Sly Stone, 68, whose namesake band Sly and the Family Stone sprang from the Bay Area music scene in the 1960s and helped make him one of the great figures of soul music, is homeless and living out of a van on the streets of Los Angeles, he tells the New York Post. It’s an all-too-familiar rags-to-riches-to-rags story. An excerpt:
Today, Sly Stone -- one of the greatest figures in soul-music history -- is homeless, his fortune stolen by a lethal combination of excess, substance abuse and financial mismanagement. He lays his head inside a white camper van ironically stamped with the words “Pleasure Way” on the side. The van is parked on a residential street in Crenshaw, the rough Los Angeles neighborhood where “Boyz n the Hood” was set. A retired couple makes sure he eats once a day, and Stone showers at their house. The couple’s son serves as his assistant and driver.
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