Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart, March 15, 1943, Denton, Texas) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, a band which played a critical role in the development of soul, funk and psychedelia in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Stewart family was a deeply religious middle-class household from Denton, Texas. The parents, K.C. and Alpha Stewart, held the family together as Christians, part of the doctrines of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and encouraged musical expression in the household. Sylvester Stewart was the second of five children raised in Vallejo, in the northern San Francisco Bay Area. After the family moved from Denton, Texas to Vallejo, Sylvester and his brother Freddie and their sisters Rose and Vaetta formed "The Stewart Four" as children, performing gospel music in the Church of God in Christ and even recording a single local release 78 rpm single, "On the Battlefield" b/w "Walking in Jesus' Name", in 1952. The eldest sister, Loretta, was the only Stewart child not to pursue a musical career. All of the other Stewart children would later adopt the surname "Stone" and become members of Sly & the Family Stone.
Sylvester was identified as a musical prodigy from a young age. By the time he was seven Sylvester had already become proficient on the keyboards. By the age of eleven Sylvester had mastered the guitar, bass, and drums as well. While still in high school, Sylvester learned to play a number of instruments, settling primarily on the guitar, and joined a number of high school bands. One of these was The Viscaynes, a doo-wop group in which Sylvester and his Filipino friend, Frank Arelano, were the only non-white members. The fact that the group was integrated made the Viscaynes "hip" in the eyes of their audiences, and would later inspire Sylvester's idea of the multicultural "Family Stone". The Viscaynes released a few local singles, including "Yellow Moon" and "Stop What You Are"; during the same period, Sylvester also recorded a few solo singles under the name Danny Stewart. With his brother, Fred, he formed several short-lived groups, like the Stewart Bros.
The name Sly was a common nickname for Sylvester throughout his years in grade school. A classmate misspelled his name Slyvester and ever since the nickname followed him. In the mid-1960s, Stone worked as a disc jockey for San Francisco soul radio station KSOL, where he included white performers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones into his playlists. During the same period, he worked as a staff record producer for Autumn Records, producing for San Francisco-area bands such as The Beau Brummels, The Mojo Men, Bobby Freeman, and the Great Society. Adopting the stage name "Sly Stone," he then formed "The Stoners" in 1966 which included Cynthia Robinson on trumpet. With her he started his next band, Sly and the Family Stone. Stone, Robinson, and Fred Stewart were joined by Larry Graham, Greg Errico, and Jerry Martini, all of whom had studied music and worked in numerous amateur groups. Working around the Bay Area in 1967, this multiracial band made a strong impression. On the first recordings Little Sister: Vet Stone, Mary McCreary, and Elva Mouton did backup vocals. In 1968 sister Rosie Stone (piano and vocals) joined the band.
Stone was influential in guiding KSOL-AM into soul music and started calling the station K-SOUL. The second was a popular soul music station (sans the K-SOUL moniker), at 107.7 FM (now known as KSAN).
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