Sly Stone New Interview

Infamous Rock journalist and internationally acclaimed interviewer Claude Balzac recently sat down for an in depth conversation with the legend Sly Stone. Sly was a musical genius and groundbreaking artist of the 1960’s. Sly played a critical role in the development of funk, with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia and gospel. His performance at Woodstock is considered by many as the greatest of all time. Sly is currently living in a van down by the river. 

Sly

Madhouse Magazine: Hi Sly, It is great to see you again. It’s been a long time. 

Sly Stone: Funky Claude! My man, last time I saw you, was at my wedding. 

Madhouse Magazine: Yes that was a good time. 

Sly Stone: I remember you going to town at the free buffet. I looked over once and your plate was piled high, it looked like the tower of pisa. I don’t know how you balanced that. You had like 9 deviled eggs. 

Madhouse: Yes I was hungry, the food was amazing. So your wedding took place in 1974 at Madison Square Garden. There were 23,000 wedding guests and there were 500 guests at the after party at the Waldorf Astoria. You mean to tell me you remember me eating 9 deviled eggs 40 something years ago!? 

The Wedding

Sly Stone: [laughs] Yes it’s funny what you remember. A lot of that time is hazy to me and a lot of it is a complete blur. But you making a pig of yourself is clear as day. It’s burned into my memory for some reason. I can clearly see you in your powder blue wide lapel suit with mayonnaise all over your face. You were stuffing rolls into your pockets. I pointed you out to Muhammad Ali and Olivia Newton-John. We had a good laugh at your expense. 

Madhouse: [laughs] Man that is embarrassing. I had a bad case of the munchies. I am glad I could make you laugh. 

Sly Stone: Claude, you have always made me laugh. In my darkest times and in my best of times, I have been laughing at Madhouse Magazine. That’s what Kathy and I did all night after the wedding. We stayed up all night drinking champagne and reading Madhouse articles to each other and laughing until the champagne came out of our nose. 

Billy Preston

Madhouse: Thank you Sly – I can’t tell you what your music has meant to me over the years as well. Now I hope we can get real for a minute. Kathy Silva was originally Billy Preston’s girlfriend. He was your good friend. He came home one day and caught you and Kathy in bed together.

Sly Stone: Yeah I felt bad about that for a long time, but let’s be real, Billy shouldn’t be dating girls anyway. He liked boys. We all knew that, so I did him a favor. I gave him the push he needed to be his true self. I should be getting some LGBTQ award or something. 

Madhouse: Maybe you will. You are a true humanitarian. So you were the biggest star in the world in the late 1960’s. Now you are living in a van down by the river. What happened? 

Drugs

Sly Stone: I ain’t gonna lie to you because you are my friend and you were there. It was drugs man. I give all these BS answers to these jackass interviewers but I am going to be real with you. It was straight up drugs. I got crazy. I missed like 96 out of 95 gigs in 1971. Because I was snorting cocaine and smoking PCP. We hired a violin player to come on tour with us who didnt play the violin. His violin case was filled with cocaine. That was his only job. Carry the violin case filled with cocaine. 

Madhouse: And that caused a lot of stress within the band? 

Sly Stone: Yes of course. We were all crazy and living at this mansion in Hollywood. We were all hopped up on goofballs and playing with guns. I hired gangsters to be my bodyguards and there were these crazy dogs all over the house. It was a dark scene. We were all paranoid. Larry Graham, my bass player, had his own paranoid entourage and thought I was out to get him. I thought they were going to kill me so my crew tried to kill him first. They had to flee out of a window for their lives. I was tired, so I retired and went into seclusion, I was tired of all the nonsense and recording business weasels stealing my money. I bought a van, and I am now happy living in it. 

Money

Madhouse: So you finally won your lawsuit against your former managers for $5 Million

Sly Stone: I sure did. Those sonsofbitches reaped what they sow. The chickens have come home to roost. After taxes and legal fees I now have enough money to continue living in this van. I have a little money left for food, gas and a few luxuries. I can now live comfortably for the rest of my life. That is, if I die next year of course.

Reunion

Madhouse: That is great news, congratulations my brother. So what about some new music? Most of the Family Stone is still alive and well. The Stewarts have some good genes. 

Sly Stone: Yes my brother Freddie is a pastor with a ton of kids and grandkids, we just had a family get together and BBQ last week. Sister Rose and Vet are doing great. Jerry Martini, Greg Errico and Larry Graham were there. We had a mini reunion. We all had a little too much sangria and had a jam session – we recreated the Woodstock set at the BBQ. The neighbors called the cops, but the family loved it. We talked about recording and I have been writing songs. So who knows. Mike Lang called me and offered me $1 million to play Woodstock 100th Anniversary. So don’t make any plans for August 15th 2069. It’s gonna be epic.