Features
Sly Stone Down & Out In LA
The story, which was published in the New York Post Sunday, points out that Crenshaw is the rough neighborhood where the 1991 film “Boyz n the Hood” was set.
In addition to living inside the white camper van, Stone also uses the vehicle to record new music on his laptop computer. The 68-year-old funk legend, who rode to the top of the charts with the Family Stone during the late 1960s / early ‘70s, showers at the home of a retired couple who “makes sure he eats once a day.” The couple’s son helps out as Stone’s assistant and driver.
Just four years ago Stone was renting a Napa Valley, Calif., compound complete with a vineyard. At the height of his success with the Family Stone the musician lived in a Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion that once belonged to John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.
“I like my small camper,” Stone said, according to the New York Post. “I just do not want to return to a fixed home. I cannot stand being in one place. I must keep moving.”
The Post’s story touches on Stone’s issues with drugs over the years, including the time he spent his son’s Christmas money on dope. After racking up drug and gun possession charges in the 1970s and ‘80s, he was arrested again in April for possession of cocaine rocks. He pleaded not guilty in June, according to Reuters.
Stone says his royalty payments stopped in 2009, which forced him to take up residence in cheap hotels and the van. He filed a lawsuit against his manager Jerry Goldstein last year for $50 million, accusing him of fraud and stealing his royalty payments over the past 20 years. The singer says that Goldstein tricked him into a 1989 contract that gave the manager control of his finances.
The Post, which wasn’t allowed to enter the camper van, described Stone as disheveled and paranoid, explaining that the musician believes the FBI is out to get him along with hit men hired by his enemies. Although he has recorded hundreds of new tracks in the van, Stone says he no longer trusts record companies or managers.
Click here for the New York Post story.