Soul music legend Sly Stone is spotted at a pawn shop picking up a guitar, amp and laptop computer in Los Angeles. Sly recently went from living in a Bel Air mansion to a van in front of a house in Crenshaw, and as of earlier today upgraded to an RV. In his heyday, he lived at 783 Bel Air Road, a four-bedroom, 5,432-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion that once belonged to John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.
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Sly Stone’s Tudor-style house was tricked out in his signature funky black, white and red color scheme. Shag carpet. Tiffany lamps in every room. A round water bed in the master bedroom. There were parties where Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Miles Davis would drop by, where Etta James would break into “At Last” by the bar.
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Just four years ago, Sly Stone resided in a Napa Valley house so large it could only be described as a “compound,” with a vineyard out back and multiple cars in the driveway. But those days are gone. 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.
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Sly Stone, now 68 years old, shows he can still get funky — brandishing a Taser for a photo session in front of his Studebaker.
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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.
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Stone has been difficult to pin down for years. In the last two decades, he’s become one of music’s most enigmatic figures, bordering on reclusive.
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Sly Stone 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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Sly Stone performs during day three of the Coachella Valley Music & Art Festival 2010 held at The Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif.
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Sly Stone performs with the Family Stone at B.B. King’s in December 2007 in New York.
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Sly Stone, frontman of the group Sly and the Family Stone, performs in concert at Olympia Hall in Paris on July 23, 2007. Stone, who has been a recluse since the mid-1980s, played with his band only once in the last two decades before this European tour.
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Sly Stone performs during a Sly and the Family Stone tribute during the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2006 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
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Sly Stone in London, circa 1974.
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Sly Stone of Sly And The Family Stone poses for a portrait in London, circa 1974.
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Sly Stone performs on stage at White City Stadium, London in July 1973.
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Sly Stone in the recording studio, circa 1967.
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