When Sly Stone died in June at the age of 82, one of those who cried him to his funeral was in a unique position to appreciate the whole extent of his musical gifts himself, as a brilliant talent himself-the producer and songwriter winner of a Grammy Jimmy Jam.
“Sly is just at the top of the summit as far as I am concerned,” says Jimmy Jam on the deadline, “not only someone who affected me musically, but also my love of music and see him in a different way from that of the groups that my mother and my father showed me.”
Jam and his musical partner Terry Lewis, André 3000, Nile Rodgers, Clive Davis and Suzanne de Pass are among the initiates and musicians of the industry who lend their expertise to Sneaky lives! (aka the burden of black genius)The documentary nominated for the Emmy Emmy produced by the winner of Oscar Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. He competes for an exceptional documentary or non-fiction.
Stone, born Sylvester Stewart, was born in Denton, Texas, in 1943, but grew up in a multiracial environment rich in sound in the San Francisco Bay region.
Sneaky Stone on stage with family stone in the early 1970s
Everett collection
“Sometimes in history – you see it with the way Thriller UNLEASHED ITSELF in ’82, The British Invasion Happening in ’64, The Beginning of Rock and Roll in the Early ’50s – Once in a Blue Moon, You have a Paradigm Shift or Someone Just Hits The Zeitgeist Right at the right time, “Questlove notes. Timing is Everything, from Him Being A Five-Year-Old Prodigy Studying Classical Music, leading his church at that young of an age, Him as a dj in the bay area, is out of planting seeds in the minds of people we will later call hippies when they have 18, 19, 20 years by listening to his radio program. And he was just at the helm by creating the language and the alphabet for which even to this day, we always use his tools and his business tips to express ourselves through music. »»
When Stone formed Sly and the Family Stone in the 1960s, he did what was then unthinkable, stacking the group with an rainbow of artists, men and women-a list that included his sister Rose Stone, his brother Freddie Stone, bassist Larry Graham, trumpetter-vocalist Cynthia Robinson, Saxophonist Graditini and Drammer Greg.
Jimmy Jam speaks at the Minneapolis Art Institute on March 7, 2025.
David Berding / Getty images for giants
Jimmy Jam establishes a direct parallel between Sly and the Family Stone and Prince and his group, The Revolution.
“Sly was so decisive in the way Prince formed her group, multiracial, multi-gendarmes. I know it came from Sly, ”he says. “And even Freddie Stone, Sly’s brother, is probably the rhythmic guitarist closest to the style that Prince plays.”
Questlove highlights the documentary on Stone’s remarkable competence as a conductor, an element of the film that Jam appreciates.
Sly stone
Getty images
“He humanis [Sly] By showing not only the musical talent, which is beyond, but also the collaborative talent he had to really make each of the members of his group, putting them in the best positions to win, “observes Jam.” And I think there is a talent to do so. I think Questlove shows this, but it also shows the human side and things that people have to face what you don’t even think. It is a masterpiece for me, as is the case. “”
Questlove included a performance by Sly and the Family Stone in her award -winning documentary Oscar Summer of the soulproduced by Joseph Patel who returns as a producer Sneaky lives!
“The sneaky part of this film was so intriguing that I just wanted to know more about it,” said Jam. “I was so happy when he said,” It will be my neighbor. I said, “Oh, it’s great.” Because I just think it’s one of those things that is the right story in good hands. »»
The young sneaky stone of Sneaky lives! is soft, a little shy and vulnerable sometimes, deeply thought out, supremely talented, but restricted by the expectation of society only as an African American artist, he makes definitive political statements on the black experience. He couldn’t just Make music, evolve and explore like a white artist – David Bowie, for example.
(LR), producer Joseph Patel, director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and the director of the Sundance Film Festival, Eugene Hernandez, attend the “sly life! First in Sundance on January 23, 2025 in Park City, Utah.
Images Neilson Barnard / Getty
“Can you imagine being a sneaky stone in 1969 or 1970? You are 26 years old, you come from the head. Roller. What do you do as a black artist in America with all this on your shoulders? »Patel, the film producer, says the deadline. “It was sort of the conversation we had at the very beginning. And I think that Humir wanted to look at Sly’s story with a lot of empathy because no other artist had been in this position before. Sly, it is the biggest era of the post-civil rights of the black musician, with this kind of unique burden of having to satisfy a black audience and a white audience and what it must have been for him. [Author] Mark Anthony Neal says that in the film, there is no black Elvis that you can consult to say: “What should I do next?” And that’s really where I think Sly’s problems start, it’s this discomfort and not know what to do then, then a kind of sabotage to everyone. “”
Sly Stone at Hatchett’s Club, Piccadilly, London.
Central Press / Getty images
The film traces the tragic descent of Stone in a severe drug addiction, undermining the creativity that had surprised the world. Jam was impressed by the way Questlove managed this dimension of sneaky history.
“It’s not Titanic It is necessary, but it is a bit as if the end would not be a happy ending, “he says.” And it is so difficult to make something where it was going, you already know that it will not end well, but to suspend the interest and then to appreciate someone’s greatness even when the end is not as you would like … ”
Stone and his children could see the film before his death. He entered the field of history now, leaving behind an extraordinary work – songs like “Family Affair”, “Thank you”, “Everyday people”, “If you want me to stay”, “stand!” And many others.
“I have an affinity towards` thank you ” because I think it is one of the most funkends songs to go out and there is still not a song that really looks like it today, “comments Jam. “I think it’s very singular in his funk.”
He quotes another key song in the sneaky barrel.
“Think of a song like” Hot Fun in the Summertime “, these songs are so singular insofar as they were influential, but people have never really copied the mind or essence,” he said. “They could copy the idea of having Dunh Dunh Dunh Dunh Dunh Dunh… – Think of the simplicity of that – but if you try to copy it, it is hurt or it simply does not feel. »»
