone's unreliability was increasingly a problem to concert promoters. The no-show subject remains a sore one with Stone, who says he wasn't as bad as he was made out to be. "I got tired of going to concerts where I'd have to pay a bond, pay money in case I didn't show up," he says. Stone claims that some of his missed dates weren't his fault but acts of collusion between promoters and transportation people, who cynically exploited his reputation for flaking out. "I later found out that they had a deal going between the promoter and the guy that was taking me to the gig," he says. "So I would put up the $25,000 or the $50,000. The guy with me would help me be late, and I didn't realize that was what was going on until later. Then they'd split the money."
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